FLEMING ELECTED TO CHAIR GROUP HE AIMS TO EMPOWER REGIONAL GOVERNMENT.Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Staff Writer San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. civic leader David W. Fleming has been elected chairman of a statewide public-policy organization that focuses on regional government and economic issues, officials said Monday. Fleming, an attorney, said his first goal as chairman of the California Center for Regional Leadership will be to empower regional governance. The CCRL CCRL Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory CCRL Catholic Civil Rights League CCRL California Center for Regional Leadership CCRL College and Career Reference Library CCRL Computer Chess Rating Lists is a nonprofit organization Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. established to support, facilitate and promote innovative regional solutions for the state's major economic, environmental and societal challenges. Fleming is no stranger to government-policy issues. During the administration of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, he co-chaired a voters initiative to reform the city's 75-year-old constitution. Fleming is also vice chairman of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing over 1,500 businesses. Mission "By being the voice of business, helping its members grow and promoting collaboration, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of . At the CCRL he is succeeding David Abel, vice chairman of the executive committee of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. Regional governance is the new paradigm New Paradigm In the investing world, a totally new way of doing things that has a huge effect on business. Notes: The word "paradigm" is defined as a pattern or model, and it has been used in science to refer to a theoretical framework. for California, Fleming said. ``Out strategy is to get people around a table and say look, this is a problem that affects all of us. How can we get together and and solve it,'' he said. Some of these include traffic congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. , job creation, air quality, housing access and affordability, water quality and supply, land use, ground and air transportation facilities, and goods movement. ``Regional governance transcends the artificial boundaries of cities and even counties, a throwback throwback see atavism. to when California was in its infancy,'' he said. But the problems differ across the state. For example, in the Sierras the main concern could be the environment while in Southern California it might be traffic congestion and the high cost of housing. The CCRL has offices in San Francisco and Universal City. Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said the organization seems to be on the right track by taking a regional approach to local issues. ``I think what you see all around the state is that local areas are going to have to come together to deal with all these issues,'' Kyser said. ``There is sort of a fractured attention span at many local levels and certainly at the state level.'' He also thinks Fleming is well-suited for the task because he been involved with a lot of groups that have looked at the big picture when it comes to local government. Fleming is a past chairman and a current board member of the LAEDC LAEDC Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation LAEDC Louisiana Economic Development Council . He is also chairman of the board of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, a nonprofit economic development and marketing corporation. In July 2005, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Fleming to represent the city on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board of directors. The CCRL directors this year also include Hope Boonshaft, a member of the California Film Commission board of directors and executive vice president, external affairs, at Sony Pictures Entertainment; former California Assembly Speaker Robert M. Hertzberg; and professor Piper Dean of the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission School of Policy, Planning & Development. greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3743 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: FLEMING |
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