Gerardo Sandoval

Last updated
Gerardo Compos Sandoval
Member of the
San Francisco Superior Court
Assumed office
December 1, 2008
Personal details
Born1962 (age 60–61)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Children
  • Natalie
  • Julia
Residence(s) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Columbia Law School
Occupation Judge, politician
Profession Attorney

Gerardo Compos Sandoval (born 1962) is a judge of the Superior Court of California in and for the County of San Francisco. He was formerly a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. A practicing attorney, he defeated Superior Court judge Thomas J. Mellon, Jr. in a runoff election held in November 2008 after coming in first, but not obtaining a majority of votes cast in the June 2008 primary election. Sandoval, a Democrat, represented the 11th district of San Francisco, which encompasses the Excelsior neighborhood. In 2005, he ran for San Francisco County assessor, but lost to appointed incumbent Phil Ting. Sandoval was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in December 2000, and was re-elected in November 2004. In March 2000 he was elected to the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee.

Contents

Early life

Sandoval's mother was a garment worker and homemaker. His father was a gardener and union organizer. Except for his oldest brother, who is developmentally disabled, all of Gerardo's siblings graduated from college.[ citation needed ]

He was in the first Head Start class in 1966 and considers himself a product of Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society". He is fully bilingual in Spanish and has traveled extensively in Latin America, Asia and Europe. Sandoval is married to the former Amy Harrington, and they have two daughters.[ citation needed ]

Sandoval attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles before graduating from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987. In 1989 he received his Master's degree in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley, with a specialization in real estate and housing development. He wrote his master's thesis on using tax credits to build affordable housing. Sandoval received his Juris Doctor from Columbia University Law School. Sandoval is the first in his family to receive an advanced degree.[ citation needed ]

Career

Sandoval worked as an assistant to San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos from 1990 to 1992, where he was responsible for budget and finance issues. He worked as a trial attorney and Deputy Public Defender in the San Francisco Public Defender's Office for five years. He was formerly an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, the largest law firm in the United States. Sandoval also completed a three-year term on San Francisco's Public Transportation Commission, an agency with over $350 million in expenditures and 3500 employees.[ citation needed ]

As Supervisor, Sandoval passed a consular identification ordinance in San Francisco. The ordinance requires that City employees (including police officers, airport workers, and health care workers) accept as identification the ID cards issued by foreign consulates if the cards have sufficient safeguards against fraudulent duplication and are accepted by the foreign government for entry into their national territory. This landmark legislation has been duplicated in many major US cities including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Most major US banks also accept the identification cards. The cards are used by individuals traveling temporarily in the US such as Mexican truck drivers who are allowed under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to enter the US. The cards also allow individuals to open bank accounts and otherwise access commonly available financial services. The ordinance has been criticized by opponents as allowing undocumented workers to more easily live in the US. Supporters of the ordinance have argued that such legislation by local governments is necessary to fill the vacuum in policy left due to inaction from federal and state governments. [1]

Controversy and activism

Anti-Semitic remarks

Shortly after his election, Sandoval made statements that were criticized as anti-Semitic, and Sandoval apologized at a press conference, saying "It was an unfortunate example and I apologize for it... I want to thank everyone for bringing this to my attention. As a Latino, a Mexican-American, I am sensitive to discrimination." [2] The criticized statements were made when Sandoval spoke out against an $80 million legal settlement that the City of San Francisco was paying to its biggest corporations. At a community meeting, Sandoval stated that the issue was not a legal one but a political one. Sandoval articulated an argument that San Franciscans should leave no stone unturned in trying to fight back, stating people should protest at "corporate headquarters, at the homes of CEOs, and their birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs or wherever" as the lawsuit would take money away from underserved segments of the population.

