Transcript of Gov. Schwarzenegger Highlighting Mortgage Protection Legislation

For Immediate Release: Contact: Aaron McLear

Monday, October 19, 2009 Kira Heinrichs

916-445-4571

Transcript of Gov. Schwarzenegger Highlighting Mortgage Protection Legislation

Time: 10 a.m.

Date: Monday, October 19, 2009

Event: Press Conference, Lobby of Merced City Hall, Merced Civic Center, 678 West 18th Street, Merced, California.

MAYOR WOOTEN:

All right. Welcome to Merced and I'm extremely happy that the Governor is here today to sit at this table and sign some of these bills. You know, as you know, Merced has been called ground zero in the foreclosure market. These bills will help many, many people.

And now, before the Governor speaks, I'd like to introduce a few of the people who are here today. First of all, obviously, the Governor. And second, the mayor, Ellie Wooten. (Laughter) Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani. Lift your hand, because some of them do not know who you are. (Applause) Assemblymember Ted Leiu. (Applause) Senator Ron Calderon. (Applause) Senator Jeff Denham. (Applause) Assemblymember Paul Fong. (Applause) Assemblymember Mike Feuer. (Applause) Preston DuFauchard, commissioner, California Department of Corporations. (Applause) I hope I pronounced the last name close. (Laughter) Jeff Davi, commissioner, Department of Real Estate. (Applause) Larry Morse, district attorney, Merced County District Attorney's Office and member of the California District Attorneys Association. (Applause) Marjorie -- excuse me. Marjorie Murray, vice president, California Alliance for Retired Americans and I believe she's tucked over there. (Applause) Richard Dahlgren, chair, Merced County Area Agency on Aging and member of the California Senior Legislation. (Applause) Michael Richard, associate state director, AARP of California. (Applause) Prescott Coe, senior staff attorney, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, several AARP members that are in red shirts. (Applause) There's one, there's one. (Applause) We also have City Councilmember Michele Gabriault-Acosta, who is now the president of the Board of Realtors. Raise your hand, please. (Applause) Mayor Pro Tem John Carlisle. (Applause) And from the Merced County Board of Supervisors we have Supervisor Kelsey. (Applause)

And you know, you always miss someone. So if I missed someone, raise your hand. (Laughter) OK, then I'm not chasing you.

At this time it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the Governor of the great state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Applause) Thank you, Governor.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Well, thank you very much, Mayor Wooten, for the nice introduction. And I'm so glad that I can eliminate my two cards that has all the names on it, (Laughter) because you already mentioned everybody, so I'm not going to do it again. But thank you very much.

Before I begin I just want to take a moment to pay tribute to an outstanding woman that I have admired every since I've met here and I'm talking about Carol Tomlinson-Keasey. Carol died nine days ago and she left an amazing legacy here in Merced. Carol was the founding chancellor of UC Merced and we know that the campus exists today because of her great leadership, her great determination and great perseverance. Carol actually led the effort to build UC Merced and proudly gave me a personal campus tour. And even though she passed on, we will never forget the great contributions that she has made to the state of California and also to the education system, so we want to thank her.

Now let's talk about why we're here and this is I'm very happy to say that we have some good news here for homeowners in California. We're taking action to give people the tools to stay in their homes and to end abusive lending practices and to promote home ownership. We know that the foreclosure crisis continues in California and all across the country, so many Californians are suffering because of these difficult economic times and my heart goes out to all of them. Merced County, where we are today, ranks fourth in the foreclosure crisis in the United States.