Nearly Impossible for Public to Participate in Last-Minute Legislative Procedure
By Donna Frye
On Sunday, August 30, a little after 3 p.m. the California State Assembly voted to support Senate Bill 344 (SB 344) and eliminate the public’s ability to challenge in court any unmitigated environmental impacts that may be caused by the Midway Rising project. The official vote was recorded as 72 Ayes, 2 Noes (Castillo and DeMaio) and 5 No Vote Recorded (Addis, Boerner, Connolly, Hart, Muratsuchi).
Shortly thereafter, the California State Senate followed suit and voted 39 to 0 to support SB 344.
It now goes to Governor Newsom for his signature or veto. He has until September 30 to do so.
SB 344 eliminated the public’s right to fully participate in the judicial system and shielded the City of San Diego from any legal challenges related to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) documents for the project.
This legislation was driven, in large part, by the City of San Diego’s failure to prepare an adequate Environmental Impact Report for the Midway Rising project. The City of San Diego was sued in court and lost because of that failure.
It’s no surprise that you may not be aware of this legislation because it was brought forward at the last minute in a legislative procedure known as “gut and amend.” This procedure allows amendments to be made to legislation to remove the current contents in their entirety and replace them with different provisions.
Instead of going through the normal legislative process, the gut-and-amend procedure allows a last minute change to legislation that does not necessarily have anything to do with its original intent. This makes it next to impossible for the public to participate in a meaningful way because often times they have no idea it is even happening before it’s too late.
That’s what happened here. SB 344, a bill about the disposal of human remains at sea, was moving through the usual legislative process but was placed in the inactive file in July 2025. Then, in mid August, 2026, SB 344 was removed from the inactive file where it was gutted and amended for the Midway Rising project. Best as I can tell, there was no public hearing on the amended legislation until August 26 when it rose through the ashes.
What began as legislation about the disposal of human remains at sea turned into a shameful end run around the public process. The legislative branch of government eliminated the public’s ability to have full access to the judicial branch of government for the Midway Rising project.
So what can be done to address the gut-and-amend process and make it more difficult for Sacramento elected officials to do stinky stuff like this?
It seems to me that there needs to be a process that requires the California Legislative Counsel to prepare a written legal analysis in advance of a Assembly or Senate vote for any bill that uses the gut-and-amend process. Ensure that the analysis can be challenged by the public as to whether the change is germane to the original intent of the bill.
Currently, the legislators get to decide what is germane and they just showed us they can’t be trusted to make a reasonable or sensible decision about the meaning of the word.
I have yet to hear any of the elected officials who voted for SB 344 explain how the “burial of remains at sea” is related to a new sports arena and development project in San Diego. I suspect we won’t get that explanation any time soon, but I sure am tempted to ask some of them.
Open government matters and the public right to know and participate matters. But when those basic rights are circumvented and ignored, we need to do more than just throw out the current elected officials and elect someone new under the same old public -process -crushing rules. We need to change those rules and make sure that whoever is elected has to follow them.
That does not mean we should not stay fully engaged in the current public process that is available for the Midway Rising project because there is a lot that needs to be done and can be done. It also doesn’t mean we should not engage at the ballot box to hold our elected officials accountable for their votes.
We can stay involved by sending letters and emails, making phone calls and attending public hearings. We can educate ourselves about the myriad documents that will be discussed and voted on in the coming months and make sure to vote in every election.
But I believe there are additional actions we can take to prevent this type of legislative stunt from happening in the future; changing the gut-and-amend process seems like a good next step.
Thanks as always to Donna Frye for calling out this blatant corruption of the legislative process, which benefits a billionaire developer and his cronies, and the elected officials (including Mayor Todd Gloria) they fund with generous campaign contributions. Equally offensive is the fact that this special legislation deprives San Diegans of their legitimate option to mount a legal challenge against this very controversial Midway Rising project and its negative and irreversible environmental impacts.
Shame on Mayor Gloria, state legislators Chris Ward, Akilah Weber Pierson, and their colleagues who wrote and supported this reprehensible end-run around the a CEQA process, which was endorsed by the state Supreme Court, and the option of another legal challenge based on the City’s repeated refusal to perform a comprehensive analysis of the project’s environmental impacts.
Damn it! These people are giving Democrats a bad name. Gloria, Ward, Pierson.
and you’re finally waking up to that? Hah, that would be an excuse.
My words were dripping with sarcasm.
I agree 100%. What galls me is the “Progressives” vendetta against CEQA and the height limit.
If anyone needed further confirmation that this is NOT the “power to the people” Democratic Party of the 60’s, 70’s, &80’s, look no further than this. Both established parties have become shills for well funded special interests. Embrace only politicians who oppose projects as Midway Rising. Hopefully people who will fight this trend can emerge, but if not, vote for the opposite party to EVERY supermajority to kick these extremists to the curb, in Federal, State, and Local elections.
