Bringing Sunshine to San Francisco
On January 11th, the Rules Committee will hear from applicants to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force. Due to a personal appointment, I cannot attend the meeting. With transparency in mind, I wanted to share my statement of intent with San Franciscans.
Thank you to Ixchel Acosta, Andrew Broderick, Donna Hilliard, Joe Ramirez-Forcier, and Jeremy Strickland for supporting my application. I am humbled to have received the support of so many community leaders.
Dear Chair Ronen and members of the Rules Committee,
I am humbled to have individuals ranging from Donna Hillard, Executive Director of Code Tenderloin, to Andrew Broderick, of the SF Tech Council supporting my application to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force. As conveyed by the letters sent in by these leaders and others, I am confident that my background will allow me to contribute to the important mission of the Task Force. As a graduate student that has suffered with mental illness, I am also confident that I will bring a diverse perspective that is needed on the Task Force.
Before discussing my qualifications, I want to share the origin of my personal interest in this position. My first job — as the Executive Assistant to Governor Kate Brown of Oregon — exposed me to the importance of transparency, accountability, and meaningful public participation. Governor Brown assumed her current office, in part, because those aforementioned traits were absent during the creation of Cover Oregon, the state’s response to the Affordable Care Act. Consequently, I was on the frontlines of restoring the faith of Oregonians in their government.
This required thinking about all the ways in which we could connect with community members. In my capacity, it meant assisting with the Governor’s social media and updating her website to be more Oregonian-friendly. Those efforts required working closely with the Governor’s legal counsel to understand what was permissible to share. Oftentimes, I found myself pushing back, trying to make sure that my friends and family members knew that their elected officials were working hard on their behalf and how to push back when they questioned if those officials were misguided.
My own tangles with public records laws inspired my efforts to bridge the gap between community awareness and government action. I have channeled those efforts in manifold ways since arriving in San Francisco more than three years ago. First and foremost, I have done my part to inform the public of local government action and ways they can get involved. In more than thirty articles in local newspapers, I have brought San Franciscans closer to their government.
Additionally, I have studied these issues through my graduate education in law at UC Berkeley, where I have studied constitutional law and privacy law, courses that pertain directly to the obligations of the Task Force. I have also professionally dealt with transparency related laws in my capacity as a Legal Assistant on Google’s Legal Investigations Support team.
My desire to keep San Franciscans informed has also manifested itself through two projects of mine: first, Neighborhood News Network (which will be creating new episodes in 2021), and, second, No One Left Offline (NOLO). NOLO got started during the pandemic with one goal: make sure San Franciscans had the Internet required to thrive. Since that time, NOLO has helped distribute more than 100 hotspots, each with a year of Internet. These devices are now essential to residents staying up to date on what their government is up to. I am thankful for the opportunity to make sure San Franciscans have that chance and hope to further that work as a member on the Task Force.
I cannot speak for all Millennials, but I know that many of my friends and fellow students have come to expect transparency. They rely on entities like the Task Force to make sure that expectation is being met. If fortunate enough to join this Task Force, I will work tirelessly to make sure that the Sunshine Ordinance is enforced, that the Task Force has the institutional resources and support it requires, and that agencies with numerous violations are held accountable. Young people in this city, as well as all residents, deserve as much, especially when there is so much on the line.
I appreciate your review of my application and supplemental materials. Please feel free to direct any additional questions to me.
To a better San Francisco,
Kevin Frazier
