Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson is tapping a Biden Administration official to guide the state’s Division of Ecology and to maintain Washington on the forefront of the nation’s battle towards the damaging results of local weather change.
Ferguson named Casey Sixkiller, regional administrator of the federal Environmental Safety Company, to information the division liable for finishing up the state’s bold local weather insurance policies enacted below outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee.
“Casey has the ability to craft practical solutions to complex problems, which will be critical to getting big things done and moving our state forward,” Ferguson stated in a press release.
Additionally this week, Ferguson named Tim Lang, a senior assistant lawyer common, as the subsequent secretary of the Division of Corrections. Lang is the division’s chief authorized counsel and a member of the company’s govt technique group.
Lang, who has been with Ferguson all through his tenure as lawyer common, will succeed Secretary of Corrections Cheryl Unusual.
“His extensive background in legal matters concerning corrections, coupled with his understanding of the challenges facing our state’s facilities, makes him the ideal candidate to lead the Department of Corrections,” Ferguson stated in a press release.
With the 2 appointments, Ferguson has now chosen six division heads forward of his inauguration on Jan. 15.
President Joe Biden appointed Sixkiller in 2022 because the EPA administrator for Area 10, which covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and 271 tribal nations. He’ll succeed Laura Watson who shall be chief deputy lawyer common for the subsequent lawyer common, Nick Brown.
Previous to the federal appointment, Sixkiller served as deputy mayor of Seattle and chief working officer of King County. He’s an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
Inslee praised the number of Sixkiller.
“I’ve known Casey for a long time. I have a huge respect for him personally. He’s done a great job for EPA and I’m happy he’s going to be able to carry on the great work at Ecology,” he stated Wednesday.
Sixkiller is the primary particular person Ferguson has named to guide a division who shouldn’t be presently working for the state.
Ferguson has stated he’ll re-appoint Marcus Glasper as director of the Division of Licensing and David Puente Jr. as director of the Washington State Division of Veterans Affairs. Each males had been named to their positions in 2023 by Inslee.
Unusual is delaying a deliberate retirement to function appearing secretary of the Division of Social and Well being Providers within the subsequent administration. She ran the company from 2017 to 2021.
Ferguson beforehand named Okay.D. Chapman-See as his director of the Workplace of Monetary Administration. She would be the level particular person serving to him assemble state spending plans below the specter of a multi-billion greenback price range shortfall.