Monday, June 11, 2001
Page 3
Davis Names Four to State Park and Recreation Commission
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Gray Davis appointed four new members to the State Park and Recreation Commission Thursday, including three with Los Angeles connections.
The appointments are pending Senate confirmation.
L.A. Board of Police Commissioners President Raquelle de la Rocha is among the new appointees to the commission, which is responsible for guiding the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation by establishing general policies in the administration, protection, and development of the state park system.
She joins the commission along with Los Angeles entrepreneur Eugene J. La Peitra, former Los Angeles journalist Robert Sargeant Shriver, and San Francisco businessman John W. Murray.
De la Rocha, 43, is a veteran of commissions having served on the L.A. City Ethics Commission, California Fair Political Practices Commission, L.A. Board of Civil Service Commissioners and L.A. City Commission on the Status of Women.
In addition to her time as a commissioner, de la Rocha has 14 years of experience as an attorney in labor and employment law. She has been in private practice as well as serving as a senior litigator and trial counsel for the State Bar Office of Trial Counsel.
De la Rocha has also served as a pro bono deputy city attorney and volunteered at the L.A. City Attorney’s office after the L.A. riots. She has also served as a lecturer at her alma mater UCLA School of Law since 1991.
De la Rocha was named the 1996 Hispanic Woman of the Year by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation and Woman of the Future by the Comision Femenil de los Angeles in 1995.
La Pietra, 53, has more than 25 years in entrepreneurial and community service in the Hollywood area, establishing his own company, Book City News, in 1973.
He is the chairman of Hollywood Vote, a coalition of Hollywood area residents, business leaders, and organizations with the mission of the creating an independent city of Hollywood.
La Pietra also serves as the president of the Hollywood Police Support Association and vice president of the Hollywood chapter of the Police Activities League, treasurer of the Hollywood Media Business Improvement District. He is a member of the Hollywood Citizens Police Advisory Board.
Santa Monica resident Shriver, 47, has extensive journalistic experience, working with such newspapers as the Chicago Daily News, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Annapolis Evening Capitol.
He also has experience as a television producer, producing programs for the Special Olympics World Games, a BBC program on the European Games in Glasgow, and multiple Christmas shows which benefit the Special Olympics.
President of RSS, Inc. of Beverly Hills for the past 10 years, Shriver is licensed to practice law in both California and Washington, D.C.
He received his law degree from Yale Law School.
His father, R. Seargent Shriver, was the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1972. His mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded Special Olympics and is the sister of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and the late President John F. Kennedy.
His sister, television journalist Maria Shriver, is married to actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently turned down entreaties from fellow Republicans to seek Davis’ job next year.
Murray, 39, has served on the Park and Recreation Commission of San Francisco since 1998 in addition to various business endeavors.
Senior vice president and chief technology officer of Tetragon, Inc., a company which he co-founded, Murray has worked for the City of Long Beach Planning Department and Intel Corporation.
Murray has a MBA from the Univeristy of California, Berkeley Haas Graduate School of Business Administration.
Commission positions are unpaid.
Copyright 2001, Metropolitan News Company