SACRAMENTO - State Treasurer John Chiang on Thursday announced several major appointments to his executive staff.

Chiang, who previously served two terms as state controller, was sworn into his new office on Jan. 5.

Collin Wong-Martinusen, 44, will serve as chief of staff. Most recently, he served as Chiang’s chief of staff at the State Controller’s Office. During his tenure, the office set productivity records in nearly all major lines of business, including optimizing the use of its auditing authority to root-out $9.5 billion in government waste and inefficiency.  

Previously, he ran the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, where he improved the agency’s health care fraud prosecutions by 116 percent and elder abuse prosecutions by 797 percent.

Under his leadership, the bureau was twice recognized as the top performing health care fraud prosecutorial agency in the nation.

He also held several positions in the State Senate, including as policy advisor to the president pro tempore.

In this capacity, he was lead staff in drafting and negotiating a seminal 1997 tax relief package – commonly referred to as “Mega-Deal” – that provided nearly $1 billion in tax relief to middle-class Californians. It was the largest tax cut for personal income taxpayers since World War II.

Wong-Martinusen is a Democrat and a graduate of the University of Southern California.

Tim Schaefer, 67, will serve as deputy treasurer for public finance. Schaefer previously served as senior financial advisor to the state controller. He also founded and operated an Orange County-based public finance advisory firm after serving as president at a similar firm in Southern California and a regional vice president with a national financial advisory practice. 

As a consultant, Schaefer was called upon several times during the worst cash crises of the past three decades to assist the state with the structuring and sale of complex cash flow borrowings.

The largest of these borrowings exceeded $10 billion; another involved one of the largest sales of medium term notes ever attempted in the national markets. 

He began his 40-year career as a municipal bond salesman, syndicate manager, and secondary market trader.

Later, he managed the national municipal trading desk at Chemical Bank and the Public Finance Division of Bank of America. Schaefer is a Democrat.

Vince Brown, 62, will serve as deputy treasurer for administration and fiscal policy.

Brown has nearly 40 years of experience in public finance and budgeting. He currently serves as chief executive officer of the Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association Board of Retirement, which holds an investment portfolio of more than $6.9 billion.

Brown also served as the first CEO of Santa Barbara County Employees’ Retirement System, and as a global director at Grant Thornton LLP. 

He worked as chief deputy director at the department of finance, where he managed the state’s budget process. He also served as chief operating officer for the state controller, along with numerous positions in both the California and New York state legislatures. He also served as co-chair for the Sacramento Unified School District's first Bond Oversight Committee. 

Brown has a bachelor of arts degree in Political Science from LeMoyne College, as well as a master’s degree in public administration from the State University of New York at Albany.

Brown is a registered as decline to state. His appointment becomes effective on March 16.

Grant Boyken, 45, will serve as deputy treasurer for retirement security and healthcare. Boyken previously served as the treasurer’s pension and benefits officer.

In that capacity, he was the treasurer’s lead representative on the CalPERS and CalSTRS governing boards where he helped shape governance and compensation policy reforms, including one increasing oversight and transparency of corporate political spending.

Boyken also served as the first executive director of the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board, a groundbreaking program that will provide retirement security to California workers in the private sector. 

In 2007, Boyken staffed the Governor’s Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission, where he authored reports on retiree health benefits, actuarial methods used to determine pension and retiree health benefit funding, and a report on the funded status of all public pension systems in California. 

Many of the provisions of the seminal 2012 Public Employee Pension Reform Act were rooted in the Commission’s final recommendations. 

He holds a master of arts degree in sociology from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Boyken is a Democrat.

Alan Gordon, 59, will serve as deputy treasurer for legislation and infrastructure financing. He previously served as deputy state controller for environmental policy.

Gordon has spent a significant portion of his career in the State Capitol in the roles of principle consultant to the Senate Committee on Delta Conveyance and Conservation, counsel to the Senate Environmental Quality and Insurance committees, and a senior staffer to two senators. He also served as deputy director of the department of toxic substances.

Gordon has a bachelor of arts degree in history, a master of arts degree in political science from Emory University, and graduated from Golden Gate University’s Law School. He is registered as decline to state.

Jan Ross, 56, will serve as chief of information technology.

Previously, she worked as the chief information officer at the State Controller’s Office, where she oversaw the successful implementation of more than twenty-four independent IT initiatives, including the acclaimed government transparency Web sites, www.PublicPay.ca.gov , www.TrackProp30.ca.gov and www.ByTheNumbers.sco.ca.gov .

Ross joined the Controller’s Office after 11 years with the Franchise Tax Board, where she supported a variety of technology initiatives.

Her public service career was preceded by 16 years in private industry supporting technology systems predominantly in the financial industry.

Ross holds a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in management information systems, and bachelor’s degree in French, both from California State University, Sacramento. She is a Republican.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Caltrans reports that the following road projects will be taking place around the North Coast during the coming week.

Included are Mendocino County projects that may impact Lake County commuters.

LAKE COUNTY
 
Highway 20

– Caltrans will perform routine maintenance from Gravel Plant Road to the North Fork Cache Creek Bridge through Monday, Jan. 12. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., weekdays. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
 
Highway 175

– AT&T has been granted a Caltrans encroachment permit for utility repairs just south of Estates Drive through Friday, January 9. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.
 
