A Monthly Message from Senator Limón

Happy Women’s History Month. Women's History Month is held on March annually to celebrate the contributions of women to our communities.

I am proud to announce the 2022 Senate District 19th Women of the Year - Lawanda Lyons. Read more about Lawanda in this newsletter. We are all surrounded by many deserving women that work hard for our community every day.

My office is of assistance when needed. To reach us, please call our Santa Barbara office at (805) 965-0862 or our Oxnard office at (805) 988-1940 or email Senator.Limon@senate.ca.gov.

Sincerely, 

Monique Limón
Senator, 19th District

As the Legislature begins considering bills proposed this legislative session, I encourage you to submit your thoughts and comments on bills. You may do so by visiting my website HERE.

Below is a summary of a two bills I have introduced.

SB 861 – Alzheimer’s disease:

SB 861 establishes the Dementia Care Navigator Grant Program. The grant incentivizes organizations that employ Community Health Workers, Promotoras, and Health Navigators to provide dementia care navigation to the communities they serve. SB 861 is necessary to highlight the disproportionate impact of Alzheimer’s while also directing targeted investments to help impacted communities navigate what can be a complex network of resources.

SB 1162 – Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Act:

The research is clear: pay transparency is key to achieving pay equity. SB 1162 will increase transparency to help close the gender and race-based pay disparities by requiring pay transparency at every stage of the employment process, from hiring to promotion, and ongoing employment. SB 1162 will also help close the wage gap through employer publicly reporting pay data broken down by race, ethnicity, and sex for both direct employees and employees hired through a third-party staffing agency.

This important state investment was made in the County of Santa Barbara for $2.5 million to provide shelter or housing to 200 individuals. Housing individuals and families experiencing homelessness is an important step to breaking the cycle of homelessness. This is part of a statewide initiative to help cities and counties clean-up 1,000 encampments this year and address the homelessness crisis. You may read more HERE and to see a list of counties that applied and were selected.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara made an important announcement that aims to drive down the cost of fire insurance for homeowners and businesses. The proposed regulations require insurance companies to reward homeowners and businesses for wildfire safety actions in their pricing of residential and commercial coverage. Our community will benefit from this program. I look forward to supporting the work of the Commissioner. Read more HERE.

I have been closely working on this important issue. In 2020, I joint authored AB 2367, which would require insurance companies to write or renew policies for existing homes in communities that meet state standards for fire-hardening. The bill would have also required insurers to offer financial incentives for homeowners to do the work to make their homes more fire-safe. The bill was sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Lara, but failed passage in the Assembly Insurance Committee. I am grateful that the Commissioner is pursing solutions via regulations.

Last month, I convened the inaugural joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly Select Committees on the Nonprofit Sector in collaboration with Assemblymember Luz Rivas. Nonprofit leaders shared how nonprofits have responded during the pandemic and what is needed for nonprofits to thrive going forward. You can watch a recording of the informational hearing HERE.

Lawanda Lyons-Pruitt is the 2022 Women of the Year for 19th Senate District.

Lawanda holds an Associate of Arts degree from Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from California State University Long Beach. She began her career with Santa Barbara County in 1979, becoming a Defense Investigator in 1984 and was later assigned to the Public Defender Office. In 1995, Lawanda became the first African-American woman in California to serve as Chief Investigator of a Public Defender’s office. She served in that role until her retirement in 2016, after more than 37 years of service to the County. 

Ms. Lyons-Pruitt has been the president of the Santa Maria and Lompoc chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for over 14 years. She is a constant presence within the community and a continuous advocate for progress. Using this platform, she has worked to organize a wide array of initiatives from advocacy focused on civil rights and racial equity to administering COVID vaccination clinics within marginalized communities. Over the course of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Lawanda has continued with her passion to serve. She organized COVID-19 vaccination pop-up clinics serving many communities and focused on educating those who were wary of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Thank you for your service and commitment to our community!

CA Costal Commission Whale Tail Grant:

Congratulations to the 2022 CA Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant recipients. The Whale Tail Grant supports experiential education and stewardship of the California coast and its watersheds. The grant is funded in part by the sale of the CA whale tail license plates. Nine organizations from SD19 were awarded a grant this year. See list of recipients and projects from our community below.

• Ventura County Resource Conservation District for Coastal Education
• California Ocean Alliance for Balloon Free Seas
• Santa Barbara Channelkeeper for Sea & Shore Explorers – a Santa Barbara Coastline for All
• Cabrillo High School Aquarium/Lompoc Unified School for Coastal Splash Project
• Achievement House, Inc./NCI Affiliates, Inc. for Enhancing Self-Advocacy through Coastal Stewardship
• Wishtoyo Foundation for Chumash Tribal Marine Protected Areas Education Program
• City of Santa Maria R&P Department for Coastal Guardians of Santa Maria
• Creek Lands Conservation/Central Coast Salmon Enhancement for Hugging the Coast of the Santa Maria River
• Central Coast Aquarium for Marine Science Discovery Labs

Women's Recovery Response Program:

The California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls received over 6,000 grant applications for its first-of-its-kind grant opportunity dedicated to Women’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. These included direct service providers, local women’s commissions, and government entities seeking to establish and expand local women’s commissions, and nonprofits serving primarily women and girls.

