Turlocker Mike Lynch has long been involved in the political and government sphere, but this year marks the first time he is being recognized by the California Chamber of Commerce as a Small Business Advocate of the Year — just one of four individuals selected from among the 480 chambers that comprise Cal Chamber. 

“We submitted a binder to Cal Chamber that detailed the things Mike has done for our local community and at the state level and the list is just endless. We have some wonderful people in our community but Mike Lynch is just stellar,” said President and CEO of the Turlock Chamber of Commerce Sharon Silva.

Born in Sacramento and a graduate of Santa Clara University, Lynch relocated to Turlock in the 1980s to work on Gary Condit’s State Assembly campaign before he went bicoastal to serve as Condit’s Chief of Staff during Condit’s tenure as a Congressman in Washington, D.C. Upon his return to California Lynch founded a consulting firm in Modesto where he manages clients with interests in public policy, public relations, and public outreach.

“I teach them how to frame discussions and convey positions so that they are understandable,” explained Lynch.

When he isn’t working with clients Lynch serves on a multitude of boards that includes currently sitting on the Board of Directors for the Turlock Chamber of Commerce as well as serving as chair of the Government Relations Committee for the Chamber. At the county level he serves on the County Retirement Board as well as the Stanislaus Water Advisory Committee to which he was appointed by the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors. Across his entire community involvement one common theme throughout Lynch’s initiatives is that he spends time leading efforts to improve “the quality of life” in Turlock and the region largely as it relates to transportation.

One of Lynch’s current projects includes aiming to acquire self help status for Stanislaus County that would provide the county access to millions of dollars in state and federal funds.  Lynch is currently working to promote a half-cent county wide self-help transportation tax that would appear on the November 2016 ballot. Some of the funds would go towards the creation of a south county corridor that would connect Highway 99 with Interstate 5.

According to Lynch the creation of the south county corridor would “make our Industrial Park more attractive to investors if there is access to I-5” thus promoting local commerce and in turn elevating the quality of life of the area.

“For any community to succeed you need jobs for people, and in order for there to be jobs businesses need to be able to successfully operate, and for that to happen we need access to transportation. For us as an agricultural community this is extremely important in regards to exports,” explained Lynch.

Having honed his expertise at the local, state, and federal levels Lynch intends to continue to promote causes that benefit citizens of the local and regional community and according to Lynch he has good company in which to do this.  

“The civic infrastructure in Turlock is of a high level and high quality. It really is a community that works with itself not against itself,” said Lynch.