Dean Florez

• Biography:

  Senator Dean Florez grew up in the heart of the Central Valley.

  In the most recent legislative session, Florez focused his energies on finding workable solutions to the Valley’s air pollution crisis, taking on powerful interests along the way. In the end, Florez was rewarded with a historic victory for advocates of clean air and public health, as Governor Gray Davis signed into law five measures by Florez which take a dramatic first step toward cleaner air.

  Foremost among those measures was SB 700, which ended agriculture’s reign as the only industry in California exempted from the Federal Clean Air Act. The bills also phase out the age-old practice of burning agricultural waste, while taking into consideration the needs of farmers to find an alternative disposal method by giving biomass facilities added incentive to take farm waste ahead of urban construction debris.

  California’s Central Valley has the second-dirtiest air in the nation, and childhood asthma rates in the region are several times the national average. As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Air Quality in the Central Valley, Florez intends to continue working on common sense legislation which addresses the various causes of Valley air pollution, including large commercial developments and diesel-driven locomotives.

  Florez is no stranger to ignoring political risk to take on issues of importance to his Central Valley community and this state. Just last year, Florez lost his position as chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) after conducting more than 100 hours of hearings into the state’s questionable $95 million software contract with Oracle Corporation and probing the highest levels of state government.

  The Oracle contract has since been rescinded, and Florez is back on JLAC as a member of the State Senate, where he continues to use state audits as a tool to promote government accountability.

  This session, Florez called for an audit of the state’s sex offender registry, after media reports that as many as 33,000 offenders who are required to have their whereabouts posted on the Megan’s Law database were unaccounted for. Shortly after a hearing on the auditor’s findings, the Legislature voted to extend the sunset on Megan’s Law, with a bipartisan commitment to addressing the system’s deficiencies in the upcoming session.

  Florez currently chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and International Trade, which has explored such issues this year as federal preemption of state banking laws, implementation of the state’s Disabled Veterans Business Enterprise program and proposed federal rules that would have allowed formation of even larger media conglomerates. The committee also held a hearing on the value of California’s foreign trade offices, which were found to have grossly inflated the monetary value of their services and have since been eliminated.

  Florez is serving his first term in the California State Senate, after two successful terms in the State Assembly. As a freshman Assemblyman, Florez introduced legislation to provide a safe means of transportation to farmworkers, who were often the victims of senseless accidents during harvest season. Florez pushed for and passed legislation to mandate seatbelts and latched toolboxes in farm labor vehicles, and outlawed the practice of replacing manufacturer-installed seating with parallel benches to increase capacity. These measures and the California Highway Patrol unit charged with their enforcement are credited with all but eliminating the tragic traffic deaths that had come to be associated with the harvest.

  Florez began his political life working in the Legislature as a fiscal consultant to the Senate Budget Committee. After attending Bakersfield College, Florez earned his bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he served as student body president. He went on to receive his MBA from Harvard Business School. Florez lives in Shafter with his wife Elsa, their daughter Faith and son Sean.