[Educationforall] Brown appoints Schwarzenegger's finance director

Tue Dec 14 06:42:50 UTC 2010

Get ready for 'Republican cuts with Democratic characteristics.'

-------

This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California / State Politics

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/08/v-print/3241037/jerry-brown-makes-budget-health.html

Jerry Brown makes budget, health appointments
dsiders at sacbee.com 
Published Wednesday, Dec. 08, 2010

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown announced the first appointments of his administration Tuesday, including the reappointment of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director, Ana Matosantos.

Diana Dooley, legislative secretary and special assistant to Brown when he was governor before, will be appointed secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency, Brown announced.

Dooley is president and CEO of the California Children's Hospital Association. 

Brown, facing an estimated $25.4 billion budget deficit, has worked closely with Matosantos to prepare a budget proposal for January, and her appointment was expected.

"She certainly knows where all the skeletons are buried," said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University. "To that extent, he (Brown) can start moving forward right away, rather than spend so much time playing catch-up."

Matosantos, 35, and Dooley, 59, are Democrats, as is Brown.

"Ana has what it takes to manage the Department of Finance during this period of fiscal crisis," Brown said in a prepared statement. Finance officials believe Matosantos will become the first finance department director to serve under governors of different parties.

The announcement preceded a budget forum Brown is hosting today in Sacramento. Lawmakers, constitutional officers and some 1,200 local officials were invited to attend.

Matosantos stepped down Monday as Schwarzenegger's finance director and joined Brown's transition team Tuesday, according to finance spokesman H.D. Palmer. Schwarzenegger appointed chief deputy finance director Cynthia Bryant to replace Matosantos for the rest of his term. 

Dooley will take over the Health and Human Services Agency as the state implements federal health care reform and grapples with funding for social services. Her appointment affords her a post on a powerful five-member board that will be responsible for running a state-run health insurance exchange.

Dooley said the state's safety net is "stretched to the point of being tattered in places" and that her challenge will be to preserve essential services with limited funding.

"It isn't a pretty picture," Dooley said. "There will be very difficult decisions to be made, and there will have to be sacrifices made by everyone."

Though Brown has waited longer than some previous governors to announce appointments to his administration, his doing so Tuesday came earlier than in 1974, when Brown first won election. That year, it wasn't until the final days of December that Brown announced his first appointments. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/educationforall/attachments/20101213/567b3a8b/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 8578 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/educationforall/attachments/20101213/567b3a8b/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/educationforall/attachments/20101213/567b3a8b/attachment.obj>