Outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed his former spokesperson Nathan "Nate" Ballard to California's state historical resources commission, in a late Friday announcement, Mission Local reported.

Ballard pleaded no contest to misdemeanor corporal injury and child abuse stemming from a 2020 incident, Mission Local reported. He was sentenced in 2021 to four years of probation and ordered to have no contact with his former wife and two of his children for six years. He avoided incarceration. Supportive letters to the court included correspondence from former interim Mayor Mark Farrell and former Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, the newspaper reported. Ballard told the San Francisco Standard that his former wife had engaged in a campaign of "major lies."

Ballard, a former deputy city attorney, served as then-Mayor Newsom's spokesperson from 2007 to 2009 and later formed a public-relations firm with P.J. Johnston, a former spokesperson for Mayor Willie Brown, Mission Local reported.