1. Presentation to UCSD’s Urban World System Class
March 14, 2006
We appreciate Mr. Guassac´s invitation to come and address the Kumeyaay-Diegueño Unity. SANDAG is committed to advancing government-to-government relations with the tribal nations in our region. We appreciate the opportunity to address this intertribal group and look forward to meeting with each nation on an individual basis in the near future.
Today, I would like to provide a brief overview of SANDAG, how it is structured, and talk about how we can work together to strengthen the relationships between SANDAG and the tribal nations in our region.

2. 4,230
square miles
The San Diego region is large, encompassing more than 4,000 square miles.
We stretch from the Pacific Ocean on the west to Imperial County on east. To the north we’re bounded by Orange and Riverside Counties, and we share a border to the south with the Republic of Mexico.

3. Tribal Lands in the San Diego Region
As you know, our region is the home of 17 individual tribal nations, the most in any other county of the United States.

4. SANDAG Members Vista Oceanside Marcos Escondido Carlsbad County of
Chula Vista
Imperial Beach
National City
Coronado
Lemon Grove
La Mesa
El Cajon
Santee
San
Diego
Del Mar
Encinitas
Solana Beach
Carlsbad
Oceanside
Vista
Marcos
Escondido
Poway
County of
San Diego
SANDAG members include all 18 cities in the region and the County of San Diego.

5. SANDAG Board of Directors
Mayors, councilmembers, & supervisor
Appointed by council/board to SANDAG
Serve at pleasure of council/board
Meet in public meetings; twice/month
Our Board of Directors is composed of mayors, councilmembers, and a county supervisor from each of the region’s 19 local governments.
Our Board meets up to twice a month on the second and fourth Fridays.

6. Advisory Members Appointed Officials Caltrans
Imperial County
Caltrans
U.S. Department of Defense
San Diego Unified Port District
San Diego County Water Authority
Metropolitan Transit System (MTS)
North County Transit District (NCTD)
Republic of Mexico
Appointed
Officials
The SANDAG Board also includes a number of advisory members including Imperial County, Caltrans, the Department of Defense, the Port District, the County Water Authority, the two transit agencies, and the Republic of Mexico.

7. SANDAG Roles/Responsibilities
Council of Governments
Metropolitan Planning Organization
Regional Transportation Planning Agency
San Diego Regional Transportation Commission

8. Roles/Responsibilities cont’d
Congestion Management Agency (CMA)
Local Integrated Waste Management Task Force
Regional Criminal Justice Clearinghouse
Regional Census Data Center
Regional Ridesharing Program Ridelink
Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) Program Administration

9. SANDAG Structure SANDAG Executive Committee Transportation Committee
Board of Directors
Makes regional public policy
Executive Committee
Sets agenda; oversight for budget and work program; reviews grant applications; makes recommendations on legislative proposals & agency policies
Transportation
Committee
Policy recommendations on planning and programming; strong focus & commitment to meet public transit needs
Public Safety Committee
Policy recommendations on public safety & Homeland Security related to ARJIS & Criminal Justice Research activities
Borders
Committee
Policy recommendations on interregional programs & projects
Regional Planning
Committee
Policy recommendations on Regional Comprehensive Plan development & implementation
Reporting directly to the SANDAG Board are five major policy committees: Executive, Transportation, Public Safety, Borders, and Regional Planning.
Each of these committees advise the Board of Directors on specific policy issues.

10. Geographic Jurisdiction
NORTH COUNTY
INLAND
NORTH COUNTY
COAST
Escondido
Poway
San Marcos
Vista
COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO
Carlsbad
Del Mar
Encinitas
Oceanside
Solana Beach
EAST COUNTY
El Cajon
La Mesa
Lemon Grove
Santee
CITY OF
SAN DIEGO
Our policy committees include representatives from the six separate subregions: North County Coastal, North County Inland, East County, South County, the City of San Diego, and the County of San Diego.
Several of the committees also have a number of advisory members relevant to their specific policy areas.
The Borders Committee, for example, which deals with interjurisdictional planning issues, has advisory representatives from Imperial, Riverside, and Orange counties, as well as Mexico and the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association to provide a liaison with our neighboring jurisdictions.
In fact, the current Vice Chair of the Borders Committee is Supervisor Carrillo from Imperial County.
4,230
square miles
SOUTH COUNTY
Chula Vista
Coronado
Imperial Beach
National City

11. SANDAG’s Mission Forum for regional decision-making Build consensus
Make strategic plans
Obtain and allocate resources
Plan, engineer, & build public transit
Provide information and technical assistance
Historically, SANDAG’s mission has been as a forum on regional decision-making.
We’ve developed strategic plans like the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and the Regional Comprehensive Plan (RCP), which are the result of interjurisdictional collaboration among the local governments.
These plans are updated periodically to incorporate innovations in regional perspectives from the jurisdictions. We are currently initiating a comprehensive update of the RTP for 2007 for which we hope to have active involvement from the tribal nations.
We also allocate transportation resources – federal, state, and local transportation funding.
More recently, as a result of consolidation, we are now the agency responsible for planning, engineering and building public transit.
And, we provide information and technical assistance.

