Mayoral candidates on City College issues: Joanna Rees
Joanna Rees is a business oriented candidate. She’s currently on the Global Board at Endeavor (a global nonprofit that pioneered the concept of High-Impact Entrepreneurship in emerging markets), an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara University, a Board Member at New Schools Venture Fund, Board Member
By Valerie Demicheva The GuardsmanJoanna Rees is a business oriented candidate. She’s currently on the Global Board at Endeavor (a global nonprofit that pioneered the concept of High-Impact Entrepreneurship in emerging markets), an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara University, a Board Member at New Schools Venture Fund, Board Member at National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Throughout her career as a venture capitalist, she’s funded hundreds of millions of dollars for over 60 Bay Area companies. The Guardsman caught up with her at Bark in the Park, a neighborhood meet and greet in Lafayette Park. Rees and her dogs, Jack and Jill, mingle with local humans and canines.
Why did you decide to run for Mayor?
I had a great mentor, Ann Richards, who was the first elected female governor of Texas. She’s instilled an obligation in my life that one day I have to go into public service. She always said when you serve, not if you serve.
I turn 50 the week of the election. This is the phase of my life where I have an opportunity to give back to a city that’s just a great place, but we’re not living our greatness.
Where do you see San Francisco job growth going in the next 5 to 10 years?
The innovation economy, that’s where the job growth is going to be. I’d say for people going back to school, the most important thing is to learn how to problem solve. I think getting a great City College education in something that inspires the love of learning, that’s the most important thing.
In the recent budget passed by Mayor Lee, only $250,000 of the $2.1 million requested by City College was approved. What kind of monetary commitment will you make if elected mayor?
One of the things I’d look to expand is the bridge between City College and the local business community to make sure that there’s more direct hiring. I just think that the way we budget in San Francisco is absurd. When we have a budget deficit, we cut every department starting at the top, rather than doing what I call zero-based or bottom up budgeting where you go department by department and figure out what are the investments that absolutely have to stay to serve the community and what are some things that are no longer meeting their intended purpose and we shouldn’t continue to fund.
Out of a $6.8 billion budget, and granted we’re a city and a county, but we’re a city of 800,000 people. When I tell other mayors how much money we have, I learn our budget is double or triple per capita what other cities have. We have a lot of money, and yet people don’t feel the impact of that money. The fact that we have to put a bond on the ballot in November to repair the streets that’s going to cost the city over $400 million to pay that back after interest payments because we weren’t spending the $20 or $25 million a year on basic maintenance. We constantly rob Peter to pay Paul. And this is where I’ve lead with education as my number one issue.
People have said, “You can’t, that’s not the job of the mayor.” But this is about the future of our community. The mayor is in a unique position to bring together citywide resources that need to come together to impact education. So for me it’s a critical issue, and it’s going consistently to be the number one issue in my administration.
