Inside This Issue
President's
Message
43rd
Annual Sacramento Orientation Tour
December
Board of Directors Meeting
Associate
Members Program Launch
Is
Your Municipality Thinking About Going
Solar?
Calendar
of Events
December/January
Birthdays
December
Video
Connection
|
 President's
Message
by
Lois Gaston
Before I could fully reflect and appreciate the challenges
and
successes of 2009, a new year started at a rapid pace. Our
December
meeting, hosted in a beautiful setting by Calabasas, gave us the
opportunity to hear an encouraging message from Supervisor Zev
Yaroslavsky. We also had a chance to understand the patience freeway
travelers, in the Los Angeles region, must have in order to commute
during peak hours. The City of Paramount arranged for many who attended
to ride in the comfort of a bus. I want to again thank CCCA Executive
Board members, James Bozajian and Diane Martinez, our staff and those
who attended for making this a pleasant and productive event.
During our 43rd Annual Sacramento
Legislative Orientation Tour in
January our members focused on the state budget crisis, unfunded
mandates, water issues, and a new ballot measure to ensure that local
revenues stay local and not be taken to balance the state’s
budget. We
met with a number of legislators, including the newly elected Speaker
of the Assembly, John Perez. Representatives from the
Governor’s
budget
staff and the Legislative Analyst Office offered us insights and
answered some of our questions about the just released, state budget
proposals. We left our State Capitol without getting a satisfactory
answer to our question “Do you have a workable plan to
balance the
state’s budget?” Nevertheless, CCCA is resolved to
continue fighting on
behalf of our cities and citizens to protect local dollars and needed
services.
Our Legislative Committee and staff’s
outstanding planning,
as well as
the attendance of our members and others, resulted in our delivering a
strong united message, electing Laura Olhasso as Vice President, and
introducing our new Associate Members Program. Our guests
included
CRA’s John Shirey, Chris McKenzie and Mike Madrid from the
League of
California Cities, Debbie Smith from ICA, Fran Mancia of MuniServices,
Willdan President and CEO Tom Brisbin along with Willdan Financial
Services President and CEO Frank Tripepi, to name a few. Overall,
we accomplished much because of CCCA’s dedicated members, our
informed
legislative advocates at Gonsalves and Sons, our supportive partners,
seminar sponsors and PAC members. CCCA is fortunate to work with so
many dedicated
persons who share their time, ideas, resources and services.
Hearing that L A County Fire Chief P.
Michael Freeman will not retire
is real good news. We need his expertise and experience for as long as
he desires to keep working and delaying his retirement. On
the other
hand, we salute El Monte Councilmember Juventino
“J” Gomez, who is
retiring from his position of Field Deputy for Supervisor Michael
Antonovich. His services to our country (U S Army Disabled Veteran) and
to L A County are appreciated.
With most of the rainstorms now passed,
we can look forward to
brighter days and our Annual Municipal Seminar in the Spring.
While the city of La Cañada Flintridge
has survived
the down pours and mudslides, Mayor Laura Olhasso now CCCA Vice
President and Annual Municipal Seminar Chiar and City Staff have
already begun setting the plans for a beneficial, informative
conference this May. So I encourage you to mark your calendars for May
13th through May 16th and make sure you and your colleagues join us at
the Renaissance Esmeralda in Indian Wells. Please visit our website at
www.contractcities.org for
additional information.
The City of Duarte is excited about
hosting the Board of Directors meeting on April
21st in Cooper Auditorium on the beautiful campus of
City of Hope located at 1500 East Duarte Road. Proceeds will benefit
the Duarte Friends of the Library. In lieu of plagues and
proclamations, I would appreciate your donating books to expand the
Teen Section of the Duarte Branch of the Los Angeles County Library. A
list of books and magazines will be circulated at our next meeting and
can be viewed on our CCCA website soon. For your convenience your
orders can be placed through Amazon.com. Please look for more
information to come
Sincerely,
43rd
Annual Sacramento Orientation Tour
The
California Contract
Cities Association held its 43rd Annual Sacramento Orientation Tour in
January. While the economic times continue to be difficult
for our cities we managed to show Sacramento our united front.
Our delegation of local elected officials, and city employees
made the trek to exclaim once again to our Legislature that we are
doing what it takes to keep our budgets balanced and provide services
to our mutual constituents so keep your hands off of our revenues.
In California's deepening economical collapse the state has
continued to reach into our coffers to bolster their desperate attempts
to balance the budget. Our cities have demanded a stop to
this kind of fiscal irresponsibility and took their message to the
legislators. Our time consisted of many small group meetings
in the Capitol on Monday with Legislators, their staff and our
Association leadership. Tuesday we invited legislators to
come to us and speak directly to our entire delegation. We
had a chance to ask questions and demand they keep their hands off of
our money. We were in support of the new ballot measure to
protect ALL local government funds, and continued to refuse to accept
unfunded mandates passed on to our cities. We know our
efforts
will sometimes go unheard, but they will never be heard unless we speak
up. Our legislative committee did not dissapoint again this
year.
A big thank you to Chairperson Laura Olhasso and the entire
Committee for a succesfull event and of course to all our sponsors who
made this 43rd Annual Tour a possibility. Please enjoy some
of
the pictures below of the attendees and sessions at this years events.
