Transcript of Gov. Schwarzenegger Announcing First Construction Groundbreaking in Fairifield, CA

Published: April 30,2009

Transcript of Gov. Schwarzenegger Announcing First Construction Groundbreaking

SECRETARY BONNER:

Good morning, everybody, I'm Dale Bonner, the secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency for the state of California. I appreciate everybody coming out to join us today to celebrate how quickly we're moving in California to put the state back on a path to economic recovery.

I do have a few acknowledgements; it's a big day today and there are a lot of people who have come out to share in this very prideful moment. So I want to make sure we acknowledge, first and foremost, Will Kempton, our Caltrans director who is with us this morning. (Applause) Also we have a number of mayors; all the cities in the county of Solano are represented here today. I wanted to recognize the mayor of Fairfield, Harry Price, who is with us. (Applause) We also have the Mayors Pete Sanchez from Suisun, Jan Vick from Rio Vista, Jack Batchelor from Dixon, Len Augustine from the city of Vacaville and also Elizabeth Patterson from Benicia. I believe the city of Vallejo is also represented here this morning. (Applause)

And we have, from the Transportation Commission and also the executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, we have Jim Earp. We also have with us -- I believe we have Representative, Congressman George Miller with us this morning and Congressman Tauscher's office is represented with us this morning. Also Brian Gates, the CEO of Top Grade Construction, who is going to be working on the project is with us this morning. (Applause) We're pleased to have the representative of the Federal Highway Administration, Vince Mamone is with us this morning and also some members of the board of supervisors, Jim Spering, John Vasquez and Mike Reagan. (Applause) Thank you. And I think also the Solano County Transportation Authority is also represented this morning by Mr. Daryl Halls.

So I wanted to thank everybody again. It's a long list, I know there are probably some others here that deserve some recognition but we're just pleased to see a very broad cross-section of people who have come out to join the celebration this morning.

The Governor has called us here today to show, again, how quickly we're moving in California to put the federal stimulus resources to work very quickly for the people of California. I do think it's important to note that throughout his tenure the Governor has been a very strong advocate of infrastructure because he understands the state's long-term needs. But he also understands that infrastructure investments are a powerful tool to stimulate the economy and start to create jobs and that's why he has been pushing us all in the state of California to move very, very quickly to put these new resources to work as quickly as possible for the people of California. And so it gives me great pride this morning to introduce Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Applause)

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you very much, Secretary Bonner. I want to say also thank you to a few people that are here today. Secretary Bonner, I want to thank him for his great leadership and for the great work. Mayor Price, thank you for being here today. And Jim Earp from the California Alliance for Jobs, thank you for being here and creating such great action always. And Danny Curtin from the California Conference of Carpenters, a great, great leader and great supporter for infrastructure projects, so thank you very much. Will Kempton, of course, from Caltrans. He has been extraordinary with his leadership and what a force he has been to rebuild California, so we love having him always part of the celebration. And Chief Rainey of the Fairfield Police, we want to thank him for being here. And then Chief Leonard from the CHP, thank you very much.

And Brian Gates, who is with Top Grade Construction, thank you. I have to admit that I don't like when people are bigger than me but we'll let him be here anyway. (Laughter) I used to have a policy never to take pictures with anyone that's bigger than me but we'll make an exception.

But anyway, we are here today to celebrate, because I think it's very important, as I always said, to bring the economy back and to create jobs. And when President Obama signed the economic stimulus package I said that I will get as many dollars for California as possible. And I also said that if any other state refuses to take the money, that I will be the first one to take that money too. And also I said that we will get this money out as quickly as possible to create jobs and to help the state push through these very tough times.

Today we are following through on this promise. Behind me, as you can see, is Interstate 80. Interstate 80 has been in lousy shape and now we are repaving Interstate 80. This is the first $13.5 million that will be spent from the economic stimulus money and this will create 235 new jobs. There are 200,000 cars that travel over this Interstate 80 every day and so it's about time that this freeway gets fixed. (Applause)

And what's great about it is this project is being funded 100 percent with federal stimulus money. Without President Obama's action we would not have the hardhats here getting these jobs, we would not have the action, we would not have the jobs. So I want to thank President Obama for creating this action and I want to thank his administration for their efforts.

