Inland Empire Community Newspapers • October 10, 2013 • Page A7

Mayoral Fair at Valley College helps connect students to candidates

By Anthony Victoria

Every candidate, includingwrite in Concepcion Pow-ell participated in the May-

oral Candidate Fair on TuesdayOctober 1 that was hosted by theAssociated Student Government atSan Bernardino Valley College.“This was arranged by studentsfor students,” Interim PresidentGloria Fisher said as she ad-dressed the crowd in attendance.“It’s really a marvelous thing theyhave done here today.” She alsostated that the fair was the firstmayoral related event to be held atthe college.

Interim Dean of the Social Sci-ences, Human Development, andPhysical Education departments EdMillican stressed the importance ofthis year’s election.“Whatever hap-pens to us affects the larger com-munity and whatever affects thelarger community affects us,” hesaid. “It’s evident that for the nextfew years, our city will be in eco-nomic recovery and the individualwho will be leading us back is inthis room today.”Each candidate had four minuteseach to present their positions tostudents and faculty, and after hadopportunities to speak personally toanswer additional questions or con-cerns. The candidates were sent

questions by the Associated StudentGovernment, which addressed is-sues such as, Medical Marijuanadispensaries and employment op-portunities. CouncilmemberWendy McCammack, who leftthe event early due to a familyemergency, said that dispensariesare an issue that causes harm tolocal businesses.”I have no problem with peoplehaving their personal use of what-ever it is they use,” she said. “I havea problem when a dispensaryacross the street is handing pot tochildren next to a business likemine where we are trying to makea living and trying to employ peo-ple.”Other candidates had contrastingviews, like real estate Karmel Roe,who said less focus on drug userswould make it possible to focus onmore severe crimes like murder andrape. “Everything is permissiblewith discretion,” she said.The majority of the candidateshave past connections with SBVC,with many of them being alumni orhaving family that were enrolled orare currently enrolled at the college.Some of them expressed the impor-tance of education, particularlywith retention of students at localinstitutions. “We have great universities, butwe don’t provide the outlet to stu-dents to be involved in great pro-grams, we let them hang there,”

said former teacher Richard Cas-tro. “We need to keep them here.We don’t allow for their ideas anddon’t allow them to implement en-trepreneurship. Right now is thetime to do that. We need to workwith our youth.”“We need more young people tobe involved in the political processand step up and lead us into the fu-ture,” said financial analyst HenryNickell.Councilmember Rikke VanJohnson stated that he is excited tosee what students can do to help de-velop the future of San Bernardino.“What i'm proud of is that the stu-dent body at Valley College is en-gaged. That attracts a scene thatmakes people participate and en-gage in the community”, he said.“Any movement that gains tractioncomes out of colleges and universi-

ties. The future is right here.”“I think it went really well, saidAssociated Student GovernmentPresident Brandon Brown, whowas praiseful of Legislative Affairsdirector Rego Quintero, one of thekey organizers of the fair. “Every-thing that happened today wasthanks to Rego and also the PublicRelations team who made flyersand promoted the event. I’m ex-tremely please with how everythingturned out.”“I hope that this personal experi-ence will instill this type of civil en-gagement for students and get themto go out and vote.”

Anthony Victoria is a contribut-ing writer for Inland Empire Com-munity newspapers and can bereached at email address...... victo-riaanthony91@gmail.com

Photo Courtesy/San Bernardio Valley College

Henry W. Nickell speaks to students at San Bernardino ValleyCollege at the Mayoral Fair, organized by the Associated StudentGovernment.

Photo Courtesy/San Bernardio Valley College

Interim President Gloria Fisher addressing crowd during theevent.

