Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis Joins SCAQMD Board

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis was sworn in today as the newest member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District Governing Board.

Supervisor Solis, a longtime environmental justice advocate, will represent the County of Los Angeles on the SCAQMD Board. Board members serve four-year terms. Solis will finish the unexpired term of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl who left the Board to assume duties as the chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Solis’ term ends Jan. 15, 2019.

"I am honored to be able to represent Los Angeles County on the SCAQMD Governing Board," said Supervisor Solis. "Clean air is our most precious resource, one that requires maintaining a strong partnership between SCAQMD, local communities, and businesses. With the effects of poor air quality disproportionately harming minority and low income communities, I am enthusiastic about being part of the effort to clean the air throughout the region."

Solis was sworn in as Los Angeles County Supervisor for the First District of Los Angeles County on Dec. 1, 2014. Prior to becoming Supervisor, she served as Secretary of Labor for President Barack Obama. She was confirmed on Feb. 24, 2009, becoming the first Latina to serve in the United States Cabinet. Before that, she represented the 32nd Congressional District in California, a position she held from 2001 to 2009.

In Congress, her priorities included expanding access to affordable health care, protecting the environment and improving the lives of working families. As a recognized leader on clean-energy jobs, she authored the Green Jobs Act which provided funding for "green collar" job training for veterans, displaced workers, at risk youth, and individuals in families under 200 percent of the federal poverty line. She helped kick-start the study that would eventually lead to the San Gabriel Mountains being named as a national monument. As a supervisor, she has supported funding for parks and "parklets" in urban neighborhoods and other initiatives that promote sustainability.

During her tenure in the California State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, she worked to reduce emissions from highways, trains, gravel operations, refineries, and other harmful sources in order to protect public health. She believes that such measures can meet the needs of both businesses and local communities, and that positive workable solutions can be found for the air quality issues currently impacting her district. Solis also served two years in the state Assembly.

Solis became the first woman to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2000 for her pioneering work on environmental justice issues. Her California environmental justice legislation, enacted in 1999, was the first of its kind in the nation to become law. Her district has several environmental justice communities including Vernon, Boyle Heights, Bell, Pomona, South Gate, and East Los Angeles that have been directly affected by toxic emissions from industry and mobile  sources. SCAQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

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