During this troubling political climate under the Trump Administration, leaders like Councilmember Kate Harrison provide comfort to targeted communities. Her strong defense of civil liberties and pro-Sanctuary legislative efforts demonstrate her true character.
~ Brian Hofer, Chair, City of Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission
Kate comes from three generations of women activists, fighting for justice and equity. After years as an involved community member, Kate ran for the City Council, where she works every day to improve District 4 and the City.
In September, 2017 a car struck a 13-year-old bicyclist crossing the intersection of Dwight and California, where nothing is in place to slow the flood of cars on Dwight. Kate successfully lobbied for $100,000 to slow traffic at the intersection and urged the City to expedite the improvements. And she didn’t focus just on District 4. She pressed for policy changes to protect bicyclists and pedestrians throughout Berkeley.
This is just one of many stories from Kate’s first 15 months on the Berkeley City Council. She also developed an action plan and increased funding for affordable housing by $1 million, promoted local small businesses, and reformed policing policies. She stood up to special interests, pushing to require lobbyists in Berkeley to register and downtown developers pay their fair share of community benefits. But the work on the Dwight and California intersection reflects her primary focus.
If a concerned constituent calls, Kate makes sure they are lent an empathetic ear. She brought additional trash bins to North Shattuck. She pressed PG&E to improve the safety of gas pipelines running right past Berkeley High School. She eased the regulatory burden for our taxi drivers, who serve seniors and the disabled. Her office refuses to overlook the day-to-day issues that affect our neighbors.
She promises to keep answering every single phone call and email. A vote for Kate will ensure your local representative always has your back.
As a public sector consultant, for the past 16 years Kate solved problems for agencies in 31 California counties, eight states and fourteen nations. Her firm improves systematic access for people and brings agencies to provide legal resources and improve outcomes in foster care, domestic violence, child support and child custody cases. People who benefit from Kate’s work include Native American foster youth in North Dakota, defendants without lawyers in Serbia and people returning to their communities from prison.
Kate’s work experience includes policy and executive positions in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office under Art Agnos, and at the California Administrative Office of the Courts, where she helped develop the budget and policies for and enhance access to California’s $1.7 billion-a-year court system. Kate has balanced budgets and improved government efficiency while ensuring services for the most vulnerable are maintained and employees treated fairly.
Kate attended UCB as an undergraduate and received her Masters from the Goldman School of Public Policy. As a student activist, she worked on Berkeley’s rent control campaign, protecting tenants from unjust evictions and unreasonable rent increases, formed a statewide coalition to pass California’s first just cause eviction protection, and exposed abuses committed by the FBI for the ACLU.
Kate’s first paid job involved identifying inequitable treatment of minority communities by Oakland’s criminal justice system.