By Cynthia Mendoza

On Friday, October 4, As-semblymember CherylBrown hosted the first

hearing of several Assembly SelectCommittee on Small Business Fi-nancing and Development Opportu-nities, a public hearing designed togive legislators input and feedbackon the needs of small business in theInland Empire and beyond. JoiningBrown on the dais at the SanBernardino County GovernmentCenter were members of the com-mittee, including Assemblymem-bers Brian Nestande (R-PalmDesert) and Chris R. Holden (D-Pasadena).The three-hour hearing includedthree panels made up of individualsrepresenting businesses and organi-zations that support small busi-nesses, including Renee WebsterHawkins, Executive Director Cal-ifornia Treasurer, California Cap-ital Access Program; Tom Rainey,Executive Director CaliforniaWorkforce Investment Board;County of San Bernardino Eco-nomic Development Agency Ad-ministrator, Kelly Reenders;Director San Bernardino CountyWorkforce Investment Board,Sandra Harmsen; President and

CEO Kelly Space and Technology,Mike Gallo; Executive DirectorSan Bernardino EmploymentTraining Agency Dr. ErnestDowdy, among others. While space does not allow for in-clusion of all panelist input, the fol-lowing is a very brief summary ofjust a few of the issues brought forthby a few of them, namely in re-sponse to AssemblymemberHolden’s question asking what wasthe one thing that legislators coulddo to help small business. Gallo suggested prioritizing andaligning budgets and agendas as tofocus on addressing the most impor-tant and necessary issues rather thanattempting to address too many allat once and not really accomplishingany of them.

Another suggestion from the panelincluded addressing policies that im-pact the regularly environment andkeeping in mind those impacts tosmall business. The loss of redevelopment dollarswas also brought forth as a factorthat has impacted government agen-cies from assisting small businessesmore. Dowdy shared some of the manyprograms available to small busi-nesses through the San BernardinoEmployment Training Agency in-cluding free business consultationsthat provide feedback about what abusiness is doing right and areas thatcould be improved. But according toDowdy, one of the biggest obstaclesto businesses getting the help theyneed is “we don’t have time” for thetraining that the center provides. Assuch, training services can be pro-vided for businesses on site at theirlocation to make it as easy as possi-ble. “Our goal is to remove all obsta-cles,” Dowdy said. “It’s customerservice targeted for small business.” Michelle Skiljan, director of theInland Empire Women’s BusinessCenter Inland Empire Center for En-trepreneurship at Cal State SanBernardino, provided similar feed-back about the numerous free pro-grams that are available to helpsmall businesses but that sometimesthe workshops are canceled becausenot enough people attend. “My goal in hosting this event was

to inform small business owners ofthe financing opportunities that areavailable. I was amazed by thewealth of resources that are availableto business owners throughout ourcounty and state,” said Assembly-member Brown after the hearing.“In the state of California and in ourdistrict, most employment opportu-nities are provided by small busi-nesses. We need to make them apriority so they can continue to cre-ate jobs and drive our economy for-ward."

Brown will be holding anotherpublic hearing in Los Angeles dur-ing the first quarter of 2014 and thenone in Sacramento. The feedbackform all meetings will be used to as-sist her in crafting legislation that isbeneficial to small business. For more information call (909)381-3238 orvisithttp://www.asmdc.org/mem-bers/a47

Cynthia Mendoza is a reporter forInland Empire Community news-papers and can be reached atiecn.cynthia@gmail.com

PHOTOS/CYNTHIA MENDOZA

On Friday, October 4, Assemblymember Cheryl Brown, thirdfrom left, along with fellow legislators Brian Nestande (R-PalmDesert), left, and Chris R. Holden (D-Pasadena), second fromleft, hosted a public hearing at the San Bernardino County Gov-ernment Center on the needs of small business.

PHOTOS/CYNTHIA MENDOZA

From left: San Bernardino Councilman Rikke Van Johnson,District Director for Supervisor Josie Gonzales, Cris Mardis,and Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales at the Friday,October 4 Assembly Select Committee on Small Business Fi-nancing and Development Opportunities.

Public hearing to help craft small business legislation

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