Chris Daly

Christopher Edward Daly (born August 13, 1972) is a former San Francisco Board of Supervisors member He represented District 6, serving from 2001 to 2011.

He now lives in Fairfield, California, but commutes to Las Vegas, Nevada and Carson City, Nevada, where he works for the Nevada State Education Association.

Daly grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland and went to Laytonsville Elementary School and Gaithersburg Middle and High Schools; his father was a federal employee and consultant, and his mother was an accountant.

Daly was valedictorian of his high school class and was drawn to service as a teenager through the 4-H club.

He attended Duke University, where he and other activists convinced the school to spend $3 million on affordable housing.

He did not graduate.

He moved to San Francisco in 1993, where he became involved in local politics through an advocacy group for homeless people called Mission Agenda.

Daly is married to Sarah Low Daly, whom he met at the World Youth Festival in Havana, Cuba; they have two children.

Daly was first elected to office in 2000 in a near sweep for progressive candidates in supervisorial races.

He ran on his credentials as a housing advocate in the Mission District.

Daly, along with Aaron Peskin, was instrumental in the canceling of the San Francisco Grand Prix, a world-class bicycle race held from 2001 to 2005, because of disagreements over the amount to be paid for traffic and crowd control and because the race's backers owed the city $89,924.

In 2001 Mayor Willie Brown, who supported the race, allowed its organizers to incur a $350,000 debt and later ordered city officials to forgive that debt.

Critics alleged that the race was canceled for political reasons including pressure from Peskin's constituents over parking issues.

Daly was re-elected in 2002 and 2006.

Daly received 8,472, 6,642, and 8,968 votes respectively in the three contested elections.

Daly's legislative record focused primarily on housing and homelessness.

He sponsored legislation to help low-income tenants of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) residential hotels, many of whom were located in his district.

In 2005, Daly negotiated a planned development on Rincon Hill, where the property was rezoned to allow for high-rise development in exchange for a higher percentage of affordable housing units and "community benefits" to non-profits in the area.

Daly also received unanimous support for a plan to demolish and rebuild an apartment complex at Trinity Plaza in exchange for 590 affordable units.

This was the first time in California history that a housing developer voluntarily allowed new construction to be covered by rent control.

Critics of Daly's housing policies point to his attempt to ban tenancy-in-common apartment conversions, which they believe allow middle-income people to buy property in San Francisco.

In June 2006, Daly sponsored the Eviction Disclosure Ordinance, which required real estate agents to inform buyers whether a tenant was evicted from a property they wished to purchase.

The ballot proposition won with 52 percent of the vote.

In March 2007, Daly, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, introduced a proposal that would appropriate $28 million for affordable housing.

In April 2007, Daly introduced another proposal that would appropriate an additional $15 million in services for seniors and families.

Eight members of the Board of Supervisors passed the affordable housing measure, but Mayor Gavin Newsom refused to spend the money.

In June 2007, Daly organized a "Progressive Convention" to find a candidate to run against popular Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Daly stated that if the convention could not choose a candidate, he himself would run.

But when the Progressive Convention did not nominate anyone, Daly declined to run himself.

He said that he wanted to spend time with his family and that his wife was due to give birth shortly before the mayoral election.

Daly suggested putting a charter amendment before voters in the November 2007 municipal election calling for elimination of the police chief post.

Instead, the elected sheriff would oversee all law enforcement in the city and county of San Francisco.

The suggestion arose from Daly's disagreements with Police Chief Heather Fong about the placement and use of police patrols.

"If they keep the attacks on me, I'll keep moving forward what I think is good public policy," Daly said.

"What they fear is the end of their reign of terror in San Francisco."

In June 2007, Daly announced that he was working with anti-war activist organizations such as Code Pink, Global Exchange and Veterans for Peace and considering introducing a proposal to ban the Blue Angels from flying during San Francisco's Fleet Week.

Following significant negative public response and media inquiries, Daly announced that he had decided against making this proposal, blaming reporters at the San Francisco Examiner for his inability to move forward with this controversial proposal.

On June 15, 2007, Board President Aaron Peskin removed Daly as chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee shortly before it was to finalize the $6.06 billion budget proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Explaining why he removed Daly, Peskin cited Daly's bitter public conflict with the mayor over budget priorities.

"Fundamentally," he said, "the budget process is about public policy and not about personality and it is important that we stay committed to having an outcome that ensures we have a budget that reflects the values of the people of San Francisco."