I agree with your every word, Norman. Chris Ward is coming up for reelection in November. I will do my best to get him kicked to the curb. Let’s vote for Payton!!”
The local democratic party head is Kennedy-Rodriguez who is has a criminal past. But because he has a Hispanic last name, the local party thought he would get the Hispanic vote. The local party needs to understand we are an informed public and are not buying their tired ‘labels’ talk. None of this certifies anyone to be in public service. But decency does and someone who wants to serve the public no matter who they are, what their heritage is, who they love, or anything else. Tell me what you will do to help the community you were elected to serve and stop the label talk!
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Donna. You have identified a perfectly sensible and much needed reform to prevent this from happening again in the future: pressure must now be put on the Leg to clean up its act.
At this point, there is still a remote chance to get Gavin Newsom to veto both SB 958 and SB 344. People need to remind him both of his duty as a steward of the public’s trust — and as a politico with ambitions of his own that could be jeopardized by signing these bills.
Here’s part of what I sent him earlier today:
“I think it bears remembering that CEQA was passed in 1970 and signed into law by Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan.
The realization that it is Democrats who are militating to dismantle it — specifically in this instance, to reward the developer of this project, who was Mayor Gloria’s single largest campaign contributor, and avoid environmental scrutiny — is exactly what CEQA was intended to prevent and should rightly appall those of us who still identify as Democrats.
I ask that please consider your legacy should you be the one associated with ending the quality of life, safety and citizen empowerment that CEQA has provided to all Californians for over 56 years.”
Right on: Changing what’s wrong with a rule-making mechanism that allows legislation to pass in this way is essential. I’m writing our governor not only to ask him to veto SB 958 and SB 344 (guided by Mat’s argument) but, additionally, to leave a positive legacy instead by advocating for reform of the gut-and-amend process.
I know that Frank will edit my last email because it says some negative things about the local dem party which I know is off limits but I hope you won’t edit this:
Write Gavin Newsome and tell him to Veto SB 344. It was created and ends with corruption. Save our democracy and write Newsome today. https://www.gov.ca.gov/ click the Contact tab and use ‘other’ in the subject line since SB 344 has not been registered on the portal yet.
Done. Thanks for the link. A “Trumpian ploy” to say the least.
The people of San Diego voted to approve this twice. It’s laughable to claim that repeatedly trying to overturn the will of the voters is acting in the public interest.
Which were both overturned by the courts for misleading voters by not providing the analysis of the environmental impact. Is this guy new? Measure C was repealed last week, keep laughing.
Yes, Mike, you are correct, and thanks for explaining that the state courts, (twice) and the state Supreme Court (once), ruled unanimously that the City failed to complete a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report that fully documents the significant and irreversible negative impacts of the proposed Midway Rising development. As a result, voters and city council members were deprived of the knowledge they needed to make an informed decision about the pros and cons of waiving the 30 foot height limit in the Midway/Pt. Loma corridor. The city owes it to all of us to complete a comprehensive EIR that can withstand a legitimate legal challenge, should it come to that. This special legislation was crafted to provide special extra-legal protections to a billionaire developer and his cronies, who have undue influence with our Mayor and other elected officials. And that’s reprehensible perversion of the democratic process.
All the while the City of San Diego was hiding that SDSU had offered their Mission Valley site for a Sports Arena. A site well served by mass transit which Midway lacks. Oops… can’t let the public have all the information during an election cycle. There was money involved.
Right On Donna. This tactic is older than my neighbors dog and just as stinky. Year after year they use it to vaccum up “awkward” legislation and move it along. These are laws they don’t like talking about to the media or citizens until its a done deal I recognize the last minute sweeping is sometimes needed but this is wrong. Its dishonest and unfair to the citizens they are supposed to represent. It’s ingrained, unmovable and impervious to efforts to stop these practices.
It ain’t right…
We, the public, have been banned from participating in our own government laws and processes by the very politicians who the majority voted for.
I continue to do what Donna has suggested, write to your representative, show up, don’t give up. But with these two State Bills , they have made it very clear, our needs don’t mount to a hill of beans.
Thank you, Donna, for giving us this road map to restore democracy. Public fury has whipsawed Gloria, and the same should happen to Ward and Weber Pierson, who have brazenly sold out their constituents. We need to keep a close eye on everything these two do. And we need to intensify the fight to stop Midway Rising.
Great article and comments. Hard to believe today this is still exists- Under federal law, specifically 18 U.S.C. § 201, an explicit quid pro quo—giving, offering, or receiving anything of value to influence an official act—constitutes criminal bribery.