Caltrans director Will Kempton, who has been generally credited with inheriting a floundering agency and putting it on the road to respectability, is leaving at the end of July, the governor's office announced today.
Although it was not announced where the 62-year-old Folsom resident was going, it has been rumored for weeks that he was taking a higher-paying job as chief executive officer for the Orange County Transportation Authority. An announcement from OCTA was expected later today.
The Orange County job, which at $266,656 pays about twice what the chief of Caltrans makes, came open in March when the OCTA chief Arthur T. Leahy accepted a job as CEO of the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a news release he was appointing Randell H. Iwasaki, Caltrans' chief deputy director, to take Kempton's place.
"Will has been an incredible driving force behind rebuilding California's infrastructure and especially instrumental in quickly moving federal stimulus dollars out the door to transportation projects around the state," Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger named Kempton, who is a registered Democrat, as chief of Caltrans in November 2004, after a nine-month search.
Prior to being appointed, Kempton was assistant city manager of the city of Folsom. Before taking the Folsom job in 2002, Kempton had for a decade been a partner in a Sacramento lobbying firm that specialized in transportation issues. He had also served as executive director of the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority for eight years, and worked for Caltrans for a dozen years before that.
At the time he was appointed by Schwarzenegger, Caltrans was much more often a butt of jokes than an object of praise. A report by a Washington D.C.-based group called the Road Information Program had just named California as having the worst urban highway system in the country, with more than half of the freeways in the state's metropolitan areas in poor condition.
The department was suffering from poor morale, brought about in part by sagging revenues and hiring freeze, and some of its top managers and engineers had departed for better-paying jobs in the private sector.
But Kempton won generally high marks for instilling a more businesslike approach in the department, and Caltrans won praise in recent years for quickly completing a number of high-profile projects, such as the speedy reopening of the multiple-freeway interchange in Oakland that was closed by a truck crash, or the before-schedule reopening of the Bay Bridge after it had closed on Labor Day weekend in 2006 for repairs.
Iwasaki, 49, has been with Caltrans since 1993. The Elk Grove resident has served in several engineering and managerial jobs, including as interim director before Kempton was named to the post in 2004.
"I am incredibly honored Gov. Schwarzenegger has asked me to take on this position and lead Caltrans," Iwasaki said in a prepared statement. "I look forward to continuing to work with the governor and his administration to advance the state's leading position in global commerce and enhance the quality of life of all Californians."
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