Richard Katz
Since January of 1997 Richard Katz has owned and operated a small business in the San Fernando Valley. Katz’ business provides strategic consulting in government relations and public affairs for clients involved in transportation, banking, education, clean energy, and entertainment industries among others.

In 2001, Governor Gray Davis appointed Katz to the State Water Resources Control Board. He was reappointed by the Governor in March of 2002 and recently confirmed by the State Senate to a full four-year term.

Katz was first elected to the California State Assembly in 1980 and served continuously for 16 years. In 1996, California’s term limits law prohibited Katz, then the Assembly Democratic Leader, from seeking re-election. Before leaving office, Katz led the Democratic Party minority back to majority status by winning 43 seats in the 1996 elections.

For 10 years, Katz served as Chair of the powerful Assembly Transportation Committee. As Chair, Katz authored Proposition 111, a 10 year Transportation Blueprint, which raised more money for mass transit and highways than any other effort in the history of California. He created the Congestion Management Plan, requiring cities and counties to measure and mitigate impacts of land use decisions on their streets, highways and transit systems. Katz also spearheaded numerous investigations of governmental waste, including the $50 million taxpayer-financed failed DMV computer system.

In addition to his work as Chair of the Transportation Committee, Katz worked in other policy arenas including the environment, education, criminal justice and consumer issues. Some of his accomplishments include laws he wrote and efforts he led to: prevent violent and serious felons from significantly reducing their sentence by “working” in prison; create the nations’ toughest groundwater protection law, protect school funding during one of the worst state fiscal crises; create the nations’ strictest law against unlicensed drivers; enhance school safety, computer education and poison control protections for children; provide $100 million to replace old, unsafe school buses; create and perpetually fund a highly successful anti-gang program targeting at-risk youth; protect and restore the 1 million-year-old Mono Lake; encourage water conservation through a water market; fund and encourage water recycling; and restrict transportation of toxic and hazardous materials.

Katz served as Chair of Angelenos for Better Classrooms, which led the successful 1997 campaign to pass a $2.4 billion school bond in Los Angeles. Katz also serves on the Executive Committee and Boards of the Valley Industrial and Commerce Assoc. (VICA), The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, the Valley Economic Development Corporation and Valley Vote; the Boards of: QueensCare Charitable Division, LA Children’s Museum, Encino Tarzana Hospital Foundation, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) and the Advisory Boards of; Kids Safe and the Children’s Community School.

A native of Los Angeles, Katz lives in Sylmar with his dogs, cats and horses.