San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s swearing-in of civil service commissioner Yu-Yee Wu (an AsianWeek contributor and formerly with law firm of Minami Tamaki) along with status of women commissioner Jing Xu Lee of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee are just the latest in a generational shift. Among the new leaders that are mostly under 40: Assessor-Recorder and former Asian Law Caucus director Phil Ting and his Assembly district director/wife Susan Sun, small business commissioner and Asian American Bar Association prez VP David Chiu, elections commissioner and API Legal Outreach managing attorney Victor Hwang, school board member Jane Kim, and Park and Recreation Commissioner and CAVEC director David Lee (husband of Jing).
STAYING HOME: A proposal is circulating to modify term limits in ‘08, and thereby benefit freshmen Bay Area APA members to stay put for up to 12 years and serve longer — San Francisco’s Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and state Senator Leland Yee, who sit on powerful appropriations committees, or Hayward Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi. All three hold major leadership positions. …WHAT HAPPENED DIDN’T STAY IN VEGAS: Seen at A Better Chinatown Tomorrow founder Wilma Pang’s annual Lunar New Year dumpling-making demo with Police Chief Heather Fong, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin’s aide Rose Chung, architect Howard Wong and former restaurateur Francisco Hsieh at Far East Café, were Ma’s parents Bill and Sophia, who have moved back from Las Vegas and are living with their daughter who celebrates her 41st birthday on March 3.
BAYONET CHARGE: Cathay Post commander and ex-paratrooper Bok Pon fearlessly stuck his neck out to challenge Peskin, who represents Chinatown/North Beach, on a litany of Chinese American issues as ex-S.F. GOP Chair Mike DeNunzio and North Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Stefano Cassalato stood with him. No other APAs dared to out of respect for Peskin’s ability to wield power from his political pulpit, including pigeonholing Supervisor Ed Jew into a low-key committee assignment and throttling the reappointments of airport director Bill Lee and redevelopment commissioner Benny Yee. … TENN-HUTT: Pon recently returned from wintry New York, visiting a Chinese American veterans group in his campaign to unite the country’s APA vets under one umbrella group. … WHERE WEN HO TREADED: Bok’s son Dr. Jeff Pon is the highest-ranking APA in the Department of Energy as its chief human capital person — quite a high achievement considering the same agency under Bill Richardson persecuted nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee … an issue rankling APAs who are calling current New Mexico Governor Richardson to answer for as he campaigns for president.