A's President Dave Kaval Had a Night to Forget
The first day of the Nevada special session is in the books, and we're no closer to finding out the fate of the Oakland A's than we were at the beginning of the day. We did find out that every day that this special session lasts costs taxpayers $250k, so there should be a bit of a rush to this process. The A's representatives, Jeremy Aguero and Steve Hill, instead presented the same exact slideshow they had ten days ago in support of the exact same bill that was presented on Memorial Day.
It was evident that the A's had not taken into account the feedback they'd been receiving since that first hearing in composing a new bill, now known as SB1 (formerly SB509).
There was a lot of meme-worthy statements made by lawmakers throughout the evening, but the person who had the worst night had to be A's President Dave Kaval. For the first time in this entire process, Kaval was actually called to answer a question by Co-Majority Whip Fabian Doñate, and Kaval stayed true to his nature and tried to dodge a very straightforward question.
It did not go well.
The A's president was asked if he'd "willingly commit to pay the live entertainment tax in the near future to fix the equity issue that exists." Dave Kaval did not answer the question, and Senator Doñate said that the answer was disingenuous.
This may not seem like a lot, but for A's fans that have been fed lies and half-truths by Dave Kaval for years now, that moment was cathartic to many. Hearing Kaval asked an easy question, not being able to answer it, and then being pushed on the answer he provided is just something we haven't seen much of in the Bay Area--mostly because he's been in hiding in recent weeks.
The fun at Kaval's expense didn't stop there.
Former A's employee Steve Pastorino, who was the Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships, started his testimony in opposition of bill SB1 by calling Kaval "a walking, talking, bobblehead."
He continued by saying "you cannot trust Dave Kaval." This is a guy that worked at the executive level with the team that is trying to relocate to Las Vegas, and he basically said that Nevada should not welcome these people into their state, let alone hand them money to build a ballpark.
The capper of the evening came via phone from a recent high school graduate, who questioned where Kaval had disappeared to after his one question from Senator Doñate. "Why did Dave Kaval flee after fumbling one simple question?"
Based off of some of the questions that were being asked, and the fact that they had to cut off the opposition testimony to provide equal time, it would appear as if this bill wouldn't have a shot at getting passed. However, the CEO of the Nevada Independent, Jon Ralston, is reporting that he's counting eight leaning yes on SB1, eight leaning no, and five undecided with 11 votes needed to pass out of the Senate.
The process will continue at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, and we'll likely see a vote from the Senate at some point during the day, too. If SB1 passes through the Senate, it would then be sent to the Assembly, and this entire process will begin again.
For now, Oakland baseball lives to fight another day.