1 MEETING DATE: June 25, 2025
AGENDA ITEM: 7. Clean California Community Designation
FROM: Ryan Bonk
RE: Clean California Community Designation
BACKGROUND:
The City has begun our "Community Cleanup Days" volunteer effort. To enhance the benefits of these efforts to the community overall, staff would like to Council to consider participation in the "Clean California Community" designation program as outlined in the attachments to this staff report.
This program was announced by Governor Newsom in 2024 and is described as "a statewide effort encouraging local engagement to make communities cleaner, safer, and more sustainable." The initiative is led by Caltrans to clean up, reclaim, transform, and beautify public spaces.
Participation in this program would make the City the 2nd entity in Caltrans district 2 to obtain this designation per the June 2025 pledge list attached.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Designation as a "Clean California Community provides the following benefits:
- Personalized “You Are Entering a Clean California Community” signage with the Clean California Community logo.
- Recognition on state websites and social media posts, and state-partnered media outreach. - Access to national grant opportunities, educational materials, and volunteer cleanup kits from Clean CA partner, Keep America Beautiful
In addition, by participating in this program staff believes we will be able to increase our outreach for volunteerism in the community by indicating a drive to not only beautify our community but to earn this designation as well as the benefits that come along with the designation.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the Council approve of the City pursuing the designation and participating in the program.
2 FISCAL IMPACT:
The financial impact to participating in this program will be that staff time will be utilized to ensure the requirements are met. The staff does not anticipate material costs for participation in this program only opportunity costs related to staff time.
ATTACHMENTS:
A. CLEANCA-COMMUNITY-DESIGNATION-1PAGE FINAL-WEB
B. CLEANCA-COMMUNITY-DESIGNATION-CHECKLIST FINAL-WEB
C. CLEAN-CA-DESIGNATION-PLEDGE-LIST-AS-OF-JUNE-9-2025
Do you take pride in your community – and want to make it even better? Would you like your community to be recognized as a beautiful and clean place to live? Then help the place you love become a Clean California Community! Caltrans has launched a new statewide designation to reward communities for their hard work in staying clean and beautiful.
Why become a Clean California Community?
Beyond the immediate benefits of beautification, your community – once designated – will also receive,
V Personalized “You Are Entering a Clean California Community” signage with the Clean California Community logo.
V Recognition on state websites and social media posts, and state-partnered media outreach.
V Access to national grant opportunities, educational materials, and volunteer cleanup kits (while supplies last) from Clean CA partner, Keep America Beautiful.
What constitutes a “community”?
This can be incorporated geographic areas, such as cities, towns, counties, municipal districts, and military bases. It can also include neighborhood groups, school districts, houses of worship areas, community group service areas, business improvement districts, watershed groups, and other unincorporated entities. An organized entity with a leadership structure is a likely start. If you’re not sure about your community, reach out and ask!
What is required to become a Clean California Community? The designation process itself is FREE. Your community must commit to meet 10 or more of the following criteria and be able to provide records that they were completed – many of which you may already be doing:
V Your community’s leader must sign the pledge. For a town, this could be a mayor. For an organization, it might be the president or executive director, for a religious organization, it might be the minister, priest, imam, or rabbi.
V Establish an informal Clean CA committee or some other advisory body. This could be an existing committee that you leverage for Clean CA.
V Get community input through a public meeting, a survey, a special event, or some other means of gathering feedback from the public on your community’s approach.
V Conduct an initial litter assessment to establish your baseline.
V Hold regular community cleanups. We recommend at least 4 each year – big or small.
V Establish metrics and measure regularly to track your clean community’s progress.
Make Your Community a
Clean California Community!
V Educate the community by providing signage, community programs, or school lessons* to clean up and prevent litter.
V Provide K-12 educational programs* to help inform anti-littering behaviors among the youngest generations.
V Offer some form of enforcement or deterrence to prevent future littering.
V Create a long-term plan to ensure your community becomes and/or stays clean.
V Place anti-litter infrastructure in key locations, such as trash and recycling bins that are emptied regularly or utilize regular street sweeping to clean as you go.
V Green and beautify your community by planting trees, gardens, or flower beds, or create public art to make your community more vibrant.
V Schedule/host collection drives for hard-to-recycle items, such as “dump days” or “amnesty days.”
V Engage at least 5 local business partners to support your campaign.
V Provide cigarette receptacles to help contain the most widely littered item on the planet.
How do I apply for this designation?
The first step is simple – the community must designate an authorized representative to sign a pledge stating that the community will pursue the designation. Then within the next year, the community must document that it meets at least 10 of the above criteria. Once you achieve this milestone, you can be designated as a Clean California Community!
