Sharon Gonsalves is the Director of Government Affairs for Renne Public Policy Group (RPPG), a division of Renne Public Law Group.

Sharon has spent her career advocating for legislative and funding priorities of municipalities throughout California—bringing over fifteen years of state legislative and local government advocacy experience to the RPPG team. Specializing in the complex legislative process, Sharon has a proven track record of leveraging her strong relationships in the Capitol, Administration, and key government agencies to advance the goals of her clients. Sharon has expertise in the natural resources, local governance, housing, and transportation policy areas—drawing off of her experience as both as a former legislative staff member and as a local government lobbyist.

Spending nearly a decade working in both houses of the State Legislature, Sharon has a unique understanding and experience in navigating the State’s complex budget process. This has proven critical when advocating for increased funding for conservation efforts and other environmental protections through the California Budget process, Cap and Trade, and bond related legislation.

Sharon served as Legislative Director in the California State Senate supporting the Senator in his role as Vice Chair of both the Senate Natural Resources Committee as well as the Transportation and Housing Committee. In this role, Sharon was instrumental in negotiating on major statewide environmental and transportation issues important to the 12^th Senate District, including Proposition 1, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 and SB 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, which increased permanent local transportation funding. During her time in the Legislature, Sharon developed and maintained an extensive bi-partisan network of relationships with Members of the California Legislature.

In her work advocating on behalf of public agencies, Sharon has built excellent relationships with Legislators and staff from key policy areas including local government, transportation, housing, water and natural resources.  Those relationships have proven to be helpful in the pursuit of funding for critical transportation programs such as the Active Transportation Program (ATP), State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) and Local Partnership Program (LPP).  Sharon has also worked closely with a wide variety of communities to access SB 2 planning funds from the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

Prior to joining RPPG, Sharon was a Senior Associate at Townsend Public Affairs representing a number of local public agency clients—specializing in those from severely disadvantaged regions of California. Sharon has helped secure millions of dollars for critical infrastructure and public safety improvements. She has also worked with Congressional and federal agency officials on behalf of various regional government bodies—advocating for increased infrastructure funding.