Mel Katz has been for the last 24 years co-owner of Manpower Temporary Services, the largest staffing company in San Diego County, with offices also in Temecula, Hemet and New Mexico. He is a member of San Diego Dialogue, a past chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, and a past chairman of the Chamber’s Roundtable for Education. He is also on the UCSD Board of Overseers. Appointed to RGEC by Gov. Gray Davis, he chairs the RGEC Subcommittee on Governance.

San Diego Dialogue Report: What has your RGEC experience been like as a gubernatorial appointee?

Commissioner Katz: It’s been a fascinating process. We’ve been meeting since February. We were meeting every other week, but we’re now meeting every week.  We’ve met in all parts of the county, and all the meetings have been open to the public.  They’ve been televised and also reported on the website. And you really can see through this process the need to have a regional approach to some major transportation and affordable housing issues.

SDDR: You say that as if we have not had a regional approach in this region . . .

Katz: We have an approach right now through SANDAG, which has done an excellent job up until now in looking at the region and long range planning and in doing some excellent research.  But it’s an agency that has no teeth. Basically, it’s elected representatives from each of the 18 cities and one from the county who [are appointed to SANDAG and] sit and talk about what should be done, but they have no means of making it happen. They work strictly from cooperation and consensus.

SDDR: What’s been the biggest surprise for you in this process?

Katz: The biggest surprise is people criticizing the process and criticizing the effort without even seeing what the results are going to be.

SDDR: And what’s been the greatest pleasure in participating so far?

Katz: The greatest pleasure has been working with the commission.  We are six people representing different agencies, five governor appointments and then two ex officio people, one from Escondido, the mayor of Escondido, and one a City Councilman from Santee, and everyone, basically, has the same feeling that there should be regional planning, regional thinking, and that whatever body it is should be a body that has some teeth to it.

SDDR: So you see some definite prospects for moving away from the status quo?  You think that we’ll get some recommendations for real change of one sort or another out of this?

Katz: I think we’ll get recommendations either for the existing body, that is, SANDAG, having some greater authority or a new body with greater authority.

SDDR: But in either case, you think there will be greater regional authority?

Katz: I would be very disappointed if that did not happen.

SDDR: Can you say something about the chemistry between the gubernatorial appointees and the agency representatives on RGEC?

Katz: It’s been a very good process because the agency representatives want to see things done for the betterment of the region, yet they also want to protect their institutions.  At the same time, they can give some excellent perspective on what has been done in the past.

SDDR: So it’s been a learning experience for you?

Katz: It’s been very good. I really think that it’s been a very cohesive board. And I think [San Diego City Councilman] Byron Wear as chair of RGEC has done an outstanding job in really keeping us on focus and moving forward.

SDDR: When do you think we can expect a set of recommendations?

Katz: By the end of July.  The recommendations will come out, the public will have an opportunity to comment on them and then, based on that, I think the first week in August the recommendations will be ready to turn in to the legislature.