Reflections on 2013 Capitol to Capitol Trip

By Rochelle Swanson and Rob White

April 25, 2012 (Davis, CA) – It has been about a week since we returned from Washington DC and the Davis/Yolo County legislative advocacy trip that was done in conjunction with the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s 2013 Capitol-to-Capitol program.  Portions of the team have met up to debrief and work on sorting through the long list of potential action items that came from the trip and team meetings are scheduled for the weeks to come.  Thank you letters have been started, follow-up calls have been made, and strategy sessions have been calendared.

It is important that we take time up front to thank the people that invested their time and effort to make this a reality.  As you may remember from earlier posts, the representatives that were part of the Davis/Yolo County team that went out in advance of the Cap-to-Cap program included officials from the City of Davis, Yolo County, Davis businesses, Davis Chamber of Commerce, and UC Davis.  Everyone on the team paid some part of the trip out of their own funds, and some paid for the entire trip on their own.  That is a testament to the engagement by the team and the importance of our efforts.  Additionally, the team members spent many late hours and very early mornings before the trip preparing briefing papers, working on handouts, and identifying some of the key policy areas that are important to the Davis and Yolo communities.

The Davis/Yolo team that went early included:

Additionally, our mayor Joe Krovoza was able to join us for some of the later meetings. The success of our team’s effort also included many who were unable to join us on the trip, including: Jack Garvey Jr, a consultant to the Davis Chamber; Margaret Wong, Davis Chamber; Sarah Worley, City of Davis; and several representatives of the media, including the Vanguard, who carried our daily posts to keep the community updated on our efforts.

The Davis/Yolo portion of the trip started in advance of the Sacramento Metro Chamber official program with a long travel day on Wednesday, April 10^th. On Thursday and Friday (April 11 and 12) we met with several elected officials and federal agencies, including: Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Office; the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; the Department of State, National Export Initiative; the Economic Development Administration (EDA), part of Department of Commerce; Nossaman, LLP for a legislative affairs update; Congressman John Garamendi; the White House, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs & Office of Science and Technology Policy; the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology; and Congressman Eric Swalwell’s Legislative Director.  We also had additional meetings early in the following week (Monday and Tuesday) with Housing and Urban Development (HUD); the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA)-part of USDA; and USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service.

In advance of the trip we took a set of Guiding Principles to the Davis City Council for discussion and adoption that would help shape our policy dialogue with the federal representatives.  The staff report for the Guiding Principles can be found at this link.

The theme of the trip was adopted as “Research to Jobs” and the policy topics discussed with federal officials included: developing the innovation ecosystem and technology-based economy; facilitating increased partnership between our research institutions (primarily UC Davis) and the federal national labs; manufacturing innovation (including advanced and additive manufacturing); ag/conservation innovation; and exploration of unique transportation infrastructure opportunities. In advance of the meetings, these themes and policy areas were discussed regularly at the DSIDE (Designing a Sustainable and Innovative Davis Economy) meetings, which includes representatives from the Davis Chamber, Davis businesses, Yolo County, the City of Davis, and UC Davis.

Many of the Sacramento regional delegation for the Metro Chamber Capitol-to-Capitol program (which ran from Saturday, April 13^th to Wednesday, April 17^th) arrived mid-day on Saturday.  There were several networking opportunities that evening, and Yolo County was highlighted at a networking event held near the Capitol.  Our Davis/Yolo team (led by Kari Fry) put together an impressive collection of donated Yolo products for the delegation to enjoy, including local beef jerky, olives, and olive oils.  The full Cap-to-Cap delegation was invited and the room was packed with people from all over our region and a few Congressional representatives. After the event, we heard many positive comments, including some who were encouraged by the strong Yolo County and cities representation on the trip.

For the ensuing Metro Chamber program, the Davis/Yolo team was dispersed into several of the Cap-to-Cap teams, including Innovation, Jobs & Business Growth, Transportation, Water Resources, Flood Control and Food & Agriculture.  The Cap-to-Cap program was expertly run by the Metro Chamber staff and leadership, now in its 43^rd year of executing this program. And 43 elected officials from across the region attended, emphasizing the importance of having our local policymakers engaged with our federal representatives. Davis also received special recognition because Rochelle was the Honorary Co-Chair for the trip, assisting Babs Sandeen of Los Rios Community College District, and the Sacramento Metro Chamber Leadership throughout the trip.  This special honor allowed Davis to be involved in exclusive opportunities to meet with representatives and officials not offered to the other teams.  It also meant that Davis was highlighted several times through Rochelle’s comments from the podium at the meetings of the full delegation.

