Gay transit advocate Mike Chen is closer to being seated on the oversight body for San Francisco's transportation agency after a supervisors committee voted Monday to recommend that he be confirmed. The full Board of Supervisors is set to take up the matter at its September 24 meeting.
Chen's appointment to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors has been pending since May. Mayor London Breed had nominated Chen to succeed Lydia So, whom she had named to fill a vacancy on the city's planning commission. Chen would ensure the transit body has both LGBTQ and Chinese representation on it if confirmed to fill out So's term through March 1.
Its last out commissioner, gay Mission cafe and event space owner Manny Yekutiel, resigned in the fall. The mayor appoints the seven members of the SFMTA board, while the supervisors have confirmation power over her nominees.
The supervisors' Rules Committee delayed voting on it in late July in order for Chen to meet with Chinatown leaders and others. Board President Aaron Peskin, who represents the historic neighborhood as the District 3 supervisor, had requested the postponement due to "radio silence" from Chinatown transit advocates on Chen's appointment.
Peskin is one of the three members of the Rules Committee along with District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, the rules chair, and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí its vice chair. (Peskin and Safaí are both running against Breed in this year's mayoral race.)
With Walton absent from the committee's September 16 meeting, Safaí served as acting chair. He and Peskin both voted in support of seeing Chen become an SFMTA board member.
Safaí told Chen he believes he "will do the job to the utmost of your ability, so I am happy to support your nomination today."
Peskin thanked Chen for meeting with Chinatown leaders, whom he said had recommended afterward that he approve his nomination, "and I am ready to do that today."
Chen had told the B.A.R. he had spent the last several weeks meeting with various Chinatown representatives, from residents and transit advocates to business owners and nonprofit leaders. At the hearing, he noted he had "been very busy" during August reaching out to various groups in the neighborhood.
"I have committed to the groups to provide consultation," Chen said on the myriad transit issues of concern to them.
Safaí requested of Chen that he also confer with the Transport Workers Union Local 250A, which represents Muni operators.
"Not many commissioners interface with them or talk with them, so I encourage you to reach out to them," he said.
Chen also had strong support from groups concerned about street safety issues, such as Kid Safe SF, Streets For People and Streetsblog SF, which has published editorials written by Chen. Walk San Francisco also has called for Chen's confirmation.
"We believe Mike Chen will be a leader that prioritizes the City's Vision Zero policy and efforts, and focused especially on vulnerable populations like seniors, children, and people with disabilities. He has a strong dedication to reliable and comfortable public transportation, which we believe is absolutely necessary to end severe and fatal traffic crashes," wrote Jodie Medeiros, the organization's executive director, in a September 12 letter to the Rules Committee.
Chen, 33, is a data engineer at Coda Project Inc. He and his boyfriend live in a one-car household in Lower Pacific Heights along the Van Ness corridor.
A member of the SFMTA Citizens' Advisory Council since January 2020, Chen highlighted his role as a transit advocate during his successful campaign for a seat on the Democratic County Central Committee on the March 5 primary ballot. He then was elevated to the role of director of internal operations for the governing body of the San Francisco Democratic Party.
The DCCC members voted to support Chen's SFMTA board nomination at their July 24 meeting. It passed with 21 members in support, three against and eight abstaining.
He needs at least six votes from the 11 supervisors to be confirmed. If seated, Chen will need to be reappointed next year to a full four-year term as an SFMTA commissioner and again go before the board for a confirmation vote.
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