I also want to note that so many times we hear about waste in government and I am very sensitive about that. But here is the opposite story. Caltrans estimated this project to cost $22 million but then, of course, with the leadership of Will Kempton and grinding the construction companies with their estimates and with the bidding process -- you know exactly what I'm talking about -- you know, they came in with an estimate of $13.5 million, so that's a saving of 40 percent -- a 40 percent savings. (Applause) So this is really extraordinary. And what will be done with this 40 percent savings? We will build more roads and we will put more people to work again, so that's the great thing about it.

So today is a great day for our economy and for the construction workers and for the future of California. I can promise you the best is yet to come and what you see here today is just the beginning of a wave of construction that we'll start all over the state of California. We're going to blanket the state with construction jobs and with projects like this. I will be traveling up and down the state to make sure that this money gets distributed all over the state of California and that every area benefits from this economic stimulus money.

And when it comes to stimulus funds, I'm committed to quick action and I'm committed to transparency and I'm committed to accountability. And this is why I have formed our Recovery Taskforce to make sure that we get every single dollar that we deserve from the federal government. We also named Laura Chick as the inspector general, to go and make sure that each dollar is spent wisely and correctly. And also we created the website for transparency, so that everyone knows what is going on, how much money comes in and where does it go and the website is www.recovery.ca.gov.

So again, we want to say thank you to President Obama for this great action and we want to say thank you to Will Kempton and Caltrans for the great work they are doing. And a big thank you to our hardhats, to the hardworking men and women that make our vision become a reality. Let's give them a big hand for the great work that they are doing. (Applause)

And now I would like to bring out our next speaker, which is Mayor Harry Price, to say a few words about this great project here. Please. (Applause)

MAYOR PRICE:

Thank you very much. And Governor Schwarzenegger, we know that the sweetest place west of the Mississippi River is Fairfield and we would love for you to have your own bag of Jelly Bellies that you may choose to share wherever you go, sir.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you.

MAYOR PRICE:

Thank you.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

But Mayor, I'm on a diet. (Laughter) Thank you very much.

MAYOR PRICE:

Share with others. Thank you, sir. Governor and Director Kempton, Secretary Bonner, thank you very much for choosing to make this the first project in the federal stimulus package for highways. We are very pleased that what we are doing here today is going to make a significant difference in the way we live, the way we do business and the fact that our communities will be much safer.

Interstate 80 is that key link that goes from San Francisco all the way to New York and it's a major corridor for transportation as well as for the transport of goods and services. Governor, I know that you do the heavy lifting. But when the President first started talking about the stimulus package, you led the governors to Washington. And you had some help and that help benefits California as well as Massachusetts. So we want to thank your Uncle Teddy for his efforts too. (Applause)

And we recognize that you are committed to maintaining and improving the critical infrastructure in California, so thank you for your championing the causes that improve life for everyone.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you.

MAYOR PRICE:

And I'm very pleased at this point now to thank some folks who have played another key role. They've worked hand-in-hand with Will Kempton. And Governor, we appreciate the fact that you selected him to be our person. We can't accomplish what we are today without the significant efforts of many people but one of them we all recognize in Solano County is Jim Spering, Supervisor. (Applause) Jim Spering is our Mr. Transportation. So Jim, thank you for working very well. (Applause)

And at this point I would like to introduce another champion for improved transportation and that's California Transportation Commissioner James Earp. James Earp has a very distinguished background. He led as the chair for the Yes on Measures 1A-E a few years ago. For 22 years he was the public relations director for the International Union of Operating and Engineers Local #3, a heavy construction union. This project is going to put those heavy construction guys to work and the multiplier will affect every business in Solano County and throughout this region. Mr. Earp comes from Roseville and he has served on the California Transportation Commission. He is also the chair of the California Alliance for Jobs. He serves as their executive director and he has worked very hard to ensure that Proposition 42 funding goes for transportation programs. This is one of those examples.

