SB 1406 Signed by Governor

Email from David Redmond, OD Pres. COA

I am pleased (and relieved) to tell you that, shortly after 6 PM last night, Governor Schwarzenegger signed our scope expansion bill, Senate Bill 1406 (Correa and Aanestad). It will be chaptered by the Secretary of State and will take effect on January 1, 2009. I'm attaching a document that demonstrates graphically how current law will be changed for the better.

This is the most amazing team effort I've ever been a part of. Thanks go first and foremost to you and all COA members for providing the resources, support, and encouragement that made this victory possible. Our Sacramento team - Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, O.D., his Chief of Staff, Walter Hughes, and Legislative Director, Tim Valderrama; Doctors Duane deCroupet and Lee Goldstein, who form the Legislation and Regulation Committee's Executive Committee, along with me; the other six Committee members; our Board of Trustees; advocates Cliff Berg of Governmental Advocates, Inc., and Terry McHale of Aaron Read & Associates; and Tim Hart, Sean South, and Julie Andrade, COA's GEAD staff - worked tirelessly and executed flawlessly. My deepest thanks to all of you.

We still have work to do. We have many members of the legislative and executive branches of California government to thank and we must begin Phase Two - regulatory implementation of the new glaucoma certification process - soon. I'll be in touch with you again to begin those processes.

For now, though, please enjoy this news as much as I am. Take the weekend off and have a cold one on me.

Sincerely,

David Redman, O.D.
COA President