8th Annual Early Care & Education Land Use Symposium
Program
May 13, 2016
South 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.