New Partnership board members sworn in

The new Partnership board held its first meeting Feb. 2, 2007, at the Edison AgTAC building in Tulare. New Board members were officially sworn in by California Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Victoria Bradshaw.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Jan. 31, 2007, the appointment of Connie Conway as chair and Secretary Michael Chrisman and Fritz Grupe as deputy chairs of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. He appointed the following members to the board:

• Connie Conway, chair, Tulare County Board of Supervisors
• Michael Chrisman, deputy chair, Secretary for the California Resources Agency
• Fritz Grupe, deputy chair, The Grupe Company
• Barry Sedlik, acting secretary, California Business Transportation and Housing Agency
• Victoria Bradshaw, secretary, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency
• Rosario Marin, secretary, California State and Consumer Services Agency
• Linda Adams, secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency
• Scott Himelstein, acting secretary, California Office of the Secretary of Education
• A.G. Kawamura, secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture
• Alan Autry, mayor of Fresno
• Frank Bigelow, Ponderosa Telephone Company
• Marcelyn Buford, Hanford City Councilmember
• Kathleen Crookham, Merced County Board of Supervisors
• Coke Hallowell, San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation
• Farrell Jackson, mayor of Oakdale
• Luisa Medina, Central California Legal Services
• Sunne Wright McPeak, California Emerging Technology Fund
• Michael Navarro, Lionakis Beaumont Design Group
• Leroy Ornellas, San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors
• Gary Podesto, former mayor of Stockton
• Fred Ruiz, Ruiz Foods
• Lorraine Salazar, Sal’s Mexican Restaurant
• Stanley Simpson, Buckman-Mitchell Incorporated
• Carol Tomilinson-Keasey, professor, University of California, Merced
• Eugene Voiland, Aera Energy
• Raymond Watson, Kern County Board of Supervisors

In addition, the following liaisons are continuing to serve on the Partnership board:

• Barry Hibbard, Tejon Ranch, liaison to the California Economic Strategy Panel
• Kirk Lindsey, Brite Transport System, liaison to the California Transportation Commission
• Pete Parra, the Parra Foundation, liaison to the California Workforce Investment Board
• Barbara Patrick, liaison to the California Air Resources Board
• Pete Weber, liaison to the Federal Interagency Task Force and the Congressional delegation

Partnership Web site launches

The Web site for the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley — www.sjvpartnership.org — is up and running. Check out information about the Partnership, updates on the progress of the Work Groups, and announcements about the seed grant process and important dates. Sign up to receive electronic information and updates about the Partnership.

Partnership board chair loves the Valley

Meet Connie Conway

For Partnership Board Chair Connie Conway, the Valley is home. Born and raised in the region, Conway has fond childhood memories of visiting Grandma’s house in Bakersfield.

“I love the Valley,” Conway said. “It’s California’s future and growth center.”

Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Connie Conway Jan. 31, 2007, to chair the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley Board. She was first appointed to the Partnership in 2005. Conway serves as vice-chair of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors and is the current president of the San Joaquin Regional Association of California Counties.

Conway is past president of the California State Association of Counties, a member of the board of trustees for the Tulare Hospital Foundation and a founding member of the Leadership Tulare Core Committee.

The leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger and his Cabinet secretaries in establishing the Partnership as an action-oriented effort, she said, will continue to have a big impact on the Valley.

“I am energized by the commitment of everyone involved in the Partnership,” Conway said. “I see up and down the Valley a new way of thinking and a buy-in from the public.”
 

Valley Public Television to air series on Partnership

Valley Public Television (KVPT, Channel 18) will air a four-part series on the work of the Partnership at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, February 22 through March 15. The four-part series will include a segment on economic and workforce development; health and human services, air quality; and the Blueprint project including growth, transportation and land use. The series also will air on KVIE (Channel 6, Sacramento) in April.

Assemblymember Parra introduces AB27 to extend the Partnership

Assemblymember Nicole Parra [D-Hanford] introduced AB 27 to extend the coordination and activities of the Partnership. Originally created by Executive Order on June 24, 2005, the Partnership was extended through another Executive Order until Dec. 31, 2008. AB 27 authorizes the continuation of the Partnership for an additional ten years, from Jan. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2019, to avoid expiration of the Partnership.

Although some of the Partnership’s goals to be achieved under the detailed Strategic Action Proposal have or will be reached in the next few years, many include a long-term approach to change, such as the costly mission of attaining air quality standards. The bill acknowledges the various short- and long-term commitments and requests accountability from the Partnership in the form of annual reports to the Governor and Legislature.

