State Senator Gonzalez: 'Don't Tell Press What I'm Saying About My Fourplex Bill'

Nearly two weeks after promising and failing to webpost a May 11 Zoom meeting she staged on SB 9 (the bill she co-authored that will require cities to permit four housing units on single family home lots) and 48 hours before she voted in the State Senate to advance SB 9 to the Assembly (despite the opposition of multiple cities and two ELB neighborhood groups, state Senator Lena Gonzalez provided written responses to questions she didn't answer in the Zoom meeting.

The Ranchos neighborhood group accompanied her written responses with the following May 24 text on its website:

"The senator's office included the following message with the document [she provided], 'As a state office, the answers provided focus in on the policy related. This document is meant to be an informative document for our neighbors and not intended for press or mass distribution.'"

LBREPORT.com obtained the document, ignored Senator Gonzalez's attempt to block public and press scrutiny of her contentions and published the document she provided. The public has a right to know what a State Senator has been telling various audiences that she doesn't want at least one group to tell the press. To view the document she offered, click here.

No credible neighborhood group should accept an incumbent's attempt to muzzle them. That's especially true when the incumbent tries to prevent residents from telling the press what she's been telling them. The public has a right to know what a state Senator has been saying that tries to downplay the impacts of her bill that we, and many others, believe could affect single-family home neighborhoods.

Sen Gonzalez hasn't disclosed the author(s) of the document that she offered to the Ranchos neighborhood group. She presumably either knows or should know who authored it. Until she discloses that basic information, residents can treat the document as they would any other anonymous dispatch.

Finally, it doesn't matter what Sen. Gonzalez or unnamed person(s) claim SB 9 does or doesn't do. The bill's text speaks for itself. Once enacted, the bill's words will be the law, not her self-serving description of what she contends her bill will or won't do while trying to get it passed.

There remains one certain way for residents to protect themselves from SB 9's impacts: to urge its defeat it as it currently stands.

Readers may also notice that in her offered response, Sen. Gonzalez lists SB 9's supporters but not its opponents.