The five-member board, which hears appeals involving hazardous waste facilities permitted by the Department of Toxic Substances Control, was established in 2021 to add a layer of oversight and give communities burdened by industrial pollution a stronger voice in state decision-making.

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Williams to the board in January, shortly after he stepped down as the governor’s deputy chief of staff. In a letter sent to Williams, and shared with the board and the department, a coalition of environmental groups raised alarms over his subsequent work for Axiom Advisors, a Sacramento lobbying firm whose client roster includes Clean Harbors, which operates a major hazardous waste facility, and GKN Aerospace, the company responsible for a chemical release that forced thousands of Orange County residents to evacuate in May.

Williams did not respond to requests for comment from CalMatters, and he did not address the letter during the board’s meeting Thursday. He has not been accused of breaking any law, and legal experts note his appointment fell within the bounds of what’s permitted.

The governor’s office defended the appointment, saying Williams underwent a thorough vetting process and that his lobbying work does not present a conflict because he does not represent clients with active matters before the board. Williams has also committed to recusing himself from any votes involving Axiom’s 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,” said Newsom spokesperson Anthony Martinez. “His appointment reflects his deep subject matter expertise, professionalism, and longstanding commitment to public service.”

But advocates argue that the appearance of divided loyalties alone is enough to undermine confidence in the board’s independence.

“They 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 of impartiality

Records from Williams’ LinkedIn profile and lobbying disclosures filed with the California Secretary of State show that Axiom Advisors brought him on in May, roughly four months after he joined the state board. The firm publicly announced his hiring the following month, touting his government connections as a selling point for clients. “This appointment brings something very important to Axiom’s clients,” the announcement read. “Rhys’ extensive experience with the agencies that can move projects forward is invaluable to companies looking to do business here.”

Axiom’s client list includes GKN Aerospace, which uses the hazardous chemical methyl methacrylate to manufacture aircraft components such as cockpit canopies and passenger windows; Clean Harbors, which runs one of only two hazardous waste landfills in the state; and the California Building Industry Association, a trade group representing homebuilders and developers.

According to a source familiar with the discussions, Williams has attended meetings in his capacity as an Axiom lobbyist between GKN representatives and staff for state Sen. Tom Umberg, an Orange County Democrat pushing legislation to hold the company accountable and provide relief to affected residents. The toxic substances department does not directly regulate GKN as an aerospace manufacturer, though it could have jurisdiction if the company handles or transports hazardous waste.

Williams’ career in Sacramento dates back more than a decade. He joined Newsom’s staff in 2014 as chief of staff during Newsom’s time as lieutenant governor, later advising him on infrastructure and emergency preparedness issues throughout his governorship.

Before leaving for the board post, Williams earned close to $200,000 annually as deputy chief of staff. His new part-time position pays $93,135. Newsom has since also named him to the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, a role that comes with a $100 daily stipend. Asked in January about Williams’ departure from the governor’s office, spokesperson Izzy Gardon said the longtime aide had “earned his freedom” after more than ten years of service.

A board under scrutiny

Williams stepped into a board still working to shed criticism over how it has handled oversight of polluting facilities in its first five years of existence. In the coming months, the board is expected to weigh in on several contested permits tied to some of California’s largest hazardous waste operations.

The board’s formation followed years of frustration from residents and advocacy groups who said the Department of Toxic Substances Control routinely dragged its feet on permitting decisions and failed to shield vulnerable communities from pollution.

Chief among the incidents that spurred reform was the decades-long Exide lead battery contamination case in Los Angeles. Regulators eventually determined the Vernon-based battery recycler had been releasing lead and arsenic into the soil near thousands of homes for years, all while operating under nothing more than a temporary permit for more than three decades. State inspectors documented over 100 violations at the site yet allowed the plant to keep running.

In 2015, following an earlier bankruptcy filing, Exide agreed to shutter the plant for good and contribute $50 million toward the cleanup. When the company filed for bankruptcy a second time in 2020, a federal judge signed off on a settlement letting Exide walk away from the property entirely, over state objections, leaving California to shoulder the ongoing cleanup costs.

Critics say the pattern of delayed permitting and lax enforcement hasn’t gone away. Clean Harbors operated for two decades on an expired permit before the department finally issued a renewal last month. Phibro-Tech, a hazardous waste treatment and recycling facility in Santa Fe Springs, ran on a permit that lapsed in 1996 for nearly 30 years before receiving a new one in 2025; the board is set to rule on appeals tied to that permit in October. And Ecobat Resources, the only lead battery recycler west of the Rockies, operated for a decade on an expired permit before getting a renewal last year, with related appeals scheduled for board review in January.

Neither Phibro-Tech nor Ecobat are Axiom clients.

“The BES was supposed to be our firewall to safeguard communities,” said Matt Holmes, co-coordinator with the California Environmental Justice Coalition. While he credited the board with improving communication with affected communities, he said it has fallen short of its core mission. “We’ve been disappointed that the (board) really hasn’t been the firewall for toxic communities to get equal treatment from the state,” Holmes said, adding that the letter demanding Williams’ resignation was meant to clarify expectations for the board going forward.

