On Monday, Daniel Lurie made his first public move since his victory speech: The mayor-elect announced his transition team of seven co-chairs and three advisors.
To drop a few of names on the list: OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman; former longtime controller Ben Rosenfield; and San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung. The team will provide counsel to Lurie during his transition to succeed the outgoing mayor, London Breed.
Specifically, the transition team will help Lurie, whose campaign byword was “accountability,” create actionable 100-day plans with accountability metrics, assemble his administration, build relationships with city agencies, and develop relationships with key partners.
“I’m excited to introduce this talented and diverse team who will help guide our transition and lay the groundwork for the change San Franciscans demand,” Lurie said in a statement. “Every one of these incredible leaders brings a track record of shaking up the status quo to deliver results.”
Lurie will have three advisors:
- Sara Fenske Bahat, transition director
- Bahat managed the post-Sept. 11, 2001, recovery at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. There, Bahat worked from the perspective of New York’s relationship to the financial services sector. On Lurie’s campaign trail, Lurie said he counted Michael Bloomberg, New York City’s mayor from 2002 to 2013, as a model mayor. Lurie says he wants to revive San Francisco like Bloomberg rebuilt Manhattan after 9/11.
- Ann O’Leary, transition counsel
- On the state level, O’Leary led Governor-elect Gavin Newsom’s transition and served as Newsom’s first chief of staff. O’Leary led Newsom’s office through the state’s worst wildfires and the Covid-19 pandemic.
- On the federal level, O’Leary served as the senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. O’Leary was also the legislative director for then-Sen. Hillary Clinton and policy advisor with the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Bill Clinton.
- Ben Rosenfield, senior advisor
- Rosenfield, San Francisco’s “adult in the room,” stepped down as city controller only this February at the age of 50 after working at City Hall for nearly 27 years. During his time in city government, Rosenfield served as the mayor’s budget director for five years, and as the city controller for 16 years.
Lurie will have seven transition co-chairs, whose roles were not specified:
- Sam Altman, cofounder and CEO of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence firm best known for ChatGPT
- Altman is also the chairman of Helion, a fusion research company, and Oklo, a nuclear technology company. Altman was previously the president of Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019, a tech venture capital firm. In an interview, Lurie said he would work with Altman to bring AI into city government.
- Joanne Hayes-White, fire Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department from 2004 to 2019
- Hayes-White retired as the longest-serving chief in the department’s history and was then appointed to the State Board of Pilot Commission by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019, a body that licenses, trains, and regulates up to maritime pilots.
- During the Covid-19 pandemic, she served under the city’s Department of Emergency Management and recently worked as the Northern California Director for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein until Feinstein’s passing.
- José A. Quiñonez, CEO of Mission Asset Fund, a nonprofit based in the Mission District
- Mission Asset Fund offers low-income families financial assistance including giving out loans to immigrants for their application fees, helping clients to build up their credit scores, and giving out loans to local small businesses.
- The nonprofit receives support from the Levi Strauss foundation, the corporate philanthropic arm of Levi Strauss & Co., to which Lurie is an heir.
- Ned Segal, co-chair of Lurie’s mayoral campaign
- Segal was most recently the chief financial officer of Twitter. He also serves on the board of Tipping Point Community, the nonprofit grantmaking organization that was founded by Lurie. Segal sits on the executive committee and leads the nonprofit’s fundraising of nearly $50 million every year.
- Michael Tubbs, former Stockton mayor
- Tubbs was elected to the city council in Stockton at the age of 21 in 2013 and served as a council member until 2017. Tubbs then became the mayor of Stockton in 2017 at the age of 26 and served until 2021, when he was defeated in his reelection bid.
- Nancy Tung, San Francisco prosecutor
- Tung was elected as the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party in April 2024, after winning a second term as a member of the county Democratic party. Tung has also been a prosecutor for 24 years and works in the San Francisco district attorney’s office.
- Paul Yep, retired commander of the San Francisco Police Department
- Yep served as the commanding officer of the Richmond Station, Central Station, the Staff Services Division, and Northern Police Station. Yep endorsed Lurie for his mayoral bid in February 2024.
Tech ! Tech! AI !
Not a good sign, bringing in that dead-eyed psychopath Altman.
Voters wanted some sort of “outsider,” but every one of Lurie’s picks are status-quo keepers, save Altman, who won’t consider it his fault if his pet robots destroy society.
I think he’ll attract investment and business to SF (whether that business is an existential threat to humanity’s continued ruination of the planet remains to be seen) facing a massive deficit cycle that threatens to become a deficit bomb cyclone in the near term. In SF terms it’s a dotcom bubble all over again though he’s probably a decent blower of the heirs, the pair no doubt better yet. Surplus budget here we come, at least until BTC crashes.
SF voters think they’re smarter than the flyover rabble they despise, but they’re every bit as cognitively captured and emotionally manipulated. Peskin was the only non-status quo candidate, but he’s a dirty unwashed hippy who’ll impound everyone’s smartphone and outlaw boba, dontcha know.
Boba should be outlawed, instahoes need a real job.
Mayor Lurie, I strongly supported your candidacy for Mayor, and strongly support your ascension to Room 200. So far I agree with most of these choices. Especially Mike Tubbs and Sara Bahat. Both are excellent individuals!
But Sam Altman… ditch him! I know you did this because OpenAI has a large business footprint in the city, and you’re thinking about the best ways to draw in more city tax revenue. But this guy is the worst! Please reconsider giving that guy any power.
Altman, tech impresario. A rather Machiavellian pick in the sense that the City needs big money flowing back into town, a bit like it’s 2018. To be sure, it’s a pretty desperate look, but beggars can’t be choosers I guess.
Daniel,
The most qualified person in the City to have by your side is Aaron Peskin by far.
He’d do the Chief of Staff Job gratis for the first year to comply with Charter mandate and you put him together with Greg Wagner and an Inspector General the caliber and independence of a Harvey Rose operating a set of algorithms designed by Ilya Sutskever and we’d see an end to the scams and scandals of previous administrations.
I love your picks of Rosenfield and Tubbs cause they’ve been in the trenches.
Tubbs implemented the first UBI in the country as Stockton Mayor and cut the crime rate in half before he was 30.
Again, Peskin for Volunteer Chief of Staff.
He knows more about this Town than Chat Gpt.
lol
Go Niners !!
h.
I guess Altman is looking for a hedge of some kind? Guess he doesn’t buy his own schtick, or he wouldn’t bother with small potatoes like this?
Hail to thee, AI freaks!
Gross
Is it too early for a recall?
Usually you save recalls for habitual liars. ^-^