Candidate for
City Attorney; City of San Francisco

When I first became City Attorney eight years ago, I wanted to do three things:

To defend public integrity: which means fighting waste, fraud or abuse of our taxpayer dollars To protect neighborhoods and residents: as consumers, as tenants, and as hard-working business-owners facing unfair competition To make the City Attorney's Office more relevant: to make a real difference in the lives of the people it serves Those are commitments I think about every day. And I'm very proud of my office's success in achieving them.

When I visit Bayview/Hunters Point, and see the Willie Mays Boys & Girls Club, and Junior Giants Field, for at-risk kids who once had no recreational facilities -- made possible with seed money from a legal settlement we negotiated -- I know my office is making a real difference in people's lives. When I'm stopped on the street and thanked by couples who've been together for decades, who've raised families -- and who were finally allowed to marry because of our successful lawsuit to end marriage discrimination against gays and lesbians -- I know my office is making a real difference in people's lives. And when I open my mail and see a hand-lettered card made of construction paper from Mission District school kids -- thanking my office for a gang injunction that is making their neighborhood safer -- I know my office is making a real difference in people's lives. I also know my office continues to make a difference on issues like...

Fighting gender rating in health insurance in California that forces women to pay more than men Protecting our environment by replacing dirty power plants, and seeking penalties and injunctions against polluters Working with state AGs to pressure beer companies to stop making caffeinated alcoholic drinks that pose dangerous health and safety risks Defending our universal health care program, so that tens of thousands of San Franciscans can access affordable care they wouldn't be able to otherwise Making sure tenants don't get their utilities shut off if their building owners go into foreclosure and stop paying their bills And even taking on the U.S. Postal Service so that residents in SRO hotels get the same secure mail service as other residents Earlier this year, I announced the appointment of the City Attorney's Stimulus Spending Task Force. That's a task force to coordinate legal compliance by City departments, and to guarantee efficiency and accountability for investments made possible by the federal multi-billion dollar stimulus package.

This is an initiative I feel very strongly about. And it's one that I believe can make a real difference in people's lives -- even though, if it succeeds, people will probably never realize it.

I'm someone you'd probably describe as a traditional liberal or progressive: I believe that government can be a force for good. At its best, I believe government can enable great accomplishments; that it can expand opportunities. That it can make the world better and more just.

What is at stake in President Obama's recovery and economic stimulus package isn't solely our nation's economy. What's at stake, too, is whether we're right -- whether government really can be a force for good. Whether it really can be honest and competent.

And here in liberal San Francisco -- the City that Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents in Congress -- we had better be well aware that the eyes of the world are upon us.

The Rush Limbaughs of the world are hoping for us to fail -- to prove their cynicism right -- that government is the problem, never a solution.

So, because of the central role my office already plays as legal counsel to all City departments, I know we're uniquely positioned to coordinate and scrutinize San Francisco's citywide efforts. We don't need to invent a new bureaucracy.

So, I brought together six very talented public servants in my office with a range of expertise and experience. They're experts in contracts and grants; Sunshine and open government; construction and public works; fraud investigations and litigation. And I have given them the mission to work closely with our clients who take this responsibility seriously -- and to ride herd on any client who doesn't.

Our paramount duty as a City is to ensure that this unprecedented level of federal funding is invested honestly and in ways that deliver real value to our communities and our children -- who will ultimately pay this money back. As President Obama said, we must prove to the American people that their trust in government is not misplaced.

We will not tolerate waste, fraud or abuse. And may God help the City employee or contractor who thinks otherwise.

Now, if we do a good job, you'll never notice. It's my sincere hope that after today, you never hear about the City Attorney's Stimulus Spending Task Force again. The people who will know of its existence are the clients we work with, and that's all.

But it's one more way that we're continuing

To defend public integrity To protect neighborhoods and residents And to make the City Attorney's Office relevant to the people it serves -- sometimes, in ways people aren't even aware of. Having the chance to serve San Francisco in so many ways is what makes my job as City Attorney so rewarding. And that's why I'm working hard to keep it.