San Francisco is arguably America’s most progressive city, so the lopsided recall of three school-board members on Feb. 15 stunned political observers across the country. Voters ousted Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga by margins of 59%, 48% and 42%, respectively. Other members were spared because they weren’t on the board long enough to qualify for a recall vote.

It’s not hard for anyone outside of the social-justice-warrior hothouse to understand what happened. Instead of trying to get the city’s schools running after the COVID-19 shutdowns, the city’s school board championed symbolic, far-left political issues that even most San Franciscans — including its liberal political leaders — found distasteful.

“My take is that it was really about the frustration of the Board of Education doing their fundamental job,” said Mayor London Breed. “And that is to make sure that our children are getting educated, that they get back into the classroom. … They were focusing on other things that were clearly a distraction.”

That’s spot on. As the pandemic raged, the board was fixed on renaming 44 San Francisco public schools. It abandoned the effort in April 2021 when the blowback became too much to handle. The effort was absurd, as the board sought to remove names of figures including Abraham Lincoln, naturalist John Muir and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

To highlight the idiocy, the board tried to change the name of Alamo Elementary School after it “mistakenly assumed that (it) was named for the Texas battle and not for the Spanish word for ‘poplar tree’,” SFist reported. The board also tried to paint over a historical Works Progress Administration mural at George Washington High School — an act that brought comparisons to the Taliban.

More substantively, the board changed a merit-based admissions policy at a top high school and replaced it with a lottery system to promote diversity — something that annoyed the city’s large Asian American community. Most of these battles resulted in litigation — not to mention contentious public meetings centered on the imperfections of 18th century founders.

This ideological insanity obviously diverted attention from basic educational concerns. The city’s schools remained closed. The board and its allied teachers’ union seemed to be in no rush to resume regular schooling, thus allowing the city’s students to fall further behind in their studies. Parents seen with anger, which culminated in the rare recall campaign.

Even political analysts on the mainstream left viewed the vote as a wakeup call for progressives, seeing it as a chance for them to understand that, fundamentally, public schools are about educating students rather than pushing for vast cultural change. But the reactions of the losing parties suggest that they remain in their ideological slumber.

“Don’t be mistaken, white supremacists are enjoying this. And the support of the recall is aligned with this,” López tweeted after her loss. The teachers’ union continued to chide venture capitalists and billionaires, who helped fund the recall campaign. Left-wing commentators saw the vote as the result as part of a conservative political campaign — never mind that Republicans comprise less than 9% of San Francisco’s voter registrations.

The San Francisco recall proves that parents everywhere want their schools to provide quality education — and that elected officials should knock off the fringe nonsense.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Los Angeles and San Francisco officials took steps Wednesday to end requirements that certain businesses require patrons to show proof of full vaccination as new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations continued falling.

The Los Angeles City Council ordered the city attorney to craft an ordinance that makes vaccine verification voluntary for indoor areas of businesses such as bars, restaurants and gyms, and eliminates proof of vaccination for large outdoor events.

A final vote will be taken when the ordinance is introduced at a future council meeting. There was no immediate indication of when that will occur.

Proof of vaccination or a negative test will continue to be required to attend indoor “mega-events” with 1,000 or more people in the nation’s second-largest city.

San Francisco on Friday will stop requiring proof of vaccination to enter indoor businesses including restaurants, bars, fitness centers and gyms.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health said it will be up to businesses to choose whether to require proof of vaccination or a negative test from their staff and customers.

Proof of vaccination will still be required to enter indoor “mega” events in accordance with state guidelines, the department said in a statement.

San Francisco was one of the first cities in the country to require proof of vaccination before entering certain indoor businesses. City officials issued the mandate in August as the delta variant spread.

“With cases and hospitalizations continuing to fall and our high vaccination rate providing a strong defense against the virus, San Francisco is ready to further reduce COVID-19 restrictions and allow individuals to make their own decisions to protect themselves and their loved ones,” said Health Officer, Dr Susan Philip.

The vast majority of city residents, or 83%, are fully vaccinated.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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This transcript is from an interview on our radio program and podcast “Civic,” published as part of our February 2022 nonpartisan election guide. Though “Civic” will broadcast only seven minutes of each candidate’s interview to give each equal airtime on our program, we are making a transcript of the full conversations available. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.   

Laura Wenus  

I have heard you say before that this is sort of the natural next step in the areas that you work in — education, for example, you’re on the City College board — the next step for those really would be to take them at the state level. Can you give a brief overview, for people who don’t know you, what you’ve been up to in the last few years and why you see this as a natural extension of what you’ve been doing?  

Thea Selby  

Yes, I’d be happy to do so. So first of all, yeah, I’ve been for seven years on the City College board, and it has not been an easy time, but we have managed to do what I set out to do, which is become fiscally stable. When I came on board, we were on the verge of losing our accreditation and now-Supervisor Mandelman, at the time he was on the City College board, recruited me to — I have an MBA. I understand budgets, I understand numbers. I understand, you know, trying to make things work within the numbers. And he recruited me to try and help City College at a very difficult time and I have really enjoyed it. It’s a tremendous community that surrounds City College. Everybody is very passionate about the school and wants its best. But the next step really is going to the state.  

