On Wednesday, December 7 at the Clean Tech Incubator in Downtown Los Angeles, L.A. County’s new Chief Sustainability Officer, Gary Gero, held the first public workshop of the County’s newly reconstituted Community Choice Aggregation effort. The County is essentially starting over and beginning with the basics.

A far more inclusive and interactive approach and execution was evident at this meeting – in marked contrast to the previous year-long CCA task force meetings in which there were no tasks, no committees and no action items for participants to engage in.  In this first meeting under Gero’s direction, a professional facilitator was employed and breakout sessions allowed for full participation by all attending.

An overview of options was presented and those of us there from the South Bay Clean Power Working Group were very pleased to see many of the recommendations we had made part of the presentation – especially the inclusion of a regional JPA of CCAs as a governance option.

Gary Gero and the County intend to meet with interested City staff members in early January to begin discussions on what should be in a draft JPA. The County was given 6 months by the Board of Supervisors in their September 2016 motion, to reach a JPA agreement with interested cities.

We look forward to our continued participation in helping LA County develop the most effective and successful CCA in California.