tv Mayors Press Availability SFGTV October 12, 2021 1:30am-2:01am PDT
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at least i know i do. >> in the 1950s, you could see a picture of tommy's joint and looks exactly the same. we haven't change add thing. >> i remember one lady saying, you know, i've been eating this ice cream since before i was born. and i thought, wow! we have, too. ♪♪ good morning everyone. i bet you all are wondering why we're here today. aren't you wondering? this is probably the worst kept secret in san francisco, politics, but today i'm here to make a very important announcement. yesterday, the public utilities commission approved the contract for our city attorney dennis herrera to become the
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next director of this incredible department and i'm so grateful to our city attorney for the work that he has done to lead this city for the past 20 years, an office of dedicated public servants who fight every single day to focus on the things that mart the most to the people of san francisco. and with our city attorney moving on, we now have a vacancy potentially soon. and, as a result, we have to fill that vacancy. and i can't think of anyone better to serve as the next city attorney for the city and county of san francisco than assembly member david choo. some of you ask, why david?
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many of you have reached out to me and expressed the interest in seeing someone like david become city attorney. now many of you may know him as the board of supervisors, but his extensive career, getting his law degree from harvard. working for the nineth circuit court of appeals. working as an attorney for the united states senate. working for lawyers committee for civil rights for the district attorney's office. he has an extensive career in law, one even before he stepped foot in the world of politics. that's why when he served as the president of the board of supervisors, he was a consensus building. he was someone who was dedicated and worked hard to tackle many of the issues he now continues to tackle in
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sacramento. focuses on tenants' rights, focusing on employment rights, civil rights and discrimination, there is a number of things that david and i continue to work on time and time again because it centers around the best interest of the people of this city. we are here today at a location that david will talk about in just a little bit, but it's just one example of the work he did as an attorney to fight for those who are immigrants to san francisco to ensure that they have access to affordable housing just like anyone else and his work with the a.p.i. community and a number of other challenges that existed during this pandemic demonstrates his commitment to fairness. it demonstrates his commitment to san francisco and it's why i know he'll be an incredible city attorney. and before i bring up david to
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talk a little bit and answer questions, i first want to just say a few things about our city attorney. you know, we have been so fortunate in this city to have dennis herrera as our city attorney for the past 20 years and, before he took office, he took office as a pledge to the people of san francisco that he would ensure integrity in public institutions and time and time again and every fight that this city attorney's office has taken on, he has done just that. starting early in his career with pg&e and the fight to shut down the power plant which was an environmental harm to the people of the bayview hunter's point community. the work that he did to ensure that same-sex couples can marry legally just like anyone else was historic and went all the
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way to the supreme court where we have accomplished our goals, although, there are still fights that need to be done to ensure equality. his work when we first discovered sadly some of the challenges that existed with a number of city departments here in san francisco. he and our controller ben rosenfield investigated, dug deep, uncovered, and made recommendations of decisions that are currently now being implemented to restore public trust in those particular departments. his career is a long one, but one that has established him as the city's attorney, but most importantly, the person that we all rely on. the person that we all respect and trust when it comes to implementing policies and dealing with cases that are the right thing to do and that will continue to protect our city.
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this is why i'm so grateful to him, so grateful and honored that in the wake of the challenges of the public utilities department, he is taking on this new role. and although i know he won't be very far away from the city attorney's office, i know that he's going to do some incredible work for the public utilities commission especially with everything we need to do to continue our fight for clean power and the challenges of distribution and running our own power system here in san francisco. our water, our sewage, our infrastructure, long-term planning and also just making sure that the people who work in that department know that they have someone to count on to lead that department and make good decisions on behalf of the city and county of san francisco. with that, i want to bring up city attorney dennis herrera
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before i introduce david chu. >> thank you, madam mayor. i see one of my last roles still as city attorney. when you get the pleasure of being an official, you can correct the mayor. she said potentially an opening. i submitted my letter of resignation, you accepted it. come 11:59 p.m. on october the 31st, halloween, i will no longer be city attorney. and it's been an honor and privilege of my life to serve the people of san francisco as their city attorney for nearly 20 years. i've accomplished all that i could ever hope for and more as city attorney and while now is the time for new professional challenge for me, i'm thrilled to be able to lead this office in the hands of someone who is committed to the mission, the values and integrity that have
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made the san francisco city attorney's office so remarkable for so long the nation's preamanent public law office. i knew david chu way back when. he is committed to transparency and clean government and he is independent which is the most important thing you can do as san francisco city attorney. i just want to give you a few examples of his dedication to the people of san francisco. one focuses on everyday issues and david and i worked together to support the entertainment industry through legislation that made it safer for patrons