Collaboration spurs success in the region

The work of the Partnership is taking hold, and the Valley is seeing substantial investment and progress. Highlights include:

• Five new enterprise zones designated in the Valley - City of Arvin, City of Delano, City of Fresno, County of Fresno, and Merced County.
• San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District provided grant funding to plan for a Clean Energy Office.
• The Hospital Council received $500,000 state grant to establish the San Joaquin Valley Nursing Education Consortium.
• California Labor & Workforce Development Agency’s Employment Training Panel awarded Kern Community College District $500,000 for workforce training.
• $2 million Community-Based Job Training Grant awarded to State Center Community College District and West Hills College to provide training through the “Ensuring Agriculture for Tomorrow” (EAT) program.
• U.S. Dept. of Labor awarded $1.85 million to expand nurse training at community colleges in Merced and Modesto, and SCCCD’s Madera Center.
• All eight Valley counties and respective councils of government are collaborating on the Regional Blueprint Process and were awarded their second round of grant funding bringing the total to nearly $4 million.
• Accelerated completion of the Highway 99 Business Plan which calls for $6 billion to be invested over the next 10 years - $1 billion earmarked by the Governor and state Legislature to jumpstart Highway 99 improvements.
• $5 million in 2006-07 budget to begin implementation of the plan.

Seeding change in the region

Update on the seed grants

At the Feb. 2 board meeting, the Partnership moved one step closer to investing $2.5 million and seeding major change in the Valley by inviting 36 organizations to submit full applications for the Partnership’s seed grants. “We are encouraged by the tremendous innovation and focus that we saw in the proposals,” said Connie Conway, Partnership Board Chair and Tulare County Board Supervisor. “This was a difficult decision, but we know that this process has spurred collaboration and conversation about changing the economic, environmental and social reality of the Valley.” Governor Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature set aside $2.5 million for investment in seed grants to augment and advance the work. The Partnership received 106 concept proposals for the seed grants; the review committee made recommendations to the Board on which proposals should be invited to submit full applications for consideration. The following organizations were invited to submit full applications by March 2.

• Advanced Communications Systems
• San Joaquin Valley eHealth Network Project, UC Merced, School of Natural Science
• Air Quality
• Air Quality Education in Environmental Justice Areas, The Maddy Institute
• Economic Development
• Central CA Marketing and Cluster Development, Central California Economic Development Corporation
• Online Bilingual Basics for Small Business Portal and Travel Guide, Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Building Angel Investment Capacity in the San Joaquin Valley/San Joaquin Valley Entrepreneurship Infrastructure Project, Golden Capital Network/Pacific Community Ventures (joint proposal)
• Expanding Opportunities for Small Business Growth in Kern County, Kern Economic Development Corporation
• San Joaquin Valley Tourism, Central Valley Tourism Association
• ACCESS to a Better Quality of Life, Small Business Development Center Regional Network – UC Merced
• San Joaquin Valley Software Collaborative, Central California Economic Development Corporation
• Energy
• Solar Energy Vocational Education (SEVE), Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development
• Growing Clean Energy Capacity in the San Joaquin Valley, Kings River Conservation District
• Health and Human Services
• Comprehensive Training of In-Home Care Workers, Catholic Charities/Diocese of Stockton
• Methamphetamine Recovery, Central California Social Welfare Evaluation, Research and Training Center (SWERT)
• Workforce Development and Training to Improve Social Services to Older Adults, SWERT
• San Joaquin Valley Health Enterprise Zone Project, Central Valley Health Policy Institute
• Building a Regional Alliance for School and Family Economic Success, Community Partnership for Families of San Joaquin County (CPF) with the inclusion of the Fresno Covenant Foundation
• Recruitment and Retention in Allied Health Care, United Cerebral Palsy Association, Inc.
• Mobile Pharmaceutical Care Clinic, UOP School of Pharmacy and Health Services
• Higher Education and Workforce Development
• Developing a College-Counseling Access Center, Central Valley Higher Education Consortium
• A Seamless Transition: Education, Training, and Employment, College of the Sequoias
• Merced’s Opportunities through Vocational Education (MOVE), Firm Build
• Regional Vocational Training Facility, I-5 Social Services Corporation
• Higher Education Opportunity Outreach Program, United Cambodian Families
• Stanislaus Workforce Development Collaborative Action Plan, United Way of Stanislaus County and the Mother Lode
• K-12 Education
• English Learner Leadership & Mentoring Academy, Fresno County Office of Education
• Getting Ahead of the Curve: Increasing College-Going Among English Language Learners, UC Merced
• Land Use, Ag & Housing/Transportation
• Sequoia Valley Visitors’ Center, City of Visalia, City Manager’s Office
• Farmland Conservation Model Program/Uniform Farmland Database, Fresno COG and Great Valley Center (joint proposal)
• Metro Rural Loop Corridor Preservation Feasibility Study, City of Fresno Planning & Development Department with the inclusion of the Center for Air Quality and Transit Technology of Central California
• Integrating Land and Water Solutions in Tulare Lake Basin, Tulare Basin Wildlife Partners with the inclusion of the Tulare County Association of Governments’ Tule Basin Conservation Bank Program.
• San Joaquin Valley Housing Partnership Project, California Coalition for Rural Housing
• San Joaquin Valley Community Asset Building Program, Hmong American Community, Inc.
• Water
• San Joaquin Valley Regional Water Plans Integration & University Farm Recycled Water Usage, CSUF Foundation
• Sowing Seeds for Community Health, Self-Help Enterprises