Some of my other sort of passions and vocations: I work with transportation quite a bit. I’ve been the co-chair of the San Francisco Transit Riders, the chair and the co-chair, for about eight years. And I am also — in my day job, I work with transportation agencies. I have a deep, deep passion for public transportation. And that’s another place that the Assembly, where the budgets and some of the oversight for transportation and education occur. And so, I am very excited about going, to, one, try and create that continuing ladder of opportunity for students through education. It really is one of the only ways to get ahead that is affordable in this world that we live in. And also, I have two children. I have a 20 and 24-year-old, and they’re both very concerned as many young people are about climate change. And we don’t have a lot of time, and I want to spend my time making sure that we do our best to meet or exceed climate goals. As California goes, so goes the nation, and 47% of our carbon emissions come from transportation. So, I’m hoping that my expertise with transportation and with education can really move us forward to a better place as we recover from COVID.  

Laura Wenus  

There are so many things there that I want to touch on, but I imagine that one of the reasons why you see the state legislature as a natural next step is because a lot of the decisions about, you know, how things are going to go with education and, you know, climate change and things like that are made at the state level. But I would like to hear that from you rather than for me. Why is the state legislature a natural extension of what you’re doing now?  

Thea Selby  

So first of all, it’s about budgets, it’s about money. And as one of my supporters, Delaine Eastin, who is a former superintendent of instruction, always says, budgets are a reflection of your values. So, there is a need. Since Prop 13, which was a long time ago, there has been a need to bring back some funding into education. So, this is where we can do that. This is where we can act both as the bully pulpit for getting people to focus on education. But it’s also the place where hopefully we can start working on a Prop 15-like kind of a measure that allows us to once again attempt to perhaps create a split roll and increase the commercial property tax, allow it to rise with the value of the property while keeping the residential as it is with Prop 13. This would allow a tremendous influx of money, of which, at least with Prop 15, 40% of [that] would have gone to education. So that was a real blow when that didn’t pass a couple of years ago, and I am committed to working on something like that that allows for more revenue.  

There’s also oversight, and that I’ve seen with my own work with community college. AB 705 was a bill in the Assembly that essentially said: You can no longer have your students languish in courses called ‘basic skills.’ And what those were is pre-college classes that we used to test people, and if they didn’t test into college classes, they could take these pre-college classes. The problem was, is that it actually meant, first of all, that we had a lot of people that never got to college classes. They kept taking the pre-college classes. And so, we had a growing achievement gap. So, it wasn’t the community college system itself that made the change, it was the legislature. And I’m sure the community college system was, you know, certainly some not all were very interested in having it happen, but it’s the legislature where that oversight happens, where they got rid of basic skills and basically said: You need to, when you get into community college, you’re going to go into a college-level course and we’re going to provide the support so that you can do well in that college class. And since we’ve done that, opportunity gaps have decreased and achievement gaps have decreased as well. And we have especially our most disadvantaged students, low-income Black and brown students are doing much, much better. So that’s the kind of oversight and the kind of big-picture thing that you can do at the at the state level that you probably can’t do within the system itself. So that’s on education.  

On transportation, very simply, I’ve been working for three years with a coalition of labor — it’s made up of transit, it’s made up of youth, it’s made up of just a variety of equity groups — and we’re 95,000 strong in terms of our membership at this point, and we have been working on a regional transformative transportation measure that is progressive, the tax itself would be progressive. The money source would be progressive. And we’re hoping to get that on the ballot in 2024, and there needs to be authorizing legislation, and I would be honored to be the assembly member who is able to sponsor that authorizing legislation.  

Laura Wenus  

I’m really glad that you brought up the coronavirus pandemic and recovery from it, but before we get to recovery, we’re still in a record-breaking spike of COVID cases. I’m sure as a small business owner and someone who’s paying attention to, you know, City College and the other things that you — transit — you’ve seen firsthand the ways that the pandemic has affected different aspects of our lives. How do you think that the state legislature should be responding to this huge spike or future spikes? And how will you be pushing state policy to do that if you’re elected?  

Thea Selby  

So, you know, I am very interested in seeing what we can do to move forward, and I do see that we have a case spike. And I am not a doctor, I will say that right now, I’m not a health expert, but from what I hear, finally, we’re having a little bit of a distance between the cases and the hospitalizations and the deaths. And there are experts who are saying we need to start focusing on the hospitalizations and the deaths as we move forward. The way we got out of the Spanish Flu is the variants that came forward got weaker and weaker until it was no longer a pandemic, it was more of an endemic. This is a very weird time, because we have both delta floating around, we have the new the new coronavirus that is significantly weaker, omicron — we hope anyhow. You know, so far, it seems to be, if we use South Africa as a model, since that’s where it came from originally. And my hope is, is that we have a lot of things in place now. For example, at City College, we actually have a vaccine mandate. And it’s more about figuring out how to make these things work and also modify as we go along, as the information comes out from the health experts, as to how to move forward.  

I think we all want to move forward. We all want to see — you know, in in the community college system overall, we’ve lost anywhere from 11-30% of our students. This is a dire situation. This means that there are whole groups of disadvantaged students who are no longer getting educated. So, I think all of us really want to make sure that we move forward safely, that we have what we need in place, that we are implementing and that we are complying and that we are monitoring very closely everything that’s happening. But I’m super, super hopeful. And I have to say I’ve been probably way too much of an optimist this entire time that we will be, you know, being able to move forward with the variants getting hopefully less powerful as we move along, as we go.  

