Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 19

A solutions-focused reformer, Phil Ting was appointed as the Assessor-Recorder of the City and County of San Francisco in 2005 by then Mayor Gavin Newsom, becoming San Francisco's highest ranking Chinese American official at that time.

Ting has transformed one of the city's worst departments and made it faster, smarter and fairer. He has worked to close a five-year backlog and has generated more than $290 million without any new taxes by bringing new technology, better management and employing his background in helping large organizations reform.

As both a local and regional leader, Ting has focused on promoting a strong economy, funding our schools, promoting innovation in government, building trade ties to Asia, protecting homeowners facing foreclosures and attracting high-wage green jobs.

He chairs the San Francisco Advisory Board for ChinaSF, a new public-private partnership dedicated to creating economic development opportunities by making San Francisco the gateway for Chinese companies looking to establish business operations in the Bay Area. Through ChinaSF, San Francisco has attracted 13 new employers and created over 150 new jobs.

Ting launched GoSolarSF, San Francisco's solar energy incentive program, in July 2008. This first-of-its-kind local solar program has helped propel San Francisco from laggard to leader in rooftop solar installations. The program has quadrupled the number of solar roofs in the city, created over 450 new green jobs and has increased the number of solar companies from two to 30, helping to solidify our status as an emerging capital of the green economy.

In 2010, Phil Ting launched Reset San Francisco to empower San Franciscans to make their voices heard at City Hall. As an online community, Reset crowdsources creative ideas and innovative solutions from city residents and policy experts to make the city's government more efficient and effective.

He spearheaded efforts to help homeowners and tenants facing foreclosure, including launching Don't Borrow Trouble, an education and outreach program; convening city officials and advocates to find local solutions to the foreclosure crisis; and creating a first-of-its-kind program that sends a letter providing resource information to at-risk homeowners and tenants once a Notice of Default has been recorded for the home. And he introduced groundbreaking "Real Estate Watchdog" legislation that is aimed at capturing unreported changes of ownership.

Ting began his career as a real estate financial advisor, gaining practical and hands-on experience in fiscal management and property assessments while working at Arthur Andersen and CB Richard Ellis.

Prior to serving as Assessor-Recorder, Ting had a long history of civil rights advocacy. He was the Executive Director of the Asian Law Caucus, an organization founded in 1972 to advance and promote the legal and civil rights of the Asian Pacific Islander community. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority and the Governing Board of the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, was President of the Bay Area Assessors Association, was president of the Organization of Chinese Americans SF Bay Chapter and served on the boards of the Equality California Institute and the California Alumni Association (Go Bears!).

Ting is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He lives in San Francisco's Sunset District with his wife, Susan Sun and their daughters, Isabella and Madeleine.