So with a great deal of pleasure, let me introduce California Transportation Commissioner James Earp. Mr. Earp? (Applause)

JAMES EARP:

Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a privilege, actually, to be here this morning to celebrate the first economic stimulus project to break ground in California. You know, I'd like to put just a little bit of perspective on this. In January, the end of January, we got a new President who said we need to get some money into infrastructure to help stimulate the economy. Four weeks later that bill passed through Congress and the money was out there. Eight weeks later we're breaking ground on the first of those projects, of what will be over $2.5 billion dollars worth of economic stimulus projects just for transportation in California. There's additional money for other types of infrastructure for California.

I will have to tell you, after being in this industry for 35 years, that is warp speed for a transportation project. It just doesn't happen that way. Those of us who have been in this business know that it takes a long time to get projects going and it just doesn't happen that way by accident. How does it get that way? How did we get to this point this quickly?

We have a Governor who is completely committed, not only to rebuilding California but to, especially right now, putting people to work in these tough economic times. For the construction industry, which I represent, this is the only game in town. No one is building many homes right now, we're not building office buildings, we're not building very much. But we need a lot of infrastructure work done in California and he has been at the front of that line, in that charge.

Four years ago -- you know, our organization, for the last 10 years, has been trying to get the need to invest in our infrastructure in front of the public. We've done it with radio, we've done it with all kinds of different tools and we made some incremental progress. Four years ago this governor stood at a State of the State and said it's time to rebuild California. And I sat there and listened to that speech and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I'd never heard a governor talk like this before about the need to rebuild our infrastructure. And overnight he elevated that issue to the front burner and now everybody knows what infrastructure means.

And so he has been a tremendous asset on this. Since that time we've passed $37 billion in infrastructure bonds that are going to work for California. He has been at the front of the line in trying to get this federal economic stimulus money put together and has been pretty upfront and shameless about the fact he'll take the money from whatever other state isn't going to use theirs. We'll take it, he says and we'll put it to work here.

Now, there's one other person -- well, there are bunch of people that have helped to make that happen but a lot of it stands right on this guy's shoulders right here. I've known Will Kempton for a long time and he's the one that has to make a lot of this happen. And I've seen a few more stress lines appear in his face the last few weeks, because I know he's not getting enough sleep. You'd never believe by looking at him that he's only 35 years old. (Laughter) But he has been a tremendous leader for Caltrans. He has worked night and day to try to make sure -- there's a lot of stuff that goes from saying we're going to do it to actually doing it. And I will tell you -- you know, the federal government has put this money out in front of us but they haven't taken away or smoothed the road really in terms of all the things that you have to do to qualify for that money. You've still got to go through all the hoops; that's not easy to do and that's where the stress comes from, to make sure that that money actually gets out on the pavement.

And finally, before I conclude, I'd like to introduce Brian Gates. He's going to speak to you for a few moments. Brian, come on up here. I was going to use him as a visual aid but he's actually going to speak. He is a perfect representative of the contractors that I have the pleasure to serve and be an advocate for. We represent 2,000 contractors in California and I will tell you, without any qualification, we have the best contractors, we have the best union construction workers, the most skilled workers in the United States, bar none. That's why they can go and bid on a project like this, come in 40 percent under estimate and they'll be out there, they'll get this job on time and within the budget and we will see some really nice pavement out here in a very short period of time. These guys are great. I'm proud of this industry, I'm proud of the pride they take in their work. And I will tell you, you're in good hands with contractors like these.

So Brian Gates with Top Grade Construction will now say a few words for you. Brian? (Applause)

BRIAN GATES:

Thank you so much. Well, it's an absolute pleasure to be here. And on behalf of the entire Top Grade organization I want to thank the Governor, obviously, the state, the city of Fairfield and of course Caltrans for this wonderful event here today. We're obviously extremely proud of being the first contractor here, or the first general contractor to work on a project that's going to be funded by the stimulus funds within the state.

And I'll have to tell you, at a time where our industry is substantially impacted by the economic downturn -- unemployment rates for construction nationwide, over 20 percent and obviously the unemployment rate in California north of 10 percent -- I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity that this provides, not only to the Top Grade workforce but the 20 other companies that will be involved either at a contracting level, subcontracting level or supplier level in helping make this project a major success. And so over 40,000 man hours and at least over 200 people, that are going to be collecting a paycheck, working on this project.

