Civil Rights Department says it is implementing four new laws as caseloads near 12,000

The Civil Rights Department told the California State Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 5 on State Administration that it will implement four pieces of chapter legislation this year and is coping with a steep rise in complaints.

"We will be implementing 4 pieces of chapter legislation this year," Julia Parrish, deputy director for legislation, regulation and policy at the Civil Rights Department, told the subcommittee. She listed SB 464 (updates to pay‑data reporting and an expansion of job categories from 10 to 23), AB 822 (an extension of the Commission on the State of Hate to 2031), AB 935 (new demographic reporting and timelines), and SB 518 (which "establishes the new Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery" with outreach, legal affairs and a genealogy unit).

The department also described rising workload pressures. Kevin Kish, director of the Civil Rights Department, said the agency enforces state civil‑rights laws across housing, employment, public accommodations, hate incidents and human trafficking and handles intake, mediation and selected prosecutions. He told the committee, "We do not have jurisdiction over the federal government," while describing efforts to reach immigrant communities and provide bilingual outreach.

Kish and his staff reported a marked increase in matters open with the department. The department said it crossed 10,000 open matters for the first time, exceeded 11,000 by the end of the prior year and was "nearing 12,000 open matters" at the time of the hearing, a volume department leaders and the subcommittee flagged as straining resources. The department said it employs about 340 permanent full‑time staff.

The department also described its work on hate prevention. "We house within our department the Commission on the State of Hate," Kish said, describing a recent annual report that combines academic and original research. Yvonne Hsu, who the department introduced as leading many anti‑hate initiatives, said the California versus Hate resource network and hotline connects callers to care coordinators and community partners and aims to serve people who may not want to contact law enforcement. Hsu said the hotline received "over 1,200 reports of hate" last year.

Legislative analysts and finance reviewers signaled no fiscal objections to the BCPs; Paul Steenhausen of the Legislative Analyst's Office said they "don't have any concerns with these proposals," and the Department of Finance representative offered no additional comments.

The hearing included a public commenter who praised the department's partnerships with Stop the Hate grantees and described the department as providing "boots on the ground" support to callers.

What happens next: the department's BCPs and implementation plans will remain under legislative review during budget deliberations; members asked for the department's annual report and follow‑up meetings to better understand complaint trends and local outreach.