Anthony Rendon is an American politician serving as the 70th and current Speaker of the California State Assembly since 2016. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the fifth-longest-serving speaker in California history.
As a member of the state Assembly, Anthony Rendon passed legislation to improve local water quality and secured state funding support for local projects and programs.
Prior to serving in the Assembly, Anthony Rendon served as faculty at the California State University and continues to lecture to classes about advocacy and state government.
As the former executive director of Plaza De La Raza, Anthony Rendon fought to protect funding for early child education programs in underserved communities.
Assemblymember Anthony Rendon is endorsed by the California Professional Firefighters, California Teachers Association, La Opinion, California Police Chiefs Association, Planned Parenthood, and SEIU.
Water plays a role in every aspect of our lives – we drink it, bathe in it, and clean with it. Given its importance, the State of California established the “human right to water” in 2013, affirming a state priority to create universal access to safe, clean, and affordable water. This statement of values instilled the critical component water plays in our lives and the urgency of preserving access to water for generations to come.
Yet despite this groundbreaking commitment, communities throughout the state – from rural Central Valley to urban Los Angeles – do not have access to clean water coming out of the tap.
The city of Maywood, for instance, is a community of 27,000 residents in the district Assembymemeber Rendon represents. Maywood has long been plagued by water that comes out of the tap yellow or brown and reeking with the smell of rotten eggs. But due to its poor and heavily immigrant population, Maywood’s residents have often been left voiceless regarding decisions about their public services.
Thanks to local activists collaborating with elected officials, legislation in 2013 reformed the water governance structures in Maywood, forcing them to clean up the city’s water supply and be more accountable to residents.
Victories like Maywood continue to move the clean water movement forward, but there are still too many families who receive water with unsafe levels of contaminants. Many of these individuals live in areas with limited economic resources to improve the quality of their water.
Proposition 1, the state water bond that voters approved in 2014, lends a hand to these areas by providing $145 million in funding to assist communities of need access the resources – particularly the knowledge base – to develop water infrastructure. Assemblymember Rendon has authored two bills that will appropriate these funds to where they are needed the most
The L.A. River originally ran freely along an alluvial floodplain in what is today the City of Los Angeles. Destructive flooding plagued the region in the 1930s, leading to the Army Corps of engineers to line most of the river with concrete as a mechanism for flood control.
In 1989, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley set up the first task force to look at restoring the river by developing a framework for managing the river for values other than flood control, including public trust uses like wildlife and parks. In 1996, the County of Los Angeles adopted the L.A. River Master Plan, which included limited restoration funding.
Since then, the City of Los Angeles adopted its own Revitalization Master Plan focusing on the river within city limits, but leaving out the Lower River that is not in the city's jurisdiction.
Green spaces and community parks play a vital role in the quality of life for urban individuals and neighborhoods. Multiple studies have shown that communities with natural spaces have significantly reduced health risks, including lower rates of cancer, asthma and obesity. A restored Lower River would provide communities of the Southeast an opportunity to reap these benefits
Assemblymember Rendon arrived in the Assembly in 2012 with a commitment to clean, transparent, and open government. The Assemblymember represents a district in Southeast Los Angeles County with a history of impropriety by government officials – five of the nine cities in the district have former councilmembers or city officials sentenced to jail time for corruption.
It was in this spirit that Assemblymember Rendon approached his role as the chair of the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee in his first term. Tasked with crafting a statewide water bond, Rendon held 16 hearings across the state – from Eureka to Indio – to receive public input on California’s diverse water needs. The result of these hearings was Proposition 1, a bond with no earmarks or backroom deals that met those diverse needs – from drought relief to water storage to environmental protection. The bond passed the legislature nearly unanimously and was ultimately approved by voters on the November 2014 ballot by a two-to-one margin.
California Public Utilities Commission
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is the state agency that regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications and other utilities and seeks to protect consumers by ensuring safe and reliable service at reasonable rates.
Recent revelations of private communications between CPUC officials and the utility companies they regulate indicate a troubling lack of transparency – and thus lack of public scrutiny – into decisions the commission makes.
In his role as chair of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, Assemblymember Rendon has committed to conduct a comprehensive review of the CPUC to investigate alleged wrongdoing and make steps to reforming the commission.
To this end, he conducted an oversight hearing of the CPUC on March 16 to question CPUC President Michael Picker on the conduct of the commission. Assemblymember Rendon has also introduced two proposals that seek to make the PUC more transparent and accountable to the public
The Speaker's Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education is a policy driven body tasked with developing strategic solutions to improve outcomes for some of California's youngest learners and their families.
During the Great Recession, the budget for early learning was severely cut along with many other state programs. Despite recent investments, the existing system has struggled to stay afloat. Members fight hard every year to win additional dollars for children because they knew the benefits of access to quality early experiences for children.
The concept of the Blue Ribbon Commission on early childhood education was created during the 2016-17 Budget in an effort to strategically plan improvements to the underfunded and struggling early learning system. The ultimate goal is to provide more services to needy families and kids across the state through a sustainable system.
The current funding for the system is outdated and the need for access to child care continues to grow. The Assembly is using this group as a platform to discuss ways to improve the early learning system in California and put the ideas into action to inform future policy and budget actions.