8th Annual Early Care & Education Land Use Symposium Program South May 13, 2016 Gate Park GirlsÕ Clubhouse 4900 Southern Blvd. South Gate, CA
Welcome! Public Counsel and the Southeast Cities ECE Taskforce welcome you to the 8th Annual Early Care and Education Land Use Symposium. Thank you for joining us! Program Schedule 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM Registration/Refreshments 9:00 AM - 9:05 AM Program Orientation Christina Giorgio, Staff Attorney, Public Counsel 9:05 AM - 9:15 AM Welcoming Remarks and Keynote Introduction W.H. (Bill) De Witt, Mayor, City of South Gate 9:15 AM 9:35 AM Keynote Address - The Honorable Anthony Rendon, State Assembly Speaker representing the 63rd Assembly District 9:35AM - 10:05 AM I-710 Freeway Corridor and the Lower Los Angeles River: What s at Stake for Our Children? Professor Martha Matsuoka, Occidental College and Angelo Logan, Occidental College & Coalition for Environmental Health and Justice 10:05 AM 10:25 AM Enhanced Infrastructure Finance Districts: River Revitalization Financing Relieving the Tension between Growth and Displacement Christina Giorgio, Staff Attorney, Public Counsel 10:25 AM 10:35 AM Break 10:35 AM - 11:05 AM Turning a Community s Vision into Implementable Policy: Master Planning for River Revitalization and Healthy Communities Michael Allen, Community Development Manager, City of Cudahy 11:05 AM 11:15 AM AB 551 Update - Southeast Cities Community Garden Opportunities Natasha Reyes, Equal Justice Works Fellow, Public Counsel 11:15 AM 11:45 PM Connecting Families to River Restoration Benito Juaez Park, Maywood and Beyond Tori Kjer, Program Director, Trust for Public Land Los Angeles Program 11:45 AM -12 PM Closing Remarks/Evaluations Christina Giorgio, Staff Attorney, Public Counsel Thank you to First 5 LA for assisting to fund this event and the City of South Gate for hosting us.
About our Speakers Keynote Address The Honorable Anthony Rendon Speaker Anthony Rendon represents the 63rd Assembly District in the California State Assembly. The 63rd Assembly District includes nine cities Bell, Cudahy, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, Lynwood, Maywood, Paramount, South Gate and a northern portion of Long Beach. On March 7, 2016, Rendon was sworn-in as the 70th Speaker of the Assembly. During his first term in office, Rendon chaired the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and authored Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion state water bond, which voters passed by a 67% to 33% margin in the November 2014 election. Now in his second term, Rendon authored Assembly Bill 530 in 2015, a law that spurs much-needed revitalization of the lower portion of the Los Angeles River, and Assembly Bill 496, which connects schools with resources to improve clean drinking water infrastructure. In addition to the water bond, Rendon passed bills on a wide range of topics reflecting his interests in early childhood education and the environment. Prior to serving in the Assembly, Rendon was an educator, non-profit executive director, and environmental activist. He led Plaza de la Raza Child Development Services, Inc. as Executive Director. Plaza provides comprehensive child development and social and medical services to over 2,300 children and families offered through Plaza s 35 child development centers located throughout Los Angeles County. Before working at Plaza, Rendon served as the Interim Executive Director of the California League of Conservation Voters from 2008 to 2009. Rendon attended Cerritos Community College before earning his Bachelors and Masters of Arts Degrees from California State University, Fullerton. As a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside and completed post-doctoral work at Boston University. Rendon served as adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at California State University, Fullerton from 2001 to 2008.
Mayor W.H. (Bill) De Witt Mayor De Witt was first elected to serve as a Member of the South Gate City Council in November of 1980, and has served on and off since. De Witt served an interim appointment on November 3, 2004 to fill a vacancy by former Council Member Steve Gutierrez and was then elected on March 8, 2005 to serve a 4 year term, and was re-elected in 2009 and 2013. On April 10, 2012, he was selected as Mayor. His current term of office expires in March 2017. Mayor De Witt served on the South Gate Planning Commission between 1978-1980 and January 2004 through November 2004 prior to being elected to the City Council. De Witt grew up in Southern California, is a graduate of the University of Southern California and served in the United States Coast Guard. He has been in the wood business industry in South Gate since 1965. Mayor DeWitt is an active member of the South Gate Rotary Club, is actively involved in water issues and has an interest in agriculture. Professor Martha Matsuoka Martha Matsuoka is Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Executive Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College. Her teaching focuses on environmental justice, community organizing, urban policy, environmental movement history, and communitybased research. Her research focuses how community-based organizations organize to influence policy and planning and currently focuses on ports and freight transportation. Her work with UEPI focuses on building just and livable communities through food justice, transportation and the built environment, and environmental justice. She has served on many boards, including the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation (past Chair), Human Impact Partners, and APEN. She is a member of the Switzer Foundation Fellowship Network. Martha received her Ph.D. in Urban Planning from UCLA, a Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley, and an A.B. from Occidental College.
