Everything about Fred Keeley totally explained
Fred Keeley (born
May 9 1950) is a politician in
California,
U.S. Keeley was a member of the
California State Assembly, representing District 27 which included parts of
Santa Cruz County and
Monterey County from 1996 to 2002. He is currently the Treasurer of Santa Cruz County.
Early life and career
Keeley was born in
Sacramento, California. He is the second son of Harry and Elizabeth Keeley. He was raised in
San Jose. He attended and graduated from
Cupertino High School in 1969. He attended
DeAnza College in the early 1970s and took film classes from Professor Robert Scott. In 1974, Keeley graduated with honors from
San Jose State University, School of Social Sciences.
After working for Law Enforcement Training and Research Associates, he was selected by Santa Cruz County Supervisor Joe Cucchaira to be Cucchaira's policy director. Keeley served in that capacity until March 1984 when then-Assembly Member
Sam Farr (D-Carmel) hired Keeley to be his chief of staff. Keeley served in that capacity for nearly five years.
Keeley served for eight years as a member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, prior to his election to the California Assembly.
Assembly member
1996 Assembly race
Bruce McPherson's decision to run for
California Senate District 15 made California Assembly District 27 an open seat. In March 1996, Keeley ran for the
Democratic nomination for the 27th Assembly District against Karin Kauffman. Keeley won over 55% of the party's Democratic voters, and 33% of all votes cast
(External Link
). In the November general election, Keeley won about 57% of all votes cast against Republican Jim Davis
(External Link).
First term
During his first term in the Assembly, Keeley chaired the Budget Subcommittee on Resources, where he advanced legislation, known as the Marine Life Management Act of 1998
(External Link).
Also in 1998, Keeley was selected by Assembly Speaker
Antonio Villaraigosa to be Speaker pro Tempore
(External Link). This is the highest ranking member of the Speaker's leadership team and, as such, Keeley was responsible for the development of the majority party's important policy initiatives. Keeley also investigated the actions of then-Insurance Commissioner
Chuck Quackenbush. As a result of the investigation, Quackenbush resigned his office.
During this time, Keeley also authored the two largest park and environmental protection bonds in the nation's history, Proposition 12 on the California ballot in March 2000, and
Proposition 40 on the California ballot in March 2002
(External Link). Together, these voter-approved bonds provided $4.7 billion for environmental protection, park land and other valuable habitat land acquisition throughout the nation's most populated state
(External Link).
California electricity crisis
In late 2000 and early 2001, the
California electricity crisis manifested itself with rolling blackouts in many parts of the state. Speaker
Robert Hertzberg appointed Keeley, his Speaker pro Tempore, as "chief operating officer" for the Assembly on the energy crisis
(External Link). This position had three primary duties: to establish a triage system for dealing with day-to-day, minute-to-minute emergencies that were direct outgrowths of the lack of electricity; to form a policy group, both at the staff and legislator level, to sort out those ideas that were being advanced to solve the problem, and make recommendations to the Speaker and the Governor, on how to tackle the many fronts on which this crisis was expanding; and to be the author of the agreed-upon package of legislation that would try to tame the energy crisis monster.
During the energy crisis, a variety of options were under consideration. The State of California was trying to get the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap the wholesale price of electricity, as that price was far exceeding the statutory limit that regulated utilities in California could charge their retail customers. The wholesale price was far in excess of the retail price because of deregulation. When the legislature deregulated the electricity sector in 1996, it did so by taking a number of statutory actions. One was to create a Power Exchange or PX. This was intended to be the trading floor for buyers and sellers of electricity. Keeley believed that the model was seriously flawed because it assumed that electricity could be treated as a commodity. Commodities markets have several features: Many buyers, many sellers, transparent transactions, substitute products, and the ability of the buyer to withhold buying if the price isn't to his or her liking. According to Keeley, the PX had none of these features
(External Link).
In order to stabilize prices, and to assure a reliable supply of electricity, Keeley became the author of the State of California's solution so California participate in the market by buying the so-called net short position each day, and to sell that electricity to utility customers. While there was much criticism of the strategy at the time, it's clear that it had the desired effect: to wit, it stabilized prices and assured supply. PG&E's solution included the transfer of watershed lands and the creation of a youth stewardship program
(External Link).
After the energy crisis, the California faced a massive budget deficit. Keeley helped in the budget negotiations between Democrats and Republicans to get the necessary 2/3 vote to pass the state budget compromise on the state budget.
Later career
2003-2004
Due to term limits, Keeley left the Assembly in December 2002. Then-Governor
Gray Davis asked Keeley to join his cabinet as Director of the
California Department of Finance. Keeley declined, and instead became Executive Director of the
Planning and Conservation League and the
PCL Foundation (External Link). These two non-profit organizations specialize in environmental research and legislative advocacy. Keeley led these two organizations for two years.
Role in higher education
When Keeley was termed out of the legislature, the
University of California, Santa Cruz established a perpetual environmental lecture series in his honor, known as the Fred Keeley Lectures on the Environment. The initial lecture was given by former Arizona Governor and
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. In 2005, the lecture was given by Dr.
Paul Erlich of Stanford University, and author of the best selling book
The Population Bomb. Keeley also made a planned gift of $250,000 to UCSC to support the campus's STEPS Institute for Innovation in Environmental Research
(External Link).
Since Fall 2006, Keeley has taught courses as a part-time faculty member in the Department of Political Science at
San Jose State University. He has taught State Politics and Legislative Politics, and is scheduled to teach Local Politics in Fall 2007. Keeley is a frequent lecturer on California state government, politics, and a variety of environmental topics at Stanford University, the University of California at Santa Cruz, Duke University, San Jose State University,
California State University at Monterey Bay, the
University of Southern California, and the
University of California, Berkeley. Most recently, he's been teaching at Pacific Collegiate School as the AP Government and Politics instructor.
Return to local politics
In January 2005, Keeley returned to Santa Cruz and became
Santa Cruz County Treasurer. While this position is a countywide elected position, Keeley was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to fill an unexpired term. On
June 6 2006, Keeley was elected to a four-year term as Treasurer.
In addition to his work as Treasurer, Keeley is a Member of the Board of Directors of the
California League of Conservation Voters, the state's premiere environmental political action organization. He also serves on the Board of Directors of
Planned Parenthood Advocates for California and Nevada.
Keeley is co-chair of the
Voices of Reform Project of the
Commonwealth Club of California. This project is focused on five major areas of governmental reform: Redistricting, Term Limits, Campaign Finance, Budget, and Initiative Reform. The other co-chair is Dan Shnur, former Governor
Pete Wilson's communications director. The Voices of Reform Project includes some three hundred civic leaders from throughout the California.
Awards
- Legislator of the Year for the 2001-2002 Session of the California Legislature, by the California Journal.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fred Keeley'.
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