Newsom Appoints Ally To Environmental Safety Board, Prompting Conflict Of Interest Concerns

LAMORINDA, CA — Environmental groups are demanding the resignation of the Board of Environmental Safety's newest member, Rhys Williams, because of his work as a lobbyist for a firm that represents clients that handle toxic materials.

The board decides appeals involving hazardous waste facilities permitted by the Department of Toxic Substances Control. Lawmakers created the board in 2021 to strengthen oversight of the department, increase transparency, and give communities disproportionately burdened by hazardous waste a stronger voice.

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Williams in January. Until recently Williams served as Newsom's deputy chief of staff. In a letter addressed to Williams and copied to the board and the department, environmental groups expressed concerns with Williams' work for a lobbying firm, Axiom Advisors.

Axiom's client list includes Clean Harbors, a hazardous waste management company, and GKN Aerospace, the company at the center of a chemical incident that prompted an evacuation order for thousands of Orange County residents in May.

Williams did not immediately respond to CalMatters' requests for comment. At the board's Thursday meeting, Williams did not comment on the letter.

Williams has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and his appointment was within the bounds of the law, experts say.

According to the governor's office, Williams has been thoroughly vetted, and his work with Axiom is not a conflict of interest because he does not take on clients with matters before the board. Williams has also agreed to recuse himself from matters involving Axiom clients.

"Rhys Williams is an exceptionally qualified public servant with years of experience helping California navigate some of its most complex infrastructure, emergency management, and environmental challenges," Newsom spokesperson Anthony Martinez said in an email. "His appointment reflects his deep subject matter expertise, professionalism, and longstanding commitment to public service."

Advocates say his work for the lobbying firm undermines public confidence that he can act impartially to protect communities from environmental harms.

Environmental groups "were alarmed by just the audacity of appointing somebody who is or has been tied to the toxic waste industry," said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. "It does not bode well for impartiality or for upholding the stated mission of the Board of Environmental Safety, which is to protect the public from toxics and promote environmental safety, not promote polluter profits."

QUESTIONS ABOUT IMPARTIALITY

According to Williams' LinkedIn profile and lobbying disclosures on the secretary of state's Cal-Access website, Axiom Advisors hired Williams in May, four months after his appointment to the board.

Axiom Advisors announced the hire in June on LinkedIn. "This appointment brings something very important to Axiom's clients," the post reads. "Rhys' extensive experience with the agencies that can move projects forward is invaluable to companies looking to do business here."

The firm's client list includes GKN Aerospace, which uses the hazardous chemical methyl methacrylate to make cockpit canopies, passenger windows and other transparent aerospace materials; Clean Harbors, a company that oversees one of the state's two hazardous waste landfills, and the California Building Industry Association, an advocacy group for developers and homebuilders.

As a lobbyist with Axiom, Williams has attended meetings between GKN and legislative staff for Senator Tom Umberg, an Orange County Democrat, who is leading a proposal to hold the company accountable and offer relief for residents, according to a source familiar with the conversations. The Department of Toxic Substances Control does not primarily regulate GKN, an aerospace manufacturer, though it may have an oversight role if the company temporarily stores or transports hazardous waste.

Williams began working for Newsom as chief of staff in the lieutenant governor's office in 2014, and has held various roles advising Newsom on infrastructure and emergency preparedness since he became governor in 2019.

Williams was earning close to $200,000 as deputy chief of staff in the governor's office until January 2026, when he left for the board appointment, a part-time role paying $93,135. The governor later also appointed Williams to a position on the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, which comes with a $100 per diem.

Asked in January why Williams was leaving the governor's office, spokesperson Izzy Gardon wrote the aide had "earned his freedom :)" after more than a decade working for Newsom.

BOARD FACES CRITICISM

Williams joined the five-member board which, five years into existence, already faced sharp criticism for its questionable oversight of polluting facilities. In coming months, the board will vote on several appeals related to permits and permit modifications for some of the state's largest hazardous waste facilities.

The board's creation followed decades of complaints from communities and environmental advocates, who criticized the Department of Toxic Substances Control for delays in permitting facilities and for failing to protect communities from environmental harm.

