As the year winds down, and as COVID-19 fatigue drags on, the state is seeing high turnover among the more than 3,000 people the governor appoints to California boards and commissions.
In all, there are 164 vacancies as Gov. Gavin Newsom heads into the final year of his term.
Appointments tend to get some attention when a governor first takes office, as he fills high-profile jobs such as the head of the High-Speed Rail Authority or seats on the influential Air Resources Board. But there are dozens of seats open to members of the public at any given time on boards overseeing everything from cannabis control to sex offender management.
“There really is something for every interest and area of expertise,” said State Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, who held an online workshop Thursday evening to “demistify the appointments process” for residents.
Cathryn Rivera-Hernandez, appointments secretary for Newsom’s office, said that with the current level of churn, her team is going to see the governor every week or two with 30 to 50 new appointments to approve.
“We will continue to see changes at every level of the administration, as well as on boards and commissions as we head into the end of this this year,” she said. “But it also creates opportunities.”
What positions are open?
The latest vacancy list features a few dozen slots on county fair boards, including the San Bernardino County, Antelope Valley and San Fernando Valley fair boards.
There also are openings for a number of cultural positions, including with the African American Museum, the Arts Council and the Cultural & Historical Endowment.
Then there are slots in the area of healthcare, including the chiropractic examiners board, the dental board and the medical board. Those members help make major decisions about regulations and policies in those fields.
Other openings are tied to everything from education to building standards to earthquake safety to the state lottery.
While vacancies on, say, the film commission often are very competitive, Rivera-Hernandez said it can be hard to fill slots on local water boards or other lower-profile commissions.
New openings pop up each month, as people resign or finish out their terms. If there’s a position someone is particularly interested in that’s not listed as vacant, Rivera-Hernandez recommended reaching out to the deputy who oversees that board or commission.
“Establish those relationships with the deputies,” she said. “They can provide the most up-to-date information.”
Who can apply?
Many positions are open to all residents of California. There’s no citizenship requirement. And in some cases, Rivera-Hernandez said they actually look for undocumented immigrants to fill roles so those voices are represented on state boards.
Many licensing boards have both licensee and public slots. On the optometry board, for example, there are slots for licensed optometrists and for members of the public.
Don’t assume you need a background in the subject area to apply, Rivera-Hernandez said. For some roles, appointees can’t have a direct personal financial interest in the field, making it unlikely that they work in that area. But Rivera-Hernandez said they need those outside voices for balance.
Political outlook no doubt plays a role in the Democratic governor’s appointments to high-profile paid positions and slots on key boards. But Rivera-Hernandez insists partisanship is not a factor in most appointments unless it’s required to balance perspectives on certain boards. She noted, for example, that they recently appointed a Republican woman to the horse racing board.
Some positions do require that you live in certain counties or parts of the state, such as an opening for a High Sierras resident on the Travel and Tourism Commission.
Other openings were more limited by geography in the past, with a need to attend regular in-person meetings in Sacramento. Now that the coronavirus pandemic has moved those meetings to Zoom, Rivera-Hernandez said people from throughout the state can more easily serve. And she said there’s talk about some of those changes becoming permanent.
What’s the committment?
Terms of these appointments generally range from two to five years. People can apply to be reappointed, though some boards have term limits. Licensing boards, for example, are limited to two terms.
But Rivera-Hernandez said the No. 1 obstacle they run into is appointees underestimating how much time they need to devote to the board or commission.
“We have some boards that I would describe as part-time jobs,” Rivera-Hernandez said. “Others only take a few hours a month to participate in monthly meetings.”
She recommends looking at past board meeting minutes to get a sense of how long meetings last and how involved they become. They can also ask the deputy overseeing that board for a sense of the time commitment each month and seeing if that lines up with their work, school and family schedules.
Basic online searches also can show how high-profile the position might be, Rivera-Hernandez cautioned, since some volunteers might not be fans of seeing their name in the newspaper if the board has to handle controversial topics.
Will I get paid?
While there are full-time and part-time paid appointments that can make more than $200,000 a year, the vast majority of the slots — including the 164 board positions now open — are for volunteers.
Volunteers do generally get a $100 per diem for each meeting, which Rivera-Hernandez said is aimed at compensating them for time they need to take off work to attend or prepare for meetings.
Once they return to some in-person meetings, she said they’ll also start reimbursing appointees again for travel expenses.
The experience itself also has proven valuable for many past appointees, who sometimes use their term to springboard them into other government or political work.
How are appointees chosen?
The governor’s office has 12 staff members who sift through all applications submitted through their website. They select candidates for a series of interviews, then typically take the top candidate to Newsom for his sign off before many positions must go up for State Senate approval.
Occassionally, Rivera-Hernandez said, they bring Newsom a slate of potential candidates and he’ll make the decision. But she said they often just bring their top choice.
Rivera-Hernandez said Newsom typically asks two key questions of the candidates they recommend: Why they want to serve, and what it is about their background that’s going to make them a good fit? She said Newsom likes candidates who have a story to share. That includes comeback stories that drive candidates to want to serve.
“That sense of purpose will get you very far in this process,” she said. So she advised people not to take themselves out of the game for a position just because they might have, say, a bankruptcy or something else in their past that they fear might disqualify them.
“I’ll repeat what (this governor) has said many times, and that is he wants an administration that looks like the people he serves.”
For more information on appointments or to apply, visit gov.ca.gov/appointments/.
