San Diego, CA – The Board of Directors of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce took formal positions on the City of San Diego's two controversial recycling ordinances and also considered eight state legislative bills, including a major bill on airport authority governance, during their monthly meeting on May 24, 2007.

Following two months of dialogue with the city attorney's office and discussion at several of the Chamber's sixteen public policy committees, the board voted to take a position of strong support of a mandatory recycling program for the City of San Diego, while opposing the currently-proposed ordinance until the city completes its Long-Term Resource Management Strategic Plan. Key points included a strong opinion that the ordinance is premature until the city is able to present a cogent analysis of the problem, and an educational outreach program to the public can be developed.

The board also voted its support of the elimination of the city's AB 939 Franchise Fee. This is a charge based on state legislation that places an additional fee of nearly $20 per ton on recycled materials from construction and demolition waste loads than the cost to simply throw the waste away conventionally. Chamber public policy committees preferred this direction, as it promotes recycling rather than penalizing participating companies and individuals.

The Board discussed SB 10, a bill introduced by State Senator Christine Kehoe that addresses the governance and structure of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority. Charlene Zettel, a former member of the state Assembly and currently one of the three members of the Authority's Executive Committee, presented their position on the bill, while several members of the Chamber's Government Interface Committee (GIC) presented the results of their relative discussions. The senator's office had asked for the Chamber's direct input on the bill's content, and the Board forwarded the recommendations of its committees and the GIC. These include:
· Support of the proposed amendment that the Airport Authority retains land use authority. The Chamber recommends that language be inserted in the bill to give SANDAG more than a collaborative role in the process.
· Support of the ATAG process and a recommendation that Senator Kehoe codify ATAG into the bill language.
·As SANDAG prepares a new Regional Aviation Strategic Plan, the Chamber recommends that other modes of transportation, such as rail and sea, should be addressed in the next version of SB 10, since they impact goods movement and mobility issues.
· Support of transferring the appointment process for two representatives from the Governor and Sheriff to the County Board of Supervisors.
· Support of the proposed board make up and appointment process:
o 3 representatives from the City of San Diego
o 2 representatives from the County of San Diego
o 1 representative each from the four San Diego sub-regions (north coastal; north inland; east and south areas) to be appointed by the mayors of those sub-regions.
· Support of a reduction of the compensation of the Executive Committee members to $150 per day of service with a maximum of six days per month, and an additional $500 per month for the chair.
· Consensus that the Authority board members select the chair of the board.
· Opposition to the use of a weighted vote, support of staggered 4-year terms for board members and opposition to term limits.

The Chamber also took positions on seven other bills being considered in the California State legislature. These include:
· AB 751 (Lieu and Walters) – Income and corporation tax credits: research and development (Support)
· SB 322 (Ducheny) – Math & Science Teacher Preparation Pilot (Support)
· AB 1064 (Lieber) – Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) (Support)
· AB 1179 (Garrick) – Minimum annual tax: exemptions: corporations, LLC (Support)
· AB 1505 (Parra) – Joinder: representative actions (Support)
· AB 512 (Lieber) – Contracts (Oppose)
· SB 13 ( Wyland) – School facilities funding process: Career Technical Education (Support)

Lemon Grove Mayor Mary Sessom, who also chairs the SANDAG Board of Directors and is considered one of the county's key influential local elected officials, addressed the Chamber Board on infrastructure funding and planning issues, airport governance and some of the unique concerns faced by smaller cities in the county. A former member of the Regional Airport Authority board, she also answered questions on her thoughts on SB10.