Minutes from April 9, 2013 Open meeting-Move IE

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 

  Open Board of Directors Meeting

  San Bernardino Community College District

 114 S. Del Rosa Drive

 San Bernardino, CA 92408

Minutes

 

Present:  Dimitrios Alexiou, Don Averill, Deborah Barmack, Peter Barmack, Carole Beswick, Tom Brickley, Ann Bryan, Ken Coate, Bill Easley, Ron Fremont, Ray Gonzalez, Mark Kaenel, Lowell King, Ed Lasak, John Mirau, Charlie Ng, Bev Powell, John Prentice, Kristine Scott and Paul Shimoff. 

Guests: Joe Gonzales, Paul Granillo and Todd Warden

Announcements: 1) The reservation form for the trip to Sacramento was mailed to the membership last week.   The trip to Sacramento will be on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 with the option of arriving on Monday, May 20th for some possible afternoon meetings and a group dinner.  Please fax or e-mail your reservation form as soon as possible but no later than April 30, 2013.  2) Committee chairs and co-chairs should plan to review state issues and active bills in preparation for the trip. 3) The County of San Bernardino will hold their State of the County-2013 Vision in Action on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 4:30p.m. at the Citizens Business Bank Arena. Please Rsvp to http://www.sbcountyadvantage.com/  4) A majority of the members present voted to extend the offer of membership to City National Bank.  5) The Inland Empire Regional Economic Forum will be held on Friday, April 26, 2013 from 8:00a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Orton Center on the campus of the University of Redlands located at 1200 E. Colton Ave., Redlands.  State policymakers will be urged at the California Economic Summit, held later this year, to champion specific executive and legislative actions based on the recommendations from the Regional forums.  Please register at http://www.caeconomy.org/region/inland-empire or call Michelle Cazares 909-382-6000.6) Vanir Development Company, Inc located in San Bernardino has been proposed for membership.  Frank Schnetz, V.P./Project Developer will serve as the representative. 

M/S/P: Minutes from April 2, 2013

John Mirau introduced John Longville and Denny Zane of Move IE 

John Longville and Denny Zane both have a long history in government and transportation.  They discussed transportation needs of the Inland Empire and the need for a regional approach.  They stated the Inland Empire could benefit from a group similar to Move LA called Move IE.  

Denny Zane is a well known transportation advocate in Los Angeles and created Move LA in 2007.  The group consists of business, environmental leaders and labor with the goal of raising significant funding for LA County’s transit system.  The group helped lead the successful campaign for the Measure R sales tax in LA County that enabled an extensive expansion of its transit system.  John Longville has many years of experience in regional and state government.  He was a driving force that helped establish the Metrolink system in San Bernardino County.  Denny and John are now working together to create Move IE.  

Move IE’s agenda is to improve and create sustainable transportation.  Two priorities were discussed:

  1. 1.      Link the Ontario Airport to Los Angeles and San Bernardino.
  2. 2.      Improve connections and verify funding to complete existing projects.  

They discussed the need for Ontario airport and LAX to co-exist as there is a need for both airports.  Downtown Los Angeles has re-populated in the last few years and demand will continue to grow for travel from downtown to ONT.   Ontario should be more widely used especially as demand in LA increases.  It is important to link Ontario Airport to both Los Angeles and San Bernardino by rail to make Ontario a more viable option.   

Connections are being studied as is a financing strategy that will involve public private partnerships.  Voter strategies will be needed in addition to organizing allies in the Los Angeles area.   

Both agreed it has always been difficult to get resources to the Inland Empire, but stated our future looks good and we must be ready.  The Inland Empire needs to be forward thinking in order to be prepared and take advantage of the many opportunities that are coming.   

A Q & A period followed.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 a.m.