State workers raise $15K for billboard blaming worsening traffic on California Gov. Gavin Newsom

William Melhado, The Sacramento Bee on Apr 23, 2025

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With state workers returning to offices four days a week this summer, more commuters can be expected on Sacramento-area highways during the week. Public employees who are being told to work in person want drivers sitting in that gridlock to blame one person: Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Think traffic is bad now? Wait until July 1st,” reads a proposed billboard, showing Newsom smiling with a group of people, that an organizer said will be put up in the next six weeks to protest the governor’s unpopular return-to-office order.

In less than a week, an online campaign to erect a 14-by-48-foot protest of the governor’s telework policy raised over $15,000. Emily, a state worker who organized the grassroots fundraising effort, was “pleasantly shocked” that so many of her colleagues responded so enthusiastically. Donations ranged from $5 to $500.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would be able to raise this much money in such a short time,” she said. “That tells me that this is such an important issue for state workers.”

Emily, a public employee who commutes to downtown Sacramento, requested her last name not be published to prevent retaliation.

The fundraising success reflects just how galvanizing the issue of telework is for many state workers, even seven weeks after the governor surprised many with the decision.

Asked about the billboard campaign, Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said in-person work helps the state provide better services to Californians by “increasing collaboration, innovation, and accountability.”

“We welcome civic engagement,” Gardon said in a statement. “California state workers are among the most creative and committed in the country — the backbone of our government, keeping essential services and infrastructure running.”

Emily first proposed the idea of an anti-RTO billboard last year when state employees were confronting returning to offices just two days a week. Now, she said, there’s more energy and enthusiasm to “put something out there that everyone can see.”

Emily said the campaign was entirely organized by individual state workers. The unions representing public employees were not involved, she said.

Unions have organized protests and filed unfair labor practices with the state employment board, attempting to pause or modify the governor’s new telework policy. While departments that are subject to Newsom’s authority have yet to buck the directive, a labor board attorney said the governor’s office may have violated state law over its handling of the executive order last week.

Billboard’s location

Before launching the fundraising campaign, Emily said she contacted a company that rents billboard space to ensure the endeavor was feasible. For a billboard visible to Sacramento-area drivers, the company said it would cost roughly $9,000 to post the message for four weeks.

Emily said the design would be displayed at a billboard near the intersection of Interstate 80 and business I-80, where drivers heading toward Davis would see the sign. The company estimated that the sign would have over 432,000 “impressions” each week.

With the extra cash, Emily said she hopes to keep the billboard up for more than a month.

Some of the other proposed billboard designs suggested on the state worker Reddit page don’t hide employees’ current contempt for Newsom.

One suggestion shows a cartoon version of the governor pocketing cash next to “For Sale” signs, suggesting Newsom is profiting from downtown real estate owners. “Newsom has mandated more traffic,” reads another.

Emily said the final design would look similar to the one proposed on the fundraising page because that is what over 600 people contributed money towards.

While she would like the return-to-office order to be reversed, Emily doesn’t expect that to happen. Instead, she hopes to sour drivers’ — and potential 2028 presidential voters’ — opinions of Newsom.

“I want people, when they’re in their cars, when they’re stuck in traffic ... I want them to see his face,” she said.

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