TPA Welcomes Senior Associate Sharon Gonsalves
Townsend Public Affairs is very pleased to announce that Sharon Gonsalves has joined the Firm as a Senior Associate in the TPA State Capitol Office in Sacramento!
Sharon Gonsalves joined Townsend Public Affairs, Inc. after a decade of service with the California Legislature working in the State Capitol. Sharon has focused on major policy issues throughout her career including water policy and infrastructure, energy, agriculture, transportation, and housing. While Sharon has developed and maintained an extensive bi-partisan network of relationships with Members of the Legislature throughout the State, her assignments allowed her to place particular emphasis on the County of Orange, the Central Valley, and the Imperial Valley.
During her tenure working with the California Legislature, Sharon developed Statewide policy, drafted bill language, reviewed, tracked, and analyzed legislative measures, public laws, and agency relations. In addition, Sharon monitored legislative committee and agency hearings and testified at regulatory and policy hearings on a multitude of key public policy matters. Sharon’s key accomplishments include, but are not limited to:
- Assisted with the development and adoption of the historic Statewide Groundwater Management Act in 2014, which represented the first-ever effort by California to manage groundwater basins on a Statewide level .
- Navigated affected cities through the redevelopment dissolution process, serving as a liaison between the cities and the Department of Finance, after the elimination of redevelopment.
- Organized the opposition to a proposal from the State Water Resources Control Board regarding flows on the Stanislaus, Merced, and Tuolumne Rivers. Increased flows, coupled with the drought and groundwater challenges, would have negatively impacted the economic and agricultural future in the Central Valley.
- Assisted with the development and adoption of the Desalination Amendment, which established a uniform and consistent process for the permitting of desalination facilities in California.
In addition to her previous work in the State Capitol, Sharon is a member of Capitol Network and California Women in Energy.
A graduate of California State University Monterey Bay, Sharon resides in West Sacramento with her husband John and two sons.
