When Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed four new UC regents last month, the public statement overshadowed the quiet departure of a veteran of the body, Gareth Elliott, who left his post without announcement 11 years before the end of his term.<\/p>\n
A partner at the California lobbying firm Sacramento Advocates, Elliot served on the Board for over a decade prior to his departure and was reappointed by Newsom in 2025 to a new 12-year term.<\/p>\n
Elliott\u2019s exit from the board, however, was not a traditional resignation or termination. Rather, the regent left through a relatively rare procedural mechanism after just one year.<\/p>\n
Regents may assume their positions immediately upon the governor\u2019s appointment, and an appointment is valid only if confirmed by the State Senate within a year.<\/p>\n
As he was reappointed by Newsom on Feb. 27, 2025, Elliott\u2019s new term was never confirmed in this process, forcing him out of his seat last March.<\/p>\n
According to UC Office of the President spokesperson Rachel Zaentz, Elliott \u201cchose not to pursue confirmation for personal reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliott did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
During his time on the UC Board of Regents, Elliott largely avoided public scrutiny and held powerful positions; he served as vice chair of the board from 2022-24 and headed the UC presidential search committee in 2020, which resulted in the selection of former UC President Michael Drake.<\/p>\n
It is not uncommon for regents to resign before the official end of their term, but leaving without receiving confirmation is rare in recent memory. In 2011, former Regent David Crane was forced out of his seat amid controversy over his stance on collective bargaining after the Senate failed to confirm him.<\/p>\n
After being reappointed to a 12-year term in 2024, former Regent John P\u00e9rez announced his resignation nine months later. P\u00e9rez had served 10 years on the board, including a stint as chair.<\/p>\n
In an interview with EdSource at the time, P\u00e9rez revealed that both his reappointment and his early resignation were part of a prearranged plan with Newsom. P\u00e9rez and Newsom privately agreed that his reappointment would be short-lived, enough to allow P\u00e9rez to address unfinished business and provide Newsom with another appointment, according to EdSource.<\/p>\n
The UC Regents are the commanding 26-member board that oversees and establishes policy for the University of California\u2019s 10 campuses and five medical centers. 18 members of the Board are appointed directly by the governor, but the system for selecting new regents has faced scrutiny in the past due to a lack of transparency in the decision-making process.<\/p>\n
Before Elliott was first appointed to the Board of Regents by former Governor Jerry Brown in 2015, he was a top staffer in Gov. Brown\u2019s office. A week after his appointment, he became a partner at Sacramento Advocates.<\/p>\n
To replace Elliott, Newsom selected Rusty Areias, a former state assemblymember and partner at the consulting firm California Strategies. If confirmed by the Senate, Areias will serve on the board for the remainder of Elliott\u2019s term, until 2037.<\/p>\n
While the four new regents are evenly split by gender, three currently hold positions in the private sector and three are registered democrats.<\/p>\n
The one registered republican, Dorene C. Dominguez, has been the Chairwoman and CEO of the nationwide real estate development firm Vanir since 2004. Despite her status as a Republican, federal campaign finance records reveal that Dominguez regularly donates to Democrats, including an $18,400 contribution to the Democratic National Committee in 2023 and multiple large donations to Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and others.<\/p>\n
The only non-corporate appointment, Mabelle Hueston, is the director of a non-profit focused on language preservation and was previously a professor of American Indian Studies.<\/p>\n
Hueston\u2019s appointment is the shortest of the new Regents, with a term scheduled to end in March 2028. This is because Hueston is taking over Chair Janet Reilly\u2019s seat. When Newsom appointed the new Regents, he also reappointed Reilly to a fresh 12-year term, leaving the remaining two years in her old seat to Hueston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed four new UC regents last month, the public statement overshadowed the quiet departure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[110510,18760,119661,7,110516,119669,85446,51767,23962,119666,7024,119659,457,10816,110512,13934,13912,119664,9394,119668,119663,8669,143,145,144,38371,119665,119660,15052,30647,119662,37295,2012,119667],"class_list":{"0":"post-276783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-american-indian-studies","9":"tag-barbara-boxer","10":"tag-board-of-regents","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-strategies","13":"tag-clint-reilly","14":"tag-david-crane","15":"tag-democratic-national-committee","16":"tag-dianne-feinstein","17":"tag-dorene-c-dominguez","18":"tag-edsource","19":"tag-gareth-elliott","20":"tag-gavin-newsom","21":"tag-hillary-clinton","22":"tag-janet-reilly","23":"tag-jerry-brown","24":"tag-joe-biden","25":"tag-john-prez","26":"tag-kamala-harris","27":"tag-mabelle-hueston","28":"tag-michael-drake","29":"tag-nancy-pelosi","30":"tag-oakland","31":"tag-oakland-headlines","32":"tag-oakland-news","33":"tag-rachel-zaentz","34":"tag-rusty-areias","35":"tag-sacramento-advocates-inc","36":"tag-state-senate","37":"tag-uc-office-of-the-president","38":"tag-uc-presidential-search-committee","39":"tag-uc-regents","40":"tag-university-of-california","41":"tag-vanir"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}