Laura Wenus  

So, from a legislative standpoint, let’s hope that we do eventually have something to recover from and that we are moving past huge case loads and hospitalizations — although they have decoupled, they’re still on the rise. Let’s say that we do get to a point where it really is like, we’re coming out of it now. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. I think particularly the economic recovery is a topic on everyone’s mind. It’s clear that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities in the city, in the state, everywhere, really. How do you think the state legislature could chart a path toward an equitable economic recovery legislatively?  

Thea Selby  

Yeah, I think that’s a really great question. So, I’m going to start with an education standpoint. You know, the schools have also lost a lot of students, and I’m talking about the K-12 system. As you know, we’ve lost 3,500 students in SFUSD and then City College has also lost a lot of students. So, one of the things we can do at the state level is make sure that at least for a couple of years, the schools are “held harmless.” And what that means is it gives them some time, perhaps using enrollment prior to the pandemic as the basis, to recover. So that’s something we can do and have done at the community college level. But I don’t believe we’ve done it at K-12, and I think it’s actually really important as we get our feet back on the ground and as we really work to get our kids back in school, you know? Some of the other things we can do in terms of recovery, I want to talk about small business. I’m a small business owner and— 

Laura Wenus  

I hate to interrupt, but can you just say what your small business is?  

Thea Selby  

Sure. So, I have a small business called Next Steps Marketing. We’ve been around for 20 years. We are a marketing and communications and outreach company and we work with media and we work with nonprofits and we work with some government agencies. And so, what I was going to say, with small businesses, you know, unfortunately small businesses — a lot of lip service is paid to small business, but very little is done for it. And that’s partially because we’re not organized. We don’t have the kind of associations that that really can push things forward or lobbyists for that matter. And what I’d like to see, again, I think small businesses have been hit really, really hard and I’d like to see us, you know, support our small businesses, from everything, potentially, to a short-term commercial rent control — that’s something that has hurt a lot of small businesses as when, for example, ownership changes and all of a sudden the rents skyrocket and small businesses are out of out of their place, they can’t afford it anymore — things like that, to help small businesses figure out, again, similar to the schools, just stability. We need some stability in this time. And so, potentially, reducing some fees. I had a conversation with a small business owner who had the idea of possibly waiving the fees until you actually get started on your business instead of front loading all of these fees that small businesses have. I’m really excited about all the possibilities that we might be able to do for small business as we hopefully recover. Like I say, I am an optimist. I’m hoping we can do this.  

Laura Wenus  

Well, it’s good to hear some hopefulness. I think that’s a nice thing to have. You did also mention climate, and I think that is a really important thing to talk about. So, could you talk about some of the climate goals that you would have, were you elected? Like, what areas do you think the state legislature can really move us toward impactful action on climate change?  

Thea Selby  

Absolutely. Well, let’s start with something near and dear to my heart, which is the high-speed rail. This is — I used to be on the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board, and we have the opportunity — we did not take it last year, but we have the opportunity — to appropriate $4.2 billion that the voters approved in 2008. And so, this is the last of the 2008 Prop 1A bond funds to complete our mid-section, the Central Valley section, of high-speed rail. We also have, as you know, a $1 trillion investment package through the feds, and what they’re looking for is — they’re looking for matching funds. So, one of the first things I’m going to do — and of course, high-speed rail is zero emissions — one of the first things I want to do is make sure we get those federal funds, get that Central Valley portion completed and then start to reach out to San Francisco and Los Angeles, which is the next step.  

In addition to that, I will say we haven’t talked about housing, but you know, I spent a lot of time with merchants all across this beautiful district that we have, and a lot of the folks who work in these small businesses are commuting long distances. And the reason they’re doing that — which is, by the way, very bad for the environment, right, because a lot of times they are, you know, there’s a lot of carbon that’s being emitted if they have to take their cars, plus, it’s bad quality of life if you have to be, you know, spending hours and hours commuting. And what helps with that is housing and the reason they do it, just to finish the thought, is that the salaries are better here. We have better wages in San Francisco, which I am very proud of and I love that, but we need to have housing for the very low, the low and the middle-income here in San Francisco. And that, will, believe it or not, help climate change because we will not have all of these people who are commuting long distances. We’ll be able to work on the kinds of things that Connect SF, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, but that was a that was an organization, it was a city-led sort of movement to try and figure out what kind of city do we want? And it turns out, guess what? We want a more equitable city. We want a city where we can walk and take public transit. We want a city that has neighborhoods where a lot of your amenities are in those neighborhoods. All the things that, you know, sort of sound like what you would think we would want, but it’s not the direction we’re going. So hopefully if we start building more housing in San Francisco, in the places where we can build housing, then we can we can also reduce our carbon emissions.  

And then finally, locally, as I mentioned, 47% of our carbon emissions currently come from transportation. And whereas — almost none of that comes from public transportation. So whatever we can do to make abundant, affordable and accessible public transportation, as well as make walking better and biking better, is really going to help our environment, our quality of life. And it’ll help us to meet or exceed our climate goals. So, I mentioned that $100 billion measure that we’re working on in 2024, that will help to start that. But also, we’ll be needing to do things with trucks. My dear friend Denny Zane down in Los Angeles has been working on taking trucks and changing them from diesel into something else, maybe fuel-cell. We’ll be needing to do things like that, and we’ll just be needing to work with people to shift from using their cars to other means. And we can only do that if we provide abundant, affordable and accessible public transportation.  

