Clients Success

Client Success Stories

FOREWORD

With mutual trust and respect – borne of honorable State service and credible advocacy across deacdes – TGG often leads regulatory and legislative working groups for our clients and for entire sectors…and sometimes, for the common weal.

And it’s knowing about how to walk common ground. Especially when legislative and regulatory operations are remote, personal relationships are essential. Group meetings in virtual formats don’t deliver – you must find the one-on-one environments, too.

Examples from our 2021 portfolio follow. We are pleased to provide details and to put you in direct contact with the managing advocate for each success below.

LEGISLATIVE & BUDGET

Count your votes…carefully…Opposing a bill about to come to a vote, our advocate worked with allies to craft messaging and then to tell their stories to several key legislators. The bill sponsor and legislator, certain of the outcome, asked the the committee Chair to bring it forward. Only then did the sponsor and legislator discover a well-crafted, factual information-sharing initiative had eroded support. The bill lost.

Curing legislative amnesia…Term-limited Legislatures lose their institutional knowledge annually and TGG can help keep the opposition from reworking established deals. Leveraging the chaos of pandemic fiscal issues, detractors of California’s Cap-and-Trade program launched an assault to rewrite the program in a budget trailer bill. TGG spearheaded rallying a major coalition of associations, businesses, and utilities to early opposition and direct conversations with legislators, staff, and the administration. Ultimately, the budget negotiations stripped these detrimental provisions and we successfully preserved policy agreements from a previous administration.

Even a done deal must be closely watched with friends in low places…a medium-sized city with recent financial difficulties and an impaired water supply joined with TGG over the course of four years to win a highly competitive $10-million grant for a treatment facility, as well as a 1% loan. Then a 20-year-old litigation settlement needed to be re-negotiated with two State departments, vetted with the governor’s office…in a few months, so the funds could be awarded. TGG organized briefings, carefully explained interwoven issues and stakes and communicated with all concerned. Settled, re-settled and re-settled again. Or so it was thought, until one of the departments failed to make a timely payment and TGG on a Friday evening during a holiday contacted the governor’s office to clarify the terms and urgency…payment made.

Tight state budgets still have money…In tough times, persistence and shoe leather win.

• Navigating a complicated maze of regional rivalries and competing efforts, we deployed a strong agenda of facts and ROI to gain $300 million over two fiscal years for a water infrastructure agency. This also involved several state and federal agencies being kept informed and coordinated. Appropriation made.
• A well-known, statewide charitable organization required extensive, detailed contacts with about two dozen legislators to lift up this worthy social service program to visibility and a level of knowledge that won $80 million in directed spending for this fiscal year.
• Another regional entity required water management structure and funding for a river basin seldom considered. Enlisting a highly respected, high-profile legislator and executive careful, detailed fiscal committee work, we enabled a full resolution.

REGULATORY

No hyperbole. Delivering sound policy for all stakeholders by nuts-and-bolts experts…the journeypersons of public service. Examples for you:

• Natural Resources and CalEPA regulatory compliance costs increased 265% from 2012-28, according to a recent Cal Poly SLO research study. TGG formed, obtained SWRCB unanimous support and leads the quarterly workshops with permitholders and SWRCB staff to manage and control the costs of compliance. This includes fees.
• The California Air Resources Board (CARB) Scoping Plan is a core air quality playbook that is reviewed annually.  Our TGG advocate, with a trusted record of engagement exceeding a decade, integrates clients’ practical experience into the key scenario development.
• Wireless broadband is essential for rural services like education, health care delivery and economic development. Building on our higher ed client, we spent 4 years gathering allies, coordinating complex, multi-agency regulatory approvals and program creation and finally, finally won the governor’s endorsement and a large appropriation. Last step: Reminding all those entities of where the needs are.

It begins with that first handshake…expensive and complex, a deluge of new regulations confronted the new general manager of one of the state’s largest special districts. TGG quickly arranged and facilitated personal visits with all State Water Board members and senior executives; with Dept of Water Resources executives and with Dept. of Conservation leaders. In less than 6 weeks. Followed by mutual understanding on issues and collaboration for compliances terms and funding.

Even when it’s over, it’s not over and then it gets complicated…The grants were in, the project begun and the payments from a state department could not happen. It seems the bureaucrats needed to be reminded in detail of a 20-year-old negotiated settlement among the local agency, regulators and Governor’s Office. Needless to say, much quick and detailed work with several parties. All worked out, though.

Controlling the costs of compliance… After five years of patiently making our positive points to the State Water Board members and senior staff, we won the unanimous express support of the Board to establish a stakeholder – staff working group to mutually review and develop regulatory programs. Stakeholders from local governments and the private sector have significant water quality and water rights expertise that could assist regulators in more precise programs that contain costs. One of our advocates is now working with the Vice Chair and a Member on the groundrules for 2022 and beyond.