Angelo Logan Angelo Logan is the Moving Forward Network, Policy Director out of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College. Angelo is the co-founder of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and has worked with a wide variety of coalitions to achieve health protective policies specifically regarding goods movement and Green Zones. Currently Angelo serves on several committees, such as: SCAQMD's Environmental Justice Advisory Group, I-710 Corridor Advisory Committees, Southern California Association of Governments Goods Movement Task Force and City of Commerce s Environmental Justice Task Force and Green Zones-Policy Working Group. Christina Giorgio Christina Giorgio is a staff attorney with the Community Development Project (CDP) of Public Counsel, the nation s largest nonprofit public interest law firm. The CDP team works to bring affordable housing, economic stability and environmental equity to the poorest, most disinvested communities in Los Angeles County. Christina focuses her practice on equitable land use and zoning, affordable housing, and homelessness and was recently appointed to serve on the AB 530 Lower River Working Group by Secretary John Laird of the California Natural Resources Agency. Prior to joining Public Counsel, Christina was a staff attorney in the Environmental Justice Project at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. She is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley and Loyola University, Chicago, School of Law. She is a member of the California, New York and Illinois bars. Natasha Reyes Natasha Reyes is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Public Counsel. Her work focuses on harnessing land use policy to encourage the development of affordable housing and green space. Natasha is a Southern California native and a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University, School of Law. She is a member of the California bar.
Michael Allen Michael Allen has worked with the City of Cudahy since August 2012, where he currently serves as the Community Development Manager. Michael obtained his Master's Degree in Organizational Management from Ashford University, and his Bachelor's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Cal Poly Pomona; segueing to a career focused on community development, land use planning, and social equity issues. Those efforts have transcended into work on developing and implementing current and advanced land use policy, grant writing and management, program development and management, as well as building cohesive teams. As part of the new generation in the City of Cudahy, Michael and his team have successfully garnered over $8 million in outside funding sources dedicated towards public safety improvements, parks development, and long range planning initiatives. Michael has led his team to pilot an array of civic engagement tools, such as the Cudahy Safe Routes to School Plan, pedestrian safety assessments, the Cudahy 2040 General Plan Update, parks and parking needs assessments, and establishing the Cudahy en Marcha community group. Michael attributes the recent success in Cudahy, to not only an established vision and foundation, but also the ability to partner with other public agencies, non-profits, and educational institutions. By investing in laying the groundwork through studies, partnerships, and long range plans, public agencies can equip themselves to maximize future funding sources while engaging the community at large. Tori Kjer, RLA Tori Kjer is the Program Director for the Trust for Public Land's Los Angeles Program. Tori guides The Trust for Public Lands' diverse work across LA County, improving the quality of life for Angelenos through new and improved green alleys, urban parks and open space. She holds a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from CSU Pomona and is a registered landscape architect. Tori has a passion for community-based creative placemaking and is directly leading efforts to design, develop and implement innovative ways of integrating green infrastructure throughout the county's system of urban parks and trails.
Public Counsel is the nation s largest not-for-profit law firm specializing in delivering pro bono legal services. Founded in 1970, Public Counsel strives to achieve three main goals: protecting the legal rights of disadvantaged children; representing immigrants who have been victims of torture, persecution, domestic violence, trafficking and other crimes and fostering economic justice by providing individuals and institutions in underserved communities with access to quality legal representation. Through a pro bono model that leverages the talents and dedication of thousands of attorney and law student volunteers, Public Counsel annually assists more than 30,000 families, children, immigrants, veterans and nonprofit organizations and addresses systemic poverty and civil rights issues through impact litigation and policy advocacy. The Southeast Cities ECE Taskforce is a coalition of early care and education providers, administrators, advocates and community leaders working to expand and improve early care and education opportunities in the Southeast Cities of Los Angeles County with a focus on Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood and South Gate where the needs are most acute. Our growing membership includes Human Services Association, Mexican American Opportunity Foundation, California Children s Academy, Public Counsel, Southeast Cities Leadership Network, California WIC, Southeast Rio Vista YMCA, First 5 LA, LAUP, Zero to Three, Families in Schools, Garcia Family Child Care Center and more.