(The Center Square) – The California Fair Political Practices Commission's database of payments made to companies, organizations and government agencies shows that Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, is the legislator who requested this year's largest behested payment.
A behested payment is made at the request of a government official to another individual or organization for a governmental or charitable purpose, according to the commission. Behested payments can also be made for legislative purposes. Politicians and government officials are required to report behested payments if the total amount of money paid totals $5,000 or more in one calendar year.
According to the database, $3 million was paid by The Laura and John Arnold Foundation in Houston at the behest of Wicks. The money went this year to the board of regents of the University of California to facilitate research by the university system's Berkeley campus.
Wicks did not respond to The Center Square for comment.
“Arnold Ventures regularly provides grants to universities and research institutions across the country, including in California, to support independent research and evidence-based policy analysis,” Angela Landers, a spokesperson for Arnold Ventures, which operates the foundation, told The Center Square via email. “The grant supports the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley and its work related to housing supply, land-use policy, zoning and housing affordability.”
The database keeps information regarding behested payments as far as 2011. The database tracks behested payments from the governor, Assembly members, state senators and other government employees. In California, there is no law capping the amount of money an official can request between one entity and another.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is widely expected to run for president in 2028, has 15 of the highest behested payment amounts of any politician in California, totaling $159,083,901.
In 2020, Facebook paid $25 million to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to pay for the purchase and distribution of gift cards to employees of skilled nursing facilities as part of support for the governor’s response to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other groups that got money from Newsom’s top 15 behested payments included Enterprise Community Partners, Sierra Health Foundation, California’s Dedication to Education Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation: Center for Health Program Management, Tides Foundation and the Public Health Institute.
Two payments, one from iHeartMedia and one from Google, were made directly to the governor’s office. Both payments were for $7 million each and were used to pay for advertising campaigns to promote California’s COVID-19 awareness campaign in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, according to the database.
In total, Newsom has 1,336 behested payments made between 2020 and 2026. Previous reporting by The Center Square shows that Newsom has reported more than $340 million in behested payments since 2019. That’s on top of the $5 million of behested payments he reported when he was lieutenant governor.
The last governor, Jerry Brown, requested a similar number of behested payments in third and fourth terms as governor, totaling 1,333 total payments between 2011 and 2018. The largest request by the Democratic governor was a $3.01 million payment between the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment to the Global Climate Action Summit in the care of the United Nations Foundation in 2018.
Other state politicians who made requests for behested payments include California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat who had 88 total behested payments. The biggest one was a $4,650,000 payment made by Ronhert Park-based Graton Rancheria, which is affiliated with the Miwork and Southern Pomo tribe. The money went to the San Francisco Host Committee for the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
Other large payments made at politicians’ behest include a $3.39 million payment in 2015 from the California Energy Commission to Oakland-based Viridis Fuels LLC in Oakland by current California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, during his time in the state Assembly.
That money was for the alternative and renewable fuel and vehicle technology program grant from the California Energy Commission, according to the database.
Behested payments were made by other lawmakers, varying from the late Assemblymember Katcho Achadijan, a Republican who represented San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County, to current Assemblymember Rick Zbur, D-Los Angeles.
Former Assembly Minority Leader Heath Flora, R-Ripon, was recently and suddenly dismissed from that leadership position after apparent frustration from other Republican lawmakers over Flora’s votes to raise the state sales tax, as well as ethics investigations over his misuse of campaign funds and behested payments, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.