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to frequent night life venues in san francisco. that was david chu's leadership. another example shows his commitment to clean that tightened rules and regulations and expanded accountability and access. that was david chiu's leadership. and finally and most recently, david worked with us fighting for california consumers. some of you, probably most of you remember that cities throughout the state won public nuisance law against the lead paint industry. that made sure we saw remediation of thousands of use of lead paint throughout california. the lead paint industry didn't like the imposed remedy and they went up to the legislature and tried to sneak through a bill that would have limited
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traditionally imposed liability. david chiu took the leadership, phoned me, worked clearly with our office to make sure california consumers were protected and that those traditional remedies stayed in place and that millions of californians would benefit. more than anything else, that's what you need to be a good city attorney and he won't be doing it alone. i can tell you the professional integrity of the attorneys, the investigators and the industry leading staff and the attorney's office is unquestionable and they will continue to do their job for the people of san francisco and they will work tirelessly to ensure a smooth and seamless transition and make him the best city attorney he could be. it is my honor and privilege
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turning over this office to somebody who will be a tremendous steward of our traditions. thanks very much. [ applause ] >> thank you again to our city attorney dennis herrera for your service and thank you for your commitment to san francisco. the city attorney's office here in this city is arguably the number one city attorney's office anywhere in the country and it is because of the leadership of our current city attorney and i know there are big shoes to fill and so in making a decision like this, it's not a decision that you take lightly. it's important to do what is in the best interest of the city and ultimately assembly member chiu will be doing this job for the next couple of months until you, the people of the city of san francisco make your
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decision. he is the peoples' attorney. he represents the people of the city and county of san francisco and, ultimately, you are the ones who decide and i think that over the years many of you and hands down, he is one of the most gracious, hardworking, consensus building, structured, relentless, pursuit of justice person i know. i've worked with him for many, many years on so many issues starting with the board of supervisors and before i bring david chiu up to say a few words, i remember when i was elected to the board of supervisors and one of the first supervisors who reached out to me was david chiu. and we met and he had a binder like this thick.
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and he said this wasn't it, there were a number of other things that i needed to read before i do my job. he wanted me to be prepared for what the job entailed. not when i got to the job, but before i set foot in that chamber, he wanted to make sure that i was ready to do the business of the people and we went on to work on so many pieces of legislation together and even when he left to go to sacramento, he would still reach out to partner on important issues impacting the city. he is one of the hardest working legislators i know and what's so interesting as an attorney, it's always from a lens, a legal lens of trying to get to the point to really make sure that the policy is effective. and i think based on what our city attorney dennis herrera has already said about his work, his consistency, his involvement in important issues
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and protecting the public's best interest regardless of who the fight is against, he will continue with that same drive, that same commitment, that same spirit of love for the people of san francisco. ladies and gentlemen, i introduce you the next city attorney for the city and county of san francisco david chiu. congratulations. [ applause ] >> good morning. i am so humbled and grateful for this appointment. and let me start first by thanking mayor breed not just for this opportunity to serve, but for her tremendous leadership during these incredibly difficult times and i'm looking forward to working with her and alongside her with every single member of the board of supervisors, with 100
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city departments and commissions to move our city forward. i, of course, want to solute my friend, our current city attorney dennis herrera. for the past 20 years, he has established the gold standard for public law offices in this country. i think it would take us an hour to summarize his accomplishments, but let me just say in short, our city owes dennis herrera an incredible debt of gratitude. and i am looking forward to working closely with him during this transition and with him in his new role. i also want to take a moment of personal privilege and thank my dear wife, candace. in addition to her public interest job, she has for the
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past seven years held down the home fort while i have been in sacramento looking over our very rambunxious five-year-old son. growing up in boston, none of us ever expected that i become an attorney because my family, none of us had ever met an attorney, had ever known an attorney, but something happened my college freshman year. i got a call from a friend about a hate crime involving eight asian students at a nearby school who were on their way to a formal dance, who were attacked by football players who hurled racial epifats. and the most incredible thing
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about that experience is those football players were never disciplined. that moment among others changed my life. i became a student activist. i studied the civil rights movement. i changed my major from bio chemistry to government. i wanted to fight for justice. the fight for justice is why i became a public interest attorney. why i clerked for the nineth circuit. why i served as a criminal prosecutor. why i served to the democratic council. why i then became a civil rights attorney. the fight for justice is why i moved to san francisco because in our city, we stand up for those who are more vulnerable than we are. we right wrongs. i first came to san francisco to work for the committee for civil rights as we were challenging proposition 187.
