Activism

Pioneering San Francisco Law Firm Turns 50

Since it first opened its doors in 1971, Public Advocates charted a unique course as an innovative, nonprofit law firm that didn’t just litigate in the courts but used a wide array of advocacy tools including administrative complaints, petitions, and community activism to advance the interests of its clients.

Published

3 years ago

February 3, 2022

Oakland Post

During this 50th Anniversary year, Public Advocates will commemorate the many people who have built its legacy over the years, and its legal and advocacy victories through a social media series and a dedicated website.

By Isabel Alegría

Public Advocates Inc., the first public interest law firm on the West Coast and among the first in the nation, launched its 50th Anniversary celebration on Tuesday to honor its legacy of five decades as a champion for the rights of low-income communities and people of color in California.

“Off the starting block, Public Advocates was squarely on the side of working people, people of color, women, seniors and children. It leverages the law and the power of community organizing to ensure the people’s interests have as much sway in courtrooms, the legislature and boardrooms as those of the rich and powerful,” said Guillermo Mayer, president & CEO of Public Advocates. “From integrating the SF police and fire departments, to championing renters’ rights in SOMA and Oakland and consumers’ rights in banking, insurance and telecommunications, to shaping the nation’s most equitable school funding formula, Public Advocates has been on the frontlines– not just to fight, but to win.”

And the wins have been significant. Among Public Advocates’ landmark victories is Serrano v. Priest, which eradicated the use of local property taxes in determining school funding levels which heavily favored districts with wealthy residents. Before the court’s decision in the 1970s, vast disparities between wealthy areas like Beverly Hills and poorer ones like Baldwin Hills resulted in affluent schools receiving more resources.

In another landmark education case, Williams v. California, the state reached a settlement with Public Advocates and co-counsel to provide the most basic necessities to public school children–textbooks, safe and sanitary campuses, qualified teachers, particularly for English learners, and a system to hold school districts accountable. Public Advocates continues to monitor the settlement.

Years later, Public Advocates built on both cases with its role in shaping the Local Control Funding Formula, a significant and historic shift toward a simpler, more rational and equitable school finance system that aims to improve outcomes by providing increased and improved services each year to meet the education needs of low-income students, English language learners and foster youth.

For decades, California’s public school administrators mis-assigned tens of thousands of Black students to classes for the “Educable Mentally Retarded,” based on faulty IQ tests. In a first-ever opinion, a court ruled in Larry P. v. Riles that the use of standard IQ tests to place Black students in such classes was racially biased and invalid. In 1986, Public Advocates successfully halted the use of I.Q. tests for placement of Black students in special education classes.

“Public Advocates’ visionary founders, Bob Gnaizda, Justice J. Anthony Klein, Sid Wolinsky, and Peter Sitkin started a law firm that would have a profound impact, bringing benefits to countless Californians, especially our youth,” said Bob Olson, chair of Public Advocates’ Board of Governors. “Their legacy lives on to this day, fueling the groundbreaking work of Public Advocates’ expert staff in education, housing, climate justice and transportation.”

An example is Public Advocates’ advocacy in 2014 to establish a revenue stream for local bus service by tagging a share of proceeds of the California Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be directed to low-income communities. A few years later, Public Advocates built on the win to secure $400 million for transit operations in the gas tax bill SB 1, doubling the State Transit Assistance program.

Over the last decade, Public Advocates has redoubled its commitment to working in partnership with community-based organizations throughout California, a cornerstone of its legal and advocacy approach since Public Advocates’ earliest days. Currently, Public Advocates works in close partnership with groups such as Californians for Justice, PICO California, the ACLUs of Northern and Southern California, Urban Habitat, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), the Partnership for the Future of Learning, Students Making a Change, Housing Now! and ACCE.

During the pandemic, Public Advocates mobilized its partnerships with key allies in education and housing advocacy as the threats of eviction loomed and economic insecurity increased among students and their families, who struggled with distance learning. Long-standing partners worked with Public Advocates to communicate the needs of affected communities to lawmakers. The effort yielded important wins, including an eviction moratorium and unprecedented new funding for schools.

And they took the needs of children seriously, too. In 1985, Gnaizda represented two 7-year-olds in California who sued Pacific Bell for failing to disclose to them that they would be charged $.50 every time they dialed a Santa Claus line.

During this 50th Anniversary year, Public Advocates will commemorate the many people who have built its legacy over the years, and its legal and advocacy victories through a social media series and a dedicated website. The celebration culminates in a gala planned for Oct. 20, 2022, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

For more information, please visit our dedicated website, here.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

PepsiCo Called Out for Failure to Fulfill Verbal Contract with National Black Farmers’ Association Members

Don't Miss

IN MEMORIAM: Wilfred Cyprian Harvey, 88

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

‘Respect Our Vote’ Mass Meeting Rejects Oakland, Alameda County Recalls

The mass meeting, attended mostly by members of local Asian American communities, was held in a large banquet room in a Chinese restaurant in Alameda. The Respect Our Vote (ROV) coalition, consisting of concerned community members and groups, is organizing meetings in Oakland and around Alameda County leading up to the November election.