The post Interview Transcript: Thea Selby – San Francisco Public Press appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

This transcript is from an interview on our radio program and podcast “Civic,” published as part of our February 2022 nonpartisan election guide. Though “Civic” will broadcast only seven minutes of each candidate’s interview to give each equal airtime on our program, we are making a transcript of the full conversations available. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.     

Laura Wenus   

Okay, so I think I’d like to start by asking if you could give San Francisco voters a quick review of the work that you’ve been doing between when you were District 9 supervisor — I know you were a deputy county executive in Santa Clara County, and after that became chief of staff to the San Francisco District Attorney, Chesa Boudin — but maybe if you could just give an overview of some of what you’ve been working on in that time? 

David Campos   

Sure. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I think that I’ll sort of divide the work that I’ve been doing since I left the Board of Supervisors into two different types of work. On one hand is the work that I’ve been doing on behalf of the Democratic Party. As you know, after I left the Board of Supervisors, I was elected chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party. And I’m very proud that in that role I work together to bring the diverse group of people that are San Francisco Democrats together to focus on common ground, and specifically work with Nancy Pelosi to help her take back the house in 2018, when we ran Red to Blue SF, and then in 2020, when we ran Vote Blue SF. And I’m very proud of that work, which really made the San Francisco Democratic Party very influential in what happens in the rest of the state, in the rest of the country. And out of that work is that I ended up getting elected to lead as vice chair of the California Democratic Party. So that’s one area that I’m very proud of where we have worked to make sure that we promote San Francisco values at the state and national level.  

The second area is, in terms of my work as a professional, after I left the Board of Supervisors, I was hired by the County of Santa Clara to be deputy county executive and, in that role, oversaw the operations of several agencies. And one of those areas included the Office of Supportive Housing, where we worked to implement the housing bond, Measure A, that was passed in Santa Clara in 2016 with the objective of building, over a 10-year period, 4,500 units of supportive housing that essentially provided housing and services — mental health, substance abuse — to people who are homeless. And I’m very proud of that work that essentially allowed for Santa Clara to really get a better handle on the issue of homelessness in a way, quite frankly, that San Francisco hasn’t. That work also included overseeing the creation of the Division of Equity and Social Justice that injected a social justice, racial justice and gender justice lens to the work of the county. And the last 10 months of my term in Santa Clara County, I worked to help oversee the communications and public education around COVID and the COVID response. And I’m very proud of that because Santa Clara, as you know, had the first COVID case in the country and essentially led the way in the Bay Area response to COVID through the work and the leadership of our health officer in Santa Clara, Sara Cody.  

Then I left the County of Santa Clara to help Chesa Boudin, and I’m very proud that during my term as chief of staff in that office, we worked to get the office more connected to what’s happening in the neighborhoods of San Francisco. We created the community liaison program that assigns prosecutors and other staff to supervisory districts so that we have a better grasp of what’s happening on the ground and to better respond to issues around crime and public safety. I bring to the table the experience of a supervisor who did a lot in eight years and was probably among the most prolific supervisors to tackle some of the most important issues facing San Francisco. And I also bring the experience of someone who has run county departments and agencies. And I think that combination of legislative and executive experience is something that is very unique and will be very beneficial to San Francisco. And that’s why I think in this campaign for State Assembly, I have support of people from across the political spectrum who don’t necessarily agree with me, who might be folks who have been on the other side of political fights but who respect my ability to get things done and to bring people together as I did as a county executive, as chair of the party and as the supervisor. 

Laura Wenus   

Maybe this is a good opportunity to talk a little bit about what the Democratic Party at the state and county level actually does, because as you mentioned, you talked about it making the Democratic Party more influential at the state level. For voters who only every once in a while get a ballot that has like 50 different people on it for DCCC, that doesn’t really necessarily mean a lot. So how does that affect the people who you are now asking for their vote for you to go to the legislature? 

David Campos   

Thank you for that question. That’s very important. You know, I was chair of the Democratic County Central Committee in San Francisco, known as the DCCC, for four years. And what I found when I took over as chair of the DCCC, is that you had San Francisco Democrats — and it’s a body of about 34 people, 24 of whom are elected directly to those seats, and others are elected officials that serve in those seats in San Francisco. But what I found was that the DCCC spent a lot of time with folks arguing and fighting with each other, and you went to those DCCC meetings, before I took over, and you would see a lot of animosity — a lot of infighting among San Francisco Democrats. And that happened sometimes in San Francisco because we’re passionate about local politics. And so, when I took over, I made it clear that I was not really interested in having this body spend the bulk of our time arguing and fighting with each other, that we have to reach an understanding that we would put aside whatever local differences we had, but that we needed to figure out how we as San Francisco Democrats helped what was happening at that time. And this is, by the way, in the middle of Donald Trump becoming president, right?  

And so, what I set out to do was to figure out how the San Francisco Democratic Party could help push back against the Trump administration, and the one area where we felt we could make a difference was in taking back the House of Representatives. And so, we reached out to the state party at the time — the party at the state was not interested in working with us on that. So, we communicated with Nancy Pelosi, our representative, and clearly she was interested in doing something to take back the house. That’s what she was focusing on, and we decided to be partners. And Nancy Pelosi and the San Francisco Democratic Party ran this operation that we call Red to Blue SF. We rented a space at the corner of Market and Castro where we, basically, for the last two months of the election in 2018, we had thousands of volunteers, San Francisco Democrats who came in to focus on calling swing districts throughout the state of California. We started with about seven swing districts, districts that we wanted to turn from red, Republican, to blue, Democrat — that’s the name: Red to Blue SF. And we started out with seven congressional districts. That number, quite frankly, grew because we started getting more volunteers coming into that space. And by the time that we had finished that effort in 2018, the number of districts that we had focused on was about 19, actually, and we ended up being players and helping to flip about 16 of them. We ended up including districts outside of California, just because we had so many people that were interested. And so that’s an example of how the local San Francisco Democratic Party can influence what happens at the national level.  

