Governor Jerry Brown has made an appointment to the seat on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors left vacant by the death of Supervisor John Benoit last December.
Gov. Brown has appointed V. Manuel Perez to represent the 4th District of Riverside County on the 5-member Board of Supervisors. Perez, age 44, is a familiar figure in the district. Harvard educated, he represented the Coachella Valley as a Democrat in the California Assembly from 2008 to 2014.
After being termed-out of the Assembly seat, in 2014 he challenged then-incumbent Supervisor Benoit for the 4th District seat. Benoit defeated Perez by 14 percentage points.
Perez currently is a member of the Coachella City Council, and works professionally as a public affairs officer for Borrega Health, a non-profit health care provider serving lower-income communities in the area. As a Riverside County Supervisor, Perez will have an annual salary of $153,289. Perez is expected to be sworn into his new job before the end of this month.
Riverside County's 4th District - geographically the largest in the county - spans eastern Riverside County from the Coachella Valley to the Arizona border, bordering San Bernardino county to the north and Imperial county to the south.
John Benoit held the 4th District seat from 2009 until his death in late December, 2016.