ABOUT
Public House Consulting is a Sacramento-based full service government affairs firm with expertise that cuts across a wide range of industries and issues - from energy and climate policy to emerging industries and cannabis regulation. Our services are grounded in a unique portfolio of two decades of state and local government affairs experience, and offered with a highly personalized and personable touch.
Founding principal and President Cara Martinson is a highly skilled professional with two decades of experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors of government work and advocacy. She has a proven record of solving complex problems, developing legislative, regulatory and organizational strategies and building effective coalitions involving matters of local government, energy and environmental regulation.
Prior to founding Public House Consulting, Cara served as the Senior Director of Regulatory and Political Affairs for a national renewable energy developer where she managed the legislative and regulatory portfolio for ten western states. While in this role, Cara helped to facilitate favorable tax policies for energy storage facilities in states across the west, and worked closely with the Legislature and Administration in California to advance renewable energy projects and interests.
Prior to joining the corporate world, Cara spent 13 years leading local government interests at the California State Capitol, representing counties on a myriad of critical environmental and land use issues. Cara helped to prioritize local government interests in the development of state climate policies and the allocation of greenhouse gas reduction fund resources; protected the interests of local governments and fire victims in the aftermath of devasting wildfires and the PG&E bankruptcy; and ensured that local interests were front and center in the passage of Proposition 64 and the development of cannabis regulation in California.
Cara stared her career in Sacramento working to protect the natural landscape, managing government affairs for a national not-for-profit land trust. In addition to her experience in the halls of the state Capitol, Cara spent the better part of a decade as a practitioner at the local level, serving as an appointed Sacramento County planning commissioner reviewing and approving development proposals and helping to shape land use decisions in the county.
Cara holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and French from San Diego State University and a master’s degree in politics from Brandeis University. Outside of the office, Cara is an avid traveler and adventurer and is most likely planning her next trip, whether its camping in the Sierras or touring the wine regions of South America