Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Brian J. Stiger director in August 2009, but the state Senate refused to hold confirmation hearings, so a year later the outgoing governor designated Stiger as both acting director and senior chief deputy director, positions that required no confirmation.

Stiger, a Democrat, has an Associate of Arts degree from American River College. He  began his career in the private sector. He was bindery manager for Sacramento Blue Print from 1978 to 1990. Stiger went to work for government in 1990 as associate printing plant superintendent for the state’s Department of General Services.

He joined DCA in 1993, spending a year as an associate governmental program analyst and two years as an associate personnel analyst before moving up to staff services manager, a position he held until 2002. Stiger then became chief of the Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair and was noted for making improvements to operational efficiency and enforcement without raising the budget.

In 2004 he moved to the Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation, again as chief. He was appointed executive officer of the Board of Chiropractic Examiners by the governor in 2007. The board was troubled by accusations of lax enforcement and of having greater concern for protecting practitioners than patients. Stiger reformed and restructured that board’s enforcement program, reducing a backlog of consumer complaints and reducing complaint processing time.

Stiger left the DCA to become director of the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs in February 2012.

Schwarzenegger Appoints New Consumer Affairs Head (by Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee)

Schwarzenegger Does End Run Around State Senate (by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times)

Governor Schwarzenegger Appoints Brian Stiger Director of Department of Consumer Affairs (Imperial Valley News)