September Meeting in Our New Location
After a few months of hiatus, UHCA meetings resumed on Sept. 2 in our new meeting spot: Hsi Fang Temple on Park Boulevard. Thank you to the temple for providing a wonderful space for our meetings.
Over 70 attendees for our first Quarterly Meeting in a few months. Huge thanks to Hsi Fang Temple for graciously hosting us. Photo by Starr Pagharion.
State Assemblymember Chris Ward, a familiar face to UHCA who previously served as our City Councilmember for District 3 and is also a UH resident himself, shared some of the initiatives he worked on in this most recent session. Photo by Starr Pagharion.
The meeting was jam-packed with approximately 70 attendees and two valued speakers. Our State Assemblyman Chris Ward gave a comprehensive overview of bills he has been working on and their status in the California Assembly. Of note were three Consumer Privacy and Digital Rights Bills that he authored that have moved to the Senate. These bills (AB 1542, AB 1921, and AB 2564) are intended to strengthen privacy rights, curb exploitative business practices, and protect consumers in the digital marketplace.
AB 2180 is aimed at providing clarity and legal certainty for local water agencies when setting rates. Ward serves on many standing committees, select committees, and caucuses. In this fast-paced world there is little doubt that he and his team have a lot of issues to understand and address. He encouraged everyone to submit any questions or requests for current or future legislation to his office. You can learn more about current and upcoming bills by visiting ward.asmdc.org.
Our second speaker was Kimmi Perkins from I Love a Clean San Diego, a county-wide nonprofit environmental organization. Perkins was an excellent and informative speaker who shared a lot of helpful information. She educated us on the landfills in San Diego County and how important it is to not only recycle (using our blue bins) but also to use our green trash cans for composting. Some of the facts I found most interesting were that plastic bottle caps and crinkly plastic are not recyclable. We also learned that compost items in your bin can be put in brown paper bags and that shredded paper should not be bagged for the recycle bin in plastic trash bags — as this author was doing — but in brown paper bags, or they can be used in the composting green bins. It would be great to have Perkins come back in the future with time for more Q&A.
For more information visit www.cleansd.org. We are all in this together. Our children and the planet depend upon us.
Be sure to attend the Oct. 1 meeting at which we will hear from San Diego City Fire on Zone Zero rules.