What happened as a result of that is that we as Democrats took back the House of Representatives. And not only that, but we helped Nancy Pelosi get elected speaker. Because our efforts had a lot to do with some of the new members that were elected, and I’m very proud of that. And I think that I’ve always understood, and one of the reasons that I did it was that as much as we have differences, when it comes to local issues, as San Francisco Democrats we have a lot more in common with each other than we want to admit, and that when people work together on something, that it creates a special bond. And so, I think there’s something to be said for sitting next to your local political opponent, perhaps, calling the same congressional district in Orange County that you’re both trying to flip. 

Laura Wenus   

I want to bring us back to this particular race — although that is interesting — because I only have a limited amount of time. You mentioned opponents. This might be a good segue into a question about your opponent Matt Haney’s accusation that describing yourself as a civil rights attorney on the ballot isn’t accurate. Would you like to respond to that? 

David Campos   

Well, I think that the ballot argument speaks for itself. The reality is that I have been practicing in the area of civil rights all of my life. And in fact, one of the reasons that I was hired to play the role that I played in the District Attorney’s Office was to inject the lens of civil rights into the work of that office. Criminal justice necessarily implicates civil rights. When you are looking at whether or not to charge someone, the civil rights of that individual, that civil rights of the victim are necessarily implicated. And there are a number of special teams that we have in that office that focus on protecting the rights of workers, the rights of consumers. And I think it’s actually disappointing that a candidate would spend their time worrying so much about what another candidate does, and I understand that the supervisor hasn’t practiced law. (Editor’s note: Matt Haney has an active legal license with the California State Bar association. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has also served as a pro bono tenant attorney in San Francisco.) So, maybe that’s not entirely clear to him. But we’re very proud of the work that I have done, and it’s work that precedes the DA’s office, that goes back to my work in the City Attorney’s Office, to my work in private practice. I have been a civil rights attorney for most of my legal practice. I’m very proud of that and I think that voters have every right to know about that record.  

Laura Wenus   

One of the things that you want to work on at the state level is equitably addressing the economic recovery from COVID-19. At the time of this recording, we are seeing a massive spike in cases nationwide and in San Francisco. First of all, how do you think the state legislature should be addressing the ongoing pandemic and those spikes in cases? And then we could talk about recovery. 

David Campos   

Well, I think that there has to be an equitable response. And as someone who played a leading role in the response in Santa Clara County, I can tell you that as much as all of us are hurting from COVID, there are some communities that are being disproportionately hurt. And I think that the response should take into account the disproportionate hit that COVID is having in communities of color, as an example. You know, there was a study that was done by the L.A. Times looking at Latinos in California, in the generation that’s 22 to the mid-50s. In that generation, they’re eight times more likely to die from COVID, and I think that something has to be done about that. So, I do think that there has to be more done to address the infections — the disproportionate number of infections — that are happening in these communities. And I can tell you, in the Latino community as an example, so many members of that community are essential workers here on the frontlines. And I don’t think we’re doing enough to not only help prevent them from being infected, but once they’re infected, to help them and their families not only to keep the infection from spreading, but also helping them recover and helping them have access to health care. And not just access to health care, but once they recover, that they have access to economic opportunity. And that’s really at the core of this campaign for me is that COVID has not created the inequities in our society, but it certainly has highlighted them and exploited them. And it is not surprising that certain groups have been hurt the most because that hurt is directly linked to the inequities in our society. And if there’s ever a time to address those inequities, this is the time.  

I am running to be a champion for the people that have been on the frontlines of the COVID response and who have been forgotten, quite frankly. I think that they need a voice in California, and it’s something that I think that we all should care about. I am lucky to have a law degree and, in that sense, I have the ability to avoid infection in the way that someone who works at a liquor store or who delivers food cannot. But it’s in my interest as someone who doesn’t have to do that, that the person who delivers my food, the person who might clean my house, that they are taken care of — the health of those individuals is connected to our own health, but beyond that it’s the right thing to do. 

Laura Wenus   

And where do you think that the state legislature has fallen short, specifically, on planning for an equitable recovery and addressing this equitably? Because it is a state legislature seat that you’re running for. So how can legislators at the state level address this? 

David Campos   

Well, look, I know that many of the legislators have tried, but I think that more has to be done and let’s begin with the health care system. And that’s why, for me, the first thing that I’m going to do is to address the issue of lack of equitable access to health care, and that’s where single-payer and Medicare for All comes in. The reality is that one of the reasons why these communities were hit so hard is, not only because they were on the frontlines, but because they did not have the same level of access to quality and affordable health care. And so, we need to make that health care accessible. And one way in which the legislature has not done that is that it has failed to pass Medicare for All. And that’s why I think that’s the first thing that has to be done. If we don’t pass Medicare for All — that makes health care accessible and affordable for all Californians — if we don’t pass it after a pandemic that has killed so many Californians, then when do we pass it? And so that’s the first thing that I’m going to do to make sure that we address the inequitable access to health care.  

