Santa Ana Mayor Named to Teacher Retirement Board

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday appointed Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido to the board of the California State Teachers Retirement System, the largest pension program of its kind in the country.

Pulido, a Democrat, was initially appointed to the unsalaried post last year by former Gov. Gray Davis shortly before Davis was recalled. But when Schwarzenegger became governor, he withdrew Pulido’s nomination along with scores of other pending Davis state office nominees.

In appointing Pulido, Schwarzenegger gave him a fresh start to a four-year term. Pulido has served on the Santa Ana City Council since 1986 and first was elected mayor in 1994.

Last year, Pulido was fined $1,000 for failure to disclose his financial interest in a development project outside the Santa Ana city limits.

The fine was reversed in February by a Superior Court judge who indicated that the failure was inadvertent and harmed no one.

The governor also named these appointees to the 12-member board: Republican Gloria Hom of Palo Alto, a former member of the state Board of Education and trustee of the California State University system; Mark Battey, a Half Moon Bay Democrat and former assistant to state Controller Steve Westly; Republican James Gray of Indian Wells, a trustee of Desert Community College; and Kathleen Smalley of Los Angeles, managing director of a real estate financial services company. Smalley is registered as a nonpartisan voter.