Visit CleanCA.com to learn more about how your community can become a Clean California Community. You can download the pledge and access *educational and designation resources here.
Make Your Community a
Clean California Community!
{ Sign the Pledge
Designate a community leader to e-sign
thepledge. For a town, this could be a mayor;
for an organization it could be the Executive
Director, for a school it could be a principal, for
a district a supervisor, and so on.
{ Advisory Body
Establish an informal Clean CA committee or
some other advisory body. This could also be
an existing committee.
{ Community Input
Get community input through a public
meeting, survey, special event, virtual call or
another means of gathering feedback from the
public on your community’s approach.
{ Litter Assessment
Conduct an initial litter assessment to establish
your baseline and identify litter hotspots in
your community.
{ Cleanups
Organize community cleanups. We
recommend at least 4 each year, big or small.
{ Measure Progress
Establish metrics and measure regularly to track
your clean community’s progress. Things to
track include # of volunteers, # of cleanups,
and pounds of litter removed.
{ Community Education
Educate the broader public on the impacts
and solutions to litter by providing signage,
educational programs, or other public
awareness & behavior change strategies.
{ Youth Education
Provide K-12 educational programs to help
inform anti-littering behaviors among the
youngest generations. Communities can
leverage the K-12 Clean CA educational
resources to meet this requirement.
{ Infrastructure
Place anti-littering infrastructure in key locations.
This can include trash and recycling bins
that are emptied regularly, or utilizing street
sweeping to clean as you go.
{ Enforcement
Establish policies, technologies or programs that
prevent or deter future littering.
{ Long-term Planning
Hash out a long-term plan or strategy to ensure
the sustainability of your efforts so that your
community stays clean.
{ Greening & Beautification
Complement cleanups by implementing
greening and beautification activities - plant
trees, gardens or flower beds, or create public
art to make your community more vibrant.
{ Collection Drives
Schedule or host collection drives such as
“dump days” or “amnesty days” for hard-torecycle or bulky items like mattresses, e-waste, or household appliances.
{ Partnerships
Engage local stakeholders and businesses to
partner with you and support your campaign.
We recommend partnering with at least
3-5 businesses.
{ Cigarette Litter
Provide cigarette litter receptacles to help
contain the most widely littered item on Earth.
Community Designation Checklist
To attain designation, communities must
meet at least 10 of these 15 criteria
No. Leading Organization Community Type Caltrans
District
1 American Staffing Service Inc Sacramento Incorporation 3 2 Arroyo Grande in Bloom Arroyo Grande CBO 5
3 Belmont Redwood Shores
Sustainability Parent Group Redwood City CBO 4
4 Boyle Heights 5K Run Los Angeles CBO 7
5 California State University Sacramento University 3
6 Carmel Cares Carmel-by-the-Sea CBO 5
7 Carpinteria Beautiful Carpinteria CBO 5
8 Citizens Caring 4 Clearlake Clearlake Oaks CBO 1
9 City of Anaheim Anaheim Local Government 12
10 City of Bakersfield Bakersfield Local Government 6
11 City of Bell Gardens Bell Gardens Local Government 7 12 City of Capitola Capitola Local Government 5
13 City of Carson Carson Local Government 7
14 City of Cerritos Cerritos Local Government 7
15 City of Fontana Fontana Local Government 8
16 City of Fresno Fresno Local Government 6
17 City of Hawthorne Hawthorne Local Government 7
18 City of Irvine Irvine Local Government 12
19 City of Livermore Livermore Local Government 4
20 City of Los Angeles Los Angeles Local Government 7
21 City of Manhattan Beach Manhattan Beach Local Government 7 22 City of Merced Merced Local Government 10
23 City of Moreno Valley Moreno Valley Local Government 8 24 City of Oakland (Public Works
Division) Oakland Local Government 4
25 City of Oakley Oakley Local Government 4
26 City of Palmdale Palmdale Local Government 7
27 City of Paso Robles Paso Robles Local Government 5
28 City of Pinole Pinole Local Government 4
29 City of Riverside Riverside Local Government 8
30 City of San Jose San Jose Local Government 4
31 City of San Leandro San Leandro Local Government 4
32 City of Santa Ana Santa Ana Local Government 12
Initial participants in the Clean California Community Designation Program (Updated as of June 9, 2025)
*Hybrid - Nonprofit local government
For media inquiries, please contact Cami Crawford at [email protected].
