ARTICLES

Fighting the Power

Supervisor Tony Hall Wants to Stand Out

By Joe Marti

In April, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to approve a measure that will allow city employees to claim up to $50,000 toward the cost of therapies and surgeries needed for a sex-change operation. Not only is San Francisco the only city in the nation providing the benefit, the measure passed with little resistance. The two who voted against the measure are Supervisor Leland Yee of District 4, who in private life works as a child psychologist and has also served as the chair of the psychology department at Oakland's Lincoln University. The other is a man better known until recently for his singing voice. Supervisor Tony Hall has long been the cantor at his home parish of Saint Brendan's and for a time pursued a professional singing career in a big band. While he is an Independent, the city's conservatives have come to look upon Hall as the only voice among the progressives on the board who otherwise have a grip on San Francisco's public arena.

As the debate for the sex-change operation wore on, Hall was prepared to lift things from the practical to the philosophical. But at its root he felt the issue could be debated aside from religious arguments. Hall said, "I felt it was an affront to equality for everybody, and that's why I took the position I did. [Supervisor Mark] Leno kept going on and on, but I didn't think it was fair to debate it on religious terms. I was trying to separate the politics from the issue. [Leno] almost pushed it to that point, and I was prepared to talk about 'What is the purpose of man? To serve himself, a narcissistic thing, or to help others?' It ended before we got to that point, but I was prepared to take it that far."

Born in Los Angeles, Hall attended Loyola High School and later graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics and public administration. His San Francisco roots brought him here in 1964 and he has been here ever since, working for the past thirty years in seven different departments for the city as he and his wife continue to raise their seven children. In the seventies he took about seven years off to pursue a professional singing career. Upon his return to the city payroll, he ran unsuccessfully in the 1978 supervisor's race.

"I became interested in politics when I came up here," says Hall from his city hall office. "I was working for the city and I was very interested in how it worked from the inside and soon came to realize that the mayor and the board of supervisors had an inordinate amount of power." He was present at a time in this city when the Catholic and spiritual roots that had long been the bedrock of San Francisco were being abandoned for, as Hall puts it, "this new-age liberalism."

Working for the city for so long has formed certain opinions in Hall about human nature, and the[sex-change benefit] vote has galvanized his position. He says, "We're not a sophisticated culture like we think we are. People here are swayed by the media, rumors, and innuendo. We're a young, immature, inexperienced culture. We're tremendously affluent, and tremendously powerful because of our affluence. But as far as having an in-depth understanding of human nature and tolerance, we're not even close."

In the race that elected Hall last fall, the realities of running a campaign shocked him. According to Hall, his opposition [former incumbent Mabel Teng] "manufactured one false charge after another," including a charge that he was a racist. "I soon began to realize that the only thing that beats these people is the truth itself," says Hall. "So every time I went out I would remind myself, and actually say a prayer, to tell the truth, tell the truth. There is no counter for the truth. [They] are so used to manipulating things that when they hear the stark truth they don't know how to manipulate it." Hall credits his victory to his truth-telling style and his commitment to the people. He says, "I found a lot of people backing me that I didn't expect to back me but they felt something right, that I was trying to do the right thing."

Since the election, his respect of this board has deteriorated. "[The board] is a little bit more political than I thought it would be," he says, "It's less sophisticated ... we have several people on the board that are just incapable of looking at this forty-nine square mile metropolis in its whole." When asked what his role on this board is or will become, he says, "I would have liked to be thought of as a guider and a facilitator. But I think politics is short-circuiting that and making me the conscience of the board. If I wind up as the watchdog on the board, then so be it." His criticism for this board is similar to his reasons for running for the job. His fear last year was that Mayor Willie Brown held the previous board in his pocket, and many candidates ran the election in order to restore the system of checks and balances between the board and the mayor. Now, according to Hall, the problem is not a pro-Willie Brown board, but a pro-Ammiano board. (Tom Ammiano is board president.) The problem that he sees with a "pro Ammiano board" has more to do with a lack of individuality. Says Hall, "I have little tolerance for spineless people. There are 11 people on that board of supervisors and about eight of us ran on the platform that 'we are here to represent the people'. And if they are afraid to cast the vote for the majority of the people in their district then I lose respect for them. In that respect, this board has degenerated into nothing more than a political board like the one we had before this one."

Hall won't admit to seeking higher office -- he says that all is interested in now is doing a good job for the next four years. Hall said, "There is not one issue that I haven't attacked or addressed without the people's point of view in mind. I said I would correct Lake Merced [Hall has worked on restoring Lake Merced's water level]; I'm doing that. That will be a reality within a month or two." According to Hall, this job is busy enough to keep thoughts of the future at bay. "The job is very much harder than I thought it would be, and it's extremely time-consuming. My pay has been cut by more than half, and my time commitment has doubled." Despite all this, Hall's outlook is positive and open to what the future may hold. "I've been asked over and over and over in the last couple of weeks if I'm going to run for mayor, am I going to run for this, run for that. If there is a need there in two and a half years, and I can fill the need, and enough people are willing to back me, I will go to the next step." As far as the future of the city goes, he says, "I think the future of San Francisco, regardless of the shenanigans of this administration and of this board is very rosy. People very shortly are going to be demanding that their politicians act like administrators, to act as people who care about them. They're really tired of the soft shoe and all the political talk. It's time for action." Adds Hall, "I'm looking forward to being part of that."

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