Committees

Wesley Chesbro has served as a city, county and state official and has been elected to public office seven times. He has experience solving city,county, regional and state problems. He has been a committed champion for the environment, education, individuals with disabilities, labor, local government and access to quality rural health care and mental health services.

Wesley went to Humboldt State College in 1969 and founded the area’s first recycling center in 1971. He founded and directed the Northcoast Environmental Center, helped defeat the peripheral canal and save water resources, fought to save local open space and championed coastal protection laws, including the fight against off-shore oil drilling.

Wesley was a founding member of the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) serving from 1990 to 1998. He served as an appointee of the California State Senate, representing the public. The CIWMB implements the comprehensive California recycling law (AB 939) and is responsible for insuring that 50% of California's solid waste is recycled.

Chesbro served on the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors from 1980 to 1990. Prior to his Supervisor position, he served six years as a member of the Arcata City Council, from 1974 to 1980. He was elected to the Arcata City Council at the age of 22.

During his tenure as a State Senator for the California Senate Second District, he served as Chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Senate Standing Committee on Revenue and Taxation and the Select Committees on California’s Wine Industry and Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health. He also served as a member of the following committees: Education, Environmental Quality, Governmental Organization, Health, Human Services, and Veterans Affairs. He authored legislation to maintain funding for rural community clinics and other rural access to health care, protection of natural resources, housing for individuals with special needs, recycling incentives, and minimum funding for law enforcement departments in rural areas.

Currently, Wesley is a member of the California Integrated Waste Management Board and the California Mental Health Oversight and Accountability Commission. He also serves as a board member for the Open Door Community Health Centers and the Humboldt Bay Housing and Development Corporation.

Wesley is married to Cindy Chesbro. They have two sons, Collin and Alan.

The First Assembly District includes the counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Lake, Mendocino, and Sonoma north of Santa Rosa.