Candidate for
Supervisor; County of San Francisco; District 4

Three of my top priorities are:

1. ESTABLISH A DISTRICT ACTION ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

In order to serve the district, one of the keys to success for a Supervisor is to understand the needs of the residents. One of my first priorities will be to establish a District Action Advisory Committee, which will act as a bridge for communication between District 4 residents and the District 4 supervisor. This District Action Advisory Committee will be comprised of a diversified panel of volunteers and residents representing an accurate cross-section of District 4, including experienced and knowledgeable small business owners, parents, teachers, homeowners and tenants.

The District Action Advisory Committee will provide a forum for residents to voice their concerns and seek assistance on neighborhood issues. For example, the committee's members will be able to provide advice to Sunset residents on matters ranging from buying a new home to applying for a small business loan. It will also serve as a central point to assist and direct our neighbors to the relevant neighborhood, non-profit or government agencies that can best serve them. I will meet weekly with the District Action Advisory Committee and ensure that the residents are given updated and timely information and resources regarding our district's education, culture, government and community services.

2. EDUCATION:

One of my main interests lies in our next generation, and the generations to follow, and their education takes precedence in my concerns for our community. As Supervisor of this district, I will heavily advocate for an increase in better education programs made available to our district schools. Although education is under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education, I will use the visibility and influence of my position to encourage the urgency of these much needed modifications in our children's education programs.

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District 4's residents invest large amounts of money to move into this neighborhood with the expectation that their children can attend local schools in Sunset. The rapid influx of students to our local schools has made it increasingly difficult to provide the space, classrooms, and teachers that are necessary to maintain the quality of education that we all accustomed to. As we look into creating more space and enrollment for our students, we must also deal with the fact that there are simply not enough teachers. Consequently, class sizes are growing and teachers are being forced to manage entire classes rather than monitor individual student progress.

As a former teacher, I have experienced the tremendous difficulties educators face to satisfy the demands of their administrators and the expectations of the parents, while earning a meager salary. More and more, graduating students are unwilling to become teachers. The low wages, endless work and the necessity for continuous education have all attributed to the decreased participation into this honored profession.

A frequently suggested, yet superficial, solution to the problem is to ask for increased funding for the San Francisco Unified School District. While additional funding is always helpful, a lot of money is already being put into our schools. Available funds are often times misallocated to inappropriate or unnecessary projects and programs rather than to more important expenditures such as teacher salaries. I will work closely with the teachers and administrators to prioritize projects and increase teacher compensation. We can replicate our school system after nationally recognized programs such as the Elk Grove Unified School District, in which teachers monitor each individual student carefully, work closely with their parents, and are paid higher salaries commensurate to their responsibilities.

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Currently, the seven members of the San Francisco Board of Education handle all of the city's educational issues. Since the Board deals with a wide range of issues concerning the entire unified school district, it is not able to delve into the specific intricacies of each individual district. In order to better serve and address the concerns of each individual district, I fully support increasing the school board membership from 7 to 11 members, each of which shall be elected by and represent the 11 individual districts.

A district-elected School Board member will be a local resident who is familiar with the concerns and exact needs of his district's schools, teachers, students and parents. This new format will allow each member of the School Board to spend more time to concentrate on the specifics of his or her district. Furthermore, the reduced costs of running district elections, as opposed to citywide elections, may increase the number of qualified candidates.

The current redistricting policy for the Board of Supervisors has worked out quite well, and I believe the concept of having individual district school board members will also enhance the effectiveness of our Board of Education.

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My first place of employment after college was as an assistant bilingual counselor for the SFUSD, and I have always valued multicultural education in elementary, middle, and high schools. Numerous studies have shown that studying in multiple languages simultaneously from an early age helps develop quicker and more effective learning skills. We must also encourage a demographic of teachers that more accurately reflect the diversity of the Bay Area to better relate to students. With my experiences as an Asian immigrant, a high school teacher in Hong Kong, and an assistant bilingual counselor for SFUSD, I strongly believe that bicultural / multicultural education is very significant, and I will advocate the development of this education with the SFUSD.

3. PROMOTING SMALL BUSINESSES:

Sunset businesses are composed mainly of small and medium-sized shops, restaurants, clinics and service firms. While corporate chains are a part of every neighborhood, including ours, we must still maintain our local flavor and create unique characteristics for this district to attract patronage from surrounding areas. I will also support a periodic street fair and festival, with multi-cultural performances and exhibits, to promote our neighborhood cultures and businesses.

Based on my former experiences serving on the California Small Business Development Board, the California Export Finance Board, and a Federal Export-Import Bank, I have realized that there are numerous business-financing programs and small business training centers located throughout the city that are not fully recognized and utilized by the residents, especially immigrants of Sunset. I have given many speeches and hosted seminars throughout the city to inform residents of San Francisco of these programs. Unfortunately, the procedures and applications for small business financing are too complex and not readily accessible for small business owners. With the help of my proposed District Action Advisory Committee, I will compile and provide information on federal, statewide, and citywide financial assistance and local banks' commercial services for small businesses. My District Action Advisory Committee will answer questions that small business owners and immigrants may have, and at the same time, may direct them to the appropriate agencies for solutions.

For more information and my additional platforms, please visit my website at:

http://www.lam4supervisor.com