SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Feb. 24 announced the reappointment of Kent Sasaki, 57, of Walnut Creek to the California Building Standards Commission.
Sasaki is currently a principal and a member of the Board of Directors with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (WJE), a nationwide engineering/architectural/materials science firm. He is past president of the San Francisco Section of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Sasaki has more than 23 years of experience investigating structures in the U.S. and internationally. He has expertise in earthquake engineering and failure investigations. He performed the earthquake damage assessment of the Washington Monument for the National Park Service and the post-fire damage assessment of the MacArthur Maze for Caltrans. For the last 15 years, he has managed WJE’s Emeryville office. He has served as structural engineering expert on numerous claims.
He received a B.S. in civil engineering in 1987 and a Master of Engineering in structural engineering in 1989 from UC Berkeley. He is a registered civil and structural engineer in California. He previously served on the California Building Standards Commission from 2003 to 2006 and was appointed again by Gov. Jerry Brown in February 2014.
Sasaki is married with two teenage children. A competitive runner and triathlete, he placed 15th overall in the 2012 Oakland Half Marathon with a time of 1:21:59.
Established in 1953, the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) is within the Department of General Services under the Government Operations Agency and oversees the development, adoption, approval, publication and implementation of the state’s building codes.
This position requires Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Sasaki is a Democrat.