Shamann Walton


Shamann Walton is an American politician from San Francisco. He has been a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors since 2019, representing District 10. Walton earlier served on the San Francisco Board of Education and was its president immediately prior to his election as supervisor. He is a former director of the Potrero Hill Family Resource Center and executive director of Young Community Developers, a non-profit in Bayview–Hunters Point.

Early life

Walton was raised by his mother in Vallejo, California. His teenage years were often troubled, having been expelled from the Vallejo City Unified School District and served in juvenile hall numerous times.
Walton graduated from Morris Brown College in 1998. He received his master's degree in public administration from San Francisco State University in 2010.

Career

Walton was elected supervisor for District 10 on November 6, 2018, receiving 9,550 first preference votes. After allocation of preferences from eliminated candidates in San Francisco's ranked-choice voting system, Walton received 63.07 percent of final-round votes, compared to runner-up Tony Kelly's 36.93 percent. He was sworn in at the Board of Supervisors' January 8, 2019 meeting, replacing Malia Cohen, who was ineligible to run for re-election after two four-year terms and had been elected to the California Board of Equalization.
In December 2018, Walton and supervisor Hillary Ronen put forth legislation calling to close San Francisco's youth detention center by December 2021.
In February 2020, Walton put forth a resolution calling for reparations for the city's African American population. The resolution itself forms a working group that will further develop the plan.
In June 2020, during the nationwide George Floyd protests, he introduced a resolution to ban the San Francisco Police Department and Sheriff's Department from hiring officers with a history of serious misconduct.
In July 2020, Walton and supervisor Aaron Peskin opted to not introduce a $100 million sales tax measure into the November 2020 ballots to finance Caltrain, which has seen a 95% reduction in ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic in California. Ride fares account for 70% of the service's operating budget. The supervisors cite the lack of shared authority on the Joint Powers Board over the train line's management, which is currently operated by the SamTrans, and the regressive nature of the sales tax to fund operations for a service whose customer base has a mean income of $120,000 as pain points to supporting the measure. However, Peskin mentioned that the measure can still be introduced by the mayor or other supervisors if they wanted to.

Personal life

Walton is a Christian. He is a father of two.