Latinos for Water will hold its Water Education for Latino Leaders conference March 21-22 in Los Angeles, Calif. Latinos for Water encourages all California Latino City Council members, mayors and county supervisors to attend, as well as those public officials who serve represent large Latino communities and anyone interested in learning about water.
The Water Education for Latino Leaders conference is designed to ensure all current and future Latino decision makers ? both at the local and state level ? have broad, comprehensive understanding of water policy. The mission of Latinos for Water is convene a statewide educational conference for California?s state and local Latino elected officials to provide a forum for baseline knowledge about California?s water system to ensure effective participation in long-term water policy forums that will result in equitable and sustainable actions to ensure both an economy that works and an environment that is protected.
Sponsors of the conference include the League of California Cities Latino Caucus, AWWA ? California-Nevada Section, California Contract Cities Associations and the California Latino Legislative Caucus (CLLC).
Water is one of the most important public policy issues facing California both in the present and over the State?s long term future that will impact economic development and growth. While Latino elected officials began assuming leadership positions in the State legislative process over twenty years ago, with a few recent exceptions, Latino elected officials have been virtually absent as a leadership voice in the water policy arena. There are 26 Latino State elected officials in Sacramento; there are 450 local Latino elected officials engaged in various levels of water policy decision making. This is the target audience for the conference.
Locally, Latinos are now being elected to water agency boards and city councils lacking background on overall water policy. Making sure these current and future Latino decision makers have a comprehensive understanding of water policy will be crucial to crafting sustainable and successful long-term solutions with benefits to all Californians.