At Top Grade creativity is our most important tool and that's our tagline. And we're looking forward to utilizing that tool and working with Caltrans, who we have a wonderful relationship with and building this project in the safest and quickest manner possible to get as many people back to work. And we're ready to get started and break ground here.

So thank you for the opportunity. Again, a pleasure being here and look forward to building a very, very successful project for the state. Thank you. (Applause)

At this time it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. Daniel Curtin, who is the director at the California Conference of Carpenters. (Applause)

DANIEL CURTIN:

You know, I am really honored to be here, this is a tremendous event. I want to congratulate the Governor, the representative of the federal government, Secretary Bonner, Director Kempton. They have kept the focus on jobs and infrastructure, particularly this Governor, since the day he walked in. I have a little saying in my office. It says that, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." Now, that's attributed to Einstein. It sounds pretty simple but the more you think about it, it's extraordinarily profound. And anybody who is involved in politics knows exactly how difficult it is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Every day you are hit with 10,15, 20 issues. The Governor is constantly being tugged at in every different direction. But he has managed, in a way that no other governor that I'm familiar with -- and I've been around a little bit -- has focused on infrastructure. For us it means jobs directly but for California it's the platform that the economy grows on. It's what moves the goods, it's what gets people to their jobs. And without infrastructure, we're all going to go down into the pits in terms of the economy.

And I'm going to use the statistic that our contractor failed to mention. And by the way, we were all applauding when we heard how that job was cut from $22 to $13 million. I saw him take a little -- I saw him take a little tissue out and wipe the tears from his eyes. But in the 1970s we were number one in the conditions of our highways -- number one in the country. When this governor took office we were 49, fighting really hard to be 50. Now we're in the low 40s because of the heavy lifting this governor has done. But it has to take that focus to get it back.

I'm from New York, in case anybody hasn't noticed. The roads in New York when I left were a shambles. I came out here, it was like driving on carpets. And now, 30 years later, it looks like maybe we'd better get back to work.

It creates jobs the California citizens understand. They passed the bonds that Jim Earp co-chaired and that the Governor then did the heavy lifting a few years ago to pass $37 billion, the largest infrastructure bond package in the history of California. Fantastic, as the Governor likes to say, fantastic. (Applause)

Unfortunately, between then and now we've run into a little minor hiccup, which is the most severe economic downturn in America since the Great Depression -- a worldwide economic downturn, I might add. Things were kind of rolling along smoothly, we were doing groundbreakings for that bond money. But we run into this economic depression -- well, I won't say depression, that gets headlines -- downturn.

What's happened as a consequence, we have more political squabbling going on now than I ever seen. Who's to blame? Everybody is pointing fingers. We actually have elected officials who have said publicly that they think the state needs to go bankrupt, that's the only solution. This Governor, his staff, have never lost their focus for a moment. Dismiss that kind of talk, don't even want to hear about it. You know, there is another political saying that I'm fond of: "Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a good carpenter to build a barn." Well, I see a lot of really, really good carpenters back there, Governor. We are builders. We're proud to be here, we're proud to have a governor who is also a builder.

I've got to tell you one more thing and it's a little big self-serving. When Jim Earp mentioned that we are the most skilled workforce in the country, I have no doubt about that. We spend in California $30 million a year on training for our members. Not just apprentices. We train as many journeymen carpenters as we do apprentices for the new techniques, the new materials, the green jobs that we're going to be talking about.

We're builders, governor. We're not finger-pointers, we're not whiners. We're looking forward to this groundbreaking and the next groundbreaking and the next groundbreaking. And we want to thank the President for being just as focused on infrastructure as this governor is, because it's going to keep our people working and it's going to let us build California and it's going to lead California back, economically speaking. And when the economy turns around we're going to be ready to go. Our people will be skilled, trained and ready to go.

I want to once again thank the Governor for helping us do what it is we do best, giving us the tools to go out and build California. And now I have the pleasure of bringing the Governor back up so that the press can ask him whatever they like. Governor? (Applause)

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you, Danny. First of all, before I answer any questions, let me just bring you up to date about the swine flu. There are confirmed cases in California that have increased from 11 to 14. There are seven in San Diego County, five in Imperial County, one in Sacramento County and one in San Bernardino County. The Department of Public Health reports 29 suspected cases -- they're not confirmed cases but suspected cases. There are 91 cases nationwide now in 10 different states. There are seven other countries that have now seen that flu. I think everyone knows about the 23-months-old baby that died in Texas.

