Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Open Board of Directors Meeting
San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Patti Arlt, Deborah Barmack, Peter Barmack, Carole Beswick, Tom Brickley, Ann Bryan, Rashelle Bussell, Ken Coate, Jennifer Cusack, Louis Goodwin, Otis Greer, Scott Hofferber, Mark Kaenel, Lowell King, Pam Langford, Bill Lemann, Temetry Lindsey, John Mirau, Dan Murphy, Roman Nava, Vikki Ostermann, Cid Pinedo, John Prentice, Brian Reider, Michael Rivera, Elizabeth Romero, Khalil Saba, Kristine Scott, Paul Shimoff, and Hassan Webb.
Guests: Heather Obernolte, Christian Rodrick, Arnold San Miguel, Ross Sevy, Todd Warden and Leticia White.
Announcements: 1) The annual trip to Sacramento is scheduled for Tuesday, May 16th with the option of arriving on Monday, May 15th for some possible afternoon meetings and for a group meal at Lucca Restaurant. A reservation form has been sent to the membership. 2) Next week Inland Action will have its second West End meeting. Members and Alternates were encouraged to attend and bring a guest. The meeting will be held at 3200 Ontario Blvd., First Floor Media Room in Ontario.
M/S/P: Minutes from April 4, 2017.
Hassan Webb introduced Assemblymember Jay Obernolte
Jay Obernolte was first elected to the California State Assembly in 2014. He represents District 33 one of the largest geographic Districts in the state. Last year he had 12 pieces of legislation that passed, more than any other republican. The Assemblymember credits much of his legislative success to his relationship building in Sacramento, where he is willing to floor-manage a bill in the Assembly for Democratic senators when the bill addresses an issue they agree on.
The Assemblymember referenced the following legislative successes:
- AB1932 Motorcycle Safety Training. The bill allows motorcycle drivers who have received a moving violation the option of completing a course of instruction at a traffic violator’s school in order to avoid points on their driving record. Previously this option was only available to automobile operators.
- AB195 expands the transparency requirements established two years ago under Assemblyman Obernolte’s AB809. The bill extends transparency to all local initiatives that levy taxes, including those brought forward by local government entities. It requires the ballot statement of any local ordinance that would levy or increase a tax to include the total amount it will raise annually, the tax rate, and the duration of the tax.
- AB1773 fixed an omission in existing law that expands legal authority for joint powers authorities like Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority. This bill saved $400,000 annually on power costs for Victor Valley and clears the way for other joint powers authorities to save money by using renewable energy.
The recent passage of SB1 is the largest gas tax increase in California’s history. Everyone agrees that the road conditions are bad and maintenance is needed but government has not been accountable for the funds currently collected. He cited the weight fees on trucks that bring in $1B annually that should be spent on repair and maintenance of our freeways rather than go in the general fund. Some 30% of the increased gas tax will not go toward repair of our roads but will go toward transit. The new tax will raise the base excise tax on gasoline by 12 cents per gallon, bringing it to 30 cents. This increase will disproportionately impact areas of the Assemblymember’s district like the Victor Valley where 39% of the residents commute, many to L.A., to feed their families and actively pursue their dream of home ownership.
California government is steadily growing and is moving very close to reaching the Gann limit. This constitutional amendment enacted in 1980, also known as Prop 4, intends to constrain growth in State and local government spending by linking year to year changes in expenditures to changes in inflation. As the State is nearing the limit, the Governor’s proposed budget attempts to exclude $22B from this requirement. Government expenditures are averaging more than twice the rate of inflation.
Assemblymen Obernolte and Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) introduced a measure that would allow bicyclists to treat stop signs as merely yield signs-proceeding with caution if conditions are safe. The evidence that a “roll-through” for bicyclists is much safer than a complete stop has been proven in Idaho. The Assemblymember emphasized that the loss of momentum causes bicyclists to spend a substantially longer amount of time in intersections and thus a higher likelihood that they will be hit by oncoming traffic. The data from Idaho (accident reductions of 30-60%) is compelling and with the increasing amount of bicyclists on the roads it is time to review the laws.
The Assemblymember serves on the following committees:
- Appropriations
- Budget, Vice chair
- Communications and Conveyance, Vice chair
- Privacy and Consumer Protection
- Legislative Audit
- Legislative Budget
He favors incentivizing more housing with a focus on building moderately priced homes and will continue to push for reduction in building fees and CEQA reform.
A Q & A period followed.
Meeting adjourned at 8:31 a.m.