The MSRC recently welcomed Larry McCallon as its newest member representing the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG). McCallon currently serves as the Mayor of the City of Highland and he is a Past President of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and currently represents the City of Highland and the City of San Bernardino on its Regional Council. He is also the Immediate Past President of SANBAG and a SANBAG alternate representative on the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink) Board. McCallon also served in the United States Air Force for 21 years and was awarded the Bronze Star medal during the Vietnam War. McCallon is a retired local businessman with 18 years of experience as President and CEO of McFAM Corporation. Prior to his retirement, he also directed multi-million dollar aerospace development and production programs at the Northrop Grumman Corporation. Mayor McCallon recently spoke with Clean Air Roadmap about the opportunity to serve on the MSRC Board.
Mayor McCallon first moved to Southern California in 1991. Since he’s lived here, he’s seen significant improvement in our region’s air quality. “The leadership and coalition building to achieve those gains has been impressive,” says McCallon, “but with new federal air quality attainment deadlines fast approaching, much more will need to be done to make our region healthier.”
McCallon is more than up to the challenge. He described his experiences as previous President of SCAG, where he was charged with establishing the greenhouse gas reduction goals for the region, which the California Air Resources Board had to approve. While he enjoyed working with Mary Nichols and the Air Resources Board members, McCallon acknowledged that it was quite challenging to get 84 board members to come to consensus. In the end, however, he was able to garner the unanimous approval of the sustainable communities and transportation plans for the region.
McCallon also shared that driving the economy through clean transportation funding is one of his paramount goals. While at SCAG, McCallon also initiated an economic development strategy for Southern California. His goal was to try to recover some of the jobs lost in the Great Recession by trying to create an economic strategy that wouldn’t be about competition between cities, but rather an effort to raise all boats through a growing economy.
Beyond helping to meet the MSRC’s environmental policy and economic goals, McCallon wants to make sure that everyone in San Bernardino County is aware of the opportunities to get more funding for the clean transportation needs and initiatives of the region by raising the profile of the MSRC and its grants.
While the MSRC has a significant role to play in the region, McCallon also calls for more federal leadership around clean transportation. “At SCAG and SANBAG, we’re constantly aware of EPA regulations that have to be met to attain air quality goals that will require significant changes. Unfortunately, the biggest polluters are sources that we can’t regulate. The federal government should be doing a better job of regulating goods movement transportation in particular and currently there is no national freight policy whatsoever.” McCallon recalled that President Eisenhower put in the interstate highway system and said that today we need something equivalent for goods movement. The federal government should be involved in funding and mitigating the local impacts and this could probably easily be funded with new container fees.
Obviously, Mayor McCallon has lots of great ideas and experience to help lead the MSRC and Southern California in the years to come.