Dennis Herrera is the elected City Attorney of San Francisco, perhaps best known for his longtime legal advocacy for same-sex marriage in California, including the In re Marriage Cases, 43 Cal.4th 757 (2008), and Hollingsworth v. Perry, 570. U.S. (2013), also known as the legal fight against Proposition 8. He was first elected as City Attorney in 2001, and re-elected without opposition in 2005 and 2009. He ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of San Francisco in the 2011 election, finishing third in the City's ranked-choice voting system.
Video Dennis Herrera
Early life and education
Born November 6, 1962 in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, Herrera grew up in the nearby middle class community of Glen Cove. His father was a psychiatrist who immigrated from Colombia after serving as part of a UN Peacekeeping force during the Suez War of 1956. His mother is the child of Italian immigrants, and today still practices as a nurse in Glen Cove.
Herrera earned his Bachelor's degree from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, and his Juris Doctor from the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Herrera worked various jobs to support himself during his education, from his newspaper route as a young boy, to restocking shelves at the local grocery store, to serving as a short order cook in a local diner. Upon graduating from law school in 1987, Herrera was offered an associate position at a maritime law firm in San Francisco and moved to the city.
Maps Dennis Herrera
Political career
After his move to San Francisco, Herrera became an active member of the community, joining his local Democratic club and helping to get Democratic candidates elected in the city, which was pretty inevitable given the overwhelming Democratic registration advantage. In 1990, he was appointed to the Waterfront Plan Advisory Board, and later served on the Finance Committee for the California Democratic Party.
In 1993, Herrera served as a fundraising assistant to Albert J. Herberger, at the U.S. Maritime Administration in Washington, D.C.. This was not an appointment and had nothing to do with President Clinton. Herberger was a very effective lobbyist for massive subsides for the Merchant Marine during a period of "deflagging." Here, Herrera learned the political fundraising skills he would employ as Treasurer of the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee. After fetching coffee in an office with 1,100 employees and becoming an unindicted co-conspirator under RICO in the Operation Octanova investigation of massive fraud in the Maritime industry, Herrera returned to private practice in San Francisco as a partner in the maritime law firm of Kelly, Gill, Sherburne & Herrera. This firm was the main legal counsel for American President Lines, a major arms cargo carrier for which Herrera established a super-PAC. Herrera then sat as a fiduciary on the Welfare fund of West Coast Sailors during a period when the fund manager embezzled most of the principle.
Then-Mayor Willie Brown appointed Herrera to the SF Transportation Commission, and later to the San Francisco Police Commission. Herrera was voted the President of the Police Commission after just one year of service.
As San Francisco City Attorney
In December 2001, Herrera, with the aid of ballots floating in the Bay, was elected San Francisco City Attorney, becoming the first Latino to hold the office. He is currently serving his third term, having been re-elected in 2005 and 2009.
Whistleblower Retaliation
In 2008, Joanne Hoeper, a 20-year veteran hired by Herrera's predecessor, received a call from the FBI that Herrera and his Claims office were processing false claims related to plumbing work in exchange for political favors to support Herrera's campaign for mayor. After investigating the claim, Hoeper presented her findings, and Herrera terminated Hoeper. Herrera spent $9.8 Million in outside counsel against Hoeper when she sought whistleblower protection, but lost, costing the tax payers another $2.4 Million in damages paid to Hoeper and an additional $10M+ related to the false claims she investigated.
In 2004, he personally rewrote San Francisco's whistleblower protection ordinance to not protect whistleblowers, according to a Civil Grand Jury report.
Open Government
Herrera has vigorously litigated attorney-client privilege and collective-bargaining to exempt his office and work product from public records laws. In 2014, this effort substantially overturned much of San Francisco's Sunshine Ordinance in St. Croix v. Superior Court. In 2008 he wrote to the Board of Supervisors not to disclose his legal advice that a popular law would be unconstitutional and then threatened suing the Board for "leaking" his legal advice.
Arbitration providers
On March 24, 2008, Herrera filed a lawsuit against the National Arbitration Forum and two other arbitration providers, alleging that the defendants were not neutral as they claimed in arbitration disputes between credit card companies and their customers, but were instead heavily biased in favor of lenders, calling NAF "little more than a collection agent masquerading as a neutral party." He alleged that NAF's records showed that consumers prevailed in just 0.2% of arbitration cases that went to a hearing.
