Kamala Harris was frequently absent from California Health Care Commission meetings, despite being appointed to the post by her then-boyfriend and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.
Harris and Brown dated for about a year when she was a 29-year-old attorney in the Alameda district attorney’s office and he was the powerful speaker running for mayor of San Francisco at the age of 60.
Brown appointed Harris to the CMAC post in 1994, prompting some criticism of inappropriate conduct despite Brown’s willingness to publicly flaunt allegations of political patronage.
Harris had already served six months on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, a job that paid $97,088 a year, but resigned to accept the new position at CMAC.
It is unclear why Harris missed so many meetings, as She said goodbye from his job as Alameda County district attorney, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Willie Brown and Kamala Harris at dinner in April 1995
According to a review of committee minutes by the Daily Mail, Harris was absent from more than 20 percent of meetings. On other occasions, the minutes reveal Harris arrived after the commissioners had started meetings and had already done some of their work.
Of the 111 CMAC meetings, Harris was absent from 23 of them, making her the board’s most absent commissioner.
The job required board members to meet twice a month, as it was not a full-time position. The Commission was responsible for negotiating contracts with hospitals to limit the costs paid for government-funded health care.
But he still paid Harris a huge amount of money, $99,000 a year, according to a… report According to SF Weekly, Harris earned more than $400,000 during the five-year period in which Brown appointed her to statewide posts.
Kamala Harris faced questions about her relationship with Willie Brown and her performance in the jobs Brown appointed her to when she ran for San Francisco district attorney.
Willie Brown admitted that he had an impact on Kamala Harris’ political career
Harris fiercely defended her role on the boards when she campaigned for San Francisco district attorney, insisting she did the job despite questions about whether she had earned the position Brown had appointed her to.
“Whether you agree with the system or not, I did the work,” he told SF Weekly magazine in a 2003 profile of his career.
“Well, I worked,” Harris told journalist Joan Walsh when asked about her positions in 2003 for San Francisco City Journal Magazine.
“I’ve worked very hard to achieve everything I have,” he said.
Much later in his career, Brown confirmed that he appointed Harris to those positions, which helped boost her career.
“Yes, he may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when he was Assembly speaker,” he acknowledged in a San Francisco op-ed confirming his relationship with the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2019.