Statements on U.S. military

In an interview on Hannity & Colmes, San Francisco Supervisor Sandoval said that "I don't think we should have a military." [3] He then claimed that local police and firefighters should be responsible for national defense. Sandoval also stated in the same interview, "we should invest our money in our kids." This video can be found on YouTube. [4] [5]

In a February 20 op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle , he defended his remarks by stating that his own views are in line with a municipal resident current which runs against further military involvement in city life. [6]

Response to criticism of immigrants

Sandoval introduced a resolution "condemning the defamatory language used by talk radio host Michael Savage" after Savage criticized undocumented immigrant protesters who were fasting in support of the controversial DREAM Act, which would give qualifying undocumented immigrants a path to US citizenship as well as enable them to receive tax payer funded in-state college tuition. [7] [8] [9] While the original 9-1 vote on August 14, 2007 failed to receive the required unanimous vote, the Board’s second attempt on October 2, 2007 passed after the one dissenting supervisor had been suspended from the Board by the Mayor. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Gonzalez</span> American politician

Matthew Edward Gonzalez is an American politician, lawyer, and activist. He served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2001 to 2005 and was president of the Board. In 2003, Gonzalez, running as a member of the Green Party, lost a race for mayor of San Francisco to Democrat Gavin Newsom. In the 2008 presidential election, Gonzalez ran for vice president as the running mate of candidate Ralph Nader. As of 2020, he works as the Chief Attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Daly</span> American politician

Christopher Edward Daly is a former San Francisco Board of Supervisors member He represented District 6, serving from 2001 to 2011. He now lives in Fairfield, California, but commutes to Las Vegas, Nevada and Carson City, Nevada, where he works for the Nevada State Education Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matrícula Consular</span>

The Matrícula Consular de Alta Seguridad (MCAS) is an identification card issued by the Government of Mexico through its consulate offices to Mexican nationals residing outside of Mexico. Also known as the Mexican CID card, it has been issued since 1871. The issue of the card has no bearing on immigration status in the foreign country they are residing in. The purpose of the card is to demonstrate that the bearer is a Mexican national living outside of Mexico. It includes a Government of Mexico issued ID number and bears a photograph and address outside of Mexico of the Mexican National to whom it is issued.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresa Sparks</span>

Theresa Sparks is an American transgender woman, and is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and was a candidate for San Francisco Supervisor for District 6 in the November 2010 election. She is a former president of the San Francisco Police Commission and former CEO of Good Vibrations. She is also one of San Francisco's most famous transgender women and was a Grand Marshal in the 2008 San Francisco Pride Parade.

The San Francisco Board of Education is the school board for the City and County of San Francisco. It is composed of seven Commissioners, elected by voters across the city to serve 4-year terms. It is subject to local, state, and federal laws, and determines policy for all the K-12 public schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Mark Sanchez is an American politician in San Francisco, California. He was on the San Francisco Board of Education from 2001 to 2009, and served as president of the board from 2007 to 2009. Sanchez lost a 2008 election for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in District 9. He was again elected to the San Francisco Board of Education in 2016. He was elected President of the Board in 2020, having been vice president since 2018.

Healthy San Francisco is a health access program launched in 2007 to subsidize medical care for uninsured residents of San Francisco, California. The program's stated objective is to bring universal health care to the city. Healthy San Francisco is not a true insurance program, as it does not cover services such as dental and vision care, and only covers services received in the city and county of San Francisco. The program itself acknowledges its limitations, and has stated that "insurance is always a better choice." Healthy San Francisco represents the first time a local government has attempted to provide health insurance for all of its constituents. The program is open to low-income city residents over the age of 18 who do not qualify for other public coverage, and who have had no insurance for at least 90 days. Eligibility is not conditional on citizenship, immigration, employment or health status. The program covers a range of services, but only pays providers within San Francisco. By July 2010, almost 90% of the uninsured adults in San Francisco — over 50,000 people — had enrolled in Healthy San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mayoralty of Gavin Newsom</span>

The mayoralty of Gavin Newsom began when Democrat Gavin Newsom was elected Mayor of San Francisco in 2003, succeeding Willie Brown. Newsom, who was 36 when he took office, became San Francisco's youngest mayor in over a century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Avalos</span> American politician

John Avalos is an American politician. He served two terms as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2008 to 2016. Avalos represented District 11 in San Francisco, consisting of the Crocker-Amazon, Excelsior, Ingleside, Oceanview, and Outer Mission districts. Avalos was elected on November 4, 2008 in the 2008 San Francisco election and took office on January 8, 2009. He was re-elected in the 2012 San Francisco election with 94 percent of the vote, and termed out of office in January 2017.

