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California Consulting
July 2011 Newsletter |
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California Consulting Writes Federal Application for Award
On Wednesday, July 20, the federal Health and Human Services Administration awarded a $500,000 grant to the Kings Canyon Unified School District to construct a school-based health clinic at Jefferson Elementary School. California Consulting worked closely with the District, the City of Reedley, and other partners on this important project for the District and community. The school-based health clinic will provide much needed health care services to children who would not otherwise have access to health care. The grant funds are sufficient to both construct the facility and purchase medical equipment. Please click on the link below to read the full article about the grant award. Congratulations to all who will benefit from the new school-based health center. Congratulations to California Consulting Deputy Grants Director Valerie Murray for the crucial role she played in the writing of this application.
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Spotlight on Assemblyman Henry T. Perea | | |
During his short tenure, Assemblyman Henry T. Perea has already distinguished himself as a leader in the California State Assembly. Assemblyman Perea has helped lead the fight to preserve the vitally important Enterprise Zone progrram. As well, Perea has worked closely with education leaders throughout his District by forming an Education Advisory Task Force and meeting regularly with Superintendents and others. California Conulting would like to recognize Perea and thank him for his strong and forceful voice in Sacramento leading the charge for the San Joaquin Valley. On issues important to the Fresno COG and other Valley regional transportation issues Perea has again been at the forefront of assisting his constitutents. California Consutlting, LLC Owner Steve Samuelian remarked, "As our grant writers work diligently to bring federal and state grant dollars to our clients, it is very gratifying to know we have elected leaders like Assemblyman Perea to lead the fight on the legislative front. Our governnmental affairs team of myelf, Juan Garza, II, and Liz Gomez especially recognize his legislative work at the State Captiol and the crucial role he plays on so many important issues." Thank you Assemblyman Perea for keeping up the fight for your constituents. We salute Mr. Perea on a job well done and look forward to many more productive years of his leadership at the state level! |
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More Grant Awards | | |
The following grants were written by California Consulting and awarded in July:
Arvin Union School District
$13,115 (first allocation, second allocation forthcoming)
Fresh Fruits & Vegetables Program
Greenfield USD
$8,800 (first allocation, second allocation forthcoming)
Fresh Fruits & Vegetables Program
Salinas City Elementary School District
$24,110 (first allocation, second allocation forthcoming)Fresh Fruits & Vegetables Program
City of Oakdale
$11,368
Office of Traffic Safety |
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Lobbying Update | |
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- Short Haul Rail for San Joaquin Valley: We have been working aggressively on garnering support for SB 325. In preparation for the hearings California Consulting met with several Legislators, legislative staff, and both Republican and Democrat Committee Consultants. California Consulting also organized a list of key individuals to testify in support of the bill including private sector leaders, representatives from cities, school district, and others. California Consulting's Steve Samuelian testified in support of SB 325 at the first policy committee hearing in the Assembly. After much discussion SB 325 passed the Committee with a bi-partisan 9-0 vote. In the weeks and days before the hearing, California Consulting kept in daily communication with Senator Rubio's capitol staff and organized a variety of meetings and conference calls to line up support for the bill. We also organized letters of support and council resolutions in support from various organizations. In May, our team focused on the Senate Appropriations Committee and if the Committee will place SB 325 on "suspense calendar." This important designation would have meant that the bill would be held in Committee. Fortunately, SB 325 avoided suspense calendar designation and was moved out of Senate Appropriations Committee. We worked closely with Senator Rubio personally as well as his staff. Senator Rubio has again distinguished himself as a champion for the San Joaquin Valley region. He should be commended for his leadership on this and other important issues. SB 325 passed the Senate on a 38-1 vote. The bill was then sent to the Assembly to start the process over again. In the Assembly the bill was "double referred" by the Assembly Rules Committee to Assembly Local Government Committee and Assembly Transportation Committee. SB 325 was then set for a hearing of the Assembly Local Government Committee on June 15 at 1:30pm. Liz Gomez, Senior Director with California Consulting attended the hearing and the bill passed. We worked with Senator Rubio and his staff in preparation for the hearing. We approved of proposed amendments from the Assembly Local Government Committee Consultant and worked with the stakeholders. We also helped line up speakers to testify at the June 15 hearing. The Assembly Local Government Committee recently passed SB 325 and California Consulting C.O.O. Juan Garza II attended the hearing and testified in support of the bill. We are now in the process of working to obtain "sponsor" letters from each impacted COG per the request of the Governor's Department of Finance.
