Leaders Convene for Annual Meeting of Members

It was a double-header at the 2019 Annual Members Meeting this week (Sept. 9) as Bay Area Council members gathered at Oracle Park to hear from keynote speaker Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and later field fly balls during batting practice. Bay Area Council Chair Mary Huss, President and Publisher of the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal, welcomed Mayor Steinberg for a discussion with members about one on the most vexing issues challenging us today: homelessness. Mayor Steinberg was recently tapped to co-chair the Governor’s Task Force on Homelessness with Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to solve the statewide crisis.  

There has been a lot of debate about the best approaches for tackling homelessness. Mayor Steinberg made news in July by calling for California to adopt a New York-style “right to shelter” rule, whereby cities would be legally obligated to build adequate shelter capacity for the homeless, which the homeless would be legally obligated to use. Today, the Bay Area shelters just 33 percent of its homeless population, and Los Angeles 25 percent. By contrast, New York City and many other East Coast and Mid-West cities shelter over 90 percent of their homeless populations.

Kicking off the discussion, Mayor Steinberg applauded the recommendations made in the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and McKinsey & Co. study released in April — Bay Area Homelessness: A Regional View of a Regional Crisis — that provided the first-ever regional examination of the homeless problem and proposed a number of solutions to leverage greater regional collaboration among the disparate local programs and services. At the state level, Steinberg addressed the “right to shelter” mandate, or rather, “the right to a roof over your head”, and what enactment could look like for California. Steinberg emphasized that a California version of the mandate would need to prioritize service provisions among other areas. Members also approved the addition of new Board of Directors members, including:

Following the meeting, members enjoyed a private reception in “Triples Alley” as they watched the SF Giants batting practice from the field before cheering them on as they played the Pittsburg Pirates. Special thanks to SF Giants CEO and Bay Area Council Executive Committee member Larry Baer for hosting, and Giants Executive Vice President Mario Alioto for sharing fun insights on some of the team’s creative marketing efforts. Thanks also to all of our members, whose support and engagement are helping us shape the future Bay Area.