The department's handling of the decades-long Exide lead battery disaster in Los Angeles was one incident that drove reforms. Regulators determined that Exide Technologies was contaminating soil with lead and arsenic near thousands of homes over decades. The battery recycling plant operated with only a temporary permit for more than 30 years. State officials documented more than 100 violations at the plant and continued to allow it to operate.

In 2015, as part of an earlier bankruptcy, Exide agreed to permanently close the Vernon plant and pay $50 million toward cleanup. The company filed for bankruptcy again in 2020, and a federal judge approved a settlement allowing the company to abandon the site altogether - over the objection of state officials - shifting responsibility for the ongoing cleanup to the state.

Critics say the department's slow permitting processes, and its pattern of permitting facilities with a history of violations, has continued.

Clean Harbors' permit expired in 2006, but the company continued operating on an administrative extension for 20 years before DTSC renewed the permit last month.

Phibro-Tech, a hazardous waste treatment and recycling facility in Santa Fe Springs, operated on a permit that expired in 1996 for nearly 30 years until DTSC issued a renewed permit in 2025. The board will rule on appeals of the permit by the company and by environmental advocates in October.

Ecobat Resources, the only lead battery recycling plant west of the Rockies, operated on an administrative extension of its permit for ten years after it expired in 2015. DTSC finally issued a new permit in 2025. The board will rule on various permit appeals for the company in January.

Phibro-Tech and Ecobat are not Axiom clients.

"The BES was supposed to be our firewall to safeguard communities," said Matt Holmes, a co-coordinator with the California Environmental Justice Coalition, referring to the Board of Environmental Safety.

Holmes added that although the board has improved dialogue with communities, "we've been disappointed that the (board) really hasn't been the firewall for toxic communities to get equal treatment from the state." The letter asking for Williams' resignation, he said, "was a matter of us making it clear what we expect the (board) to be."

WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?

Legal experts said it's neither illegal nor uncommon for state board members to also work as lobbyists. But they can run into trouble if they advocate for companies they also rule on as board members.

There's no evidence Williams has violated specific conflict-of-interest laws: GKN Aerospace holds no hazardous waste handling or storage permits overseen by DTSC, and it's unclear he has any connection to Clean Harbors or any other Axiom clients environmental groups have raised questions about.

Still, Williams may run afoul of the more broad common-law conflict-of-interest law, said Frank Zerunyan, a USC professor in government ethics.

"The fact that this person lobbies for a particular interest, does that make the people of California, which relies presumably on this person to be an objective commissioner or a board member for the purpose for which he is appointed, less trusting of California, or less trusting of that organization?" he said. "That is the question."

For environmental groups, whether Williams ever votes on Clean Harbors, GKN, or other Axiom clients, is beside the point. They argue that the association alone is enough to erode public trust in his ability to rule fairly on appeals.

"For the duration of your tenure with the Board, the public may question whether your statements and activities (or lack thereof) could be consciously or subconsciously influenced by the interest of current Axiom clients, as well as the interests of potential clients Axiom may hope to attract," the groups wrote in their letter to Williams.

NEWSOM APPOINTS ALLIES TO STATE BOARDS

Williams is one of more than a dozen of Newsom's top staffers or close political operatives the governor has appointed to paid and unpaid positions on California's sprawling collection of state boards and commissions.

Such appointments are commonplace, especially as governors prepare to leave office, and are known as comfortable landing pads for legislative staffers and political aides looking to leave full-time state service. They also give the governor continued influence over policy decisions and high-profile matters.

"It is a time-honored tradition for California governors to appoint high-ranking staff to plum positions as a 'reward' for working in high-pressure, 24-7 jobs in the administration," said Sacramento Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio, who in 2003 received such an appointment to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board from outgoing Gov. Gray Davis.

Maviglio, Davis' press secretary, spoke generally, saying it makes sense for governors to appoint staffers who are "loyal and battle-tested," but that sometimes "appointments are made for the sake of qualifying for pension benefits." Davis' successor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, vowed to overhaul boards and commissions but later appointed several of his staffers to them.

By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Jeanne Kuang, CalMatters
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