The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s Board of Directors on Monday voted to elevate board member Stephen Kawa, a longtime former aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom, to become the governing body’s new board chair.
Early last month, Newsom appointed Kawa of Cloverdale in Sonoma County to the HRSA board along with Jason Elliott of San Francisco, another former Newsom aide. Kawa and Elliott were appointed to replace Fresno’s Tom Richards and Sacramento’s Nancy Miller, who were chair and vice chair of the board, respectively.
Kawa worked as chief of staff for San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee from 2011 to 2017, before he was Newsom’s chief of staff from 2004 to 2008 when Newsom was San Francisco’s mayor. Kawa was also had various roles in the office of San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. from 1996 to 2004, including deputy chief of staff, legislative director and liaison to the city’s Board of Supervisors.
The governor has the authority to appoint five of the nine members on the rail board.
The high-speed rail project was first approved by California voters in 2008 and that has so far cost about $15 billion. The rail authority has said it’s on pace to lay the train’s first tracks by December in the Central Valley, the region prioritized for construction and spending by state law.
The Fresno Bee’s Erik Galicia contributed to this story.
A rendering of a high-speed train moving through a wind farm in the proposed high-speed rail network. On Monday June 1, 2026, Stephen Kawa was chosen as the new board chair for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. California High-Speed Rail Authority
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Rosalio Ahumada writes breaking news stories related to crime and public safety for The Sacramento Bee. He speaks Spanish fluently and has worked as a news reporter in the Central Valley since 2004.