Tuesday, December 31, 2002
Page 3
Three State Officials Picked for Sacramento Trial Court
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Three high-profile California state officials were appointed yesterday to the Sacramento Superior Court.
“Gov. Gray Davis named his chief deputy legalaffairs secretary, Shelleyanne Wai Ling Chang, to the trial court in the state capital, along with California Air Resources Board Executive Officer Michael P. Kenny and Board of Prison Terms Chief Counsel John P. Winn.
Chang, 42, was a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service and a state lawyer before joining the governor’s office in 1999.
Chang is the governor’s top lawyer, after Chief Legal Affairs Secretary Barry Goode, and manages the work of the six-lawyer office. She directed litigation, analyzed proposed legislation, and represented the state on various gambling issues involving Indian tribes.
Soon after joining Davis’ office she became a member of the governor’s four-lawyer negotiating team that reached gambling accords with 61 Indian tribes in 1999.
Chang was a deputy attorney general from 1993 to 1999, handling litigation for state officials, the pension systems and the Department of General Services. She also was bond counsel for the California Housing Finance Agency.
Chang is a graduate of the University of Washington and earned her law degree from McGeorge Law School in Sacramento. She joined the IRS office of chief counsel in 1985, representing the commissioner of internal revenue in tax and bankruptcy courts.
She became a member of the State Bar of California in 1991 while working for the IRS.
Kenny, 48, has served since 1996 as the top staff executive of the California Air Resources Board, with a staff of about 1,100 and an annual budget of $150 million. He reports to a part-time board of 11 and full-time board Chairman Alan C. Lloyd, all of whom are appointed by the governor.
The board oversees state air pollution control and works with local air control districts to establish industrial emissions standards.
Kenny began working for the board as general counsel in 1990. Previously, he was enforcement counsel for the Fair Political Practices Commission, and before that, from 1984 to 1988, he was a San Joaquin deputy district attorney.
He graduated from UCLA, earned his law degree from University of San Diego Law School and became a member of the State Bar of California in 1980. he began his law career with the Sacramento firm of James & Kilpatrick in 1981.
Winn, 45, is a former prosecutor and state Department of Corrections lawyer who became chief counsel to the Board of Prison terms in 2000. In his current job, Winn counsels the board’s chairman and staff on hearings to grant or revoke parole and define the status of mentally disordered offenders and sexually violent predators.
Winn is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and Boston College of Law, and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1988. He became a Sacramento deputy district attorney in 1988 and a Yolo deputy district attorney in 1990, and joined the Department of Corrections in 1993.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company