California Assembly Parliamentarian Brian Ebbert

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Our guest today is the Parliamentarian to the Assembly Speaker, Brian Ebbert. Ebbert has spent over three decades in the Assembly, starting as an Assistant Clerk in 1991. He served as Assembly Floor Director from 2017 to 2014; he announced his retirement last year (and even got the cake) but agreed at the end of 2024 to stay on one more year as Assembly Parliamentarian

What does the Assembly Parliamentarian do? In this role, Ebbert is the senior procedural and parliamentary advisor to the Assembly Speaker and his leadership team. He is responsible for daily coordination of the Floor business, strategic motions, and procedures of the House, and provides expert procedural analysis and advice to Majority Party leadership team. He also develops logistics, rules, and procedures for Floor sessions, and – one of his favorite duties – identifies, drafts, and implements House rule changes for each two-year legislative session.

Ebbert joins Hosts Rich Ehisen and Tim Foster to talk about the Parliamentarian’s role, how the legislature has changed in the time he has been there, and about his brief but fascinating time in the Canadian Parliament. Plus – Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics?

1:53 The role of Parliamentarian

4:56 “You can read a book about football… but that doesn’t make you a football player”

7:15 From Speaker’s Floor Director to Parliamentarian

10:33 Questions from members

12:30 The flow of information

15:17 Touchy topics

19:44 Impact of Social Media

23:49 How has the institution changed?

26:16 Length of Floor sessions

28:36 Procedural rule changes

30:29 Two weeks in the Canadian Parliament

42:24 #WWCA