Also, see a great article written by former City Manager from
Bellflower, Paramount and Hawaiian Gardens, Jack Simpson from Trackdown
Management here.
December
Board of Directors Meeting
Hosted
by the City of
Calabasas
While holiday plans were in full swing the California Contract Cities
Association was taking care of business in the City of Calabasas.
Founders Hall was the location of our meeting and the venue was
perfect. After fighting traffic, thankfully on a bus provided
by
the City of Paramount, our small group of 20 arrived just in time to
see the weekly fireworks display at the City Center. Our
meeting
commenced and with business quickly taken care of we were able
to
eat and look forward to hearing from our honored guest. Our
dinner was delicious and with plenty of dessert to go around we were
treated to an address by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
He shared with us the success of Measure R and laid out some
of
his thoughts and possilbe plans for the future of the program.
He
commended our leadership in the handling of the Liability Trust Fund
issue and urged us to continue developing and nurturing our
relationship with the County. As is evident from our
invitation
to our County Supervisors we will continue to reach out to our County
partners, and look forward to hearing from other County representatives
at future meetings.
    
Please visit our website
to view our
schedule for future upcoming Board of Directors Meetings. You
can
find it at www.contractcities.org
Associate
Members Program Launch
Over the past few months the California Contract Cities Association
staff under the leadership of Past President, Frank Zerunyan and
current President Lois Gaston have been working in partnership with a
handful of long time and new sponsors to form what is to be called the
Associate Members Program. Fran Mancia for MuniServices has
taken an advisory role helping to lead our staff and leadership in an
advisory role to the Associate Members program. This team of
individuals have been the force behind this project that will provide
networking opportunities for our cities and the business partners they
contract with, but also provide a viable contributor source that will
continue to allow us to educate, inform and advocate on behalf of our
member cities.
Associate
Members Program Mission Statement:
To Develop and
foster public/private partnerships between member cities and the
business community in order to provide mutually beneficial resources
and services that educate and inform; to create revenue opportunities,
long term relationships and a forum to better serve the goals and
priorities of the CCCA and its Associates members.
President
Lois Gaston and Past President Frank
Zerunyan accept first Platinum sponsor check
from Frank Tripepi, President and CEO of
Willdan Financial Services.
For more information
regarding the Associate Members Program including
benefit levels, application and 2010 brochure please visit
us on the web here. Or
contact Tony Olivito, Public Affairs Director at 562-633-5533 or
tony@contractcities.org.
Is
Your Municipality Thinking Of Going Solar?
The
California Energy
Commission's Municipal Tool Kit is intended for review and use by a
variety of local municipal officials and staff, including local
planners, building and safety officials, city managers, city attorneys
and elected officials. Additionally, this Tool Kit can be widely
distributed, as there are many ways local government can help encourage
developers to install solar on new highly energy efficient homes, and
opportunities to support this effort can arise in multiple municipal
departments.
Inside The Tool Kit:
This
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governments can implement to help encourage solar developments in their
region. While some strategies require more resources than others, the
Tool Kit provides a variety of options that can be tailored to meet the
individual circumstances of each municipality. Some of these suggested
strategies include: amending general plans, incentivizing energy
efficiency measures and solar installations and educating local home
builders about existing solar incentives.
This Tool Kit also contains an array of useful materials provided to
support the implementation of the suggested strategies.
These
materials include:
Background information on the NSHP; supporting materials on the
benefits of combining energy efficiency features with solar energy;
suggested local municipal strategies for encouraging solar
installation; a builder outreach brochure; a recognition certificate
for builders; sample model ordinances; sample text for press materials;
and available resources and contact information.
Access The Toolkit!
Calendar
of Events
February
3, 2010 -
Executive Board Meeting
February 17, 2010 - Board of Directors Meeting-Host City, Downey - Rio
Hondo Events Center
March 3, 2010 -
Executive Board Meeting
March 17, 2010 - Board
of Directors Meeting-Host City needed
April 7, 2010 -
Executive Board Meeting
April 21, 2010 - Board
of Directors Meeting-Host City, Duarte - Location, City of Hope
May 13-16, 2010 - Annual
Municipal Seminar Renaissance
Esmeralda Resort, Indian Wells, CA
December/January
Birthdays
The following CCCA
member cities celebrated their anniversaries of incorporation in the
months of December and January.
We extend to them a very Happy Birthday!
City
|
Date
of Incorporation
|
City
of Azusa
|
12/29/1898
|
City
of Coachella
|
1/1/1946
|
City
of Commerce
|
1/28/1960
|
City
of Downey
|
12/17/1956
|
City
of El Segundo
|
1/18/1917
|
City
of Hercules
|
12/15/1900
|
City
of La Habra Heights
|
12/4/1978
|
City
of Lawndale
|
12/28/1959
|
City
of Long Beach
|
1/1/1879
|
| City
of Paramount |
1/30/1957
|
City
of Pico Rivera
|
1/29/1958
|
City
of Pomona
|
1/6/1888
|
City
of Rolling Hills
|
1/24/1957
|
City
of Santa Clarita
|
12/15/1987
|
City
of South Gate
|
1/20/1923
|
City
of Walnut
|
1/19/1959
|
City
of Westlake Village
|
12/11/1981
|
|
