SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Grocers Association hopes to get its retail and supplier members more involved with their legislators at the grassroots level, according to Ronald Fong, the group's new president and chief executive officer. In his first interview since taking the job in late March, Fong told SN his primary long-term goal is to supplement the work of the association's fulltime lobbyists by engaging as many CGA members as possible to discuss issues with legislators and try to influence their views. Toward that end, Fong said he hopes to meet one-on-one with as many members as possible over the next few years to get them involved in the process. Currently his top legislative priorities involve two recycling proposals and one on data breaches, all of which CGA opposes: a bill that would require grocery stores to demonstrate by mid-2011 they have decreased plastic-bag usage by 35%; a bill that would expand recycling laws to encompass any consumer product packaging made from plastic; and a bill that would require retailers to comply with PCI standards to protect consumer data and to reimburse financial institutions for the costs of re-issuing credit cards when security breaches occur because the standards were not met.

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