Published

1 week ago

September 28, 2024

Oakland Post

Some of the leaders who spoke at the Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” mass meeting were (left to right): Elaine Peng, Mariano Contreras, Pastor Servant B.K. Woodson, and Stewart Chen. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

A recently organized coalition, “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!,” held a standing-room only mass meeting on Sept. 14, urging residents to vote ‘No’ on the two East Bay recalls funded by conservative billionaires and millionaires with the help of corporate media and instead to support the campaign to protect residents’ democratic right to choose their representatives.

The mass meeting, attended mostly by members of local Asian American communities, was held in a large banquet room in a Chinese restaurant in Alameda.

The Respect Our Vote (ROV) coalition, consisting of concerned community members and groups, is organizing meetings in Oakland and around Alameda County leading up to the November election.

Speaking at the meeting, prominent East Bay leader Stewart Chen said that local leaders, like Alameda County D.A. Pamela Price and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, worked hard to get elected, and our system says they get four years to carry out their policies and campaign promises. But rich people have “broken” that system.

Within two months after they took office, they were facing recalls paid for by billionaires, he said. “(Billionaires’) candidate did not get elected, so they want to change the system.”

“(Our elected leaders) were elected through the process, and the people spoke,” said Chen. “It’s the entire system that the billionaires are trying to (overturn).”

“If a candidate does something wrong or enacts a policy that we do not like, we let it play out, and in four years, we do not have to vote for them.

“The democratic system that we have had in place for a couple of hundred years, it needs our help,” said Chen.

Pastor Servant B.K. Woodson, a leader of the coalition, emphasized the diversity and solidarity needed to defend democracy. “We need each other’s wisdom to make our nation great, to make it safe. We are deliberately African American, English-speaking, Latino American, Spanish-speaking, and all the wonderful dialects in the Asian communities. We want to be together, grow together, and have a good world together.”

Mariano Contreras of the Latino Task Force said that people need to understand what is at stake now.

The recall leaders are connected to conservative forces that will undermine public education, and bilingual education, he said. “The people behind (the recalls) are being used by outside dark money,” he said. The spokespeople of these recalls are themselves conservatives “who are wearing a mask that says they are progressives.”

In 2017, Oakland passed an ordinance that gave teeth to its “Sanctuary City” policy, which was brought to the City Council and passed because it was supported by progressive members on the council.

“That would not be possible anymore if the progressive alliance – Sheng Thao, Nikki Fortunato Bas, and Carroll Fife – if they are pushed out,” he said.

Elaine Peng, president of Asian Americans for Progressive America, said, “I strongly oppose the recalls of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.”

Citing statistics, she said Alameda County’s murder rate was higher when Alameda County D.A. Nancy O’Malley was in office, before Pamela Price was elected to that position.

“The recall campaign has been misleading the public,” said Peng.

She said Oakland is making progress under Thao. “Crime rates are falling in Oakland,” and the City is building more affordable housing than ever before and is creating more jobs.

Attorney Victor Ochoa said, this recall is “not by accident in Oakland – it is a political strategy.”

“There is a strategy that has been launched nationwide. What we’re seeing is oligarchs, (such as Phillip Dreyfuss from Piedmont), right wingers, conservatives, who can write a check for $400,000 like some of us can write a check for $10.”

“They aligned themselves with so-called moderate forces, but they’re not moderates. They align themselves with the money, and that’s what we have seen in Oakland.”

Ochoa continued, “You got to put up signs, you’ve got to talk to your neighbors, volunteer whatever hours you can, have a house meeting. That’s the way progressives win.”

Pecolia Manigo of Oakland Rising Action spoke about what it will take to defeat the recalls. “This is the time when you are not only deputized to go out and do outreach, we need to make sure that people actually vote.

“We need everyone to vote not just for the president, but all the way down the ballot to where these questions will be. Remind people to fill out their ballot, and mail it back.”

Former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who had herself faced a recall attempt, said, “In this recall, they used a lot of money, had paid signature gatherers, and they moved very fast. I talked to many of the people gathering signatures. They didn’t know what was going on. Many of them didn’t live in Oakland. It was just money for them.”

“Sam Singer, the guy who is their spokesperson, is a paid PR guy. He has media ties, so they’ve swamped the media against Sheng,” Quan said.

‘Oakland is… a city that implemented some of the first rent control protections in the country. So, developers and big apartment owners would love to get rid of rent control,” said Quan.

“We also established ranked-choice voting, which allows people with less money to coalesce and win elections,” she said. “That’s too democratic for people with big money. They would rather have elections the way they were.”