What the law allows

Legal experts say there’s nothing inherently illegal or unusual about state board members holding outside jobs as lobbyists — the issue arises only if they end up advocating for companies whose matters they’re later asked to rule on. There’s no indication Williams has crossed that line: GKN Aerospace does not hold any hazardous waste permits regulated by the department, and it’s unclear whether he has direct ties to Clean Harbors or any other Axiom client that has drawn scrutiny.

Even so, USC government ethics professor Frank Zerunyan said Williams’ situation could raise concerns under broader common-law conflict-of-interest principles. “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?” Zerunyan said. “That is the question.”

Environmental groups say the answer doesn’t hinge on whether Williams ever actually casts a vote involving an Axiom client. In their letter, they wrote that his ongoing association with the firm alone invites doubt: “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.”

A pattern of political appointments

Williams is among more than a dozen former Newsom staffers and political allies the governor has placed in paid or unpaid roles across California’s many boards and commissions. Such appointments are a long-standing tradition in Sacramento, particularly as governors near the end of their terms, offering soft landings for aides leaving full-time government service while allowing the governor to retain influence over policy decisions.

“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 political consultant Steve Maviglio, who received a similar appointment to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board in 2003 under then-Gov. Gray Davis. Maviglio, who served as Davis’ press secretary, said it’s reasonable for governors to reward staffers who are “loyal and battle-tested,” though he acknowledged that “sometimes appointments are made for the sake of qualifying for pension benefits.” Davis’ successor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, once pledged to shake up the state’s boards and commissions — only to later fill several of them with his own former staffers.

Original source: CalMatters

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Their fight comes amid a headline-making spike in jail deaths in this sprawling county east of Los Angeles. In 2022, at least 19 people died while held in Riverside county detention facilities, according to California department of justice data. That’s a higher rate of jail deaths than in LA county that year, which had three times as many inmates. Last year, at least 14 people died in the Riverside county detention centers.

But the high number of deaths isn’t the only reason behind the families’ quest. In Riverside county, as in 48 of California’s 58 counties, the coroner’s office is run by the sheriff’s department – the same agency that runs the jails.

That structure, legal experts say, presents at least the perception of a conflict of interest when someone dies in jail, in police custody, or following police use of force.

Many families of people who have died in Riverside county jails agree. That’s because Chad Bianco – the Riverside county sheriff and a rabble-rouser who was once affiliated with the Oath Keepers and recently endorsed Trump by saying “I think it’s time to put a felon in the White House” – has deflected responsibility for the deaths on his watch. When the California attorney general in 2023 announced an investigation into Bianco’s department, he dismissed it as a political maneuver by his detractors in Sacramento. “Every single one of these inmate deaths was out of anyone’s control,” Bianco told Riverside’s Press-Enterprise. “The fact of the matter is that they just happened to be in our custody.”

In another instance, Bianco used his personal Facebook account to respond to an article posted by the Press-Enterprise about deaths in his jails, most of which were due to drug overdoses or suicide. “Did [inmates’ families] ever demand their family members not commit suicide or consume drugs while they were in custody?” he wrote. “Did they ever demand that their family members not commit crimes in the first place?”

And in an interview with the Guardian in March, Bianco doubled down. “It’s not my fault that someone is going [to] extraordinary lengths to smuggle fentanyl into the jail,” he said. “When are we going to say that it’s not the government’s fault or the government’s responsibility to take care of all this?”

Lisa Matus’s son Richard died of a fentanyl overdose at Riverside county’s Cois M Byrd detention center in 2022. The autopsy performed by Bianco’s office ruled Matus had died of a fentanyl overdose. But it also found that his left anterior descending artery, which provides half the heart’s blood, was 80-90% closed. Matus’s family alleges he was not given adequate medical attention while in jail, despite requesting care on multiple occasions.

Richard was awaiting trial with his brother Raymond for attempted murder and attempted robbery when he was found unresponsive in his cell, according to the coroner’s report. Matus said she called the sheriff’s department multiple times to locate Richard’s body but couldn’t get answers until she got an attorney involved.

“How do you trust somebody that’s bashing you [on] social media, but is also in charge of letting us know what happened inside the jail?” she said.

Matus has filed a civil suit against the department, which is ongoing.

When the Guardian asked Bianco about his social media remarks, he softened his stance. He said his comment was not meant to single out Matus or imply she was to blame for her son’s death. If given the opportunity to speak to Matus in person, he said: “I would make it perfectly clear to her that that’s not what I meant. And never would I think or accuse her of that.”

‘Not to satisfy law enforcement but to get to the truth’
If the idea of a law enforcement agency overseeing a coroner’s office sounds unusual, that’s because it is. California is one of just four states that uses a sheriff-coroner system, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Generally speaking, a coroner is an administrative figure who oversees autopsies conducted by physicians who are also board-certified forensic pathologists. In California, anyone 21 or older with a high school diploma and no felony convictions meets the minimum requirements to become a coroner.

