Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday named several Southlanders to state posts, including an East Los Angeles woman as chief of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement at the California Department of Industrial Relations.
Lilia Garcia-Brower, 45, has been executive director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund since 2000.
Garcia-Brower, who is registered without party preference, will earn $176,004 annually, pending Senate confirmation of her appointment.
Alma Hernandez, executive director of SEIU California, welcomed news of Garcia-Brower’s appointment.
“Fair wages, timely paychecks, the right to work hard — free of coercion or fear — and stand together in a union, these are the building blocks of the California Dream and the mission of the chief of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to enforce,” the union leader said.
“In appointing Lilia Garcia-Brower to this important post, Governor Newsom has chosen a champion for workers and justice who has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with SEIU members in the fight to end wage theft, empower workers to stop rape on the night shift, and bring undocumented workers out of the shadows of exploitation — and prevent unscrupulous companies from undercutting high-road, law-abiding employers,” Hernandez said. “We look forward to working with her to ensure justice is delivered in all California workplaces.”
In other appointments, Newsom named Mark Gold, 55, of Santa Monica, deputy secretary for oceans and coastal policy and director of the Ocean Protection Council at the California Natural Resources Agency.
Gold, a Democrat, was associate vice chancellor for environment and sustainability at UCLA from 2015 to this year; interim director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability from 2014 to 2015; and associate director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability from 2012 to 2014. He was president of Heal the Bay from 1994 to 2012.
Gold’s position does not require Senate confirmation and the annual compensation is $175,008.
Newsom appointed Karen Millender, 47, of Irvine, to the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Millender, a Democrat, was senior account executive at Cannon Communications from 2007 to 2009 and senior account executive for KDOC-TV from 1999 to 2006. Her position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem.