When former Supervisor Tony Hall announced his run for mayor in February, he staked out a position as a conservative outsider and an advocate of aggressive pension reform. The last-minute candidacy of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi — who has earned pariah status at City Hall with two years of pension reform efforts — has made Hall less of an outlier.
Hall has worked in nine different city departments, starting in 1965 as a pension-fraud investigator for the San Francisco retirement system. He worked for two years as a community liaison officer for Mayor Joseph Alioto in 1968 before spending four years as chief administrator for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, and then working as a budget analyst for the Board of Supervisors. From 1985 until 2000, Hall worked as an executive assistant to the presiding judges of the San Francisco Superior Court. He served as District 7 supervisor from 2000 to 2004.
Hall was appointed head of the Treasure Island Development Authority in 2004, but he was fired in 2005 after sparring with Mayor Gavin Newsom and city officials over development plans for the island. Hall was later fined $6,000 for campaign finance violations amounting to a few hundred dollars, a move that he called an act of political retribution.
Hall is a Los Angeles native and comes from a large Irish-American family. The second of eight children, he was a standout athlete who was offered basketball and track scholarships to Loyola Marymount University and the University of California, Los Angeles. He graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in public administration and economics.
After college, he launched a professional music career, performing at a nightclub in Sydney. He is still the lead singer of a seven-piece band, the Hallmarks, which once received of the Bay Area “entertainer of the year” award.
Hall and his wife have seven children and one grandchild. They live in the West Portal neighborhood.
Tony Hall: The Essentials
| Name: | Tony Hall |
| Age: | 69 |
| Occupation: | Retired |
| Home Town: | Los Angeles |
| Party: | Independent |
| Contributions: |
$499,783.00 as of most recent filing deadline |
| Website: | http://tonyhallsf.com/ |
| Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/tonyhallsf |
| Twitter: | http://twitter.com/tonyhallsf |
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