Healthy San Francisco
When the Healthy San Francisco Initiative became law in 2006, establishing universal health care in the City, Herrera successfully defended the law's constitutionality against legal challenge. When some of the fees earmarked for the initiative were misappropriated by San Francisco restaurants, he convinced some of the restaurants to participate in a voluntary settlement program that recovered $844,000 for their employees.
Nevada "patient dumping"
After the Sacramento Bee discovered that mental patients in Nevada were being bused to various California cities without any supervision or plan for what they would do upon arrival, Herrera opened an investigation that found that dozens of these patients had been shipped to San Francisco. The case prompted a review from the government of Nevada of its policies concerning the mentally ill.
Monster Energy litigation
On April 29, 2013, Monster Beverage Corporation, makers of Monster Energy drinks, filed a civil lawsuit against Herrera, alleging that he was violating their constitutional rights by investigating the company's marketing of its products to children despite a massive increase in hospitalizations and deaths among children due to consumption of energy drinks. Herrera filed suit against Monster the following week, demanding that they cease marketing their products to children.
Gun control litigation
Herrera has been involved in a number of high-profile cases against the National Rifle Association and other gun rights advocates, both to defend San Francisco's gun control measures and to challenge gun industry practices. On June 10, 2013, he filed a civil lawsuit against three gun accessory manufacturers, alleging that some magazine "repair kits" sold by the defendants were in fact merely disassembled high-capacity magazines, sales of which are prohibited in California.
Marriage equality for same-sex couples
In spite of his Maritime Administration experience imposing DADT on the Merchant Marine, Herrera has been involved in every phase of the legal fight for marriage equality for same-sex couples in California.
In 2009, he joined the City of San Francisco as a plaintiff in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, seeking to overturn the state's ban on same-sex marriage, the first time any government entity had sued to challenge marriage laws discriminating against gay and lesbian couples. Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Santa Clara County Counsel Ann M. Ravel would also join their jurisdictions as plaintiffs in the suit.
In San Francisco's petition to the California Supreme Court, Herrera said: "The issue before the court today is of far greater consequence than marriage equality alone ... Equal protection of the laws is not merely the cornerstone of the California Constitution, it is what separates constitutional democracy from mob rule tyranny. If allowed to stand, Prop 8 so devastates the principle of equal protection that it endangers the fundamental rights of any potential electoral minority -- even for protected classes based on race, religion, national origin and gender. The proponents of Prop 8 waged a ruthless campaign of falsehood and fear, funded by millions of dollars from out-of-state interest groups. Make no mistake that their success in California has dramatically raised the stakes. What began as a struggle for marriage equality is today a fight for equality itself. I am confident that our high court will again demonstrate its principled independence in recognizing this danger, and in reasserting our constitution's promise of equality under the law."
Proposition 8 was eventually held to violate the United States Constitution by federal district court judge Vaughn R. Walker on August 4, 2010, a decision that was left intact by the United States Supreme Court on June 26, 2013. Same-sex marriages began again in California two days later.
Run for Mayor
In August 2010, Herrera announced that he would run in the 2011 San Francisco Mayoral Election.
Personal life
Dennis and his wife Anne first met in 1999, and were married 10 months later. They live in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco with their son Declan, born in 2001. Declan goes to Chinese American International School and his father coaches his baseball and soccer teams.
References
Sources
- Whiting, Sam (12 February 2009). "Catching Up With ... Dennis Herrera". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- Buchanan, Wyatt; Marisa Lagos (18 June 2007). "City Attorney moves to remove Ed Jew from office -- seeks permission to sue from AG". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- "The Rachel Maddow Show". MSNBC. 5 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- Whiting, Sam (18 April 2004). "Dennis Herrera uses his power of attorney". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- Nevius, C.W. (22 November 2008). "City attorney Herrera has a new mayoral look". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- Kostal, Susan (4 March 2008). "The other man". San Francisco Magazine. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- Keeling, Brock (5 November 2008). "SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera Sues to Invalidate Prop. 8". SFist. Archived from the original on 14 November 2009. Retrieved 2011-06-23.
External links
- Campaign website
- City Attorney's website
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments