News release  Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, issued a statement Tuesday denouncing “the governor’s weaker initiative” on retail theft, which passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on partisan lines.  “This last-minute proposal is a scam designed to manipulate and undermine the people’s initiative. It is an abuse of power to further the governor’s agenda,” Lackey, a member of the Public Safety Committee and a retired California Highway Patrol officer, said in a news release after the committee passed Senate Bill 1381.   “Retailers, mom-and-pop shops, and jewelry stores throughout California are being robbed at unprecedented rates due to Proposition 47’s lack of consequences for criminal activities,” said the statement from Lackey, whose district includes some eastern portions of the Santa Clarita Valley.   “Nearly a million citizens, along with law enforcement officials, have endorsed an initiative that will curb rampant theft and address the deaths caused by fentanyl,” he added. “Let the people vote up or down on the qualified initiative to restore accountability for thieves and ensure punishment for fentanyl dealers.”  Related story: tinyurl.com/3zrn4cf7.  The post Lackey decries Assembly Public Safety passage of watered-down retail theft bill appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.