California construction authority installs new chair, vice chair

The Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority's (ACE) board recently elected El Monte, Calif., Mayor Pro Tem Norma Macias as chairman, and Montebello, Calif., Councilman Jack Hadjinian as vice chairman.

Macias has been an ACE board member since January 2012. Elected to the El Monte City Council in 2009, she serves as the city's delegate to the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments' governing board and the League of California Cities.

Hadjinian has served the board since March 2012. Elected to the Montebello City Council in 2011, he serves as the city's delegate to the governing boards of the San Gabriel Valley and Gateway Cities government councils.

Elected officials from the cities of El Monte, Industry, Montebello, San Gabriel, Pomona, the county of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments serve on ACE's seven-member board. ACE governs a $1.7 billion program in the San Gabriel Valley that calls for constructing 22 grade separations.

"The grade separations are needed to eliminate congestion, emissions from idling vehicles and safety hazards at crossings along the freight-rail corridors through our communities, which accommodate about 60 percent of the goods arriving in southern California, the nation's leading trade gateway," said Macias in a prepared statement.