Edwin M. Lee
Encyclopedia
Edwin Mah Lee is the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco
Mayor of San Francisco
The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of San Francisco's city and county government. The mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch....

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. He was appointed by the Board of Supervisors
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...

 on January 11, 2011 to serve out the remainder of former mayor Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...

's term, after Newsom resigned to take office as Lieutenant Governor of California
Lieutenant Governor of California
The Lieutenant Governor of California is a statewide constitutional officer elected separately from the Governor who serves as the "vice-executive" of California. The Lieutenant Governor of California is elected to serve a four year term and can serve a maximum of two terms...

. At the time of his appointment Lee pledged not to run for the office, but he later decided to join the race. Lee won the election on November 8, 2011 to serve a full term as Mayor.

Lee is the first Chinese-American mayor in San Francisco's history, as well as the first Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...

 elected to the office. Before being appointed mayor, he was City Administrator.

Personal life

Lee was born in 1952 in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. His parents immigrated to the United States from Taishan, Guangdong Province, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in the 1930s. Lee's father, Gok Suey Lee, fought in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and worked as a cook
Cook
Cook is a family name of English origin.There are several figures named Cook:- A :*Aaron Cook several people*A. J. Cook , actress*A. J...

 managing a restaurant in Seattle. He died when Lee was 15. His mother was a seamstress and waitress. Lee has five siblings. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...

 in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 in 1974 and from the University of California, Berkeley Law School
UC Berkeley School of Law
The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, commonly referred to as Berkeley Law and Boalt Hall, is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley Law is consistently regarded as an elite and prestigious law school...

 in 1978. He married his wife Anita in 1980 and has two daughters, Tania and Brianna.

San Francisco government

After completing law school, Lee worked as Managing Attorney for the San Francisco Asian Law Caucus where he was an advocate for affordable housing and the rights of immigrants and renters. In 1989, Lee was appointed by Mayor Art Agnos as the City's first investigator under the city's Whistleblower Ordinance. Agnos later appointed him deputy director of human relations. In 1991, he was hired as executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission
San Francisco Human Rights Commission
The San Francisco Human Rights Commission is a department of the City and County of San Francisco that works to increase equality, eradicate discrimination, and to protect human rights for all people...

, serving in that capacity under Mayors Agnos, Frank Jordan
Frank Jordan
Francis M. “Frank” Jordan is a U.S. politician, foundation executive and former Chief of Police.Jordan was born in San Francisco in 1935 and graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1953...

, and Willie Brown
Willie Brown (politician)
Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over 30 years in the California State Assembly, spending 15 years as its Speaker, and afterward served as the 41st mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so...

. Brown appointed him Director of City Purchasing, where, among other responsibilities, he ran the City's first Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprise program.

In 2000, he was appointed Director of Public Works for the City, and in 2005 was appointed by Mayor Newsom to a five-year term as City Administrator, to which he was reappointed in 2010. As City Administrator, Lee oversaw the reduction of city government and implemented the city’s first ever Ten Year Capital Plan.

Appointment as mayor

Under the San Francisco City Charter, vacancies in the mayoral office may be filled by a majority vote of the Board of Supervisors
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...

, in which each supervisor is barred from voting for himself or herself. Speculation about possible appointees and debate on whether or not the old Board of Supervisors should cast vote for the new mayor soon followed after Newsom's election as lieutenant governor. (Four old supervisors were term-limited and four new people were elected in the 2010 election to take their place)

The Board of Supervisors nominated four people: former Mayor Art Agnos, Sheriff Michael Hennessey
Michael Hennessey
Michael Hennessey is the longest serving Sheriff in the history of San Francisco and is currently the longest tenured Sheriff in the State of California. Hennessey was elected in a run-off election in December of 1979 and has been reelected in seven subsequent elections...

, former Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin
Aaron Peskin
Aaron Peskin is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was first elected to the Board in 2000, and was re-elected in 2004. In January 2005, his colleagues elected him President of the Board.-Personal life:...

, and Lee. None of them captured the necessary six votes at a meeting of the board on January 4, 2011, but after an acrimonious debate, some supervisors expressed willingness to switch their support to Lee, and the meeting was recessed until January 7. At the January 7 meeting, the old board voted 10–1 to elect Lee as mayor, with outgoing Supervisor Chris Daly
Chris Daly
Chris Daly is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He represented District 6, on which he served from 2000 to 2010...

 casting the lone "no" vote. At the time, Lee pledged not to seek election if appointed, a statement which helped to gain support for his appointment. The board included people who aimed to run in the November 2011 mayoral elections; none of them wished to give the mayoral position to someone who might be their competitor in those elections, which would give that person the significant political advantages of incumbency.

