Gerardo Sandoval (birth date & birth place unknown) is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Sandoval, a Democrat, represents the 11th district of San Francisco, which encompasses the Excelsior neighborhood. In 2005, he ran for San Francisco Assesor, but lost to Phil Ting. Sandoval was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in December 2000, and was re-elected in November 2004, he is currently a Vice Chair of the Land Use Committee. In March of 2000 he was elected to the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee. He is a practicing attorney.
Education
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 law degree from Columbia University.
Work experience
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.
Family
Sandoval's mother was a garment worker and homemaker. His father was a gardner and union organizer. Except for his oldest brother, who is developmentally disabled, all of Gerardo's siblings graduated from college. Gerardo is the first in his family to receive an advanced degree.
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 Ms. Amy Harrington, and they have two daughters, Natalie Irene Sandoval and Julia Elyse Sandoval.
Legislative accomplishments
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 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
Anti-semitic remarks
Shortly after his election, Sandoval spoke out against a $80M 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. The statements were criticized as anti-semetic. [2]
Anti-military votes
On February 14, 2005, while defending his vote to reject a plan to bring the historic World War II Iowa battleship to San Francisco to serve as a museam, Sandoval made the case on the show Hannity and Colmes on Fox News that the United States should not have a military. [3] [4]
Attacks on free speech
Mr. Sandoval introduced a resolution "condemning the defamatory language used by talk radio host Michael Savage" after Dr. Savage criticized illegal alien protestors who were fasting in support of the now defunct DREAM_Act, a congressional bill which would have granted illegal aliens a path to US citizenship as well enable them to receive tax payer funded in-state college tuition. [5][6][7] 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. While the resolution itself was non-binding, Sandoval's resolution has been criticized as attacking the free speech rights since he used his government position and resources to censure a politically incorrect opinion which he deemed to be offensive.