Tri-Valley mayors now in Washington to meet with Congressional reps, agencies

Tri-Valley mayors, including Pleasanton Mayor Jerry Thorne, are in Washington D.C. this week to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 85th Winter meeting and also to meet with legislators and federal agencies.

Some may also stay through Friday to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump aas president.

This will be Thorne’s fourth trip with the mayors’ delegation to seek federal funds for projects beneficial to the five cities. A group effort like this can be persuasive. Legislators and agency chiefs say seldom have a group of neighboring mayors walk into their offices to lobby for common causes.

“The five of us now represent an area of 300,000 people, so it makes a huge difference when we tell legislators and the agencies that we’re on our way,” Thorne said.

Besides Thorne, other mayors making the city leaders annual trip are Renee Morgan, Danville; David Haubert, Dublin; John Marchand, Livermore, and Bill Clarkson, San Ramon.

They see each other regularly as members of various regional and county committees and commissions, and at least quarterly at “Tri-Valley Mayors Council” dinners. They also appear together once a year at chamber-sponsored public forums for the mayors.

The Washington meetings are arranged by Jan Jordan, a Washington-savvy consultant skilled at identifying federal agencies and representatives who control the purse-strings of programs beneficial to municipal needs. Her contract with the five Tri-Valley cities calls for her to recognize the cities’ mutual needs and match them to federal funding opportunities, especially on such issues as transportation, housing, water conservation and environmental programs.

“Because earmarks have been eliminated, our contact with the various federal agencies is even more important and Jordan Associates excels at making those contacts,” Thorne explained.

Of major concern this year are making sure federal funds will be available when needed to complete the Highway 84 expressway to I-680. The segment between East Ruby Hill Drive and Concannon Boulevard is funded and under construction. The final 4-mile link from Pigeon Pass to I-680 comes next and federal financial help will be needed.

The mayors will also update federal officials on extending BART to Livermore so as to keep the much-discussed transportation issue on the table.

The mayors will make another effort to persuade legislators to push for federal support of efforts to allow cable television system fees to be used as needed for TV30, the Tri-Valley’s community broadcast system.

Three of the mayors — Haubert, Marchand and Thorne — serve as board members of Tri-Valley Television and want the Federal Communications Commission to modify its rule that restricts cable subscriber fees to be used only for a nonprofit system’s capital expenditures, not for meeting operating expenses.

“All we need is to change one statement in the federal communications law that says we can use PEG funds for operating expenses,” Thorne said. “They’re giving us money to build and buy equipment but not the money we need to operate. And that’s where the fees are needed.”