Assemblymember Tim Grayson was first elected to serve in the California Assembly in November 2016 and represents the 15th Assembly District, which encompasses portions of Contra Costa county. He is the son of a Teamster father and his mother was a public transit worker. He is the first in his family to earn a college degree. In 2010, Grayson was elected to serve on the Concord City Council, winning reelection in 2014 and serving on the Council until his election to the Assembly. He also served as Concord’s Mayor from 2014 – 2015.
Since being elected to the Assembly, Grayson has focused on issues related to addressing California’s housing and transportation crises, increasing our budget reserves and access to higher education, mitigating human trafficking, minimizing the risk of wildfires and helping individuals with special needs. Forty of the bills Grayson authored have been signed into law.
As a co-founder of the Contra Costa Family Justice Center, Grayson has a long and proven history of advocating for victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and child and elder abuse. Since his election to the Assembly, Grayson has secured $20 million in state funding for Family Justice Centers throughout California to expand services, reach new communities and streamline services for victims of interpersonal violence. In 2018 Governor Brown signed into law a Grayson bill (AB 998) to allow victim support specialists to work collaboratively to help victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.
Championing the beliefs that higher education should be both accessible and affordable, Assemblymember Grayson authored laws to ensure that our qualified California students are not denied admission at UC institutions in favor of less qualified out-of-state students (AB 1674) and to require greater transparency from the University of California Office of the President in UC cost reporting (AB 1655). Grayson also introduced legislation to bring $7 billion in funding for new higher education campus construction and repair of existing facilities.
In order to help protect the state against the boom and bust economic cycles of the past decades, Assemblymember Grayson was at the forefront of creating a new budget reserve to compliment the constitutionally-capped Rainy Day Fund. Grayson fought to create the new Budget Deficit Savings Account, and helped secure an initial deposit of $1.75 billion, in the hope that we will be able to avoid devastating and debilitating cuts to education and social and government services should a recession strike again.
Grayson continues to serve as the Concord Police Department’s Critical Response Chaplain, a position he has held since 2007, providing emotional support and counseling to first responders, victims, and their families during and after traumatic events. Grayson also has maintained a license as a general building contractor since 1997.
Grayson serves as Chair of the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee and as a member of the Business and Professions Committee, the Insurance Committee, and Revenue and Taxation Committee. Grayson also chairs the Select Committee on Streamlining Services for Victims of Interpersonal Violence.
Assemblymember Grayson is eligible to serve up to twelve years in the Legislature through 2028. A long time East Bay resident, Tim lives in Concord where he raised his two kids with his wife of more than 35 years, Tammy.