Donning a purple tie and a large grin, former Speaker of the California State Assembly and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown greeted an intimate audience of around 30 students and faculty at CMC’s Rose Institute of State and Local Government on Nov. 5. This smaller gathering preceded Brown’s talk at the CMC Athenaeum that evening which over 100 members of the 5C community registered to attend.
Brown has been at the forefront of California and national politics for decades. Elected to the California State Assembly in 1964, Brown later served as speaker from 1980 to 1995. Near the end of his final term in the Assembly, he ran for mayor of San Francisco and served from 1996 to 2004.
In response to a student question about his stance on local government, Brown said that he had become a “great advocate” for it. He stated that while state legislators are crucial in shaping the laws themselves, it is the local governments that play a key role in implementing them.
“You actually perform the services if you are [part of your] local government,” Brown said.
During his time as mayor, he found that public safety, public transportation and public parks were cornerstones in appealing to local perspectives.
“You’ve got to listen to local needs,” he said.
The group discussion soon turned to term limits, the restriction on the length of time an elected official may hold office, a subject that is intimately tied to Brown’s career. In 1990, California voters adopted Proposition 140, which established term limits for state legislators. Brown, in his longtime tenure as an Assembly statesman, became the major focus of the initiative. The enactment of term limits pushed him to run for mayor and continue his career as a California politician.
“I would’ve never been mayor if there were [no] term limits,” he said. “I loved being Speaker of the House.”
Brown noted term limits as a barrier to developing long-term connections as a politician, of which he emphasized the importance.
“Term limits [have] robbed all of us of an abundance of talent … because in decision making, relationships are paramount,” he said.
He then cited how, as a Democrat, these relationships were what allowed him to achieve major legislation wins, even while working under multiple Republican governors and even once in a Republican-majority assembly. Brown emphasized that these relationships overcame partisan divides: for instance, he cited how California was one of the first states to “do something” about automatic weapons because he and his fellow politicians prioritized their relationships over personal party ties.
Julia Eason CM ’27 applauded Brown’s emphasis on nonpartisanship.
“I think he is a perfect example of somebody who is so comfortable working across the aisle and trying to, at a state-level and looking forward to a national level, really bridge those gaps of so much tension and separation between parties,” Eason said.
Dhriti Jagadish CM ’27 further commended Brown’s appeals to relationship-building.
“Seeing such a paragon of California politics speak about how important it is to build relationships, be civil and make decisions not based [on] party but on what’s right, just very exciting as we head into [the] election and voting and very stressful things,” Jagadish said.
Overall, students, faculty and staff alike laughed along with Brown’s recollections of his life in California politics.
“Brown was electric — even at 90, [he’s] still going strong,” Thomas Rose CM ’27 said. “It was just great to hear him speak.”
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