The Latest News from TPA

City of Emeryville Provides Critical Testimony for Community Schools

Townsend Public Affairs (TPA) participated in the Senate Education Committee’s Informational Hearing on Community Schools. Senator Carol Liu, Chair of the Committee, hosted a tour across the State focused on community school projects that came to an end with the Senate informational hearing in hope of finding policy changes that alleviate hurdles to developing these types of projects. Senator Liu invited longtime TPA client, the Emery Unified School District to speak at the hearing to discuss their full service community school project in partnership with another TPA client, the City of Emeryville.

The City of Emeryville has been a client of TPA’s for nearly seven years and lies on the east shore of San Francisco Bay between Oakland and Berkeley, directly opposite the Golden Gate and San Francisco. The city is small, just over one square mile, but its strategic location in the center of the Bay Area urban core at the confluence of several major freeways, one of the world’s busiest bridges, and transcontinental rail lines with service to Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago makes it a highly desirable place to live, work, and shop, while the Emery Unified School District (EUSD) has been a client of TPA’s for over five years and has a total enrollment of about 800 students per school year. EUSD is made up of two schools, Anna Yates Elementary (K-7) and Emery Secondary School (8-12).

EUSD and the City of Emeryville are developing a joint occupancy project that will be the first of its kind in California, called the Emeryville Center for Community Life (ECCL). ECCL will be a full service community school, providing not only K-12 public education, but also a full range of City services to the residents of Emeryville. Emeryville Superintendent Debbra Lindo spoke about the challenges EUSD and City have faced in the ten year development of this project and made suggestions as to why and how policy changes should be made to promote projects such as ECCL. TPA appreciates Senator Liu’s leadership with community schools, and looks forward to working with her on this important policy issue.

North Orange County Community College District Wins National Award

Townsend Public Affairs is proud to congratulate our client, North Orange County Community College District (NOCCCD) and its School of Continuing Education, for winning the Silver Medallion of Achievement for a Government Relations Project at the 2013 National Council for Marketing and Public Relations District 6 Conference in Tempe, Arizona. The winning campaign was a joint effort of Townsend Public Affairs, NOCCCD, and the School of Continuing Education, which educated state legislators about the negative impact that the Governor’s Budget proposal and Senate Bill 173 would have to the California community college system’s noncredit education funding structure and commitment to access. A lobbying coalition of like-minded organizations and agencies, as well as Members of the Senate and Assembly Education Committees, Budget Committees, and the Department of Finance successfully amended the proposal and held Senate Bill 173 as a two-year bill to allow more time to work on the policy issues for community college districts.

City of Carson Pension Reform Legislation Retires Into Law

Through the efforts of Townsend Public Affairs, Governor Brown recently signed AB 1144 (Hall), a bill that established public employee benefit rights into law for the City of Carson.

Townsend Public Affairs worked very closely with Assemblymember Hall to address the lack of a post-retirement medical program vesting schedule in the City of Carson and eliminate a potentially harmful ambiguous provision in the City’s retirement benefit package. The provision allowed new hires with vested California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) pensions to retire from the City of Carson with as little as just one-day of service and still qualify for Carson’s employer paid post-retirement medical benefit. This previously created an unfunded liability, which is currently projected at $48 million dollars.

AB 1144 amended the provision so that the percentage of employer contribution payable for post retirement health benefits for an employee of the City of Carson is to be based on the employee’s completed years of credited service. The percentage of employer contribution increases incrementally after five years.

Collaboration between Assemblymember Hall, CalPERS, and committee staff was crucial to the success of this legislation. Townsend Public Affairs played a guiding hand in strategically crafting the legislation and shepherded it through the legislative process.

Nicole Woodworth Graduates from TPA Summer Internship Program

Townsend Public Affairs would like to congratulate Nicole Woodworth for completing a three month internship with Townsend Public Affairs. Nicole, a sophomore at Gonzaga University in Washington, has been a huge asset to the workings of the Southern California office. She supported the client services team by completing research projects on topics including the State Water Project Contractor distribution of water and the Safe, Clean and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act 2014. Nicole also researched and wrote various memos for City of Mission Viejo, City of Aliso Viejo, South Orange County Wastewater Authority, Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Orange County Vector Control.

At the end of August, Nicole leaves to spend the next eight months studying abroad in Florence Italy where she is enrolled in courses focusing on Political Science and Economics. After graduation, she plans to live in Northern California and pursue a career in politics and government affairs.

Townsend Public Affairs is so proud of Nicole and wishes her the very best in all her future endeavors!

City of Hayward Receives $177,000 Grant for Urban Transit Planning

Townsend Public Affairs is excited to announce the California Department of Transportation award to City of Hayward for a $177,060 grant from the Statewide or Urban Transit Planning Studies program. This funding will allow the City of Hayward to study the feasibility of implementing a transit connector service in their industrial employment areas.

Hayward is fortunate to already have two BART stations and bus service through AC Transit. The study will help identify and assess transit connection strategies to optimize the use of Hayward’s existing public transit infrastructure by regional workers that are commuting to its industrial centers.

The identified strategy will facilitate congestion relief on regional highways by enabling commuters to use Hayward’s two BART stations and bus services rather than single occupant vehicles. In addition, the facilitation of better public transportation options will help growing businesses meet the transit needs of their employees, helping them to be more efficient and globally competitive.

City of Oakland Receives $4.9 Million in Grants for Public Safety Emergency Center

Townsend Public Affairs assisted the City of Oakland with a grant extension that allowed the City to fully utilize $2.9 Million in federal American Recovery and reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funding.

Because of our relationships with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the City was granted a six-month extension to expend the $2.9 million of ARRA funds to develop its Domain Awareness Center (DAC), which will be a central emergency collection location for video feeds and real-time data from critical Port facilities, utility infrastructure and roadways throughout the City. The data gathered at the DAC will be utilized by the Port, City, Oakland Police Department and Oakland Fire Department to improve the response times and coordination of first responders and public safety agencies.

In addition to being awarded the opportunity to expend the $2.9 million in ARRA funding, Oakland will be receiving an additional $2 million from a Port Security Grant from the Port of Oakland to continue work on the Domain Awareness Center. The City has already begun work on Phase 2 of the DAC project, which will continue to enhance System Integrations at the facility over the next 12 months, further strengthening the City’s ability to respond to emergency situations in a timely and coordinated manner.