The second thing that has to be done once you address the issue of health care, is the recovery. We need a more equitable recovery. And I appreciate what is being done at the federal level with Build Back Better, but we need to do more. California needs its own recovery plan. I would call it Build Back Fairer, and “fairer” because I think that there has to be an added focus on those communities that have been hit disproportionately by COVID. I think that we need a Green New Deal as part of this recovery — that California needs its own infrastructure plan. We need to add our own money as the fifth-largest economy in the world to create more job opportunities in these green jobs — move away from fossil fuels. Not only are those renewable energy jobs better for the environment, not only do they save the planet down the road, but they’re cheaper. And so we need to invest in those new industries and I think that the recovery should create more opportunities, prioritizing those communities that were hit the hardest by COVID.  

As I explained to people, I want to be a champion for the people who work with their hands, for the people who can’t shelter in place and work from home. They need to have a focus in this recovery, for this recovery to really include all of us. And then connected to this — and this is more of a long-term strategy, but it’s something that I think has to be a part of addressing the inequities in society — is education. The reason why I, as a formerly undocumented kid from Guatemala who spoke no English, that I got to be where I am today — a graduate of Stanford and Harvard Law School — is because of the public school system. And right now, the public school system in California is severely underfunded. We’re in the bottom 10 among all the states in per-pupil spending. We should be in the top 10. A college education is so expensive. For so many young people, and adults in California, we need to make it more affordable. I personally think that as the wealthiest state in the country, that we could make college free if we wanted to, or at least make a secondary education or vocational training, whatever the person wants to pursue, that we can make it free. It’s an investment that I think is worth making. And if countries like Ireland can do that, we as the fifth-largest economy in the world certainly can afford to do so as well. 

The post Interview Transcript: David Campos – San Francisco Public Press appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

This interview is part of our February 2022 election guide. The Public Press and “Civic” are only publishing highlights from interviews with candidates on our audio platforms, but we are making extended transcripts available to add context. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.  

Sylvie Sturm   

Can you recap for me? How has your experience been in your very first election campaign that you’ve been going through? 

Joaquín Torres   

It’s been it’s been pretty amazing to be a first-time citywide candidate and being able to reconnect with so many communities, so many neighborhoods, so many old friends who I’ve been serving in one role or another throughout my time since I started public service back in December of 2009. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Why are you running for this office in particular? 

Joaquín Torres   

Well, I I’ve been looking for another way to serve. I started my career in public service and neighborhood services and really tried to learn the foundation of local government city service work from that perspective of: What is the front desk like of constituent services? How does that extend out into communities and neighborhoods to understand their needs around policies of different departments or issues? And then being able to focus on neighborhoods and small businesses through an economic development lens, which I did, in addition to leading major reform efforts, such as the San Francisco Housing Authority during a very troubling time, and continuing those efforts. And then finally leading an office in really probably one of the most difficult and profound times for so many of our staff members throughout the pandemic. And now being able to serve in a different way about an office that services the fundamentals of our city, where we’re responsible for nearly 30% of the city’s general fund, and ensuring that someone who’s in that role who can be responsible, understands the city, understands how important access is how important equity is, and also just how important the financial infrastructure is for the ongoing success of San Francisco.  

Sylvie Sturm   

You’ve been in the office for about a year now, what have you learned during that year? 

Joaquín Torres   

Everything, everything. And also, that there’s still so much to learn. I think the biggest component is just how vital our work is to ensuring that we have a safe, secure, stable funding source for San Francisco. And that so much of the work that I’ve done up to this point has been extremely beneficial, and understanding how to work with a team of this size. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development, where I was at before, was a little bit smaller, by about 40 people or so. And understanding how to move within a bureaucracy like this is something that I have some experience with. So that’s been good. But just the nuances of dealing with state law, what we abide by in terms of the constitution and revenue and taxation code, and just understanding the processes and ways in which people can seek service and/or relief and what we are or are not able to do as a assessor recorder’s office. 

Sylvie Sturm   

And what do you foresee being your biggest challenges and during your term? 

Joaquín Torres   

I think one of the biggest challenges right now is an area that we’re excited about as well, which is our modernization project. You know, for many, many years, our office was unable, for example, to close the roll for almost three decades. Which just meant a timely submission to the controller’s office of all the assessed property values in the City and County of San Francisco. My predecessor, Carmen Chu, was able to begin that process of, for the first time in that many decades, being able to make that happen for the city, and providing some clarity for staff about an achievable milestone for an office that really needed to feel that they had some structure and participation in city government in a more, I think, advanced way. And we’ve achieved that. So, I think continuing that process, and continuing to advance it is going to be a big issue for me.  

In addition to just modernizing our tools that we have available to us, we are in the process of finalizing, hopefully at the end of this year, what’s called a huge SMART project, which is a system for managing assessments, records and transactions. And really just moving from an old outdated system into a new one that’ll give us and the public greater transparency into our work. And that’s a big lift. Any technology project, no matter how small or big, always comes with complications. And realizing this is going to be a big deal for us.  

And then I think racial equity is another area that’s extremely important to me and has been throughout my service. And I am very much looking forward to seeing how I can advance racial equity goals within the office, and then also in the public discourse as well. 

Sylvie Sturm   

How do you foresee being able to bring those topics up in the public? 

