Governors Appointments and Judicial Appointment Data

Gov. Newsom Announces Appointments 

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom Announced The following Appointment:

Lys Mendez Palomo, of Los Angeles,March 7 has been appointed communications director at the California Air Resources Board. Mendez Palomo has been a freelance communications strategist and consultant since 2019. She was a senior manager of Government Partnerships at Bird from 2018 to 2019. Mendez Palomo was chief communications officer at the Liberty Hill Foundation from 2017 to 2018. She was a senior account executive at Rally from 2014 to 2017. Mendez Palomo was an urban planner and outreach coordinator with the Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles from 2013 to 2014. She was Deputy Press Secretary and policy analyst in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office from 2011 to 2013. Mendez Palomo was a public information specialist for the County of Riverside from 2008 to 2010. She was a development associate at Esperanza Community Housing Corporation from 2006 to 2007. Mendez Palomo was a reporter at The Press Enterprise from 2004 to 2006. She earned a Master of Public Policy degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $151,728. Mendez Palomo is a Democrat. 

Gov. Newsom Releases 2022 Judicial Appointment Data

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom March 1 released judicial applicant and appointee data for the administration’s judicial appointments.

Since taking office in 2019, Gov.  Newsom has made 288 judicial appointments – including 119 in 2022 – from a pool of 1,364 applicants.

More than half of the Governor’s judicial appointments have been women judges and justices, and 59% identified as Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

Gov. Newsom’s judicial appointees in 2022 included Justice Patricia Guerrero, the first Latina Justice to serve on the state’s Supreme Court and the first Latina to serve as California’s Chief Justice.

A copy of the judicial applicant and appointee data chart can be found here