Rita Saenz, 72, a government veteran who came out of retirement to become a director in late 2020, is stepping down and will return to her role as commissioner at the California Commission on Aging. Newsom had appointed Saenz to replace Sharon Hilliard, the former director of EDD, who abruptly retired last year after 37 years at EDD and a year at its helm.

Farias has served in her role at EDD since 2020. She previously served as Director of Government Relations at SEIU Local 1000 from 2017-2020 and held positions with State Senator Henry Stern, D-Malibu (County of Los Angeles) and former Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Burbank. Farias served as assistant secretary for legislation at the Government Operations Agency from 2013 to 2016 and assistant director for legislative affairs at the California Department of Human Resources from 2012 to 2013, officials said.

“Nancy Farias has been invaluable in the Department’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the state’s unemployment system and implement improvements to better support hard-working Californians when they need it most,” said Newsom in a statement.

Farias “has worked tirelessly over the past 16 months alongside everyone, leading, strategizing and initiating new strategies,” Saenz said in an internal memo to EDD staff on Friday. “She has played a major role in the transformations currently taking place at EDD and will continue to lead them.”

The past two years have been tumultuous for the agency that issues unemployment benefits.

It has been overwhelmed by a huge wave of pandemic-triggered jobless claims, even though lawmakers allocated several million years ago to try to upgrade its antiquated systems. EDD has admitted to paying at least $20 billion for fraud, even as legitimate unemployed workers desperately sought benefits and were unable to contact him.

A select committee said the agency urgently needed reform, California’s state auditor released scathing reports on EDD mistakes, and state lawmakers held hearings to focus on Their problems.

Saenz had sworn to fix EDD’s malfunction. She said in February 2021 that she was prioritizing getting unemployment benefits to eligible people in need and “stopping fraud before it gets into the system”.

State lawmakers have had varying reactions to Saenz’s effectiveness.

“Director Saenz has taken on this role during a very difficult time for the department,” said State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. “While the department still has a lot of work to do – EDD continues to fail many unemployed Californians, despite Rita’s hard work – I thank Director Saenz for her leadership during this difficult time.”

State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, had a more mixed response.

“I appreciate that Director Saenz was very responsive and candid regarding my questions about EDD’s progress, but the department’s issues have not been addressed,” he said. “I am very disappointed that there has not been more progress at EDD. For example, in terms of technological improvements, we were promised in the fall that there would be automated reminders and scheduled reminders for people—which didn’t happen. We need to move much faster to fix ESD.

EDD’s difficulties have persisted in recent days.

More recently, the agency suspended 345,000 disability insurance accounts for fear of fraud. They were linked to 28,000 medical providers who appeared fake, and the agency said 98% of those medical providers had not verified their identities. But as has happened with previous mass freezes of EDD accounts, some genuine claimants have been caught up in the action, leaving them without the necessary benefits.

EDD is also currently trying to meet a federal requirement to verify the credentials of 1.4 million self-employed people, but it appears to lack a standardized process for reviewing documents.

Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, said the latest issues may have triggered Saenz’s departure.

“The fact that the governor replaced her is not surprising,” Patterson said in a statement. “EDD has worked to downplay its most recent failure to prevent fraud in its disability programs. … Californians will judge this department by this standard: Can they pay legitimate claims to those in need and keep fraudsters from getting a payday? So far they have failed on both counts.

Carolyn Said and Lauren Hernandez are writers for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @csaid, @ByLHernandez