Joaquín Torres   

So, one of the areas that was a real gift that was signed by the governor, and I reached out to him through a letter asking him to sign this bill, AB 1466, which essentially requires recording divisions up and down the state to create a plan for how to eradicate racist and discriminatory language from covenants in deeds. Why is that important? These are non-legally-standing racially restrictive language that’s in these documents. But I think especially during this time, having an understanding of what our city’s history is and has been like in the past, it’s important to help have that truth and reconciliation conversation that so many of us as communities of color want to have in San Francisco. And being able to work on this project, and highlight the reality of our history, I think is an important part of us being able to heal as a community and move forward. And so I’ll be very excited to partner with community partners, leading educators in this area, about our history of exclusion in certain neighborhoods that impacted communities of color, and talking about that as part of that process. 

Sylvie Sturm   

And how did those old covenants affect property tax assessments over the generations? 

Joaquín Torres   

It really is about, where am I able to or not able to live? And when there were industries and individuals and homeowner associations, and homeowners who made explicit decisions to include language on how Blacks could be excluded from a neighborhood, you are making a clear decision about where people are allowed to achieve financial success and wealth building. And we know, especially during this time, that our communities have been excluded from wealth-generating opportunities. And this is one of the ways in which that was carried out all in the name of protecting a person’s personal property value, but at the expense of other communities being able to achieve that for themselves. 

Sylvie Sturm   

How can your office play a role in carving out a housing market that’s affordable to working-class San Franciscans? 

Joaquín Torres   

Well, one of the things that I’ve done since I started was I made use of some of the limitations we had during the pandemic. And that really was about bringing our educational tools out to the public online, through our family wealth series, where we talked about changes to state law that was going to impact people’s homes, and impact the ability for them to transfer properties to their family members, in ways that were not going to be possible before a measure called Proposition 19 was passed in November of 2020, which would limit the ability of people to transfer their properties from grandparents to grandchildren or parents to children. And so, people need to understand how that law is affecting them.  

One component of the law was also about providing flexibility for those who were 55 years or older, who had been impacted by natural disasters and who were disabled, to help them achieve some flexibility that they didn’t have before, which I think is why many of us voted for the measure in the first place. But what was in that measure as well was a way that would restrict people’s ability to transfer affordability to their heirs. So, for example, a home that was a property that was ahead of base year value in the past at a very low level would now be reassessed at market value if it wasn’t a principal residence moving on to that grandparent or grandchild. Making sure people were aware during the time before the law took effect in February of last year was an important part of my predecessor, and making sure people were still aware of what those limitations were moving forward so they could plan for their futures was an essential part, I believe, of ensuring that people could continue to afford to live in San Francisco. Those changes in assessed value for properties, without those protections, and those restrictions and limitations, can have a huge impact on what a person is paying on an annual basis in terms of their property taxes. 

Sylvie Sturm   

How will you ensure that the city maximizes property tax revenue? 

Joaquín Torres   

Well, I mean, first, we have to make sure— it’s coming in and making sure that we’re on time, as I was mentioning before, right, that we do our work, our team is working [on] it. Even in this remote environment, we’ve been able to continue that success of making sure that those revenues continue to come into the office. But then also at the same time when there are mistakes that are made, ensuring that that accessibility is in place for the public, so they know who to come to, and how to get a resolution to their issue, and make sure that they’re aware of all of the methods that are available to them, whether it’s through direct conversation with our office, or through independent bodies, like the assessment appeals board, which sits outside of the assessor recorder’s office, so that those valuations, should they be formally appealed, can be heard by that body and our values will be defended. So, making sure that we’re just very keen about ensuring that people are paying their fair share. And that means that it’s a fair and accurate process through both lenses. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Have you found there to be a problem of under-reported property? 

Joaquín Torres   

No, one of the one of the items that we found is that there’s always a constant back and forth at times, especially with large property owners, in terms of challenges to valuation that people want to present to the office. We provide fair and accurate assessment as provided by state law. It’s all informed by the information that we have at our fingertips. So, there may be times when we make a determination about a property that could be overvalued. But the reason we do that is because based on what the market is telling us, based on the information that we have, that’s the number that we come up with. And then because an entity or an individual might not be satisfied by that number, they challenge that. They either challenge that formally or through litigation — and through a discovery process, we learn more — and sometimes in those cases, we see legal reasons why we need to reduce the value that we came to around those properties.  

In a different matter, there are other entities that at times we don’t always catch in our office, which is why partnerships, like the one we have with the Board of Equalization, are so important, that provide us with a list around properties that may have transferred that we might not catch. And ensuring that once we get those lists from the Board of Equalization, that we “work those lists” as we say, we just work the lists to make sure that we’re capturing all of that value and sending out those notices that those transfer taxes for the reasons of the transaction need to be paid. And that’s part of the diligent work that we’ve been doing as well, we’ve been able to recover, I want to say nearly $70 million since the program started back in 2015. And we’re definitely continuing that work. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Can you take me through your roles and duties as the president of the S.F. Housing Authority Board? 