Congratulations to the following organizations in #SB19 for receiving a grant.

National Climate Assessment:

Great to see faculty at UC Santa Barbara contribute nationally to our ongoing understanding of the impacts of climate change. I look forward to seeing their work in the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Read more HERE.

City of Goleta, 20th Anniversary

Congratulations to the City of Goleta for celebrating its 20th anniversary as an incorporated city.  Since 2002, Goleta has strived to provide the best quality of life for its residents and overcoming challenges such as fires and a public health emergency. To learn more about what’s to come for Goleta, visit their website HERE.

Las Positas Multi-Use Path

Team Limón biked to the ribbon cutting of the new Las Positas Multi-Use Path. Congratulations to the City of Santa Barbara on this project to increase coastal access and safety for bikes and pedestrians alike. The city received a 15 million dollar state transportation grant to complete the project. The path is now officially open take a walk or ride to Arroyo Burro Beach.

Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Program

The Central Coast will receive over $30 million for park developments and community revitalization programs from the Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Program. This grant program is the largest investment in the history of the state to expand access to parks in underserved communities. I am proud to have authored AB 209 (2019), which also expands access to the outdoors.

Below is list of projects funded in our community. To learn more and to view the full list of grants, click HERE.

• City of Guadalupe - Central Park $4.8 Million
• City of Lompoc - College Park $3.6 Million
• City of Santa Maria - Santa Maria Community Sports Park $6.1 Million
• Isla Vista R.P.D. - Children's Park Renovation $4.2 Million
• City of Oxnard - Durley Park Expansion / Improvement $7 Million
• City of Ventura, Parks, Rec & Community Partnership - Westpark Skatepark Expansion $1.9 Million

One of the grant recipients was the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District who was awarded a grant of $4.2 million to fully renovate Children’s Park. We had the opportunity to celebrate this important investment with the Isla Vista Community and the Director of the California State Parks, Armando Quintero.

Tutor Time of Ventura:

Thank you Tutor Time of Ventura for the tour of your educational daycare center and for sharing information on your infant care and preschool programs. It was a treat to interact with the pre-kindergartners and hear their journey to learning how to read and write. Childcare policy is an area that I have focused on at the state level. As an educator and parent, I know how important early learning is to prepare children for future success.

I had the opportunity to provide a virtual tour of our State Capitol to the 4th graders of Adelante Charter School in Santa Barbara. I enjoyed showing them around the Capitol and answering questions about my role as a State Senator.

Virtual tours became the norm during the pandemic. It is not always possible for students to travel to Sacramento, even post pandemic. If you are interested in a virtual tour, please contact my office.

Parks Adventure Pass

The California State Parks Adventure Pass is available to 4th graders. The pass waives entrance fees to 19 state parks for fourth graders and their families. Get your pass HERE today.

Santa Barbara: Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grant Program:

The County of Santa Barbara, in partnership with the California Office of the Small Business Advocate and Santa Barbara Foundation, announced the Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grant Program. Application opens March 7th – awards on a rolling basis. Virtual workshops to discuss the program with interested businesses will be held on March 15 at 12:00pm - 1:30pm & March 24, 9:30am – 11:00am. You may find out more information and sign up for one of the virtual workshops HERE.

Ventura County: Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grants:

The Ventura County Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grant offers $2,500 grants to qualified small business and nonprofit enterprises. Application window: March 16, 8:00am - April 12, 6:00pm. 

COVID-19 Testing:

For Santa Barbara County residents, please visit the Santa Barbara Public Health Department COVID-19 website; https://publichealthsbc.org/testing/

For Ventura County residents, please visit the Ventura Recover website; https://www.venturacountyrecovers.org/coronavirus-testing/

Renter/Landlord Assistance:

The COVID-19 Rent Relief program is still accepting applications for financial assistance for unpaid rent to eligible renters and landlords who have been impacted by COVID-19. Both renters and landlords can apply for assistance. If you have already applied, you may also check the status of your application on the application portal. You may also use the application portal to finish or update your application HERE.

Mortgage Relief:

The California Mortgage Relief program uses federal Homeowner Assistance Funds to help homeowners get caught up on their housing payments. The program is free and the funds to do not need to be repaid. The program is open to all eligible Californians who are currently experiencing pandemic-related hardships and have fallen behind on their housing payments. Learn more about the eligibility criteria HERE.
 

East Bay Times: New California bill aims at the combined $107 billion lost to gender, racial pay gap

“The only way to minimize this is to be more transparent,” said Limón. “Transparency allows the employee to make the best decisions possible about where they are applying and to understand what their employer offers.”… “Whether or not we have a pay equity issue is not the debate,” said Limón, “it’s how we narrow the gap.”

SB Independent: Santa Barbara’s Monique Limón and Steve Bennett Co-Author Bill for Climate Change Accountability

California State Assemblymembers Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) and Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), State Senator Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), and representatives from the state’s leading environmental organizations announced legislation to bring needed information on how the state is implementing climate change measures.

“We must push for accountability and transparency,” said Limón. “This bill will further those goals, giving the public more information on our actions and our progress.”