MENDOCINO COUNTY
 
Highway 20

– Caltrans will perform routine maintenance from Wildwood Campground to Forestry Station Road through Friday, Jan. 9. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays. LC#S20AA
 
Highway 101

– Caltrans will perform slide repairs near the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge (near Frog Woman Rock). Northbound traffic will be restricted to one lane 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists may experience minor traffic slowdowns.
 
– Emergency roadway repairs just south of Ridgewood Ranch Road will continue. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction of travel 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists may experience minor traffic slowdowns.
 
– Emergency slide debris removal from .5 to .3 miles south of the Haehl Overhead Bridge will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 15 minute delays.
 
– Pavement repairs from the Bear Pen Undercrossing to Piercy will continue through Friday, Jan. 9. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction of travel from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., weekdays. Motorists may experience minor traffic slowdowns.
 
– Pavement repairs near Piercy will continue. Southbound traffic will be restricted to one lane from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekdays. Motorists may experience minor traffic slowdowns.

Caltrans wishes to advise motorists to drive with caution when approaching work areas and to be prepared to stop at traffic control stations.
 
The Caltrans Traffic Operations Office has reviewed each project and determined that individual project delays are expected to be less than the statewide policy maximum of 30 minutes, unless noted otherwise above. (Bold type denotes a change from the previous bulletin.)

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Schoolhouse Museum in Lower Lake will be temporarily closed from Jan. 21 to 31 for renovations.

The county of Lake reported that the wooden floors in the east and west rooms are to be renovated. 

After decades of use the wooden floors – which date to the first half of the 20th century – have begun  to wear down to the bare wood.

This renovation project will preserve these historic floors for future generations of museum visitors.

This exciting improvement project is being funded by the Lower Lake Historical School Preservation Committee.

Normal operating hours at the Historic Schoolhouse Museum in Lower Lake, located at 16435 Morgan Valley Road, are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please call the Historic Schoolhouse Museum in Lower Lake at 707-995-3565 or the Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport at 707-263-4555.

For more information email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LUCERNE, Calif. – Lake County Public Works officials reported that a portion of Bartlett Springs Road is being closed immediately due to roadway deterioration.

The agency said Thursday that it was closing the road at mile post marker 1.5.

The roadway will remain closed until the damaged section of the road can be stabilized, Public Works said.

Public Works said repairs are estimated to be completed by Jan. 31.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Thursday, Jan. 15, Redbud Audubon Society program meeting will be presented by Dr. Floyd Hayes, professor of biology at Pacific Union College.

Dr. Hayes will present his work on grebe conservation at Clear Lake.

All are invited to attend this meeting at the group's new location, Lower Lake Community United Methodist Church Social Hall, 16255 Second St.

Refreshments will be served at 7 p.m., with the meeting beginning at 7:15 p.m.

During the past five summers, from 2010 to 2014, the Redbud Audubon Society has joined two other chapters of California Audubon in a cooperative project promoting the conservation of Western Grebes and Clark’s Grebes on several lakes in northern California.

Financed by oil spill mitigation funds administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, the project has focused on monitoring the breeding success of grebes, documenting nesting disturbances, deploying warning signs and buoys around the perimeter of nesting colonies, and educating the public about various threats to the grebes’ reproductive success and how the threats may be reduced.

The Redbud Audubon Society has focused on the grebes of Clear Lake, which supports one of the largest breeding populations of grebes in California.

Dr. Hayes, an ornithologist, has been contracted by Redbud Audubon to work on this project, studying the grebes of Clear Lake.

“Each summer I have been monitoring their breeding activities with the assistance of several students from Pacific Union College and a few local birders. We usually visit the lake twice a week and canoe five to 15 miles in search of active grebe nests, which we count and monitor for disturbances,” Dr. Hayes explained.

Join Redbud Audubon Jan. 15 to learn about grebes, how they are monitored, their colonies, and where they nest in Clear Lake, Rodman Slough, Manning Creek, Rumsey Slough, Long Tule Point and Anderson Marsh.

Redbud Audubon meetings through April will be held at the Lower Lake Community United Methodist Church Social Hall.

The hall is across the parking lot from the Methodist Church; if you are coming through Lower Lake, turn left on Lake Street and then right on Second Street. The church is on the right.

The move to Lower Lake is a way to accommodate Audubon members countywide.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Caltrans this week started brush and tree removal work in preparation of the State Route 29-Troutdale Creek bridge replacement project in northwest Napa County.

To ensure worker and public safety, one-way traffic controls will be in effect on Highway 29 near the Troutdale Creek Bridge in Napa County beginning the week of Jan. 6.

The brush and tree removal will be completed in approximately eight weeks after the work commences.

During one-way traffic controls, one lane of traffic will remain open at all times with flaggers alternating northbound and southbound traffic.

Regular work hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily.

All work is weather permitting. Motorists should allow for extra travel time.

Caltrans will replace the existing Troutdale Creek bridge with a new bridge and widen the northbound and southbound Highway 29 bridge approaches.

The existing bridge must be replaced because of years of wear at its base from the Troutdale Creek.

As part of the work, the bridge approaches will also be realigned to conform to the new bridge, and improve sight-lines for motorists. 

The project is scheduled to be completed as early as late 2016.                      

Additional project information will be posted on the Caltrans SR-29 Troutdale Creek Bridge project Web page at http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/29troutdalecreek/ or follow Caltrans on Twitter at https://twitter.com/CaltransD4 .