Working hard or hardly working, Gov?
Gavin Newsom’s official calendars show the lefty governor listing zero government business on a staggering 18 taxpayer-funded workdays in the first four months of the year, The California Post has learned.
The uber-secretive Newsom — who only finally released his calendars after a monthslong delay that required legal intervention by The Post’s lawyers — marked the 18 non-holiday weekdays as “no official business,” or about one in every four days.
The governor’s calendar also includes 53 murky entries only described as “work time,” blocking off the large chunks to tinker on unknown tasks.
On Feb. 6, for example, Newsom’s sole listed activity was a block labeled “work time” from 2 to 5:20 p.m.
The calendars, covering January through the end of April, offer a rarely seen picture of how California’s Democratic two-term governor spends his time.
Newsom refuses to release a daily log of his activities on taxpayers’ dime.
His typical work day runs roughly seven hours from start to finish, according to the calendars.
The records show the expected Democratic presidential candidate meanwhile finds plenty of time to jet-set across the globe, thirstily seeking national press and quietly meeting with lawmakers, CEOs and officials behind the futuristic California Forever megacity in northern California.
One explanation for the many days listing “no official business” could be Newsom’s roadshow to hawk his memoir, “A Young Man in a Hurry,” as related events this past spring coincided with some of his breezy days.
The book’s release is widely seen as a prerequisite for Newsom’s expected run for president in 2028.
Corrin Rankin, chairwoman of the California Republican Party, blasted Newsom’s calendar revelations, saying he “seems to treat the governor’s office like a part-time gig, spending his limited time pushing failed policies.”
Unlike the Newsom administration, the governor’s office in neighboring Oregon maintains a public archive of its top pols’ weekly calendars, while several other states — including Virginia, Iowa and Utah — routinely publish their governors’ official schedules online.
Newsom’s office defended what its records show by claiming the calendars are an incomplete accounting of the Golden State governor’s daily activities.
“Like many people’s calendars, the governor’s calendar is not a complete record of what the governor has done, or with whom he has met,” Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a rep for Newsom, told The Post. “Only meetings and other matters scheduled in advance are reflected on the calendar. The calendar may or may not be updated after the fact if a scheduled meeting does not take place.”
She insisted, “The term ‘no official business’ doesn’t mean he wasn’t working; it just means he had no pre-scheduled events or meetings.”
But even with those caveats, the calendars reveal an official governor’s schedule that appears surprisingly sparse. Newsom, who receives an annual salary of almost $246,000, frequently doesn’t begin his official business until after 9 a.m. and often wraps up before 5 p.m., according to the records.
Just how much Newsom focuses on his duties as governor has been a persistent question this year, as he has lived out of a suitcase flying to Davos, Munich and London, as well as numerous stops across the country on his whirlwind book tour.
One of Newsom’s biggest time commitments involved more than 19 hours rehearsing his final State of the State speech in January, working out the kinks with his communications director, Bob Salladay.
The speech itself lasted just over an hour and received tepid reviews.
Newsom has also spent considerable time courting glowing national media coverage for him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who along with the governor is currently the subject of federal investigations.
A 20-minute prep meeting and 80-minute interview with Maya Singer of Vogue led to a profile that painfully began: “Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address.”
Capitol reporters are rarely given the same amount of one-on-one access to Newsom as national media outlets such as Vogue, Politico or Noor Ibrahim, a writer for Marie Claire who received a 25-minute phone interview before publishing a piece titled: “Is Jennifer Siebel Newsom the Most Underestimated Woman in American Politics?”
Another 30-minute video conference with Matt Winkler at Bloomberg led to a slobbering piece with the headline, “Who Knew ‘Slick’ Gavin Newsom Was Such an Economic Maestro?”
On March 30, his calendar contained a single 30-minute energy video conference beginning at 3:25 p.m.
The only work he also had listed from Friday, April 3, through Sunday, April 12, was a 35-minute appearance at the North Salton Sea Conservancy.
The governor’s office issued a press release April 10 featuring Newsom surrounded by staff as he looked beyond the camera while wearing a rumpled white dress shirt, jeans and aviator shades.
On April 22, the sole calendar entry on Newsom’s calendar was an Earth Day news conference in Fresno that lasted less than an hour and a half.
The calendars show Newsom has worked long days when events demand it, such as his frequent overseas trips to glad-hand world leaders. During overseas travel to start the year, Newsom’s schedule was packed with diplomatic meetings, panel discussions and media appearances. The meetings included sitdowns with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and David Lammy, former deputy prime minister of Britain.
On March 19, the governor’s calendar ran from 9:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. as he delivered remarks for the California Hall of Fame ceremony and attended the after-party.
Within California, Newsom has traveled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Irvine, Fresno, Wasco, the Salton Sea and Deep Springs College near the Nevada border. Travel time to these places was not listed on the calendars.
Many of the governor’s office days include internal “Executive Sync” sessions or briefings that usually last five to 10 minutes before meetings.
The calendars also identified meetings between Newsom and executives from Procter & Gamble, Stripe, Sprouts Farmers Market and CommonSpirit Health. He also met with lawmakers, labor leaders and foreign diplomats.
But significant portions of the calendars remain hidden. The Post counted 17 entries in which the subject, attendees or other identifying information had been blacked out.
The administration cited exemptions covering the governor’s deliberative process, personal security, attorney-client privilege, personnel matters and the privacy of prospective appointees.
The governor’s office argued that releasing a fuller accounting of his schedule would amount to an “intrusion into the deliberative process.”
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