Will Kempton, Caltrans Director

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Then, in 1973, he says, he left an insurance company and took a 50 percent pay cut to work for Caltrans. He started in the area of finance and the director's offices before moving up the ranks to assistant director in charge of legislative and congressional affairs.

"That got to feed my political aspirations," Kempton says as he sits in his office in front of a coffee table piled with files and folders.

Then, starting in 1985 as the executive director of the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority, Kempton initiated a sales tax program that delivered $1 billion in highway improvements in less than 10 years. In 1990, he organized that program into a coalition of "self-help" counties, lobbying Caltrans and the state Legislature to create a program in which the state would match funds for local transportation projects. That program, to date, has provided more than $1.5 billion in matching funds.

Those early collaborative efforts demonstrate Kempton's strengths as a leader. He believes in the power-in-numbers business principle, and he has spent most of his career making crucial contacts. But he couldn't avoid all the roadblocks.

Kempton spent much of his first year as Caltran's director defending the governor, who wanted to speed re-construction of the Bay Bridge by building a concrete viaduct instead of a single-tower suspension design. Kempton was mired in political gridlock until a deal was reached in July 2005. And in the past few months the agency has been besieged in controversy over its so-called "pet cemetery," a dumping site in Saratoga where maintenance workers allegedly disposed of highway roadkill.

Some environmental groups maintain that even in the last few years the agency has not changed. The Environmental Council of Sacramento sued Caltrans in June over concerns that plans to expand Hwy. 50 do not fit with the city's growth model and that the agency neglected to fully examine the environmental impact, says Eric Davis, the group's co-chairman of the transportation and air quality committee.

Kempton says he will continue to try to improve the agency's public image and that he does not plan to leave Caltrans until the governor leaves office. After that, he hopes to teach high school history and government in Folsom, and coach football and wrestling. And his wife says he can get a Corvette. But until then, there is still much ground to cover and damage that needs repair, both on the roads and in the agency. And the deadline for the $5.1 billion Bay Bridge project is getting closer every day.

Position: Director, California Department of Transportation
Appointed: November 2004
Age: 60
Family: Married to Beverley with a 37-year-old son, Mark, and 24-year-old daughter, Christina
Residence: Folsom
Previous Jobs: Director in charge of legislative and congressional affairs, Caltrans; executive director, Santa Clara County Traffic Authority; assistant city manager, city of Folsom (Sacramento County)
Education: Bachelor's degree in political science from the University of San Francisco

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