Announcements regarding key staffing changes of importance to California's rural counties.
Leland Adams, 62, of Downieville, has been appointed to the State Historical Resources Commission. Adams has been a member of the Commission on State Mandates since 2017 and of the Sierra County Board of Supervisors since 2009. Adams was sheriff and coroner for Sierra County from 1988 to 2007. He served in several positions at the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office from 1979 to 1988, including sergeant and deputy sheriff. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Adams is a Democrat.
Jennifer Halferty, 45, of Mammoth Lakes, has been appointed to represent the First District on the Mono County Board of Supervisors. Halferty has been executive director at Mammoth Lakes Housing since 2013, where she was deputy director from 2007 to 2013 and programs manager from 2006 to 2007. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $49,308. Halferty is a Democrat.
Mohammad Qureshi, 52, of Tustin, has been reappointed to the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists, where he has served since 2014. Qureshi has been public works director for the County of Glenn Public Works Agency since 2018. He was traffic engineer for the County of Monterey Resource Management Agency from 2016 to 2018 and chief of traffic at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Works from 2012 to 2016. He was regional director and senior project manager at LIN Consulting from 2007 to 2012, director of the Institute for Multimodal Transportation at Jackson State University from 2006 to 2007, an assistant professor and director at the University of Missouri-Rolla’s Missouri Local Transportation Resource Center from 2000 to 2006, a research specialist at the University of Tennessee from 1998 to 2000 and senior associate at Resource Systems Group Inc. from 1995 to 1997. Qureshi earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Qureshi is a Democrat.