Elections

Elections

Interview Transcript: Bilal Mahmood

This transcript is from an interview on our radio program and podcast “Civic,” published as part of our February 2022 nonpartisan election guide. Though “Civic” will broadcast only seven minutes of each candidate’s interview to give each equal airtime on our program, we are making a transcript of the full conversations available. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.   

Laura Wenus  

I’d like to start by getting a little bit of your background first because there’s a lot — you trained as a neuroscientist, you worked for Stanford, you started at least one company. You’ve also worked as a political analyst. Could you just briefly describe each of those roles, your educational background, your role at Stanford, what your companies did and the kinds of policies you were working on in the Obama administration?  

Bilal Mahmood  

Sure.

Elections

Interview Transcript: Thea Selby

This transcript is from an interview on our radio program and podcast “Civic,” published as part of our February 2022 nonpartisan election guide. Though “Civic” will broadcast only seven minutes of each candidate’s interview to give each equal airtime on our program, we are making a transcript of the full conversations available. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.   

Elections

Interview Transcript: Joaquín Torres

This interview is part of our February 2022 election guide. The Public Press and “Civic” are only publishing highlights from interviews with candidates on our audio platforms, but we are making extended transcripts available to add context. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.  

Sylvie Sturm   

Can you recap for me? How has your experience been in your very first election campaign that you’ve been going through? 

Joaquín Torres   

It’s been it’s been pretty amazing to be a first-time citywide candidate and being able to reconnect with so many communities, so many neighborhoods, so many old friends who I’ve been serving in one role or another throughout my time since I started public service back in December of 2009. 

Sylvie Sturm   

Why are you running for this office in particular? 

Joaquín Torres   

Well, I I’ve been looking for another way to serve. I started my career in public service and neighborhood services and really tried to learn the foundation of local government city service work from that perspective of: What is the front desk like of constituent services?

Elections

Interview transcript: Faauuga Moliga

This is a transcript of an interview with “Civic” host Laura Wenus and school board member Faauga Moliga, part of our February 2022 nonpartisan election guide. Though “Civic” will broadcast only nine minutes of each commissioner’s interview to give each equal airtime on our program, we are making transcripts of the full conversations available. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.  

Faauuga Moliga is a Samoan Pacific Islander who arrived in San Francisco when he was a year old and grew up in public housing. As a member of the San Francisco Board of Education, he is the first Pacific Islander to hold an elected seat in the city. He was elected in November 2018. 

Laura Wenus   

So, at the time of this recording, San Francisco is seeing a huge spike in coronavirus cases.

Elections

Interview transcript: Gabriela López

This is a transcript of an interview with “Civic” host Laura Wenus and school board member Gabriela López, part of our February 2022 nonpartisan election guide.Though “Civic” will broadcast only nine minutes of each commissioner’s interview to give each equal airtime on our program, we are making transcripts of the full conversations available. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.    

Gabriela López was elected as a member of San Francisco’s Board of Education in November 2018. She is an elementary school teacher for bilingual fourth- and fifth-grade students and an adjunct instructor for students seeking their master’s degrees in education or their teacher credentials. 

Laura Wenus    

So, a lot of the issues that we are seeing today, I think are worth talking about, because they’re likely to persist. For example, we are in a massive spike of COVID cases right now. I think we’re still seeing a seven-day average of case rates of more than 1,000 cases a day, which is record-breaking.

Elections

Interview transcript: Alison Collins

This is a transcript of an interview with “Civic” host Laura Wenus and school board member Alison Collins, part of our February 2022 nonpartisan election guide.Though “Civic” will broadcast only nine minutes of each commissioner’s interview to give each equal airtime on our program, we are making transcripts of the full conversations available. These transcripts have been edited for clarity.  

Alison Collins was elected to the Board of Education in November 2018.  

Laura Wenus 

I’ve been asking everybody about the coronavirus situation, just because of this huge record-breaking spike in cases that we just saw, it seems that wave has thankfully crested. But it does seem that we haven’t seen the end of COVID in general, and that it is inevitably going to affect school safety practices.