By Mary O’KEEFE

This has been a pretty challenging year for a lot of us and that includes those who have been voted into office to navigate the good, and the bad, times. CVW sat down to discuss the year that was with two leaders: Kathryn Barger of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and California Assemblymember Nick Schultz.

Kathryn Barger was voted into office in 2016. Though she was re-elected in 2020 and 2024, she has been working for LA County for over 35 years beginning as a college intern and rising to the position of chief deputy with then-Supervisor Michael Antonovich. She is now serving her third and final term as supervisor for the Fifth District. In 2025 Barger also served as chair of the board of supervisors. 

2025 started with extreme winds and a fire that encompassed Altadena, which is in the Fifth District. The Eaton Fire has overshadowed much of 2025. Barger supported an investigation into what happened during the fire and what needed to be changed. The report, titled “McChrystal After-Action Report: Alerts, Warnings and Evacuations,” found several areas that needed to be improved. One area was county policies and protocols on evacuation warnings and orders that the report found were “outdated, unclear and contradictory.” The report also found staffing shortages, and the first responders and incident commander were unable to “consistently share real-time information due to unreliable cellular connectivity, inconsistent field reporting methods and the use of various unconnected platforms.” 

When asked what was the one thing she took from the report, Barger replied, “We need to do this now. We need to put in play an Office of Emergency [Management] that really does represent 10 million residents.” She added that though the county Office of Emergency Management has done an incredible job there is room for improvement.

“I worked closely with [the Office] during COVID-19, but the Eaton and Palisades fires really highlighted what a true disaster looks like. There are a lot of lessons learned as it relates to how we do notifications,” Barger said. “We need to invest in the latest technology as well as personnel to make sure that we are prepared for the next emergency, and that could be an earthquake … My takeaway is that this study really shed light on areas that we need to focus on as a county.”

That focus would be to create a strong infrastructure that will support a disaster in the magnitude of what was seen during the Eaton Fire. 

Barger made a motion to begin that infrastructure. 

She has been praised by Altadena residents on how quickly and responsive she has been with issues resulting from the fire. 

Next week the interview with Supervisor Kathryn Barger will continue.

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Assemblymember Nick Schultz has completed his first year in Sacramento as assemblymember for the 44th District. The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. The Assembly has 80 members, each representing one district. Previously Schultz was on the Burbank City Council. 

Many who have met or worked with Schultz agree he is a “glass half-full” kind of person and politician, and it appears that philosophy is still intact after a year on the front political lines.

“It was [and is] an amazing opportunity,” Schulz said referring to his first year as an assemblymember. “This is truly the best job I’ve ever had. I am grateful every day to be representing [District 44 including] La Crescenta in the state assembly … with that said, though, it has been a challenging year.”

Schultz was sworn into office about one month before the Jan. 7 catastrophic wildfires and he was thrown into the thick of things from the beginning. Even though the 44th District does not reach into Altadena or Pacific Palisades the fallout from the wildfires has touched many people across Southern California. 

California State Assembly District 44 includes the areas of Sunland-Tujunga, La Crescenta/Montrose, Glendale, Burbank, North Hollywood, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Valley Village, Sherman Oaks and Universal City. Schultz said his district did not “bear the brunt of damage;” however, there was wind damage and when families were displaced from the Eaton Fire many of them found homes in the area of the 44th District. 

“The uncertainty – it felt like there was a new fire popping up every day. Trying to get accurate information out to the public and coordinating all levels of government that needed to be working hand-in-hand made it a challenge,” he said. “I would say the other big obstacle this year was the Trump administration. I’m not trying to be too political, but however you [politically] identify it’s clear that we have an administration that is at odds with California, [an administration] that doesn’t agree with our way of life.” 

He pointed to the federal reduction of financial support for many programs that had already been committed to, like funding for health care, higher education and climate science. 

“You have an administration that is also utilizing tools of government – federal law enforcement – and deploying [those agencies] in our communities and have weaponized it against our people,” he added. 

He said he knew he would have a tough act to follow; Laura Friedman previously held his seat. 

“And I knew there was going to be a budget crisis and there would be challenges, but I think there were so many other challenges that were unforeseen that has really made this a difficult first year to navigate,” he said.
Although he highlighted the negative, he wanted to end on a positive note. 

“I think in the spirt of all that … we have had a very productive year. We brought some money back to the district, we had some policy wins that we feel really good about, some bills that will help us build more housing in places that make sense in our community and we are making some really good changes on the public safety front. So I can say that as I look toward 2025 as a challenging first year, I feel proud of what we did,” he said. “I feel more ready for what the coming year is going to bring us, and honestly – I’m just ready to get back to work.”

SB 79, the bill that was introduced by Senator Scott Wiener, was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. Before the bill was signed it had gone through numerous amendments as leaders, and residents, from cities and communities across California loudly voiced their concern about the bill in its original form. 

SB 79 is known as the “Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act.” The bill, now law, allows an upzone in neighborhoods that surround train, light rail and subway stations. It means that developers can build residential apartment complexes, some as tall as 75 feet, regardless of what local zoning maps, elected officials or community members feel. In short, as long as developers build some of the apartments under the terms of “affordable” they can build what they want. There is still some power that cities and counties have but these powers, at present, are being debated and researched by many city attorneys CVW has reached out to. 

Schultz abstained the vote to approve SB 79.

“I’ll start by talking for a moment about my vote, or lack thereof, on SB79 … then build on it,” he said. “I understand that many of my colleagues in the area including Senator [Sasha Renée] Pérez, who I greatly respect and admire, I know they voted for it. I abstained intentionally because when I looked at the bill I didn’t disagree with the premise of the bill – that we need more housing and that it should be adjacent to transit. Those are all, I think, fundamentally good things. I share frustration [with constituents] about the many amendments that were layered on in the 11th hour. I found them to be very confusing, very complicated and, while I appreciate Senator Wiener’s willingness to work with me, from very early [on] with the first versions of SB 79 I was flagging [issues] with him.”  

Schultz added that California needs more housing but he felt this bill/law would provide more density in very high fire hazard severity zones – areas where there’s a known risk of fire. 

“[These are areas] where we already have inadequate ingress and egress in the event of emergencies. I think some of his amendments tried to address those issues, so I want to give him credit. I think he tried by giving local jurisdictions, like the City of Glendale, more time to plan, which was great … but it still doesn’t address the heart of my concern … [which is] you’re densifying in areas where I don’t think you should densify. We have plenty of other swaths of land in our district, in our cities, where you can add more dense housing much more safely. 

“For me that’s why I ultimately did not vote for SB 79. I felt, despite the good intention behind it, there were still some problematic pieces,” Schult said. 

Next week, the rest of the interview with Assemblymember Schultz.