EDD racked up $4.6m in fees for cell phones nobody used

I’m CalMatters investigative editor Andrew Donohue, and I’m subbing for Lynn today.

The state Employment Development Department acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots in the pandemic so call center employees could work from home. 

Then it forgot to cancel them once nobody was using them. 

As CalMatters editor Adam Ashton reports, that’s how the agency – in charge of distributing benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians in the pandemic – racked up $4.6 million in monthly service fees. 

The details come from a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies. Auditors began looking at the cell phones after receiving a tip. 

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used. 

• The audit: “We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage.”

More on EDD: After the pandemic, we investigated breakdowns at EDD that left the state with the worst of both worlds: tens of billions of dollars lost to fraud, and workers who lost their financial stability, their homes or, in extreme cases, their lives. Read the full series here.

More audits: Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fill vacant medical and mental health positions at prisons and state hospitals, California has little to show for it, Kristen Hwang reports.

From CalMatters’ politics reporter Maya C. Miller:

A recent survey of Latino voters in California finds that Republicans appear to be losing ground with a subset of the electorate who voted for former President Joe Biden in 2020, but who President Donald Trump wooed in last year’s presidential election. 

The findings from Latino advocacy group Tzunu Strategies and pollster Tulchin Research provide one of the clearest indicators yet that the GOP in next year’s midterms might not be able to count on a key constituency that returned Trump to office. 

But Arturo Carmano and Ben Tulchin, the poll’s architects, caution that Democrats shouldn’t view their findings as a “comeback” for their party just yet. Instead, they emphasized to leaders of both parties that Latinos care more about which candidates make them feel heard and valued, not partisan allegiance.

• Tulchin: “When (Latino voters) feel unheard or taken for granted, they can and will move. Parties cannot assume their support — they have to work for it.”

The survey of 1,100 registered California Latino voters — 100 of whom switched from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024 — also found that respondents had largely negative views of the economy and influence of corporate power. 

Nearly 70% of those surveyed said they felt American immigration enforcement operatives are racially profiling Latinos, including 59% of Biden-to-Trump voters. 

From CalMatters homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall:

Two homeless Californians are suing the city of Fresno, claiming an ordinance that prohibits camping anywhere in the city is unconstitutional.

Fresno is one of many cities around California that passed anti-camping ordinances after the U.S. Supreme Court gave them the greenlight to do so in 2024.

The plaintiffs, 78-year-old Wickey TwoHands and 52-year-old Joseph Quinney, were both arrested on suspicion of violating the camping ban last year. They are seeking to challenge the ordinance in federal court on behalf of all unhoused people in Fresno. 

• The lawsuit: “Defendants have created a regime that punishes poverty, destroys personal property without due process and subjects vulnerable populations to arrest, harassment, and danger without providing adequate shelter alternatives or reasonable accommodations.”

Fresno’s response? We’ll see you at the Supreme Court.

City Attorney Andrew Janz: “I look forward to taking this case to the Supreme Court – the same Supreme Court that upheld this sort of ordinance. Again, the municipal law passed by the Fresno City Council does not punish housing status, just behavior.”

Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that’s likely to hit California the hardest. 

The order discourages state governments from regulating artificial intelligence and urges Congress to pass a law preempting such regulations. California has passed more laws to regulate artificial intelligence than any other state since 2016. We’re also home to many of the world’s leading AI companies.

As CalMatters reporter Khari Johnson writes, polls show that AI regulations have broad public support.  

In October, one poll found that nearly 80% of Californians strongly or somewhat agree that safety should be prioritized over AI innovation. A September poll found that four out of five Americans want lawmakers to prioritize safety over innovation, even if that means the technology is developed more slowly.