No. Leading Organization Community Type Caltrans
District
Initial participants in the Clean California Community Designation Program (Updated as of June 9, 2025)
33 City of Santa Clarita Santa Clarita Local Government 7 34 City of South San Francisco South San Francisco Local Government 4 35 City of Tehachapi Tehachapi Local Government 9
36 Cleaner California Coast
Initiative Inverness CBO 4
37 Color the Block Sacramento CBO 3
38 Community Member Needles Community Member 8
39 Community Member San Diego Community Member 11
40 Comunidad de National Health
Foundaation (NHF) Los Angeles CBO 7
41 Corning Community of the Olive
Tree Corning CBO 2
42 County of Monterey Monterey County Government 5
43 County of San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo County Government 5 44 County of Santa Cruz/Pitch In
Initiative Santa Cruz Coalition 5
45 Downtown San Diego
Partnership and Downtown San
Diego Business Improvement
District
San Diego Business Association 11
46 East County Center for Change El Cajon CBO 11
47 Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) Edwards AFB,
Kern County Military Base 9
48 Fontana High School Fontana Campus 8
49 Friends of The Tracks at Brea Brea CBO 12
50 Fryberger Elementary Westminster Campus 12
51 Girl Scout Troup 3007 Sacramento CBO 3
52 Golden Valley Health Center Merced CBO 10
53 Goshen, CA Goshen Community Member 6
54 Gustin Downtown Business
Association Gustin Business Association 10
55 Hearts of Gold Ladera Ranch CBO 12
56 Hillcrest, San Diego San Diego CBO 11
*Hybrid - Nonprofit local government
For media inquiries, please contact Cami Crawford at [email protected].
No. Leading Organization Community Type Caltrans
District
Initial participants in the Clean California Community Designation Program (Updated as of June 9, 2025)
57 Hmong Youth and Parents
United - Sacramento Sacramento CBO 3
58 Holly's Ploggers Corona CBO 8
59 I Love A Clean San Diego San Diego CBO 11
60 Keep Oakland Beautiful Oakland CBO 4
61 Keep Riverside Clean & Beautiful Riverside CBO 8
62 Kelseyville Business Association Kelseyville CBO 1
63 Kern River Valley Chamber of
Commerce Lake Isabella Business Association 6
64 LEAD Filipino San Jose CBO 4
65 MTO Shahmaghsoudi School Berkeley CBO 4
66 MTO Shahmaghsoudi School Hillsborough CBO 4
67 OC Habitats Orange County CBO 12
68 OCA East Bay, Oakland
Chinatown PickITup Oakland CBO 4
69 Ocean Institute Dana Point Visitor Center 11
70 Pacific Beach Coalition Pacifica Coalition 4
71 Pacific Grove Cares Pacific Grove Community Member 5 72 Pacific Marine Mammal Center Laguna Beach CBO 12
73 Pacoima Beautiful Los Angeles CBO 7
74 PacOUt Green Teams Eureka CBO 1
75 Ransom House of Hope Los Angeles CBO 7
76 Refuse Refuse San Francisco San Francisco CBO 4
77 Resources for Older Americans
& Retirees (ROAR) Byron CBO 4
78 Revilatize Broadway Lemon
Grove Lemon Grove CBO 11
79 Rio Dell Community Resource
Center Rio Dell CBO 1
80 Rio Hondo College Rio Hondo University 7
81 RioVision Rio Vista CBO 3
82 Rising Communities
(West Athens) Los Angeles CBO 7
*Hybrid - Nonprofit local government
For media inquiries, please contact Cami Crawford at [email protected].
No. Leading Organization Community Type Caltrans
District
Initial participants in the Clean California Community Designation Program (Updated as of June 9, 2025)
83 San Clemente Rotary San Clemente CBO 12
84 Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority San Jose County Government 4
85 Saylove Sutter and Yuba Love Yuba City CBO 3
86 Senator Angelique Ashby's
Office Sacramento Senator 3
87 Shorebird Park Nature Center Berkeley CBO 4
88 South Yuba City Yuba City Local Government 3
89 Stand Up To Trash Dana Point CBO 12
90 Surfrider Foundation Orange County CBO 12
91 Tahoe Park Neighborhood
Association Sacramento CBO 3
92 Team Up to Clean Up San Mateo CBO 4
93 Town of Truckee Truckee Local Government 3
94 Vermont Knolls Neighborhood Los Angeles CBO 7
95 Watsonville Wetlands Watch Watsonville CBO 5
96 West Athens Steering
Committee Los Angeles CBO 7
97 Western Riverside Council of
Governments Riverside Local Government 8
98 Wrightwood Community Wrightwood CBO 8
99 Yosemite Street Village Stockton CBO 10
*Hybrid - Nonprofit local government
For media inquiries, please contact Cami Crawford at [email protected].