- VLF Update: SB 89 was a budget trailer bill that took away local VLF revenues from cities and put the money into state police grants. SB 89 negatively impacts cities because the money available in grants will not be as much as previously available for cities prior to the passage of SB 89. All possible solutions are currently under exploration. One option discussed at the Capitol is to reinstate a portion of the previous 0.15 percent VLF rate for law enforcement that ended on July 1. Another option would reinstate an increased VLF rate with a portion dedicated to public safety. At this point it appears discussion is centered around increasing the VLF rate. No decisions have been made on how much of an increase could be agreed to or how the additional tax revenue will be distributed. A key consideration is if Republican Members would be willing to support the proposal and would the GOP Members tie their support to pension reform or some other key Republican issue such as reforming the corrections realignment programs, etc. The passage of SB 89 was detrimental to city police departments.
- Enterprise Zones: Liz Gomez from California Consulting continues to participate in the weekly EZ conference calls as part of the EZ statewide coalition. In addition, during the month of July Steve met with several State Assemblymembers, Senators, and key staff lobbying in support of EZ's. Steve has met with Department of Finance and the Governor's Office in April regarding this important issue. Steve has worked as part of the EZ working group on AB 231, the reform package for EZ's. AB 231 is a fair and reasonable compromise that preserves EZ funding but makes some needed reforms to the program. We are working closely with Assemblyman Perez's Committee staff on AB 231. The contents of AB 231 have now been modified into a new bill and we are working closely with Mr. Perez's Committee staff on this important legislation to save the EZ program and reform it properly.
- Torlakson Roundtables: California Consulting, LLC organized a Central Valley Education Summit (Fresno) in April and a Central Coast Education Summit in May. Both events featured special guest State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson as the guest speaker. The Central Valley event was held in Fresno and attended by approximately 60 Superintendents, School board members, Mayors, City Councilmembers, and others. The Central Coast event was held in Salinas and was attended by approximately 100 Superintendents, School board members, Mayors, City Councilmembers and others. State Superintendent Torlakson discussed how he would like cities and school districts to form a partnership and he intends to create a Task Force of local city and school leaders to work together on various joint projects. We recently hosted an Education Forum in L.A. County with Mr. Torlakson in June.
- CAL-TRANS: We are working with Malcolm Dougherty who has been named Interim State Director and officially appointed as Chief Deputy Director. We are also working on the District 6 level with Sharri and her team at the District 6 office on a variety of issues.
- Rubio Forums: On July 20 and 27, California Consulting organized and hosted a State Budget Briefing with Senator Michael Rubio at the Kern COG and Fresno COG offices, respectively.
- RDA: As you know, the League of Cities and CRA have filed a lawsuit regarding the RDA elimination issue.
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San Gabriel Valley Education Forum
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On Monday June 27, 2011 the San Gabriel Valley Civic Alliance hosted the "San Gabriel Valley Education Forum" in Montebello, California. The event featured remarks from special guest State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. The event sponsors were California Consulting, LLC, Seville Construction Services, and the ANC of the San Gabriel Valley. Other honored guests making comments included highly respected Montebello Unified Board Member Hector Chacon, and Murad Minasian of the San Gabriel Valley Armenian National Committee. The master of ceremonies for the luncheon was local icon and Pico Rivera Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Archuleta. The event was attended by more than 100 local superintendents, school board members, city councilmembers, mayors, and other community leaders from across the San Gabriel Valley.
A special panel featured Steve Samuelian, Owner of California Consulting, and Dave Bautista of Seville Construction Services. Samuelian spoke about grant writing and the numerous grant awards California Consulting has secured for clients recently all over the State. Bautista spoke about Seville serving as construction managers for major projects and their excellent reputation serving school districts across California.
