Senator Fran Pavley is a native Angeleno and grew up in Sherman Oaks. She has spent her life living and working in Los Angeles and Ventura counties as a parent, educator and elected official. She lives with her husband, Andy, a veteran and lifelong teacher, in Agoura Hills, where they raised two children and four guide dogs for the blind.
Pavley received a master’s degree in environmental planning from California State University - Northridge; taught middle school for 28 years; and completed her teaching career in Moorpark, Calif. In 1982, she was elected as the first mayor of the City of Agoura Hills and served for four terms on the city council.
In 2000 she won election to the California State Assembly, serving three terms, or six years. She was elected to the state Senate in 2008. Currently, Senator Pavley represents about 900,000 people in the 27th Senate District, which includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Senator Pavley is the chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee and is a member of a half dozen committees: Energy, Utilities, and Communications, Environmental Quality, Budget and Fiscal Review, Budget Subcommittee #2 (Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy, and Transportation), Governance and Finance and Legislative Ethics. She also chairs the Select Committee on Climate Change and Assembly Bill 32 Implementation.
During her 14 years in the Legislature, Senator Pavley received national acclaim for her work on three historic pieces of climate legislation that established California as a worldwide leader in promoting clean energy and reducing climate pollution. Most recently, she was the author of SB 32, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 8, 2016. It sets a target for California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
The law builds upon groundbreaking legislation she co-authored in 2006 as a member of the Assembly, AB 32, which established a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 – a target the state is on track to meet.
Senator Pavley’s initial piece of climate legislation, AB 1493, also known as the Clean Car Act in 2002, was the nation’s first law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobile tailpipes. That law was later adopted by a dozen other states and ultimately became the basis for new nationwide fuel-efficiency standards announced by President Obama in 2011 that require a fleet-average fuel-efficiency standard of 54.5 miles per gallon by the 2025 model year.
Among other notable legislation authored by Senator Pavley in 2016 was an urgency law requiring rigorous safety testing at all wells before gas injection can resume at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field in her district, which was the site of a massive gas leak that raged for four months and forced the relocation of more than 8,000 families from the community of Porter Ranch.
In addition, Senator Pavley won passage of law that allows women to receive up to 12 months of birth control prescriptions at one time – an approach recommended by health care experts because research has shown that eliminating the need to refill such prescriptions every 30 or 90 days results in more effective birth control and reduces unintended pregnancies by 30 percent.
In 2014, Senator Pavley authored legislation to manage groundwater for the first time in California and helped negotiate a bipartisan water bond that was approved by voters as Proposition 1. And in 2013 she successfully carried legislation to end unregulated hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and other oil-extraction practices in California, and coauthored successful legislation to invest $2 billion in successful air-quality and clean vehicle and fuel technology programs. In addition, Senator Pavley successfully carried bills to increase the maximum penalty for child pornography possession, ensure proper sexual-assault investigations at centers for people with developmental disabilities, and increase disclosure of financial contributions to ballot proposition campaigns.
Some of Senator Pavley’s past legislative victories in the Senate include laws stiffening penalties for mortgage fraud, banning lead and cadmium in children’s jewelry, and creating new clean energy jobs. In 2011, Senator Pavley authored a law to improve California’s business climate by implementing regulatory reform; this bill requires agencies to more rigorously assess the economic impacts, including the benefits, of major regulations before they are adopted.
Senator Pavley also has worked hard to address local transportation priorities and other quality-of-life issues. She has helped secure funds for important local transportation projects, including construction of the Orange Line busway and installation of much-needed traffic signals in the San Fernando Valley. She is a member of the Pacific Coast Highway Task Force and has worked with the California Highway Patrol to coordinate funding to reduce the number of people who are driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs on Highway 101. And for more than 30 years Senator Pavley has worked with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to acquire and protect open space and develop trails and public access to areas throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties.