CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Mayor Russ Perdock and Vice Mayor Gina Fortino Dickson joined more than 150 city officials from throughout California in Sacramento on April 27 for the League of California Cities’ Legislative Action Day.
The annual event gives city officials an opportunity to visit the state Capitol and meet with their legislators to discuss issues of importance to California cities.
“The League’s annual Legislative Action Day is an opportunity to meet with our state lawmakers in person and represent the city of Clearlake. Building and maintaining relationships, as well as exchanging information with state lawmakers is important when addressing pending legislation that would have an impact on the residents of Clearlake,” said Fortino Dickson.
She said she was able to meet with state Sen. Mike McGuire, Assemblyman Bill Dodd, and Assemblyman Jim Wood and attend the League’s briefings on priority legislation, the state budget and transportation.
“I returned to Clearlake with information of value for the city and was able to help state legislators to understand that legislation can affect small communities much differently than larger communities,” she said.
The event began Wednesday morning with a legislative overview led by League President and Rancho Cucamonga Mayor Dennis Michael, League Executive Director Chris McKenzie and several League legislative representatives stressing the importance of city officials commuting on key issues such as homelessness, housing and transportation.
Following the legislative briefing, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) and Senate Republican Leader Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) also briefed city officials and encouraged them to continue strong communication on critical issues impacting cities.
Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) had also hoped to attend but was unable to because of a scheduling conflict.
McKenzie invited city officials back to Sacramento on May 19 for a special transportation rally. This event will include several city and county officials and transportation advocates from the Fix Our Roads Coalition to stress the urgency in finding a solution to improve transportation and maintain state and local roads.
A bipartisan panel discussion on transportation funding proposals was held from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday featuring Assemblyman Jim Frazier, chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee; Brian Kelly, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency; and Manny Leon, principal consultant of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
City officials also had the opportunity during that time and throughout the afternoon to meet with their legislators in the Capitol.
“The meetings were extremely informative and it was great to learn about many of the issues that our state legislators are dealing with,” said Perdock. “However, I came away from those meetings with a strong sense that the state is struggling to deal with their own infrastructure problems and that communities are going to have to find their own ways of solving their transportation issues.”
Clearlake City Council members attend League of California Cities Legislative Action Day
- Lake County News reports
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