The vote was preliminary and non-binding as Newsom had delayed his resignation until new members of the Board take office. A final vote was taken on January 11 by the new board to confirm Lee, one day after Newsom's resignation. The board voted unanimously for Lee and he took office immediately thereafter.

As mayor, Lee reached an agreement with the Board of Supervisors to close a $380 million budget deficit.

2011 election

Lee's term expires in January 2012, at which time the winner of the November 2011 mayoral election would take office. Lee originally pledged not to run in that election. However, some San Francisco activists, including Rose Pak
Rose Pak
Rose Pak is a political activist in San Francisco, California, noted for her advocacy for the Chinatown community. Pak serves as a consultant for the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce and organizer of the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco....

 and Eddy Zheng
Eddy Zheng
Xiaofei "Eddy" Zheng is a Chinese immigrant to the United States living in Oakland, California. His decades-long series of attempts to secure release from prison for crimes he committed at the age of 16 and to fight deportation from the US made his case a cause célèbre in the Asian American...

, started a "Run Ed Run" campaign in June 2011 to encourage him to put his name on the ballot. By July 28, Lee stated that he had visited his daughters in Washington state and discussed with them the possibility of his standing for election, but had still not made up his mind. Senator Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein is the senior U.S. Senator from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Senate since 1992. She also served as 38th Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988....

, herself a former appointee mayor who had gone on to win re-election for two terms, publicly supported a Lee candidacy. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that unnamed city officials close to Lee stated to the media that Lee had "nearly finalized his decision" to run.

On August 7, 2011, Lee formally announced his decision to seek election. He stated that the atmosphere of political cooperation during his months in office had inspired him to run. A week later, the United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

's Office reportedly began gathering information about Progress For All, which had organized the "Run, Ed, Run" campaign; local political figures including Superior Court judge Quentin Kopp
Quentin L. Kopp
Quentin Lewis Kopp is an American politician and retired judge. He served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and in the California State Senate. Kopp ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of San Francisco in 1979 against Dianne Feinstein...

 and Democratic Party chair Aaron Peskin
Aaron Peskin
Aaron Peskin is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was first elected to the Board in 2000, and was re-elected in 2004. In January 2005, his colleagues elected him President of the Board.-Personal life:...

 had both requested investigations into Progress For All's conduct. It later emerged that on July 21, city Ethics Commission
San Francisco Ethics Commission
The San Francisco Ethics Commission is a public agency tasked with maintained city bylaws in San Francisco, California. The commission specifically files and audits campaign finance disclosure statements, handles campaign consultant registration and regulation...

 head John St. Croix requested that Lee file an officeholder and candidate campaign statement, listing "all committees of which you have knowledge that are primarily formed to receive contributions or to make expenditures on behalf of your candidacy". Lee listed the "Run, Ed, Run" campaign on that form at St. Croix's direction. Commentators suggested that this showed Lee's intent to run, more than two weeks in advance of his announcement of his candidacy, raising questions of ethics and campaign finance. However, according to St. Croix, the form must be filed by an incumbent office-holder in advance of an election, regardless of whether the office-holder intends to run. Tony Winnicker, Lee's campaign manager, stated that speculations of ethical issues were "just another desperate attempt to make something out of nothing by people who would rather attack Mayor Lee than talk about jobs and getting things done for San Francisco".

On October 7, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

revealed that Lee's campaign has accepted suspicious funds from Go Lorrie's Airport Shuttle two weeks after the airport reversed its policy of not assigning vans to designated areas. Lee's staff maintained that the mayor did not play a role in the airport's decision and the campaign has returned the money.

Special interests spent $89,000 to print 50,000 copies of The Ed Lee Story, a mini-bio of Lee's life. Some San Francisco residents question this allocation of campaign funds that could be used more effectively elsewhere. The distribution of this sort of campaign material is unusual in a non-digital medium, where it is easy for a voter to access a politician’s website to obtain information.

Lee's supporters were accused of fraud in using stencils, filling up ballots for people, and collecting voter's ballots.

Awards and honors

In April 2011, Mayor Lee was awarded the inaugural Coro Community Catalyst award for "his longtime commitment to bringing together varied special interests and agendas to address the greater needs of the community".

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK