Business View Civil & Municipal l November 2022

64 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 The town of Coalinga is growing and welcoming new families to the area. To encourage such expansion the city makes it its priority to keep its valued partners by its side and to work collaboratively with outstanding partners such as the highly regarded Coalinga-Huron Unified School District With educational initiatives that are second to none, the Coalinga-Huron Unified School District ensures that the schools in the region are providing learning environments and instructional programs that both inspire and challenge students. Offering attractive, modern, clean, and safe facilities, the Coalinga-Huron Unified School district utilizes strong communication channels with its stakeholders and partners. Represented by a five-member board consisting of distinguished and experienced trustees that are each elected for a four-year term, the principles upon which the Coalinga-Huron Unified School District rests are reflected through a clearly defined mandate. Always ensuring that there remains a strong commitment to operate with the highest level of integrity, offering transparency while always regarding the teachers and school staff as the most valuable assets, the board works tirelessly to achieve its goals. With a dedication to fiscal accountability and always accountability to both teachers and parents, the Coalinga-Huron Unified School District continues to provide the ideal environment and facility to ensure a first-rate education for the valued families that call Coalinga home. ...... For more information, please visit our website www.chusd.org Marketing Coalinga as “the most business- friendly city in the state of California”, the city has compiled a list of reasons they believe this to be true. On that list is the way COVID was handled in the community, as Trejo recounts, “Our governor said that only the essential businesses could stay open. For us, in Coalinga, because we are so isolated and so independent and reliant on all of our businesses, we didn’t feel that that was fair. So, our City Council adopted a resolution declaring all businesses in Coalinga as essential businesses.” This bold act resulted in the city being denied CARES act funding for not complying, but Trejo says, “For us as a community, it was worth it. We didn’t really lose businesses during COVID as many other communities did.” Stressing that precautions were taken to ensure safety, she adds, “It’s not like we were being careless. It’s just we allowed them all to open and find ways that they could continue to stay open and provide services to the community in a safe way.” Streamlining the planning process is also part of the business-friendly environment in Coalinga, with Trejo reporting that excellent customer service is a priority throughout the city’s streamlined planning and building processes. “We are a small city, so when someone comes in, if they’re a developer, they don’t have to deal with all these layers of city government,” she shares, explaining that it is herself or the Assistant City Manager, Sean Brewer who