Governor promotes attorneys, gives state public defender’s office a budget boost

Gov. Gavin Newsom promoted two attorneys working within his administration last week. He also reappointed State Public Defender Mary K. McComb then handed her a big increase in her budget.

In staff changes announced Friday, Kelli M. Evans was named chief deputy legal affairs secretary.

Exactly one year ago today Newsom named her as his deputy legal affairs secretary for criminal justice. Evans now moves up the organization chart that includes two other female attorneys named that same day: Legal Affairs Secretary Catherine E. Lhamon and Chief Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary Ann J. Patterson, now Evans' co-equal.

The year turned about to be a big one for changes to the criminal justice system. Newsom announced big changes to juvenile justice one year ago and went on to sign more than two dozen bills implementing changes to the criminal system.

Evans brings an extensive resume of state work. Her past roles include special assistant to Attorney General Xavier Becerra, senior director for administration of justice for the State Bar and associate director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Stuart S. Thompson will move over to chief deputy legislative affairs secretary from his prior role as chief deputy appointments secretary under Judicial Appointments Secretary Martin J. Jenkins. He was associate director for the center for governmental relations at the California Medical Association from 2014 to 2018 and was an associate at Miller & Owen PC. He is the son of Steve Thompson, who was the California Medical Association's chief lobbyist until his death from cancer in 2004.

Newsom also named non-attorney Morgan Carvajal as chief deputy appointments secretary. She comes over from the California Medical Association, where she has worked as a legislative advocate since 2018. [Disclosure: article author worked with Carvajal in 2012-13].

The Medical Association is poised to be a major player in what could become the biggest-money initiative battle of the year: the Fairness to Injured Patients Act (FIPA), an effort to update the cap on non-economic medical malpractice damages contained in the 1975 law known as the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA).

But a leader of that effort, Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court, warned against reading too much into these appointments. For one thing, he noted, Carvajal used to work for Hernandez Strategy Group, a Sacramento lobbying firm that represented Consumer Watchdog at the time.

Meanwhile, Court said he was a big fan of Newsom's decision to increase the annual budget of the State Public Defender's Office from $15.1 million to $20 million and from 59 employees to 82.

"It tells something about this governor's perspective, which is he's with the underdog," Court said.

The new money is tied to two specific areas: indigent defense and the death penalty. The office will get $1 million death to fight penalty cases, largely to deal with the expedited appeals process approved by voters when they passed Proposition 66 in 2016.

The other $4 million -- and 18 positions -- will go to indigent defense with another $3.5 million annually thereafter.

In an emailed statement, Newsom's office said the money "is a reflection of the governor's commitment to creating a fairer and more equitable criminal justice system." It is also part of a settlement in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over inadequate funding of public defenders. The state admitted no wrongdoing in Phillips v. State of California, 15CECG02201 (Fresno Super. Ct., filed July 14, 2015).

"The office will use these resources to provide training and technical assistance for attorneys providing indigent defense, with the goal of promoting more effective representation statewide," the statement said.

Indigent defense was the original mission of the State Public Defender's Office when it was founded in 1976, said Chief Deputy State Public Defender Barry P. Helft. He said the new money represents a "restoring" of the office's traditional role after it was refocused on death penalty defense under the Gov. Pete Wilson administration in the 1990s.

"It's not so much the budget increase I see as significant as the goal of the increase," Heft said. "We've returned to what it was established to do, which is provide indigent defense statewide."

Last Tuesday, Newsom reappointed McComb to the head the office. She's been the State Public Defender since 2016 and has worked for that office since 1992.