California treasurer appoints housing veteran to lead two key committees

Marina Wiant has been appointed by State Treasurer Fiona Ma to replace Nancee Robles as executive director of the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee.

Wiant, who started in those posts Wednesday, fills the positions that had been vacant since Robles announced in July that she would be retiring from California state service, according to a letter posted on the treasurer’s website.

“Marina’s intricate knowledge of California housing and land use policy, and years of experience as an affordable housing advocate make her an excellent fit to lead CTCAC and CDLAC,” Ma said. “California needs innovative and creative ways to increase the number of affordable housing units and get the most out of those resources. I’m excited for her to join the team and get to work for California.”

CDLAC sets California’s annual debt ceiling and allocates tax-exempt bond issuance to private projects that have a qualified public benefit, including rental housing, solid waste disposal and recycling facilities, and industrial development projects. CTCAC administers the federal and state low-income housing tax credit programs in California, which promote private investment in the construction of affordable rental housing for low-income Californians.

Since August, Robles has worked as treasurer of the Kauai County Department of Finance in Hawaii. She retired after two and half years as executive director of CTCAC and interim executive director of CDLAC. She had worked in the treasurer’s office since 2009, first as treasury manager of the California Pollution Control Financing Authority, then as executive director of the authority, and also served as interim director of the state’s infrastructure bank for nine months after working as deputy director for five years.

Robles wrote she was ready to move on after accomplishing Ma’s goal of integrating the two committees and overhauling regulations to create a fair competitive process “that measures the public benefit gained over the resources used for affordable housing.”

She added she would leave behind a great leadership staff and she was confident they would continue to execute great results.

Since 2012, Wiant was vice president of government affairs at the California Housing Consortium (CHC), a statewide, nonpartisan advocate for the production and preservation of housing affordable to low- and moderate-income Californians. 

At CHC, Wiant led a policy and advocacy team that secured the passage of a range of legislation, ballot measures, and budget resources that have transformed the affordable housing industry, according to the treasurer’s release. Those efforts included creating the state’s first permanent source of funding for affordable housing since redevelopment agencies were eliminated in 2011, and its last statewide housing bond, as well as groundbreaking legislation that opened sites to affordable development and accelerated local approvals.

Prior to CHC, Wiant was a legislative assistant in the California State Assembly.

Wiant holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA and a law degree from Santa Clara University.