Riverside attorney Jane Carney appointed to trustees

By MARK MUCKENFUSS

Riverside attorney Jane Carney has been appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to the California State University Board of Trustees.

Carney, 73, said being named to the board was an honor. She applied last year when she learned that board chairman Lou Monville, a Riverside businessman, would be leaving in June.

“When I learned that Lou Monville was terming out and that he was the only person from the Inland Empire to ever serve on that board, clearly something had to happen,” Carney said. “It’s important for the Inland Empire to have a member on the board so they don’t forget we exist.”

Carney was one of four new trustees appointed by Gov. Brown: Jean Picker Firstenberg and Thelma Melendez, both of Los Angeles, and Lateefah Simon of Oakland. Lillian Kimbell, of Woodland Hills, was reappointed to her position. All terms are for eight years and must be confirmed by the State Senate. The Board of Trustees next meets March 7-9 and the new trustees are expected to be in attendance.

Carney serves on a number of Southern California boards, including at UC Riverside’s School of Public Policy and the James Irvine Foundation. She has lived in Riverside since 1977. She was once named Citizen of the Year by the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce and Woman of the Year by the California State Senate.

A graduate of UC Davis School of Law, Carney married the late Francis M. Carney, a founding UCR professor of political science and history, the same year she moved to Riverside. She practiced law in Riverside until retiring in 2010. She specialized in mergers and acquisitions, general business and corporate law. Most recently she shared partnership in a law firm with Richard Roth who is now a state senator.

In her other roles, Carney spent 12 years on the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, served on the Riverside Community College District’s Board of Trustees and was president of the Riverside County Bar Association.

Carney said there are some key issues she expects to help impact as a trustee.

“The four-year completion rate (in the CSU system) is quite low,” she said. “We have to address that.”

She pointed to a study that shows at current rates, California’s job market will have a million more jobs than it does college graduates to fill them by 2030.

“That would be an enormous loss,” Carney said.

The biggest current issue the CSU administration is facing is its protracted stalemate in negotiating a contract with its faculty union. The California Faculty Association has said its members will strike on all 23 campuses for five days in April.

Carney said she does not have in-depth knowledge about the situation.

“Having been married to college professor for so long, I value the work they do,” she said of the faculty. “They are key to any success and every success. Its very import they be treated fairly and compensated fairly. I think there’s room for change on both sides.”