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an anti-immigrant initiative that would have kicked immigrant kids out of schools and hospitals. a couple years later, i represented a number of affordable housing organizations including mission housing and i want to thank sam moss and your leadership because, at that time, there were rules in place by governor pete wilson to kick immigrant tenants out of their homes. immigrants like my parents, homes like the ones behind us. well, for those two lawsuits, we prevailed. justice prevailed. for the last 13 years, i have been so honored to serve as a local then as a state lawmaker for san francisco. and during that entire time, the fight for justice has been front and center. i've been fighting for our collective civil rights, offering laws not just to expanded rights of housing and the rights of our immigrants,
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but the rights of our lgbtq community, the rights of women, the right to choose. and as your next city attorney, i look forward to furthering that right for our collective civil rights because in the wake of "me too," "black lives matter," and anti-asian hate, we have a right. i've taken on some of the most entrenched corporate companies in america. big pharma, gun manufacturers and lead companies. wall street and big predatory profiters for schools. i'm going to fight to make sure that we are protecting workers, we are standing up for consumers and we are going to hold corporations accountable if they cross the line. as a policy maker working with our good mayor, our
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supervisors, our city attorney, i've worked hard to address the pressing issues of the day. whether it be getting folks to work or making sure tenants are housed after this pandemic. as your city attorney, i'm going to work with these policy members to look for ways and opportunities to use the law, to address the pressing problems of the day. homelessness, public safety on our streets. the existential. let me just close by observation about what is happening in our country at this moment. we are living in dark days. there are rights that we have taken for granted that are literally in danger. the right to health care. the right to choose. the right to vote. but the san francisco city attorney's office has often
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stood up during dark days when no one thought marriage equality was possible. when donald trump targeted our sanctuary city. when mayor breed needed legal advice in how to defend san francisco from a new virus called "covid-19." and the incredible professionals at the san francisco city attorney's office have wielded legal swords and legal shields for our city and state time after time after time and i'm looking forward to standing alongside each of them, to standing alongside the office. and standing up for san francisco and fighting for justice. thank you. [ applause ] >> and, to talk a little bit about assembly member chiu's work, i wanted to bring up sam
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moss who is the director of mission housing development corporation, mission housing. sam. >> thank you, mayor breed. to say it's an honor to be up here is really putting it lightly. i never thought ten years ago when i first started at mission housing we'd be here today, but it is a true honor to be up here and help david move on to the next part of his career, but most importantly to usher in such a great person to the city of san francisco. there are a few people in the affordable housing industry's experience that have fought as hard for low-income tenants than david chiu and i don't just mean, you know, fighting hard with a tweet here and there. david really, he writes the legislation, he calls you up. he wants to know what you think. and it is rare that a politician truly believes in what they're doing that doesn't
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just want to write legislation for legislation's sake. david really hits the ground running and he understands. mission housing would not be where it is today without the hard work and support of david chiu both as a city supervisor, the president of the board of supervisors, as well as a city person up in sacramento and i think it's fitting we have this event today. to have this press conference here i think it brings it all back home. so i want to thank everyone for coming and say again what an honor it is to be here. congrats. [ applause ] >> all right. there it is. the worst kept secret in san francisco is finally out. with that, are there any
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questions? >> city attorney herrera, where does that city wide corruption investigation stand and how do you pass it on? >> let me just say, first of all, you are correct that we've been working diligently over the course of the last year and a half both the controller's office and the law enforcement agencies to make sure that our departments live up to the highest ethical standards. and we have over the course of that time rolled out numerous recommendations, actions, which demonstrate how seriously our office and the controller's office take our investigation. while i will not comment on the specifics of any investigation, as i've said all along, our investigations continue and irrespective of whether i'm in that office or not, they will continue because these type of
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investigations are made up not necessarily of the folks at the top. we have some of the most dedicated legal professionals anywhere, veterans u.s. attorneys offices and other agencies that are committed to this work and will guide, advise assembly member chiu as the investigations continue and they will continue and they'll go where they are and the next city attorney will make his decisions and his recommendations in the actions he chooses to bring and he'll continue to advise mayor breed about the best way to ensure we're living up to the truest and highest ethical ideals. that will not slow down and it will continue. >> thank you. and i'll just add that some of the investigation that the city attorney and controller's office has done for various city agencies have led to a number of recommendations which
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i immediately through an executive directive implemented certain directives like the department of building inspection and the department of public works, so i will continue to do what is necessary to get our city on track and to restore public trust after a very challenging time for our city and this is why in making decisions about who is running these various agencies that were, of course, of concern from the public. that's why it's so important to have people like our city attorney at the helm of the public utilities commission as well as other agencies and making those decisions, you can be assured that these public servants like david chiu and like dennis herrera have their own established reputations and will be extraordinary leaders in helping make these decisions in these various conditions.
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