The Point: Commissioners appoint V. Manuel Perez as new Chair, Bob Magee as First Vice Chair, Lloyd White as Second Vice Chair
Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez became the new Chair of the Riverside County Transportation Commission. He succeeds outgoing Commission Chair Jan Harnik, whose term concluded December 31. Lake Elsinore Council Member Bob Magee and Beaumont Mayor Lloyd White were also selected from among fellow commissioners as First Vice Chair and Second Vice Chair respectively. All three officers have been active Commissioners on RCTC. Their terms began in January.
Chair Perez represents Riverside County’s Fourth District. He joined the Board of Supervisors in 2017 after serving three terms in the California State Assembly, including as the majority leader. He also previously served on the Coachella City Council and the Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees. Born and raised in the Coachella Valley and the son of immigrant farmworkers, Perez went on to graduate from UC Riverside and Harvard University.
First Vice Chair Magee has served five terms on the Lake Elsinore City Council, including six times as mayor. Second Vice Chair Mayor Lloyd White was first elected to the Beaumont City Council in 2014 and is serving his third term in office.
Perez, Magee, and Lloyd will lead the 34-member Commission, which consists of the five Riverside County Supervisors, a mayor or council member from each of the 28 cities across the county, and Caltrans District Director Michael Beauchamp, who is a non-voting member.
During the year ahead, RCTC will continue work to secure funding for high priority projects, including those that benefit low-income and disadvantaged communities, such as the next environmental phase of the Coachella Valley Rail program, a planned 144-mile, twice-daily passenger rail service from downtown L.A. to the desert, as well as other projects to help move goods and provide multimodal transportation options to reduce highway traffic congestion.
In addition to the 91 Corridor Operations Project that opened on January 6, RCTC will see the completion of three significant highway projects this year – the Route 60 Truck Lanes in Riverside
County’s Badlands between Moreno Valley and Beaumont, the I-15 Railroad Canyon Road Interchange in Lake Elsinore, and the I-215 Placentia Avenue Interchange in Perris. Construction is set to begin this year on the I-15 Interim Corridor Operations Project between Corona and the Temescal Valley, the Moreno Valley/March Field Station Improvements Project in Riverside, and the 71/91 Interchange in Corona. Environmental studies will kick off on the I-10 Highland Springs Interchange in Banning and Beaumont, while design work will begin on the second contract for the Mid County Parkway east of I-215 in Perris.
RCTC also will continue to implement the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority’s Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. The plan aims to preserve 500,000 acres of land to provide habitat to 146 protected native species and expedite environmental approvals for transportation and development projects.
