LP mayor wins board seat

La Puente Mayor Louie Lujan can add one more job title to his resume: South Coast Air Quality Management District Board member.

His appointment was made official Friday morning at a swearing-in ceremony at the district's offices in Diamond Bar. In addition to more responsibility - he will now represent 35 cities in the district's Los Angeles County eastern region - he will also get a $100 per diem per meeting.

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La Puente Mayor Louie Lujan was sworn in Friday as the 13th member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board, according to officials.
Lujan will represent 35 cities in the district’s Los Angeles County eastern region in a four-year term, AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood said.
Of the 35 cities in the eastern region, representatives from 31 cities attended a special meeting Thursday night to elect Lujan from a pool of five other candidates.
The vacancy was essentially created through Senate Bill 886, which went into effect Jan. 1.
Under previous legislation, the South Coast Air Quality Management District — which governs four major Southern California counties — split up Los Angeles County into two separate regions, Atwood said.
Each region — the eastern and western region — had its own representative.
But the city of Los Angeles, which was always historically lumped with the western region, became its own separate region with Senate Bill 886.
As a result, the city of Los Angeles now has its own representative — Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry — increasing the total number of district board members from 12 to 13, according to the bill.
Tonia Reyes Uranga, a Long Beach councilwoman and the former representative for the eastern region, has taken over the western region.
Lujan is taking over Uranga’s former position and will serve on the board through Jan. 15, 2012.
With the exception of four cities, the eastern region mainly encompasses the San Gabriel Valley.