D4 Supervisor-elect Joel Engardio names bilingual Kit Man Lam as his first legislative aide

(SAN FRANCISCO) District 4 Supervisor-elect Joel Engardio came back to Chinatown on November 26 to attend one of the largest family associations' meeting to show his appreciation for the support in the November election and announced to name bilingual Kit Man Lam as his first legislative aide.

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), the largest family association in San Francisco Chinatown, holds monthly meetings among the leaders of its membership organizations to discuss and make decisions on issues related to Chinatown and the family associations.

During the campaign days, Engardio spoke at the CCBA's September meeting to introduce his agendas as a candidate running for D4 Supervisor.

Engardio came back at the November meeting after winning the election and spoke to the CCBA leaders, "I see many of you in the room who supported my campaign and I thank you."

"This was a historic year in San Francisco politics. First, I want to acknowledge the historic presidency of Alisa Lam — the first woman to lead the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in 170 years." Engardio added. "We also made history this year by recalling an incompetent school board and an ineffective district attorney. These were the first successful local recalls in more than 100 years."

Engardio also set a new record of being the first openly gay Supervisor elected to a westside district and the first non-Chinese Supervisor to represent Sunset District in 22 years since the district election system was implemented.

"It is important to acknowledge that all of these history-making elections were possible because of Chinese American voters," Engardio thanked for the support from the Chinese community. "The majority of District 4 residents want safer streets, better schools, merit-based admission at Lowell High School, more middle-income housing for families, and vibrant small businesses. These are my priorities."

Engardio promised to hire the Chinese-speaking staff to serve the significant number of Chinese immigrants in the Sunset District. He announced his first hire was Kit Man Lam, his bilingual campaign manager and leader of the recall the School Board movement.

Engardio and his Chinese American husband Lionel Hsu who was born in Taiwan reside in the Lakeshore neighborhood which is located at the south side of the Outer Sunset for a decade.

Lam, a first generation immigrant from Hong Kong, met with Engardio when both of them joined the Recall the School Board movement as supporters and volunteers in 2021. Lam was an investigator at the San Francisco Unified School District for years until he was laid off in June this year.

More names of the D4 legislative aides will be announced before January 7 when it is scheduled for Engardio to be sworn into office.