I think it's also important to know that experts say that the strain of influenza in its current form isn't as strong or as fatal as previous pandemics were. The World Health Organization has raised the pandemic level from level 4 to level 5. Twenty-nine counties have asked for antiviral drugs and supplies and over a million courses have been shipped out and have provided them with what they have asked for. We still have the same policy; if a child gets sick that school that this child is from will be closed down for seven days.

President Obama has requested $1.5 billion from Congress in order to respond to the swine flu as quickly as possible, which we are very appreciative for. We have sent additional state staff to San Diego and to Imperial Counties. We have requested and received additional deployment of CDC flu experts to Southern California. We are continuously having a great working relationship and great coordination between the locals, the state and also the federal government and also the international health experts.

We will be bringing up to date people who are into Twitting. I'm always trying to feed them throughout the day information about the latest of the latest when it comes to this disease, or to this virus. And also this weekend I will be doing my radio address about this subject and this will also be on YouTube.

So, if you have any questions, we also have Dr. Horton here. Dr., if you want to come over here, just briefly and if there are any questions about the flu, we would appreciate it if you could answer some of those questions.

QUESTION/ANSWER:

GOVERNOR: Any questions? Yes, please.

QUESTION: Heather Ishimaru, ABC7 San Francisco. I'm not sure if this is for you, Governor, or for Dr. Horton. Three years ago state health officials admitted that we were not well prepared for a possible pandemic. I'm wondering if you could bring us up to date on what's changed over that time to make us better prepared now?

GOVERNOR: Well, I just want to say, before Dr. Horton speaks, that we are very well prepared. We have been ahead of the ball continuously. We are very aggressive. And as I said, it's not just because we are experts in flu or something like that, it's because we are having so many catastrophes here in this state. We have fires and we have earthquakes and all of those kinds of things where we have to have our act together. And that means that the agencies work very well together, the locals and the state level and also our relationship with the federal government, where we get an immediate response, is also great. So we have only gotten the best response from the federal government and I want to congratulate them for being so cooperative and being such great partners. And then the rest, please, Dr. Horton, if you want to address this?

DR. HORTON: Thanks, Governor. A good question. We've done much and one of the things I wanted to acknowledge is the great work and leadership of the Governor and the legislature in three years ago giving us major resources to be able to purchase personal protective equipment, antiviral medications, supplies to be able to increase the number of hospital beds in communities. All that stuff has been put into place since that plan was developed three years ago.

In addition, three years ago we were given a low grade on our ability to properly receive and distribute the strategic national stockpile from the government. We have upgraded. An example of that is now we have gotten top grades on our plan to be able to receive and distribute, which is actually being put into place at this very moment as we receive those. So we've made great progress in the last three years. We feel like we're prepared to put into place the appropriate things we need to do to respond to this challenge. Thanks.

GOVERNOR: Yes, please.

QUESTION: Yesterday afternoon you made three appointments to the California Citizens Compensation Commission but it wasn't until after the meeting was over. And if you had made those appointments even one day earlier, conceivably that 10 percent pay cut would have gotten through without further delays. It just seems like a big screw-up. Did somebody drop the ball on that one? How could that happen?

GOVERNOR: No. as you know, it's an independent commission. We felt very strongly that while the people of California are suffering and get laid off and lose their homes and all this, I think that we should also do some cutting in Sacramento. So we have been very effective in cutting programs but not within the Capitol. We in our office, we have made cuts, 10 percent and we wanted to have the Legislators make their cuts also, how much it costs them to run their offices and also their salaries. But that was just my opinion. I hoped that when the independent commission deals with that subject that they maybe see it the same way. It was one vote short and then when we saw that then we replaced, or filled, some of the other spots and put three in that share the same opinion as we do. So as we move forward there will be probably 10 percent cuts with the legislators and their salaries.

Yes?

