Angela Alioto
Angela Alioto (born October 20, 1949) is an attorney, a politician, and a member of the Secular Franciscan order and Democratic Party. She is a member of one of the best known political families in San Francisco, and her family is generally associated with the liberal democratic side of the city's politics..
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[edit] Biography
Alioto was born in San Francisco, California. Her father was Joseph L. Alioto, the former mayor of San Francisco. She was the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and served for 8 years. Her son, Joseph Alioto Veronese serves as a San Francisco Police commissioner.
[edit] Education
Alioto received a B.A. degree in English, French literature and Italian Renaissance, in 1971, from Lone Mountain College, and a J.D., from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1983. She was admitted to the California State Bar in 1987.[1]
[edit] Political career
Alioto served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 1988 to 1997 and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of San Francisco in 1991, 1995 and 2003.
Since leaving the Board of Supervisors, Alioto opened her own law firm and specializes in Anti-Discrimination law. Alioto won the largest Civil Rights verdict in the history of the United States in 2001, against IBC/Wonderbread for 135 million dollars. San Francisco employment law office, and has won a number of cases against corporations — including Mary Kay Cosmetics. She also served as Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party.
In the November 2003 mayoral election, Alioto came in third behind candidates Gavin Newsom and Matt Gonzalez. During the run-off election between Newsom and Gonzalez, it was expected that she would endorse Gonzalez, especially since she had been such a vocal critic of Newsom's anti-homeless policies.[citation needed] Nonetheless, she eventually endorsed Newsom.[citation needed]
Angela Alioto married Adolfo Veronese on December 8, 1968. They have four children together - Angela Mia, Adolfo Virgilio, Joseph and Gian-Paolo. The eldest child, Angela Mia Veronese, graduated from University of California at Berkeley. Angela was married to Jason Lind in a beautiful medieval church in Ceri, Italy. Angela Mia & Jason have a daughter, Chiara Mia Veronese Lind, who was born October 26, 1999 and a son, Sebastiano Veronese Lind, who was born on July 11, 2003.
Alioto served as Board President from January 1993 to January 1995. As President, she served as Vice-Chair of the Board's Finance Committee. After Angela's term as Board President expired, she served as the Chair of two Board Committees: the Health, Public Safety and Environment Committee and the Select Committee on Municipal Public Power, the committee she created as President. On January 8, 1997, Angela left the Board of Supervisors due to term limits.
During her tenure on the Board, Alioto fought tobacco companies with several pieces of legislation, including the first anywhere anti-smoking ordinance in the United States. She also focused on protecting neighborhood health care, created a comprehensive homeless plan, increased funding for AIDS services, wrote the City's needle exchange legislation, cosponsored the minority business laws, crimes legislation, protected workers rights, assured environmental protection, helped small business, and furthered efforts to municipalize the City's electrical utility system. She also created the San Francisco Film Commission and the San Francisco Youth Commission.
Early in her career, Alioto helped produce a video designed to provide AIDS education for teenagers throughout the school system. The video depicts teenagers with AIDS, vividly bringing home the message of awareness to teenagers who are now one of the highest risk groups in the country.
Alioto served in 1985 as the Co-Chair of the State Democratic Party's Platform Committee. She served as First Vice-Chair of the California State Democratic Party from 1991–1993 and served as Second Vice-chair. She was selected as a super delegate to the 1992 National Convention, and was elected Co-Chair of the California Delegation. She also served as California Chair of the Jerry Brown for President Campaign in 1992.
Alioto has served as a member of the Golden Gate Bridge District and has served on the Outer-Continental Shelf Board of Control, as Vice-Chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and as Chair of the Transportation Authority's Finance Committee, as a member of the Association of Bay Area Governments, lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the San Francisco Mental Health Board.
Alioto is a lifetime member of the Dante Society of America, The Society for Professional Journalists, The Bar Association of San Francisco, and The American Trial Lawyers Association. She also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, and has supported such groups as the Equal Rights Advocates, Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club, Bay Area Young Positives, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Harvey Milk Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Democratic Club, San Francisco Tomorrow, and many other Democratic clubs and neighborhood groups.
Alioto has also continued her involvement in community issues. She served as legal counsel for a grass-roots based organization, "Citizens for Lower Utility Bills." CLUB was successful in placing a ballot initiative establishing a municipal utility district for San Francisco on the local November 2001 ballot. She has worked on this issue for over 13 years. In 2004 she was appointed Chairwoman of the San Francisco Ten Year Plan Implementation Council. The Council is dedicated to abolishing chronic Homelessness in San Francisco and has been recognized as a national model.
Alioto has also written a book about her experiences in San Francisco politics, entitled Straight from the Heart.
In 2005 she partnered with Cardinal William Levada to create the Porziuncola Nuova. The Porziuncola Nuova, an exact replica of the original little chapel that Saint Francis himself built in Assisi Italy, was opened on September 27, 2008. It is located at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Vallejo Streets in the heart of San Francisco's North Beach district. the "Creation of the Porziuncola" DVD has just won the Aurora award for the most informational DVD of the year 2009 and the new DVD part two is up for the same national award. The DVD can be purchased at the Francesco Rocks Gift Shop ot on line from www.knightsofsaintfrancis.com. Certain chapters of the DVD can be seen on YOUTUBE>COM....under the word Porziuncola or under Angela Alioto.
[edit] Bibliography
- San Francisco Chronicle's candidate profile of Angela Alioto for the 2003 mayoral race
- Angela Alioto at Notable Names Database
