Anna Caballero, former Salinas mayor, leads reorganization of state government

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Jerry Brown and Anna Caballero appear at a 2010 campaign event at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas. Brown was running for governor while Caballero was running for state Senate.

This week, barring any unexpected move by the Legislature, Gov. Jerry Brown's sweeping reorganization of state government is set to become law.

One of the governor's top appointees charged with making that dramatic change happen is former Salinas Mayor Anna Caballero, now a cabinet secretary who oversees one of the most complex and, some would say, perplexing bureaucracies in the state.

Caballero, who for at least a few months more will serve as secretary of the California State and Consumer Services Agency, was appointed by Brown in March 2011, four months after she lost her bid for a state Senate seat.

Her current domain is a prime example of what Brown calls "a labyrinth of disjointed boards, commissions, agencies and departments."

The agency Caballero oversees is a jumble of government contract procurement, state retirement, seismic safety and crime victims' compensation boards, plus a civil rights division and, just to mix it up, a few state-run museums. The department is also home to the Department of Consumer Affairs, which licenses more than 250 professions in the state.

Caballero's task is to clean it all up.

"My job is not policy. I'm a manager, implementing the governor's plan," Caballero, 57, said during a recent trip home to Salinas, where she and her husband, Juan Uranga, still live when they're not staying in the state capital.

Brown, she said, "broadly gives us the executive orders and says get it done."

The reorganization

plan, which has been given a green light by the state's bipartisan Little Hoover Commission and is set to take effect July 1, turns a dozen California departments into 10 and consolidates many of their functions.

A revamped transportation department, for example, will house Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, the DMV and the High-Speed Rail Authority.

The changes are expected to come swiftly ? within a year, Caballero says ? and by then her unwieldy domain will be split into two. One will handle hiring, technology contracts, procurement and other internal government business.

"And then there's a business and consumer services agency," she says. "That will include other things like housing."

While exhilarated by the challenges she faces at the state level, she said she misses being in close touch with the residents of Salinas.

Caballero, who spent years focused on the city's gang problem and was a co-founder of the violence prevention group Partners for Peace, said she is disappointed the nonprofit started in the 1990s "did not continue to grow. ... That's been hard. Many of the programs that we started that were best practices and showed great success are no longer around."

Although she commends the work of groups like the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, she said coming home to Salinas gives her the sense that a crucial element is missing.

"Unless you engage people in the neighborhood that are living the reality of the violence on a day-to-day basis, unless you include them as part of the dialogue, you're not going to keep the movement going," she said.

"What we were trying to do was build this relationship with people by community organizing. I'm not sure that's still there. I really think there's a community dialogue that needs to be more robust. Because it's their kids that are either joining gangs or getting hurt in gangs."

For Caballero, who served as mayor for eight years before holding an Assembly seat for four more, the shift to a non-elected position has been welcome ? although she doesn't rule out running for office again one day.

The recent June election "was the first time in 20 years I have not been on the ballot," she said. "It was a little bit bittersweet to be in Sacramento working on a day that used to be really important for me.

"The real practical difference is I no longer speak for me, I speak for the governor. I've got to think seriously about what's the governor's position on this. Do I know it? And if I don't, I don't make a comment. The other part is I don't have to raise money and run a campaign. And that means my nights and weekends are mine. ... I've had a good time going to plays and musicals because we can now."

In an elected position, she said, "you're always on. People don't realize how much of a commitment it is. It is fashionable to bash electeds, but in my experience they work very hard and try to do the right thing, even if you disagree with what their decision is."

Julia Reynolds can be reached at 648-1187 or jreynolds@montereyherald.com.

To read the Little Hoover Commission's report on the state's reorganization plan, see www.lhc.ca.gov/studies/211/report211.html.

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