Like the French Laundry scandal, Gov. Gavin Newsom has to eat it on “Panera-Gate” | Opinion

Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted a mistake four years ago, at the height of the COVID pandemic, when he was caught dining with friends and without a mask at the French Laundry, a famed and exclusive Napa Valley restaurant

The moment, leaked on video, showed Newsom at his worst: A nagging lack of judgment and an overinflated sense of entitlement in the service of double standards that apply to him, a chosen few in his circle but not the rest of us.

Newsom is now having another French Laundry moment, although the cuisine involved this time is a lot cheaper.

The governor and those around him are accused of seeking to exempt fast food franchises like Panera that sell bread from having to pay a higher minimum wage to employees starting this April. Greg Flynn, who owns more than 100 Panera Bread franchises, is a big Newsom donor. Flynn has also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent voters from recalling Newsom in 2021 after the French Laundry debacle and re-electing the governor in 2022.

Opinion

A governor’s spokesman calls the allegation, which first surfaced in a report by Bloomberg News, “absurd.” Yet the legislative language in question was crafted in such secrecy and at such high levels, that not even the bill’s author - Assemblyman Chris Holden - was not involved. When Holden shared this information with reporters it undermined the denials from Newsom people. So did Flynn’s comment that he was “surprised” that Panera qualified for the exemption, although Flynn denies seeking special favors or speaking directly to Newsom.

Whether Panera truly got special treatment is beside the point. When Newsom operates this way, he invites criticism from Republican leaders that he richly deserves.

The story of this double standard begins with the powerful Service Employees International Union. In recent years, it has been targeting the fast-food industry for reform. As part of its campaign, SEIU came to Sacramento seeking a higher minimum wage for fast food workers than all other Californians, such as hotel maids, who suffer at the lowest rungs of our economy.

This selective economic justice for some poor people but not others had no rationale, but Newsom and legislative Democrats bought into it anyway. Then, in the rarest of Sacramento moments, the governor’s office helped craft the bill language to push it over the finish line.

The result was Assembly Bills 257 and 1228 by Holden of Pasadena. They established a new state Fast Food Council that raised the minimum wage from $16 an hour to $20 for fast food workers this April in exchange for the industry backing off a threat to take the issue to voters.

But the whole deal came with an exemption for a fast-food restaurant that “applies only where the establishment produces for sale bread as a stand-alone menu item.”

That sure sounds like Panera. As Panera’s website boasts, “Each day our trained bakers fill our bakery shelves with delicious freshly baked cookies, pastries, bagels, and a range of breads from focaccia to classic baguettes.”

Yet if this exemption wasn’t intended for Panera, who was it for?

At its bill signing, Newsom was asked about the special exemption. “That’s a part of the sausage making.”

But this is not a political sausage moment. This was Gavin Newsom’s French Laundry’s triple-layer cake.

Fast food workers get a higher minimum wage than everybody else. Fast food workers who happen to sell store-produced bread don’t. Newson’s circle benefits, he gets stuck with the political tab.

Newsom cannot get to the White House someday if he can’t handle Panera-Gate.