I had my first interaction with the new Assembly Speaker, John A. Perez, Tuesday and I am not pleased.

One day after the 46th District assemblyman was sworn-in as successor to Assembly Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass, he convened a news teleconference with African-American community newspaper reporters to “discuss challenges facing California and key issues for African-American communities.”

I eschew “press conferences” and I usually don’t participate in these teleconference events because I’m not interested in reporting the same news every reporter is getting. The stuff I write is different and requires me to have one-on-one interaction with the person involved, usually.

But, as I knew nothing about Perez — other than that he is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s cousin — I chose to participate in his conference yesterday, because I was eager to talk to him and hear him relate “the key issues for African-American communities.”

Perez opened the conference by delivering a speech on the “challenges facing California” about which we know more than enough, and talked about his approaches toward meeting those challenges, which were good. Then he stopped talking. So I asked him: ”What about key issues for African-Americans?” His knee-jerk reply was something to the effect that they are the same as those he’s already discussed. Then he said some things about Blacks and the need for an improved foster case system and Blacks (and Latinos) and the need to change the three-strikes law.

That was OK, but it didn’t hit the heart of the matter: That African-Americans have the highest unemployment rate in the state and that the dearth of jobs of every kind is the key issue for African-American communities. Therefore, I was compelled to question him about AB781, the Bilingual Hiring Requirements Bill, the measure the NAACP tried to get enacted in the Legislature last year that would put some brakes on the prevalent practice in which numerous job openings are offered to Spanish-speaking or “bilingual preferred” applicants, thus denying African-Americans access to jobs and promotional opportunities.

I reminded Perez that AB781 was so anathema to Democrats in the Legislature that the NAACP could not get a Democrat to carry the bill, so Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, a Republican from Lake Elsinore, had to carry it. I reminded Perez that AB781 did not get a single vote when it went to committee last year. I told him that issue and that bill are not going away and I asked him what he plans to do about it.

Perez admitted that he fought against the bill. He said he believed a “bilingual preferred” designation is acceptable when a specific job requires that ability, but he said he does not believe it should be applied inappropriately. Therein lies the rub. I began to argue that his position is the same as the NAACP’s and that “appropriate” is the core of AB781. I was cut off in mid-argument by Perez’s press woman, Shannon Murphy, and the teleconference abruptly ended. And I’m mad about it.

As every unemployed African-American knows, employers advertise for bilinguals to fill most jobs — especially entry-level ones — in the community. Never mind that the jobs have nothing to do with talking to Spanish-speaking people or even talking to people at all, employers insist on stating “bilingual preferred” on their job announcements.

AB781 seeks to limit that practice to only jobs that are appropriate, as favored by Perez. “This bill is about access to jobs for non-bilingual people that affects African-Americans the most,” said Alice Huffman, president of the California State NAACP. “We have the highest rate of unemployment in the state and if every job that becomes available is ‘bilingual preferred,’ we’re never going to get a job!” Huffman said. “We are not on an ‘English-only’ crusade like those conservative groups, we are a 100-year old civil rights organization, and this bill is about Black folks getting jobs and the overuse of the bilingual designation is an impediment. We don’t care what people speak, our only interest is in increasing employment of African-Americans in the state of California,” Huffman said.

The last thing Perez said to me before the conference was ended was: “Some African-Americans speak Spanish too.” Really! And what might that percentage be? I don’t think Perez and I play well together in the sandbox.