By Dianne Anderson

Another 25 new graduates from the local Environmental Justice Ambassador program are taking on bigger battles for their community – like climate adaptation plans, voting, sustainability, and how to participate in government meetings.

Should they choose to accept the challenge, the next phase of instruction covers how to change policy at the local, regional, or statewide levels.

In the year ahead, the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice is calling for an all-African American cohort to start their own locally sourced community action, looking out for health disparities from exposure to toxic racism.

Ana Gonzalez said their organization’s Board president is working with a City of Hope doctor who has researched pollution impact in the Black community, and higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, among other things.

“There are no healthy food options and fast food places on every corner instead of healthy food options. Her vision is to hold a special ambassador program in the spring, especially for African Americans to talk about disparities in the community,” said Gonzalez, Executive Director of CCAEJ.

Next spring, their 2nd Annual Rising Voices conference in April will recruit the summer cohort. Last year, they drew over 600 participants.

“We hope to recruit from Rising Voices, but also visit some of our local NAACP and other groups. We’re teaming up with some Black nonprofits and organizations such as BLU Educational Foundation and inviting the youth they’re mentoring to our program,” she said.

CCAEJ focuses on Fontana, Bloomington, Ontario and Rialto, but they also expect a stronger presence in San Bernardino next year. She said the organization is now engaged in the background in San Bernardino, reviewing policies with staff and have met with councilmembers.

“We do invite the community to certain meetings, like when we see the whole Airport Gateway Specific Plan that just got shut down by the Attorney General because we were able to send people to protest those plans,” she said.

In Rialto, CCAEJ also came out against the Pepper Avenue Specific Plan, a 24-acre site to be designated from commercial housing into warehousing that will expose the community to more pollution from truck traffic. With protest and pressure from over 300 community members, the nonprofit submitted over 1,000 letters in opposition to the council. However, the project still passed.

She said the three councilmembers who voted for the warehousing project each accepted contributions from the developer, while Councilmember Joe Baca and Mayor Deborah Robertson voted against the warehousing and hadn’t accepted contributions.

“Many people spoke against the project and the council still voted for it. Three individuals, each took $4,900 from the developer. The community saw this as a pay-to-play situation,” said Gonzalez, a Rialto resident, and appointed to the city’s Community Advisory Committee for the city’s General Plan.

She said all who came together against the warehouse plan are now involved in Rialto’s General Plan update.

A lot hinges on the law, SB1000, a bill passed in 2017 requiring all cities to implement an environmental justice element to analyze access to healthy food, and how far people live from grocery stores.

It also looks at emergency preparedness for natural disasters and climate plan, truck routes, public transportation, and land use, such as whether the city is out of balance with too many warehouses instead of housing.

“With the housing element, if areas are not zoned for residential, this is the time to zone for residential to create housing opportunities,” she said. “Out of those [requirements], we came up with 22 new policies that address each of those items.”

Over 300 letters were submitted into the General Plan Update, and she said the advisory proposed 22 policies that she hopes will be adopted at an upcoming vote in January. From there, the Environmental Impact Report comes out, part of the California Environmental Quality Act process to determine if the plan is feasible.

She also expects to bring similar efforts to San Bernardino for their General Plan in the coming months, which she said is out of compliance with the SB1000’s Environmental Justice element.

“As soon as we’re done with Rialto in January or February, we’re going to migrate over to San Bernardino to work on their General Plan update. It’s required by state law so if you’re out of compliance, the state can sue you.”

Another recent concern has been with Fontana’s decision to hold city council meetings at 2:00 p.m., a time when most working adults can’t make the meetings.

On November 14, the Fontana City Council meeting brought a new time change ordinance with about 100 people attending in opposition.

The reason given to move council meetings from 7:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. was because the city couldn’t afford the overtime for council and other employees after hours.

But she said the city has been trying to limit community input for a while. During the pandemic, she said they removed Zoom access when the platform grew to 60 to 80 participants.

“When people started showing up for public meetings, they limited the time to speak for one minute,” she said. “They [also took] footage of people speaking so they could only see the council, and people at home could not see the faces of people making public comment.”

Going forward, the organization continues to work with youth, who are involved in hosting environmental justice workshops and high school campus clubs.

CCAEJ is also working with some college professors and high schools to develop its youth ambassador program, where they are getting prepared to vote in the next big election.

Next year, they plan to launch an ambassador program tailored more toward youth.

“Youth that have gone through the program already are the most active advocates going to city council meetings, protesting, shutting meetings down because they have that energy. We’ve been successful,” she said.

To learn more, see https://www.ccaej.org/

To learn more about SB1000, see https://oag.ca.gov/environment/sb1000