Several experts said allowing law enforcement officials to serve as coroners in their own jurisdictions, as is the case in Riverside, is problematic. “The job of the person doing an autopsy is not to satisfy law enforcement but to get to the truth,” said Thomas Mauriello, a former police officer and federal investigator who teaches at University of Maryland’s department of criminology and criminal justice. Law enforcement agencies and coroners, he said, “should be separate and distinct”.

Marcella Fierro spent 14 years as the chief medical examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and has written extensively on death investigations for the National Academy of Sciences. “Death investigations and forensic science investigations need to be separate from law enforcement, unequivocally,” she said.

Over the years, there’ve been reports about the relationship between sheriff’s departments and coroners impacting investigations elsewhere in the state. In a high-profile California case, two forensic pathologists in San Joaquin county accused their boss, then sheriff-coroner Steve Moore, of meddling in a death investigation that might have implicated his deputies, and resigned. Moore denied the allegations. The San Joaquin county board of supervisors later stripped Moore of his duties, separated the sheriff- coroner office and implemented a new system.

And there’s been research into the topic. A 2023 study by researchers at University of Southern California found that California counties that use a sheriff-coroner system “grossly undercount” deaths involving officers.

The Riverside county sheriff’s department, which oversees 4,000 people incarcerated across five detention facilities, recently faced scrutiny over one such death: Christopher Zumwalt died in 2020 after sheriff’s deputies raided his jail cell with pepper spray and shocked and restrained him, according to recent reporting by the New York Times. The sheriff’s department determined Zumwalt’s cause of death to be cardiac arrest, according to the Times, and the coroner ruled it a justified homicide.

Law enforcement agencies are required to report such incidents to the state. But the Guardian could not find a similar case in the California justice department’s use-of-force database, where the information would ordinarily be.

Bianco did not respond to a request for comment about whether his department reported the use-of-force to the state, or the accuracy of the Times’s reporting.

‘Tired old false argument’
Aided by the ACLU, Matus and other family members of people who died in Bianco’s jails have had some success putting the issue on the agenda of local leaders. In December 2023, Riverside county supervisors Kevin Jeffries and V Manuel Perez authored a proposal to study the separation of the coroner from the sheriff. “While there is no evidence of any improprieties in Riverside county regarding the operations of the coroner’s office under the sheriff,” they wrote, “the optics of a potential conflict of interest can lead to a loss of confidence in our institutions.”

The group that conducted the study ultimately advised against separating the sheriff from the coroner, citing costs.

But Jeffries, Perez and advocates scored a small victory. In March, the board voted in favor of a new arrangement: autopsies for people who die in the county’s detention facilities will be outsourced to neighboring agencies. Luis Nolasco of the ACLU said that’s a step in the right direction, but he worries that law enforcement employees look out for each other regardless of jurisdiction, and “there may be some influencing [between] neighboring counties”.

Bianco bristles at Nolasco’s suggestion. “That’s a tired old false argument,” he said. “There is no law enforcement officer that looks out for themselves.”

The argument over which county coroner examines a body is beside the point, experts say. The real problem is the fact that coroners exist at all. Fierro said coroners typically have limited training and juggle responsibilities with other duties. “This is not a part-time, do-it-on-the-weekend job,” she said. “Coroners should be done away with unless the coroner is an MD.”

Many states, like Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts, use state-run systems made up of forensic pathologists overseen by medical examiners, who are either physicians, forensic pathologists or both; those systems are not associated with law enforcement agencies.

Some California counties, such as Los Angeles, San Joaquin and San Diego, have medical examiners’ departments that are also separate from law enforcement.

But replacing coroners with medical examiners, in California or anywhere else, is challenging. In the US, there are only about 700 forensic pathologists across roughly 2,400 death investigation systems, according to a 2022 study in the journal Missouri Medicine.

“It’s a very rare career choice,” said J Keith Pinckard, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners. “It is a lower-paying specialty compared to other branches of medical practice,” he said, “and salaries in government may not be comparable to the private sector”.

‘Less headache’
The ACLU of Southern California and the families say they’re not done fighting for the separation of the sheriff and the coroner.

There’s some attention on the issue at the state level, too. California assemblymember Mike Gipson, who in 2021 introduced a bill to separate coroners and sheriffs statewide that failed over budget concerns, says he plans to reintroduce his bill after the November elections, when the state legislature has new members.

The Riverside county sheriff, meanwhile, has his hands full. The California attorney general’s investigation into his department is ongoing. And the department has been under a federal consent decree due to poor jail conditions since 2016, prior to Bianco’s election. Bianco has been working with court-appointed attorneys to comply with the decree, which calls for improvements and better staffing of medical and mental health units, and improved conditions in mental health settings.

Two inmates have died in Bianco’s jails since the Riverside county supervisors’ decision earlier this year to outsource jail death autopsies to neighboring counties. The procedures were done by the San Bernardino county sheriff-coroner’s department; San Bernardino county has not fulfilled a request for autopsy reports.

Bianco said sending the bodies of people who die in his jails out of the county is fine by him. He even said he would be open to having someone else serve as coroner. “Would I be open to less responsibility? Would I be open to less scrutiny? Would I be open to less headache? Would I be open to less calls in the middle of the night? Absolutely,” he said. “Absolutely.”

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