$120 million in grants and loans for infrastructure and we’re still going strong…one of California’s largest cities and TGG for the past 5 years teamed up to coordinate a master plan, a winning ballot measure for a rate increase, multiple meetings and presentations to state officials, negotiations on a portfolio of grants and loans that ultimately added to north of $120 million. Now, we’re crafting a new master plan and an expanded funding portfolio.

Cleaning up one of the nation’s largest Super Fund sites. A Los Angeles-area groundwater clean-up agency merited a State Water Board waiver of a Prop. 68 grant cap for its $20-million project to continue to remediate legacy pollution and to stop migrating contaminants. We worked with the client, water board staff and the Board to educate and to obtain approval.

Coalitions do heavy lifting – even when the objective is lighter than air… A group of companies seeking to elevate legislative and regulatory knowledge of hydrogen end-uses selected TGG as their regulatory partner. With the immediate advocacy needs to finish the launch and get California Energy Commission funding out the door, we went to work immediately to create a new association simultaneously with pursuing better acceptance for the need to develop hydrogen production and refueling infrastructure. Within a few short months the membership has met with dozens of legislators and regulatory officials creating renewed interest in the promise of the hydrogen economy. Association members won 29 of the 36 refueling stations receiving grant funding in 2020. While there is still tremendous work to be done, our efforts have markedly increased awareness for the solutions and benefits of the hydrogen as an energy and the potential of the maturing end uses members of this association produce.

Coalitions are powerful. Most are permanent, based on allied trade groups. But some coalitions are ad hoc, created fast and on-the-fly to respond and to create. Example…a regulatory agency appointed an advisory group that excluded voices and input from industry workers. We helped coalesce an impromptu labor and business group to place a few folks on the panel. Voices heard and heeded.

PROCUREMENTS

Procurements, there is no second place!

Always watching the horizon…A state department with a decade-long funding and management problem leading to structural insolvency. The Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, an enabling law for restructuring. The department issued the RFP. Since we’d been engaged from step one, our client new the problem and answer like no other. Solution delivered, which, BTW, led to two more similar wins.

Patience and persistence…TGG was part of our tech client’s positioning and pursuit for a multi-million-dollar, multi-year RFP to deliver and operate a better healthcare management system. Competing over the course of two years, we won the contract and displaced an entrenched incumbent.  Deploying carefully designed and deliberate teamwork, we coordinated intel-gathering, introductory conversations and presentations.

Covid and winning trust for the vaccines…Persuading a vast and diverse populace to understand and then get the vaccine – it was an accelerated procurement that required quickly assembling client experts and tools, and then collaborating closely with specialized, high-level regulators to launch and manage an elaborate, multi-aspect temporary program.

Another TGG client was new to California…A Back East commercial lines insurer pursuing a database re-design and operation RFP. We introduced the team to state managers, obtained a clear understanding of goals and aspirations…combined the client’s deep experience from other states with our California expertise. Result? A win.

TGG

TGG advocates serve our communities, and the Firm provides significant support for diverse nonprofits and causes.

For example, Jack Gualco was recently honored for the Firm’s commitment to Hispanas Organized for Political Equity (HOPE), and we’re pleased to share this 2020 citation:

These individuals consistently contribute their time and expertise to the HOPE Leadership Institute curriculum. Their contributions include leading dynamic workshops, sharing the latest data and trends, providing opportunities for field-based learning, and challenging participants to think and act in new ways.

They are recognized experts in their respective fields and find value in training Latinas through the HOPE Leadership Institute.  We are proud to have these individuals affiliated with HOPE and acknowledge that it is their participation and commitment to the Institute that make it truly unique and exemplary.
https://www.latinas.org/hli-consultants

Co-founded and host two pro bono groups of senior executives from private sector, State agencies, academia, nonprofits:

• California Food Waste Roundtable, formed in 2013 to connect public and private interests to reduce food waste and feed hungry people. We worked to obtain $300 million in FY21-22 food distribution funding from the State for the CA Assn of Food Banks. We’ve invested significant IP in CalRecycle’s food waste “intervention” law, which becomes operational this FY. Collaborating with UC Davis College of Ag & Environmental Sciences, we sparked unique research into reducing on-farm food loss.
• Ag Tech & Economic Development Roundtable (AgTED), which promotes rural economic development by advance agricultural technology development and adoption. We worked since our 2013 founding to create funding for rural high-speed broadband, and the State in 2020 funded a pair of initiatives. AgTED also serves to ground truth emerging ag tech with growers, and connects the regulators who drive compliance pathways with tech developers and farmers. Real-world discussions ensue.

…the kind of success that belongs to you @ TGG!