Closer look needed showing more detail - there are enough shrubs on the market that have variegated cultivars so that just the leaf coloring and general plant aspect is not enough to tell the species or even genus in this instance.

And if it's in California it could be something not much known elsewhere in the US.

Thank you. I'll take a better pic next time I walk that way.

It could be a variegated Ficus benjamina, but a closer look will tell more.

Shoots and the leaves they are bearing poking above barbering level too upright, leaf arrangement appears to be paired, leaves are too thin and veins too prominent. Go to choice dogwood but those same shoots above barbering level don't look right for any of those.

Acer negundo?

Look at the new growth coming out of the barbered top - the leaves are not divided into leaflets.

Looks like leaflets to me. But photo is not good, so really hard to tell.

Don't happen to know which one would have that ragged leaf outline but I actually thought of these right off and am warming up to them more as a possibility:

variegated callicarpa - Bing images

It has a very similar effect to a variegated abutilon, though I don’t think the paired leaves are right for that either.

Sort of looks Sambucus-y but not quite spot-on.

Some day I'll go to a local nursery. I'll watch for it then.

The shot with the hand is a twig shot and not a leaf with leaflets - there are no compound leaves anywhere on this plant.

Yeah now I see that. I feel like I've seen something very like this but cannot put my finger on it.

Except for the fact it is February, looks a lot like a variegated caryopteris. Have we confirmed it is a recent photo? The foliage does not look very evergreen to me.

Interesting thought. I think that Caryopteris is evergreen in mild climates.

I took the photo today 2/16.

Compare with Duranta repens,

Brazilian skyflower

I agree with Sara that it’s a Duranta. Golden dewdrop perhaps?

More pictures of what San Marcos page linked to above calls Duranta erecta 'Variegata':

duranta erecta variegata - Bing images

(So whatever the specific cultivar is in this case apparently mystery shrub was in fact a "California special" not seen in the North even here in my part of USDA 8)

I've never seen it and I wish that I could take credit for IDing it but it was a friend of mine (who is a botanical artist) who nailed it!

The two of you can share the reward money.

It was really bugging me because I was sure that I knew it/had seen it. Turns out, I had never seen and never heard of it. Sigh...I guess now my 'memory problems' include remembering things that never happened...

The other plants you thought it resembled made it seem familiar.

Wow, Sara, thank you and thank your friend! It's such a pretty bush. I might try to get one as I see San Marcos supplies my local Armstrong nursery. Oh and by the way, the page says "full sun," but there are a couple of these where I walk which are in dappled shade, at best. I'll watch to see if they bloom. But they seem happy enough as they are. Your check is in the mail. :-)

OK! You deserve it!