Commenting on the success of the event California Consulting C.O.O. Juan Garza II said, "Whenever you can have this type of collaboration from school districts, cities, and others and pull together 100 leaders in the heart of Los Angeles County that says a lot. This event exceeded our expectations and was a major success. It is clear that the San Gabriel Valley Civic Alliance is a stellar organization that deserves high praise. We are grateful to our outstanding State Superintendent Tom Torlakson for his participation in this forum."
This is the third Education Forum hosted by California Consulting that has featured State Superintendent Tom Torlakson. The first two events were held in Fresno and Salinas. |
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State Budget Briefing with Senator Rubio | |
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California Consulting, LLC hosted a "State Budget Briefing" in Bakersfield on July 20, 2011. The meeting was held at the Kern COG Board room and featured a presentation from Senator Michael Rubio. More than twenty Kern County area local elected officials, school district leaders, and community leaders attended the invitation only briefing.
Senator Rubio gave an overview of the recently passed state budget. He also discussed RDA's and other key issues important to cities and school districts. Senator Rubio also spoke about SB 325, his important bill to create a Central California Short Haul Rail Authority. Rubio was introduced at the briefing by California Consulting Owner Steve Samuelian, who praised Rubio's hard work on SB 325 and leadership on a variety of issues for the San Joaquin Valley.
Rubio took several questions from the local leaders and discussed the future of California and what to expect when the Legislature reconvenes.
McFarland Mayor Manuel Cantu who attended the event said, "It is so refreshing to have a leader of Senator Rubio's caliber. He has worked very hard for all of us and in a short time has distinguished himself as a leader in Sacramento. We are fortunate to have Senator Rubio as our representative in the State Senate."
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California Consulting Adds Additional Team Members
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Recently, California Consulting hired Ellen Mata and Shari Herbold to serve as a Project Manager and Administrative Assistant, respectively, at our Fresno Office.
Ellen has over 20 years experience working with government agencies, non-profit organizations, for-profit businesses and consulting firms to create quality grants and proposals. Ellen's most recent experience includes working as a Grant Writer for the Fresno Regional Workforce Investment Board. In that capacity, Ellen was responsible for grant research and preparation. She wrote several State and Federal grants during her time at the Fresno Regional WIB. Ellen also served as Development Manager, Grants and Sponsorships, with the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art & Science. In that role, Ellen was responsible for writing the Museum's grants and grant reports, developing sponsorships, cultivating donor relationships, managing the Museum's business membership program and administering the REVEAS ASK Science mini-grant program. Ellen graduated from Kingsburg High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She lives in Fresno with her husband, Daniel, and their children.
Shari joins California Consulting, LLC as an Administrative Assistant, primarily assisting owner Steve Samuelian with various special projects, scheduling and organizational duties. Her most recent experience is with the Fresno City Attorney's Office where she supported three Senior Deputy City Attorneys in the Advisory Unit. She has over 8 years of experience in the legal field in the areas of immigration, civil litigation and land use. She has a combined experience of over 10 years in the Finance and Human Resource industries.
Welcome Ellen and Shari to the California Consulting team! |
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The California Consulting grant writing team are diligently working on the following applications for our clients:
Economic Development Administration Grants
HCD Planning and Technical Assistance Grant
COPS - Hiring
COPS - Secure Our Schools
Stewardship Council - Infrastructure
Stewardship Council - Impact
Prop. 84 Parks Grant
Urban Greening - Planning
Urban Greening - Projects
Safe Routes to Schools
Carl D. Perkins Education and Tech Ed
National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Awards
BJA Justice & Mental Health Grant
D.O.E. Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT)
Clean Water Grants
Hearst Foundation
Wachovia Grant
State Revolving Fund Loan
United States Department of Agriculture Community Facilities Grant
Hearst Foundation
Alternative Fuels Grant
SB856 Special Distribution Fund
California Safe-Supportive Schools
Housing Related Parks Bond
HUD Planning Grant
Wal-Mart
Met-Life
Lowe's Large Toolbox
Laura Bush Foundation
Baseball Tomorrow |
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Welcome
We are happy to welcome the City of Mendota, the Monterey County Office of Education, and the City of Hughson as California Consulting's newest clients. Welcome! | |
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