Governor Newsom's Executive Overreach - a "Housing Accountability Unit"

Governor Newsom’s Latest Executive Overreach – a “Housing Accountability Unit”

Governor Newsom recently included a new Housing Accountability Unit (HAU) in his proposed budget. Livable California opposes this as major executive over-reach threatening the balance of power between the executive branch, the legislative branch, and local governments.

The governor said: ““Let me just make this clear to all my friends,” Newsom said, “this is to monitor city council meetings. This is to monitor board of supervisors meetings, planning commission meetings. We’re not going to wait for an article to be written to be proactive in terms of holding local government accountable to increasing housing production.”

Livable California strongly supports local government and the close participation of communities at that level. We believe that having an state executive “policeman” in our local meetings will have a chilling effect on communities’ dialogue with their local elected officials.

Below is our letter of opposition: