What was going on there?

Oh, I have so much to share with you.

Well, first of all, those are my people.

Eitan Wallace, Ashley Zavala, our team from CalMatters and ABC10.

These are the folks who are there day in, day out, just trying to get answers.

We sat through this board meeting that was supposed to be holding High-Speed Rail accountable.

And there were no questions directed at the high-speed rail CEO.

But tell us about when you discovered what was going on at college campuses like UC Davis.

What was going on there?

Oh, I have so much to share with you.

Well, first of all, those are my people.

Eitan Wallace, Ashley Zavala, our team from CalMatters and ABC10.

These are the folks who are there day in, day out, just trying to get answers.

We sat through this board meeting that was supposed to be holding High-Speed Rail accountable.

And there were no questions directed at the high-speed rail CEO.

But tell us about when you discovered what was going on at college campuses like UC Davis.

I'm just warning people so that they pay close attention here.

Yes, so paid close attention here.

So there was actually four parts of this bill, but we're going to focus on this sort of accountability portion of it.

So right now, or prior to this law being passed, there was nothing in state law that required the high-speed rail inspector general to publish his full reports.

He could just publish an annual summary once a year with a few lines saying, here's my recommendations, here's where they stand.

So you and I wouldn't get the details of everything that he found.

Now there's an important side note.

Can you explain this?

Does he not want this to get in the way of his presidential campaign? I can't think of another rationale.

So it's actually a complicated situation.

There was this bill that the high speed rail inspector general essentially drafted.

And there were two parts of this bill.

One was about more transparency and one was about the resources he needed to do his job, to give us more transparency.

The first part was very controversial.

The Republicans and some other transparency advocates sort of criticize it, saying it would actually reduce transparency.

But the jobs don't result in a product that we can use.

Well, how do you know it's not true? Well, we can't tell you, but it's not true.

You know, John, two things, and I know that we shared this with your viewers, but the point of my sort of story was, listen, the auditor needs these two things in a bill.

And my sources inside the horseshoe and inside the legislature say that he is, or at least was, planning to veto that bill.

So the question is, why would the governor, and more accurately, whoever is inside his administration making these decisions, so inside the horseshoe, as we call it, why would they not want the state, or excuse me, the high-speed rail auditor to Inspector General to have the tools he needs to hold high speed rail accountable.

What they did and another important portion of this story is there was another element of this bill.

So there's two sides of this bill.

One was a transparency portion.

So why would they know it? There's no reason for them to know it.

You can go with the best information that you have, and then they go, "No, no, no, no, no, that's not true." Well, how do you know it's not true? "Well, we can't tell you, but it's not true."

You know, John, two things, and I don't know that we shared this with your viewers, but the, the point of my sort of story was, listen, the auditor needs these two things in a bill, and my sources, uh, inside the horseshoe and inside the legislature, uh, say that he is, or at least was, planning to veto that bill.

So the question is, why would the governor, uh, and l- more accurately, whoever is inside his administration making these decisions, so inside the horseshoe, as we call it, why would they not want the state... or excuse me, the High-Speed Rail auditor to, uh, inspector general to have the tools he needs to hold High-Speed Rail accountable? What they did, and another important portion of this story is, there was another element of this bill, so there's two sides to this bill.

One was the transparency portion.

One was the independent oversight portion.

And what we're talking about right now is the auditor says, "I need these tools to do my job to hold High-Speed Rail accountable," and for some reason, the governor wants to veto those things.

But there is a portion that the governor passed, the transparency portion.

There's no reason for them to know it

And he had a big event yesterday in Sacramento, and he refused to stick around and take questions, and you go, "Okay" If this is the way it is now with a guy who has nothing to lose, imagine what it's gonna be like in the future for a guy who's running his campaign this way.

It's funny you say that, because I was literally standing in the assembly hallway today chatting with other reporters about just that.

I, I shared the video that one of our, our colleagues here in Sacramento, um, shot of Becerra, so that's the interview that you're talking about where she was sort of, you know, chasing him back to his car asking if he was gonna do the debate, and it got a lot of criticism.

I got criticism for sharing it on Twitter.

Um, you know, oh, that was a, a, you know, a, a guerrilla tactic.

And what I ex- explained to folks on Twitter, and I think it's important, is if these lawmakers avoid the media, you can't just hold a press conference, say your scripted, you know, whatever your scripted speech is, and then not answer questions.

We're in a, a, a world right now where I think at least the Sac press corps is getting more comfortable with tracking folks down to get answers, right? And so, um, but we were sitting there today saying, "Gosh, if this is gonna be the MO, it's already hard enough for, to, to, for us to get an interview with our current governor.

Uh, Steve Hilton is a lot more active of a candidate than Steve Garvey was or, uh, Brian Dolly was when he ran against Gavin Newsom, uh, the last time around, and it'll be interesting to see how Steve Hilton plays his hand of cards to try to draw Xavier Becerra out of the basement and into a public forum or public forums where he does answer questions about what the future of the state looks like should he be elected governor.

And you go, "Okay, if this is the way it is now with a guy who has nothing to lose, imagine what it's gonna be like in the future for a guy who's running his campaign this way."

It's funny you say that, because I was literally standing in the assembly hallway today chatting with other reporters about just that.

I, I've shared the video that one of our, our colleagues here in Sacramento, um, shot of Becerra, so that's the interview that you're talking about, where she was sort of, you know, chasing him back to his car, asking if he was gonna do the debate, and it got a lot of criticism.

I got criticism for sharing it on Twitter.

Um, you know, oh, that was a, a, you know, a, a guerrilla tactic.

And what I ex- explained to folks on Twitter, and I think it's important, is if these lawmakers avoid the media, you can't just hold a press conference, say your scripted, you know, whatever your scripted speech is, and then not answer questions.

