More than a week after election-day, and they are still counting ballots down at City Hall. Four new supervisors will be seated in January (incumbent Carmen Chu ran unopposed and will return as District 4 Supervisor). The Board of Supervisors makes many critical land use decisions, both on major policy matters and on individual projects, which is our reason for keeping you up to date on who the future occupants of these important seats at City Hall.
Two of the Races, in District 6 and District 8 appear to be over, with both Jane Kim and Scott Wiener having large enough leads that the remaining ballots are not likely to change the outcome. The races in D2 and D10 are nail-biters. For those of you who don’t know either Ms. Kim or Mr. Wiener, below is a short bio for each to get you up to speed.
Jane Kim – District 6
Jane Kim is currently the President of the San Francisco Board of Education and a civil rights attorney at Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to serving on the Board of Education, Jane was a fellow at The Greenlining Institute, where she developed economic development policies and advocated for increased consumer protections for communities of color. In 2001, she moved to the Chinatown Community Development Center in San Francisco, where she worked as a Senior Community Organizer. For the next six years, Jane Kim worked as a community advocate with CCDC.
In 2005, Jane was elected to serve as President of the San Francisco People’s Organization, an advocacy coalition that included over forty community organizations and labor unions working together to map a progressive agenda for San Francisco through legislating and organizing. Jane is a co-founder and co-director of Locus Arts in the North Mission and SOMA, a performance venue that showcased over 400 local emerging artists. Jane also served on the Board of Directors for the Asian American Theater Company from 2002-2004, and helped in the fight to save the popular SOMA Filipino community arts space, Bindlestiff Studios.
Jane received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, where she studied Political Science and Asian American Studies. She went on to receive her law degree from U.C. Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall. Jane is also a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, plays the electric bass guitar and continues to serve on the juror committee for Youth Speaks’ nationally recognized annual Hip-Hop Slam.
Scott Wiener – District 8
Scott has lived in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood since 1997. He is a Deputy City Attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office where he is a litigator and represents San Francisco in court. Scott has litigated from the state and federal trial courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court and has handled numerous jury trials.
He served as President of the Eureka Valley Promotion Association, the neighborhood association for the Castro/Upper Market. He co-founded Castro Community on Patrol, a neighborhood walking patrol comprised of volunteers dedicated to making the Castro and Duboce Triangle a safer place. Scott was a member of Mayor Newsom’s citywide Community Policing Advisory Committee.
He served as chairman of the San Francisco Democratic Party and co-chaired the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Democratic Club. He is currently an elected member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and continues to serve on the Alice B. Toklas board of directors. He served as treasurer and then co-chair of the board of directors of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center.
He served for four years on the board of directors of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF), which is the Bay Area’s LGBT bar association, and co-chaired the organization. He has served on the national board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization.
Scott was born in Philadelphia and attended college at Duke University and Harvard Law School. After law school, Scott served as a law clerk on the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Before joining the City Attorney’s Office, he spent five years as an attorney with Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. While at Heller Ehrman, Scott worked on pro bono matters, including representing low-income tenants facing eviction and asylum-seekers from Latina America and China.
D2 and D10….430 Votes Are The Difference
District 2 is a nail biter. After the first RCV tally on November 5, Farrell had a mere 97 votes ahead of Janet Riley out of a total 20,565 ballots cast. Putting Mark at 50.30% of the total. As of November 9 tallies, this race still looks like the closest of all, although Farrell is now pulled ahead by 214 votes.
District 10 was by far the most wide open race, with 21 candidates participating. The November 5 vote tallies needed 19 (yes 19…) rounds of RCV before Malia Cohen rose to the top with 51.34% of the vote. Out of more than 13,000 ballots cast, 2,878 was all Malia needed to break the 50% barrier. Such is the strangeness that is ranked choice voting. But according to the November 9 tallies, Cohen is holding onto her lead at 51.54% (216 votes ahead of Tony Kelly).
And finally: we thought California was tough on business….
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported in their November 5 weekly news letter that Voters in Florida shot down “Amendment 4” overwhelmingly on election night. The measure, which would have given the public the ability to veto local-government-approved changes to land-use plans, was opposed by ICSC, business interests and the vast majority of Florida’s 479 municipal and county governments.
Amendment 4 would have led to “frequent, chaotic elections and would slow down any local development,” Eric May, commissioner for the city of High Springs, told the press. The proposal needed to pass by a 60 percent majority to be absorbed into the state Constitution but was defeated nearly 2 to 1.
Reuben & Junius, LLP is a full service real estate law firm. We specialize in land use, development and entitlement law. We also provide a wide range of transactional services, including leasing, acquisitions and sales, formation of limited liability companies and other entities, lending/workout assistance, subdivision and condominium work.
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