QUESTION: (Inaudible) special election and as the swine flu numbers go up, are you at all concerned about turnout on election day? And what would you say to somebody who might be concerned about standing in line on election day next to somebody who is sick?

GOVERNOR: Well, I think that we have seen there's a tremendous amount of people will be voting by absentee. I think, because it will be in general a low turnout, we want the people to turn out, we want everyone to be involved, because it's a very important subject, to fix our budget system once and for all. Here's an opportunity to do that.

And as you see, that the people themselves still are confused in which way they want to go with those ballot initiatives. The latest poll shows that people don't want to have their taxes raised but at the same time they also don't want to have any cuts made. When they were asked about 10 of the important areas, they said no to cuts in health care, they said no to cuts in education, they said no to cuts in environmental issues, they said no to cuts in law enforcement. And they went down the line and said no to all of those things. So I think that there is still confusion there.

But we are going to get the message out there with the initiatives. We want to make sure that, if there is really 60, 70 percent of the voters are absentee, that they get the message, they know how we feel about it and how we're going to fix the budget thing.

And I don't want to use this as a political event here, because they're two different things but I think we've got to move the state forward. And as you can see with the pandemic now and with other disasters, we need to have money put aside. We need to have money in a rainy day fund. We need to have money in a reserve and the only way we're going to get that done is if we have a good financial system in place and a good budget system in place.

Yes, please.

QUESTION: David Scott with KGO Radio. Can you address why this stretch of Interstate 80 was chosen as the project that received this funding?

GOVERNOR: Well, like I said, that we have had plans for the whole state on how to rebuild the whole state and so we are taking those things that need a lot of help immediately. The road here on Interstate 80 is bad. We have 200,000 vehicles that are traveling over this road every day. I think it's damaging to the vehicles, I think we can do much better. It has been on a plan for us for several years. But we have to chip away as the money comes in, so now we have some additional money coming in from the federal government, so it was a top priority for Caltrans and for all of us.

And we are very happy that, as I said, that we're putting 235 workers to work. These are all people that normally would go home without a paycheck and have to tell their families that they are out of work and they have to stand in the unemployment line. Now they have jobs. So this is great, a huge benefit for everybody, for this area here, for this town, for the travelers, for the workers, for the mayor, for the construction business and of course for Danny Curtin. He's really happy, so for his union this is a big, big victory. (Applause)

And I think it's a great victory for the state of California. So we pick those things. There are always people who will say, well, why did you pick this versus that? If we would have picked 405 in Los Angeles you most likely would have said why did you pick 405 and not 80? So we pick as we find them important. So thank you for the question.

Sure.

QUESTION: Governor, speaking of the ballot measures, they're not faring very well in the polls. Are you planning some kind of strategy change between now and election day?

GOVERNOR: I think that Danny Curtin hit the nail on the head when he said that the important things have to stay important and we have to put the spotlight on it and keep them important. And I think that for the initiatives to pass is extremely important for the state and I think it's our chance to really have a coherent budget system in place. We've got to reform the system.

Always when you have a special election I think that you have a negative attitude amongst the people out there, because I know my own wife, the first thing she said was, "Why do I have to go again and vote?" So that's the way the feeling is right across-the-board. But then when she was explained, when I sat down and said here are the things that are at stake, she said, "No, I'm going to participate, maybe absentee, maybe I'll go to the polls." But she right away had a more positive attitude about it.

So for us the important thing is just to go out and get the message out there, because we have seen over and over when the people know about it, why this is important and why have we made those cuts, why do we have the tax increases, why do we need to reform the budget system so that we never have to go back and ask the people again for a tax increase in the future, all of those things we have to explain. So we have to be good in communicating with the people those points. That's the important thing.

And then also we have right away a disadvantage, as you know, because whenever the economy is down, the people in general, all over the country and all over the world, are anti-government, anti-politicians and all of those kind of things. So you deal with that obstacle also. So we have to overcome that obstacle.

But the key thing is for people not to do this vote for the politicians. We are meaningless in this. This is good for way after we are gone, way after we are out of office. This is supposed to fix the budget system for decades to come. So let's do it for the state of California. Let's do it for the people themselves rather than to do it for anyone in Sacramento.

Thank you very much. Thank you all and have a good day. (Applause)