Joaquín Torres   

Sure. So, it’s a high-level policy position. The beginning of the process, for me, it was back in 2013, when there were allegations being made about ethical conduct by a previous executive director. Also, the associated shortfalls that we were facing at the housing authority due to both a lack of funding and also lack of management that was taking place at the housing authority. The role that we played was not only in negotiations. As we pursued conversations with HUD, as part of that process, to ensure that we could benefit to the most maximum extent what was called the RAD program, the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, that was a key initiative of the Obama administration that would help us fund rehabilitation of these projects. And we did it in a different way in San Francisco. We ensure that there were culturally competent community-based providers that would essentially be managing the properties and providing services for the communities that they were already working in, and that they understood and knew. Whether you talk about organizations in Chinatown, or in the Tenderloin, or in various neighborhoods across the city, in the Bayview, in Hunters Point, following through on those policy items, it was a big, big deal for us, ensuring that there was transparency about those conversations that there was deep interagency coordination on this work so that residents knew that we were going to be there for them through this process. And frankly, being present with them throughout that process, making our meetings more accessible for people in their neighborhoods at their sites in ways that hadn’t happened in the past, and setting those policy decisions.  

Now, after RAD closed — you know, $2 billion deal, $750 million in improvements for those properties across the city — it’s been a matter of management and also ensuring that the fiscal stability of the housing authority was continuing, and that there was a structure in place for the housing authority to continue for the benefit of residents in its successful management. Tonia Lediju is the executive director that we were lucky enough to bring on to lead the organization, and ensuring that she knows that we’re making policy decisions that we want her to consider as a body, resident commissioners, former police, police leadership that’s been part of the of the commission, in addition to community members that have an understanding about what residents need and making sure that they have the space and a forum in which to speak their minds on behalf of themselves, but also their peers in public housing as well. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Is there any overlap between your role as assessor and the president of the board, and any potential items that you might have to recuse yourself from? 

Joaquín Torres   

Not right now. That’s something that I work on closely both with my counsel at the housing authority, as well as the city attorney, so that whenever there would be an issue like that, that would come up, I would absolutely be recusing myself from a decision. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Can you give me an example of what an issue like that might be? 

Joaquín Torres   

Well, there, there might be a development agreement, perhaps, that would come across the seat, that there might be some connection to the office, in terms of an assessment that would be taking place or evaluation of the office would be providing. I would need to look at it specifically to be sure that when that was going to be the case, I would be recusing myself from a decision like that around an agreement and a development agreement per se. And that’d be noted on the record so people were aware of that. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Why would you want to do both jobs? 

Joaquín Torres   

Oh, I am, I’ve been very happy with the service that I’ve had. But I’m also excited to see who eventually will take over my position because I would like to focus very much on the assessor-recorder position at first. But I wanted to follow our process through that we started. It’s not very often that you get to do that in terms of reform effort, and leading through transitions at an organization. But I’m going to be very excited and very proud of the work that I’ve done and eventually handing it over to someone else. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Your second term now is listed through to 2024. Is it possible that your term doesn’t last until 2024 on the board? 

Joaquín Torres   

Well, we’ll have to wait and see. I haven’t made any final decisions just yet. But I’m very excited about the work I do in both places. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Okay. And so, speaking of your terms, on Granicus, your first term with the board was listed from 2013 to 2017. And then after that it was 2020 to 24. But you did sit on the board from 2017 to 2019, correct? 

Joaquín Torres   

Yes. I’m not quite certain why there would be that gap. But thanks for bringing that up. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Okay. Finally, is there anything else you’d like to conclude with? 

Joaquín Torres   

I just want to be sure that the public is aware of how accessible our office is, and creating that access for you as a homeowner, or you, as a member of the public that wants to understand or needs the services of our office, they are available at our website. You can always come in to City Hall and check us out. It is a great place for so many of us to work and we want to be of service to you. So, I hope that you as a public take advantage of that opportunity. I look forward to serving you after this election and in the future. 

The post Interview Transcript: Joaquín Torres – San Francisco Public Press appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

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Media contact
Company Name: AmeriCARE San Francisco CA.
Interlocutor: Kevin Rasmussen
E-mail: Send e-mail
Phone: (415) 484-2727
Address:120 Divisadero St.
City: San Francisco
Status: THE
Country: United States
Website: https://www.americareinfo.com/san-francisco

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2020 is over and many are very happy about it. It seems that every industry suffered a major financial blow in 2020, and many have never recovered from it.

An industry not only survived, it also thrived. Danielle Lazier is one of Compass San Francisco’s premier real estate agents, California. Their website has an up-to-date look back at 2020, and the numbers are pretty surprising.

San Francisco is divided into ten separate departments – districts – and house values ​​have been rising and rising in each district since 2010. This means the outlook for 2021 and beyond is good for those looking to get to the west coast and the bay.

“The pandemic set my agency Compass San Francisco back a little. I am confident the numbers will stay strong through 2021. The surge in the vaccine is possibly the strongest indicator of growth, ”Lazier said.

If you want to move a property in one of the districts, you should remember the basics of selling a home: a functional floor plan, good condition, performed by the right realtor at the right price with the right staging and marketing. All of this ensures that the property moves and that it moves quickly.

Lazier and her team of Compass real estate agents in San Francisco have already worked hard to leave 2020 behind and look forward to 2021.

“There is no magic ball to look into and see the future but we are all hopeful based on our previous numbers,” said Lazier.

More information, including statistics for all ten counties, can be found on the Lazier website. Visit http://daniellelazier.com to learn more, view available properties, or to schedule a viewing.

Media contact
Name of the company: Danielle Lazier Real Estate Agent San Francisco CA.
Interlocutor: Danielle Lazier
E-mail: Send e-mail
Phone: + 1-415-528-7355
City: San Francisco
Status: California
Country: United States
Website: http://daniellelazier.com

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