12. Technical Assistance Opinion survey design and analysis
Demographic/economic information
Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping
Transportation modeling
Assistance to transit operators
Housing elements
In the technical assistance arena, we provide a variety of services and resources to our member agencies, transit operators, and the public.
These include public opinion survey design and analysis, demographic and economic information, mapping, and transportation modeling.
We’ve made much of our demographic, transportation, and economic information available for free on our Web site.
In collaboration with the Reservation Transportation Authority (RTA), we would like to work with you to offer an interactive computer-based workshop on SANDAG data and information services so your tribal government staff, as well as the appropriate enterprise staff can learn more about what’s available at SANDAG.

13. FY 2005 Program Budget
Each year, SANDAG adopts an overall work program and budget with federal, state, and local funds to support the Association’s regional responsibilities. The fiscal year 2005 program budget totalled $429 million. The FY 2005 Capital Program for transit and rail projects was $454 million.

14. “comprehensive, integrated & coordinated”
Regional Work
“comprehensive, integrated & coordinated”
Population growth
Transportation
Habitat planning
Housing
Beach Sand
Energy
Economic prosperity
Public safety
Borders planning
Census 2000
Our regional work encompasses a wide variety of issue areas, including population growth, transportation, habitat planning, housing, energy, borders planning, and a number of other quality of life issues.

15. Regional Comprehensive Plan
Urban Form
Healthy Environment
Transportation
Housing
Public Facilities
Economic Prosperity
Borders
We hit a significant milestone last year, in July 2004, when the SANDAG Board of Directors unanimously adopted the first Regional Comprehensive Plan (RCP) for the San Diego region.
It is our first major planning document to address our regional and local land use issues in a coordinated and comprehensive framework.
The RCP examined urban form, the environment, transportation, housing, public facilities, economic prosperity, and equally important, border issues in a regional context.

16. Our Vision for a Better Future
“To preserve and enhance the San Diego region's unique features – its vibrant and culturally-diverse communities, its beaches, deserts, mountains, lagoons, bluffs, and canyons, and its international setting – and promote sustainability, economic prosperity, and an outstanding quality of life for everyone."
Our initial outreach resulted in a vision statement that focused on preserving and enhancing what is unique about our region, and protecting our quality of life as we continue to grow.

17. Borders Issues Jobs/housing balance Transportation Environment
Economic development
Water/energy supply
The RCP identified a number of transboundary issue areas we refer to as ‘borders issues’ that we need to address and better coordinate with our counterparts in other jurisdictions.
These include better balancing jobs and housing, transportation needs, the environment, economic development, and water and energy supply.

18. Borders Committee Priorities
The Borders Committee is one of our five Policy Advisory Commitees. As I mentioned earlier, the members are drawn from Board of Directors, along with advisory members associated with their committee’s responsibilities.
Our Borders Committee identified several strategic priorities to focus the discussions with each of our partners.
In Riverside County, for example, the pressing issues are jobs, housing, and transportation, as many of our workers have moved to Riverside County in search of homes they can afford. That, in turn, affects our transportation system, as it places more demand on I-15 in the North County area.

19. Tribal Liaison Activities
Partnership with the
Reservation Transportation Authority (RTA)
The Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association (SCTCA) is now an advisory member of the Borders Committee
San Diego Regional Tribal Summit between elected tribal leaders and SANDAG Board of Directors - March 10, 2006
SANDAG’s first involvement with tribal governments occurred back in 2002, when we held a summit with 8 of the 17 tribal governments to discuss regional transportation planning.
From that meeting came a commitment for SANDAG to establish a liaison position. In November of 2004 Jane Clough-Riquelme, a regional planner working in our Borders Coordination program became our Tribal Liaison.
The Borders Committee has made improving communications and coordination with the 17 tribal governments one of its main priorities this year.
There are several current activities underway, including partnering with the Reservation Transportation Authority (RTA) to encourage the participation of tribal governments in the upcoming RTP update.
We also are beginning to work on an individual level with each tribal nation on consultation agreements. These agreements would help outline how SANDAG and your governments can work together on issues of mutual concern.
As of June 2005 the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Assoc. (SCTCA) became an advisory member of the Committee to facilitate a policy dialogue with the tribal nations in the region.

20.
As one of the tribal nations who has enjoyed tremendous success in developing its self-determination and cultural revival, we hope that Barona can become more involved in the Borders Committee and SANDAG policy committee meetings/events/programs.
As sovereign nations within a broader region, we feel that the region as a whole will benefit from stronger government to government relations between the local governments and the tribal governments.
SANDAG provides a useful forum for regional policy discussions and the Borders Committee is an excellent venue for discussing transboundary visions and concerns.
The better we communicate and coordinate the better planning we can all do for the regional transportation system as a whole
Thank you for giving us this opportunity to introduce SANDAG to you.
If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them at this time.