Diane Cummins retired in December 2008 after a distinguished 31-year career in California government. Subsequent to her retirement, Ms. Cummins joined Governor Brown’s Administration and served for 8 years as his Special Advisor for State-Local Realignment and public safety reform.  She was instrumental in the formation and passage of 2011 Public Safety Realignment. She then served on the budget transition team for Governor-elect Newsom and stayed at the Department of Finance as a Special Advisor to the Director until March, 2020. Prior to her retirement, Ms. Cummins was appointed Chief Fiscal Policy Advisor to the President pro tem of the State Senate in January 1999.  In that capacity, Ms. Cummins served as the primary staff for the Senate on fiscal matters related to the state budget, major initiatives, and legislation.  Prior to her appointment in the Senate, Ms. Cummins served as the Chief Deputy Director for Budgets in the Department of Finance.  Before serving in that capacity, Ms. Cummins served as the Deputy Director for Legislation, the Program Budget Manager for Health and Human Services, and a variety of other positions in the Department of Finance.  During her 21-year tenure in the Department of Finance, Ms. Cummins was a key staff person on several major policy initiatives, including 1991 Realignment, the 1997 state assumption of trial court funding, foster care reform, and the 1997 welfare reform effort which resulted in the state CalWORKs program. Ms. Cummins serves as an instructor at the California Counties Institute for Excellence in the areas of budgeting, realignment, and the history of the state-local relationship.