Congratulations and Welcome to Speaker Rendon

by Gary Toebben

Next Monday, Speaker-elect Anthony Rendon from Los Angeles County will be sworn in as the 70th Speaker of the California State Assembly. He was elected on Jan. 11 to the chief leadership position of the 80-member body, taking the helm from outgoing Speaker Toni Atkins, who we thank for her service.

As the first Speaker elected under the State’s new term limit law, Speaker Rendon could potentially serve until 2024. The term limit reform, which the voters approved in 2012, was a state initiative sponsored by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. It shortened the time a politician can be in the state legislature from 14 to 12 years, but allowed that service to all be in one house. Business and Labor co-sponsored this change so that lawmakers could spend more time focused on tackling the long-term priorities of our state, and less time running for another office.

The Speaker-elect’s list of legislative accomplishments include authoring Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion state water bond. The Chamber aggressively supported this important investment in water reliability and 67 percent of the voters approved the proposition in November 2014. Rendon also authored a bill last year to aid in the revitalization of the Los Angeles River.

Additionally Speaker-elect Rendon has been a champion of early childhood education.  This passion stems from his previous career as an educator and executive director of Plaza de la Raza Child Development Services, which provides comprehensive child development, social and medical services to 2,300 L.A. children and their families. The Chamber has worked hand in hand with Speaker-elect Rendon on improving our state’s education system, cradle to career, to ensure that all students have access to a quality education.

The Chamber co-hosted a welcome reception for Speaker-elect Rendon in February. During that event, he shared his vision of leadership for California and asked to always be held accountable for addressing the issues of most pressing concern to our state. We were inspired by his vision and his commitment to accountability. The L.A. Area Chamber and our 1,650 members congratulate Speaker-elect Rendon on his swearing-in next week. We look forward to working together for many years to come. 

And that’s The Business Perspective.