New Job for Ex-Councilwoman : Politics: Defeated in bids for mayor and Assembly, Jan Hall is named to state agency post.

There is more than one way to get to Sacramento. Just ask Jan Hall.

Defeated in her bid for a state Assembly seat last year, the former Long Beach city councilwoman has been named to a state post by Gov. Pete Wilson. This week was Hall’s first on the job as a deputy secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.

A Republican who left the council last year after three terms representing the shoreline 3rd District, Hall is one of three deputy secretaries for the 38,000-worker agency. She will act as a liaison between agency Secretary Carl Covitz and several agency departments dealing with housing and commerce.

“I was very interested in becoming a part of Gov. Wilson’s Administration and a part of his team,” Hall, 48, said. “He selected me for this position and I’m thrilled to be in it.”

The $86,000-a-year post is based in Sacramento, but Hall said she will return on the weekends to her Long Beach home.

Blunt, hard-working and ambitious, Hall got her start in politics as a community activist and went on to spend 12 years on the City Council. In her final term she was clearly eager to expand her political horizons. In 1988 she ran for mayor of the city and lost. After announcing she would not seek reelection to the council, she made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP Assembly nomination in the 58th District. She also sought a national transportation post in the Bush Administration.

“She’s an extremely qualified individual,” said Franz Wisner, a spokesman for the governor’s office. As part of her duties, he noted, Hall will be concerned with issues vital to Long Beach, such as keeping McDonnell Douglas and other aerospace companies in the state.

“Gov. Wilson is concerned about the flight of aerospace from California to other parts of the country and this is one of the issues she’ll be tackling,” Wisner said.