OAKLAND, Calif., March 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The
Metropolitan Transportation Commission rounded out its leadership
team on Wednesday by unanimously electing Rohnert Park
Councilmember Jake Mackenzie to serve as vice chair for the
two-year term running through February
2017. Santa Clara County
Supervisor Dave Cortese was elected
MTC's chair at the Commission's February meeting.
Mackenzie brings to his assignment four years as the chair of
MTC's Operations Committee, and six-and-a-half years overall as an
MTC commissioner. He was first appointed to MTC in 2008 as
Sonoma County's representative on
the Commission. Mackenzie was reappointed to a four-year term in
2011 and again in February 2015.
"I take up this position in honor of William R. "Bill" Lucius of
Sonoma County, a founding member
of the Commission in 1971 and chair from 1980 to 1983," Mackenzie
said. "Bill was a tremendous leader in the county and the region,
and I will strive to be the excellent public servant that he
was."
A Scotsman by birth and an agricultural scientist by training,
Mackenzie earned his Ph.D. from Oregon State
University in 1971. During a 30-year career at the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, he held senior positions in
pesticide regulation, and served from 1984 to 2002 as the EPA's
Western Director, Office of Pesticide Programs.
Mackenzie was first elected to the Rohnert Park City Council in
1996, and in his nearly 20 years of service to the city he also has
served as Rohnert Park's mayor. He
is deeply engaged in issues affecting not just transportation, but
also the environment, land use and regional policy. Mackenzie
currently serves on the boards of the Sonoma County Transportation
Authority/Regional Climate Protection Authority (SCTA/RCPA), the
Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit District (SMART), and the
Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) where he also serves on
the Executive Committee.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is charged with
planning, financing and coordinating transportation for the nine
counties comprising the San Francisco Bay
Area, a mission that also extends to integrating
transportation facilities and services with development while
promoting sustainability. MTC oversees several travel resources in
the Bay Area, including the free 511 traveler information system
(on the phone at 511 and on the Web at 511.org), the
Clipper® transit fare card and the FasTrak®
electronic toll collection system.
MTC's Commission also serves as the governing board overseeing
the work of two affiliated agencies, the Bay Area Toll Authority
(BATA) and the Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways
(SAFE), and Commissioner Mackenzie will serve as vice chair of
those bodies as well.
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SOURCE Metropolitan Transportation Commission