We're in a, a world right now where I think at least the Sac press corps is getting more comfortable with tracking folks down to get answers, right? And so, um, but we were sitting there today saying, "Gosh, if this is gonna be the MO, it's already hard enough for, to, for us to get an interview with our current governor.

And it'll be interesting to see how Steve Hilton plays his hand of cards to try to draw Xavier Becerra out of the basement and into a public forum or public forums where he does answer questions about what the future of the state looks like should he be elected governor.

Explain the details here.

Uh, well, you know, we all heard, well, at least I heard, um, back in, you know, December of last year that the administration just quietly dropped this lawsuit, and w- I was very curious as to why, and so I started asking around.

Um, and it turns out, you know, six months later, we realize now that the adminis- the, the, the, the, um, high-speed rail authority never purchased the trains that were at the center of the federal funding agreement.

And so when the Trump administration pulled the money, they made an argument, listen, if they haven't purchased the trains yet, which is our huge milestone, right? There's a lot of things you can't do until you know which trains you are going to purchase.

Uh, this, this...

They're never gonna meet the end deadline of getting people in these trains by 2033.

And so the Newsom administration, even though they missed the deadline, they said, "Listen, we think we can still meet that deadline.

How, how [laughs] long before, after you- the order goes through, how long before it actually be running on a track? And, and-

Well, and one of the things that you uncovered in all of this is how commonplace it is to have these no-bid contracts, when we're under the assumption that it's a competitive bidding process for all kinds of different contracts, that they have found ways around.

Yeah, and this is, you know, to me the most important point of the story.

Um, so in California you're supposed to have competitive bids, and there is a, an outlined process of what that means.

Uh, and there's a scoring sheet, and you can see the scores, and, and, and they are required to give it to the lowest bidder, or...

I mean, there's a handful of things, but there are requirements in there.

Uh, so there are some exemptions for somebody, like only one company makes a product or it's an emergency, um, or it's a state-to-state transaction or state agency to state agency transaction.

But none of those applied here.

What was the relationship between The First Partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and this group?

Well, and one of the things that you uncovered in all of this is how commonplace it is to have these no-bid contracts when we're under the assumption that it's a competitive bidding process for all kinds of different contracts that they have found ways around.

Yeah, and this is, you know, to me the most important point of the story.

Um, so [laughs] in California you're supposed to have competitive bids, and there is a, an outlined process of what that means.

Uh, and there's a scoring sheet, and you can see the scores and, and, and they are required to give it to the lowest bidder or...

I mean, there's a handful of things, but there are requirements in there.

Uh, so there are some exemptions for somebody, like only one company makes a product, or it's an emergency, um, or it's a state to state transaction, or state agency to state agency transaction, but none of those applied here.

And so then I started looking in the Budget Act and I realized that, uh, there was an exemption for this policy, and there are a billion dollars worth of these exemptions in just this 2026 budget that was just passed.

What was the relationship between the First Partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and this group?

Well, and one of the things that you uncovered in all of this is how commonplace it is to have these no-bid contracts when we're under the assumption that it's a competitive bidding process for all kinds of different contracts that they have found ways around.

Yeah, and this is, you know, to me the most important point of the story.

Um, so [laughs] in California you're supposed to have competitive bids, and there is a, an outlined process of what that means.

Uh, and there's a scoring sheet, and you can see the scores, and, and, and they are required to give it to the lowest bidder, or...

I mean, there's a handful of things, but there are requirements in there.

Uh, so there are some exemptions for somebody, like only one company makes a product or it's an emergency, um, or it's a state-to-state transaction or state agency to state agency transaction, but none of those applied here.

And so then I started looking in the Budget Act and I realized that, uh, there was an exemption for this policy, and there are a billion dollars worth of these exemptions in just this 2026 budget that was just passed.

What was the relationship between the First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and this group?

Would they say you're not entitled to it, or were they just acting like, oh, well, the person who normally does it's on vacation, and this is going to take a long time, and bear with us?

Here's what I would say.

You need to go read or watch the, I think I call the Diapergate Part 2, 66 days and counting.

So the way that the Public Records Act works in California is, legally, they have 10 days to respond to say, yes, these are public records and disclosable, or no, they're not.

and then they have to tell you when they will give you those records, right? What happens is they then almost always, as certainly state agencies will say, we need another 14 days because this is an unusual circumstance.

That is also allowed under state law.

They come back at the end of the 14 days and they say, We think we can give them to you by this date, but we're working on it.

Well, and one of the things that you uncovered in all of this is how commonplace it is to have these no bid contracts when we're under the assumption that it's a competitive bidding process for all kinds of different contracts that they have found ways around.

So you wanna know, in as clear of terms as possible, what they think about subject X, Y, or Z, and that's gotta be difficult to write the question in a way that, that gets that answer out of them.

You know, so I, I have a...

I'm in a really unique situation, right? Because I sat down with most of these folks for upwards of two hours, most of them, some a few...

A little bit shorter, but I got to interview all of them, and I have sort of built a relationship with many of these candidates over the last eight months since I started this inter- interview series.

Um, and so I kind of know what they're gonna say already.

My job right now is, how do I get them to distill it down and present to...

I always like to say, "I'm speaking to Mabel in Modesto." I'm sure there is a Mabel in Modesto, [laughs] but, but I like to write my questions and frankly my stories for Mabel, right? Like, I understand the inside baseball.

Uh, many of them who have lost their homes to wildfires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, they're having a tough time getting paid on what was supposed to be paid to them based on the contracts that they had with those insurance companies, and it seemed like for many of the candidates, that was the one subject that they really hadn't thought through.