For the Cap-to-Cap teams, Davis representatives made up a significant portion of the newly formed Innovation team. The discussions the Innovation team had with the White House, federal legislators and agencies reaffirmed that we are in sync with federal initiatives that are focused on job creation and trade opportunities. A strong focus of the Innovation team was support for the “Make It In America” legislation, consisting of several bills that were authored or supported by Congressman Garamendi and our Sacramento delegation, and support for the “Startup Act 3.0” legislation.  This set of bills addresses federal emphasis on opportunities for entrepreneurs, science and technology education, research investment, job creation, advanced manufacturing and trade.  These are all outcomes that are important to Davis, Yolo County and the Sacramento Region.

The policy teams gave each of us the time to reflect on our efforts in the context of the region, and it also gave us time to share with our colleagues across Sacramento the exciting activities we are engaged with in Davis and Yolo County. Each of the teams met with the Sacramento area federal delegation, but many of the teams also met with legislators that have proposed bills that might support our regional efforts. This was important to demonstrate that we support national efforts in each of our policy areas and that the use of best practices from our region might help inform national policy. In each of these meetings, the teams left a consistent message that Sacramento works together as a unified whole to accomplish actions bigger than any one jurisdiction or district. The Next Economy and SACOG’s Blueprint were central themes for many of the teams as a way to describe our regional efforts.

Our Cap-to-Cap teams included representatives from health care, municipalities, tech, finance, community groups, non-profits and utilities.  One very compelling outcome of the Cap-to-Cap program is that strong connections are made between people because team members are focused specifically on a topic of mutual interest, resulting in rapid professional and personal bonds. This then leads to better regional connectivity and increased opportunities. At the end of the day, each sector in the region is looking for the same result – increased opportunity, community connectivity, and a higher quality of life.

What continues to amaze us are the positives responses that we receive daily from our community members. Many of you followed our efforts last week in the blogs and stories posted to the Vanguard or other media and are now asking questions of how you can get engaged.  We have had offers of volunteers to help move the action items forward.  We have even been encouraged to conduct a follow-up trip this fall to reinforce our policy objectives to our federal officials and update them on how they can continue to assist in our efforts. For this encouraging and positive engagement, we say thank you and please continue to reach out to any of the team with your ideas and suggestions.

Though it will take a few weeks, and maybe months, to follow-up on the long list of action items, each and every team member has come back to Davis and Yolo County with a strong sense of purpose and reaffirmation that we are working on issues that are in sync with our federal partners.  And in true Davis and Yolo fashion, we have determined a number of ways that we will help advise and shape federal policy to ensure our interests are addressed, that our university continues to play a prominent role in national and global research, and that our agricultural assets are utilized to inform and advance science and technology that lead the world.

Obviously, we have started to shape some lofty goals.  But we are starting from a place of abundance.  Our local resources and assets include internationally recognized researchers, an engaged and passionate citizenry, thriving businesses and technology industries, a lively and flourishing downtown, and a community that embraces working towards a high quality of life. Many of our colleagues that were present during the later Cap-to-Cap portion of the trip were impressed by our efforts to engage our federal representatives and requested follow-on discussions on how they could work together with us on shared regional interests.  And maybe the most encouraging discussion topic during the week was the recognition that Davis and Yolo County are appropriately situated to take full advantage of the growing policy activities in food systems, sustainable agriculture, and healthy communities.

If you are still interested in hearing more, there is a public presentation about the Davis/Yolo legislative effort that will be given by staff and our Council members at the Davis City Council meeting on April 30^th in the Davis Community Chambers. Materials that will be shared at the Council meeting include a copy of the blog posts from the Vanguard, news stories from the media, Twitter feeds, and the posted pictures from various media sources.

We thank you again for your input, for your positive and supportive comments, and above all else, your offer to help make Davis and Yolo County a strong regional partner that is focused on our long stated goals of sustainability, conservation and quality of life.  Using our new mantra of “research to jobs” we can confidently say that we are working hard to ensure that Davis and Yolo lead the region and continue to define the future!

Rochelle Swanson is member of the Davis City Councilmember and Rob White is Davis’ newly hired Chief Innovation Officer

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