Posted on 07/05/2006 11:21:38 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Sunne Wright McPeak, secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, said she will leave the cabinet in November, regardless of whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wins re-election, to run a nonprofit aimed at bringing Internet access to urban poor and rural Californians.
McPeak, a Pleasanton resident, former president of the Bay Area Council and former Contra Costa County supervisor, has led the state's largest government agency since November 2003.
Hers will be the second announcement in two weeks of a cabinet member from the Bay Area stepping down. On June 23, former San Jose Rep. Norman Mineta announced he would be ending more than five years as U.S. transportation secretary on Friday.
"It's concerning to me that both Mineta and Sunne have chosen to leave at this time," said Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who represents the county on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
With a $37 billion infrastructure bond package on the state ballot in November and major federal transportation funding programs available, "having them at high positions of advocacy would have positioned us well to take advantage of those programs."
Asked why she chose to bow out of the governor's cabinet just as he could well be starting a second term, McPeak said she will still have a chance to shepherd the agency toward several key policy objectives she initiated during her three years and is "intrigued" and "energized" by her future job.
The news of her career change came from her future employer, California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevy. He announced Monday that directors of the nascent California Emerging Technology Fund, which he also chairs, had named McPeak as the nonprofit's first president and chief executive officer, effective Nov. 20.
The fund, created by the utilities commission in conjunction with the approval of the giant telecom mergers of Verizon and MCI and then AT&T and SBC, is aimed at bringing Internet access to remote rural areas and low-income urban areas. The two telecom conglomerates will bankroll the new entity as a condition of the PUC's approval.
The announcement included a tribute from Schwarzenegger:
"Sunne McPeak has done a great job for the people of California, and I will greatly miss her leadership, advice and counsel as a member of my cabinet. I am sorry to lose her in the administration but recognize the very important position she will be undertaking for California's future."
Having local people at the helm of the state and federal transportation agencies "is always a good thing" because they are keenly aware of issues that are important to the Bay Area, said Therese McMillan, deputy director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
And the area still has McPeak appointee Wil Kempton, director of Caltrans and veteran of the Santa Clara County Sales Tax Authority, as someone in a key position who knows the area's issues, McMillan said.
The area also could be indebted to McPeak's advocacy for the $2 billion Trade Corridors Program in the November bond issue. The statewide program, if approved by voters, would help truck-choked corridors like the Interstate 880-238-580 corridor that serves as a conduit for the Port of Oakland and a busy commuter route, McMillan said.
McPeak's relationship with her fellow Bay Area transportation officials was not always cordial, however. During the wrangling over funding for the signature East Span of the Bay Bridge, she drew the ire of many when she suggested that delays and cost overruns were due to Bay Area politicians' wrangling over bridge design.
McPeak said the bridge issue was one of several that she found "very time consuming."
This is good news.
Can we look forward to a non-leftist to replace her?
Or will we see another Agenda21, Sustainable Development type?
Maybe Leon Panetta is available. /s
Yes, she's all of what you said, but she was powerfully instrumental in the silicon valley's dot.com boom during the Clinton era!!! This could be significant!!!
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14960733.htm
McPeak, a Pleasanton resident, will be the first president and chief executive of the California Emerging Technology Fund, a San Francisco-based organization created with $60 million from the state-approved merger of four telecommunications firms.
She'll stay on as a $131,000-a-year cabinet secretary under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger until shortly after the November election. Her new job comes with a $200,000 salary.
McPeak -- a former Contra Costa County Supervisor, president of the Bay Area Economic Forum and head of the Bay Area Council -- was appointed to her post when Schwarzenegger took office in November 2003.
(snip)
In her new job, McPeak, 57, will oversee the development of broadband infrastructure for the California Emerging Technology Fund, a project created from the mergers of SBC and AT&T and of Verizon and MCA.
The mergers were approved by the California Public Utilities Commission on the condition that the companies collectively provide $60 million in shareholder contributions to the fund for five years.
The fund has its own board of directors, and will be independent of the commission. One of McPeak's responsibilities will be to seek partners to invest in broadband infrastructure that will benefit health clinics, hospitals and schools. Once the infrastructure is in place, McPeak said, the technology eventually could be expanded for the benefit of low-income residents.
But until then, McPeak plans to use her last four months in the administration to complete several projects, including regional housing plans, that face deadlines in the fall.
If Schwarzenegger is re-elected, McPeak will be a volunteer adviser to the infrastructure plan.
``I am sorry to lose her in the administration,'' Schwarzenegger said in a statement, ``but recognize the very important position she will be undertaking for California's future.''
I guess she won't jump ship until after the election, according to the merc news article I just posted above. And she'll still be a "volunteer adviser to the infrastructure plan."
& so much for Arnie "blowing up the boxes"
I could almost turn one into a cynical contrarian conservative in a hurry!!! Especially with all the propagandistas on FR these days. It's been such a blinding blizzard of BS that it's beginning to drift up deep behind the outhouses!!!
"Can we look forward to a non-leftist to replace her?"
Normally, I would say no; however, the Austrian knows he has to accelerate pandering to the conservatives because they have pretty much deserted him en masse. So, I will proffer a timid "maybe".
Hmmmm. I take it you are referring to the many Fair Opinion posts, plus those of several of her like minded pretend-conservative cohorts. That most certainly qualifies as a "blinding blizzard of BS"
I don't think so Waspman. I know Sunne pretty well. She was created, politically speaking, by another old friend, Dan Boatwright, who regardless of his membership in the dem party, has always been a conservative. Sunne has had her run-ins with the dem leadership on several occasions, and I don't even believe that the big-union faction would ever trust her. Ain't Kalifornia politics grand??
"You will know a tree by the fruit it bears".
When someone claims to be fiscally conservative, but they raise spending and borrow via bonds for operational expenses, they are not fiscally conservative. They are now down on two counts.
One for being liberal, and one for lying.
"Once the infrastructure is in place, McPeak said, the technology eventually could be expanded for the benefit of low-income residents."
Two comments;
Note the term "residents" and not "citizens"?? Minor point but it shows the direction things are going.
It must be nice to sit in a government position of persuasive capacity only to leave and get a $200K/yr job at an organization formed by..er..the same government you just left!!!
I wonder if she had any interaction as a government agent with the companies that formed that NP and how much her future role played in its successful formation?
At the risk of nitpicking, some might argue that, technically speaking, that is only one count inasmuch as the liberal subsumes the liar. One count.
1) Taxes 4 corporations $60M as part of a merger approval.
2) Stakes out the top job in the regulatory body which the taxes create.
3) Engineers a 54% increase in salary.
4) Becomes insulated from the political patronage system.
A shining example of the best and brightest in the Wilsonegger gang. The public-private partnership at its finest. One for all and all for the taxpayer's pocket. The new, Folino order.
You're probably right, though as I realized almost as soon as I typed that line that the $200,K salary had to be the big attraction for her. I liked her personally, it's just that she kept up that liberal type act that didn't make me crazy about her!!!
That liberal/socialist babble is key to success in govt.
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