Greeter: Pat Collins

Invocation: Janelle Capra

Flag Salute: Ashley Vorhees

Song: None

SPOKE EDITOR PROFILE:

Jorge Barrientos is the director of marketing and public relations at Law Office of Chain | Cohn | Clark. He serves on board of directors for a variety of local community organizations. When he’s not working or serving our community, you can find him traveling the world and hanging with his family, which includes wife Carla, 8-year-old son Julian, 5-year-old daughter Gianna Sol.

GUESTS:

• Susan Hadis with Bakersfield Memorial Hospital Foundation and Lisette Ma with Arise Psychiatric (Toni Harper)
• Danielle Conrad with Kern Initiative for Talent & Entrepreneurship (Ben Lavers)

• Jim Damian’s mustache (Nik Boone)

GOOD NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Toni Tax: Ben Taft gifted a Tampa Bay Buccaneers hat after visiting his father in Florida for his dad’s 95^th birthday.
•  

Possible Rotary Pin Locations.

• Toni made a $100 donation to Waterman after making the front page of The Bakersfield Californian, sans Rotary pin.
  • Dave Weldon get 1 missed meeting fee waived for coming to Toni’s rescue.
• Janelle Capra announced there is just one table left for the Capitol Report with speaker Shannon Grove.

PROGRAM

This week’s program focused on California’s November 2026 ballot propositions with Cathy Abernathy and Blake Zante:

Cathy Abernathy has been a member of Downtown Rotary for over 20 years. A former legislative consultant, she served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Bill Thomas and later to Shannon Grove. She now runs her own campaign and legislative consulting firm.

Blake Zante is Executive Director of The Maddy Institute at Fresno State, a role he has held since 2024. He is a former aide to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Andreas Borgeas, a Fresno Rotary member, and a Clovis Chamber board member.

California has 14 statewide measures on the November 3 ballot, the longest list Californians have seen in several cycles. The Maddy Institute takes no position on any measure; Cathy on the other hand … 

Regardless, the goal was to help Rotarians walk into the booth knowing what they are actually voting on.

The presentation opened with a look at why California voters have to decide so much: the 1911 Progressive reforms that created the initiative, referendum, and recall, and the four constitutional triggers that take a decision out of the Legislature’s hands. Of this year’s 14 measures, 5 were placed on the ballot by the Legislature and 9 by petition.

The presenters then walked through each measure, covering what it does, who supports it, who opposes it, and what it costs.

 The full breakdown is attached.

Cathy had a few catchy lines:

1. On Prop 3: “We’ve driven out the billionaires, now they want to drive out the thousand-aires.”
   • Opposing minds would say this makes existing tax rates permanent for the highest-income 2% of Californians, which have existed since 2012.

2. On Prop 4: “Can you imagine how many Nik Boone’s would run for office …”

3. On looking at both sides of your ballot, particularly the city council races: “Turn it over! Those races really matter for us locally.”

One prop (39) led to a question (from Ken Beurmann): Why is the voter ID prop even a debate? No one answered it, so here it is:

Stricter voter ID laws create unnecessary barriers to a constitutional right, particularly for seniors (highest percentage of voters), low-income individuals, and people with disabilities, despite in-person voter impersonation being extremely rare (like winning-the-lottery rare). Elections already have identity-verification safeguards, and requiring additional documentation can burden eligible voters without meaningfully addressing most forms of election fraud.

Blake ended with the four key takeaways courtesy of Maddy:

1. Three measures are essentially one fight. Props. 40, 41 and 42 conflict. The one with the most “yes” votes prevails. A yes on 41 or 42 is functionally a vote against 40, and the ballot labels do not say so.

2. The bonds compound. Props. 1 and 38 together would add roughly $1 to $1.2 billion a year in general fund debt service, for 20 to 25 years. Prop. 37’s $25 billion is a different instrument, revenue bonds repaid by borrowers rather than taxpayers.

3. Two measures that affect us here in Bakersfield. Prop. 43 changes the threshold for citizen-initiated local special taxes going forward. Prop. 45 changes how long environmental review and CEQA litigation can take. Those are the two that most change how business gets done in Kern County.

4. There is more to a measure than just its title! Prop. 42 says “personal property taxes” and does not touch Prop. 13 or real estate. Prop. 43’s official title says it limits voters’ ability to raise revenue. Several titles describe an effect rather than a mechanism.

Learn even more about these in Cathy’s guide coming out Monday, and the nonpartisan Cal Matters guide: calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2026. More information on the Maddy Institute at themaddyinstitute.org.