On Monday, July 27, a diverse group of BizFed members traveled to the Van Nuys Government Center to meet with Assemblymember Matt Dababneh, Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Banking and Finance. Dababneh was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2013, in the class of post-term limits legislators who have the potential to serve for up to 12 years in the same office.
As Chairman he plans to focus on increasing access to capital in underserved communities, financial literacy in younger generations, increasing consumer protections and combating predatory lending. Dababneh also serves on the Revenue and Taxation, Insurance and Privacy and Consumer Protection Committees.
Asm. Dababneh’s Stated Priorities and Insights:
Flexible Work Schedules: Dababneh feels strongly that California’s labor rules regarding flexible work schedules need to change, and he regards this as one of his top long-term legislative priorities. He is highly optimistic that this effort will ultimately be successful, in part because the younger generation of employees demands it.
CEQA Reform: Dababneh supports CEQA reform and believes that eventually there will be a functional coalition of labor and business interests who are able to deliver changes to CEQA. When asked why he’s optimistic that labor will move on this issue (given the context where labor uses CEQA as a tool against business) he argues that labor is already seeing CEQA abuse stand in the way of union jobs and that their desire for jobs will outweigh other issues.
CARE Coalition: Dababneh was very in tune with the concerns BizFed has conveyed about California’s aggressive environmental legislation. While he supports California’s environmental leadership, he recognizes the challenges that come with it, and he shares our concern about giving more and more unchecked authority to unelected bureaucrats who are not accountable to voters.
Effective Governance: Dababneh repeatedly noted that there is a new, more centrist oriented group of Democratic legislators who are able to steer public policy. This is the result of the new “top two open primary” system that diminishes the power of ideological extremes and term limits reform that enables legislators to build longevity, develop expertise, and be forced / have the opportunity to still be around to deal with the results of their legislation.
Key BizFed Leadership Roundtable Takeaways:
Asm. Dababneh expects to serve in the Assembly for another decade and seems to relish the prospect of building expertise in key policy areas and building relationships and legislative experience that he can leverage to be thoughtful and effective over the long run. On priorities like flexible work schedules and CEQA reform, he is committed to the long game, which he’s convinced can eventually deliver results.