In the United States, a cityidentification card is a form of identification card issued by a municipality, such as a city, rather than a state or federal government. Under federal law, cities may issue their own identification cards as they see fit, and do not have to consider the immigration or criminal status of an applicant before doing so. New Haven, Connecticut, issued the first municipal identification cards in the United States, the Elm City Resident Card, in 2007. On January 15, 2009, the city/county of San Francisco launched the SF City ID Card, a municipal identification card program modeled after New Haven's. Other cities that issue identification cards include Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.. In Mercer County, New Jersey, a community ID card is being issued by a local non-profit organization with the endorsement of various law enforcement agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">November 2005 San Francisco general election</span>

The November 2005 San Francisco general elections were held on November 8, 2005, in San Francisco, California. The elections included eight California ballot propositions as part of a special election, those for San Francisco assessor-recorder, city attorney, and treasurer, and nine San Francisco ballot measures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malia Cohen</span> American politician (born 1977)

Malia M. Cohen is an American politician serving as the 33rd Controller of California since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Cohen previously served as Chair of the California State Board of Equalization from the 2nd district from 2019 to 2023 and as President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from District 10 from 2011 to 2019.

The SF City ID Card is a municipal identification card program operated by San Francisco, California for residents of the city-county, regardless of their immigration status. The cards also do not specify the person's gender, to assist transgender individuals who often have difficulty with identification documents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street Artists Program of San Francisco</span> Municipal arts program

The Street Artists Program of San Francisco is a municipal arts program in which independent street artists and craftspeople sell their art and craft items in designated public spaces in the city of San Francisco, California. The artists are licensed by the San Francisco Arts Commission and are only allowed to sell work that has been "predominantly created or significantly altered in form" by the street artist. The Arts Commission currently licenses approximately 400 street artists, whose licensing fees cover all program costs. The program generates an estimated $4 million annually for the city's economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Peskin</span> American politician

Aaron Dan Peskin is an American elected official in San Francisco, California. He is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 3. He was elected in 2015, having previously served two terms in 2001–2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Chiu (politician)</span> American politician

David Sen-Fu Chiu is an American politician currently serving as the City Attorney of San Francisco. Previously, he served in the California State Assembly as a Democrat representing the 17th Assembly District, which encompasses the eastern half of San Francisco. Chiu was the Chair of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, a position he held from 2016 to 2021, and the former chair of the California Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Mirkarimi</span> American politician and sheriff

Rostam Mirkarimi is an American politician and the former sheriff of San Francisco. Prior to being sheriff, he served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he represented District 5.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Mandelman</span> American attorney and politician

Rafael Mandelman is an American attorney and politician currently serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing District 8.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Haney</span> American politician

Matthew Craig Haney is an American politician from San Francisco currently serving as a member of the California State Assembly from the 17th district, covering the eastern portion of the city. A progressive member of the Democratic Party, Haney had represented District 6 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2019 to 2022 and previously served as a commissioner on the San Francisco Board of Education from 2013 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Preston</span> American politician

Dean E. Preston is an American attorney and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He founded Tenants Together, a California tenant advocacy organization. In November 2019, Preston won a special election to finish Mayor London Breed's term on the Board of Supervisors. He was re-elected in the November 2020 election.

References

  1. ↑ Hundreds line up to get consular ID cards San Francisco Chronicle.
  2. ↑ Eskenazi, Joe (May 4, 2001) "S.F. Supe apologizes for off-the-cuff 'bar mitzvah' remark." Jewish News Weekly.
  3. ↑ (February 15, 2006) "Battleship Brouhaha" FOXNews.com.
  4. ↑ (January 04, 2009) "People who think the United States Military should be abolished". YouTube
  5. ↑ (August 13, 2007) "Leftist San Francisco Supervisor Talks Military". YouTube.
  6. ↑ Gerardo Sandoval (February 20, 2006). "What I really wanted to say". San Francisco Chronicle.
  7. ↑ "Jew sinks Sandoval resolution condemning Savage hate speech".
  8. ↑ Rob Roth, KTVU Archived 2007-08-17 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ "Board of Supervisors: Resolution". Archived from the original on 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  10. ↑ Vega, Cecilia M. (December 18, 2010). "Mayor suspends Ed Jew from board, opening doors to political fight". The San Francisco Chronicle.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.