I hope Harris will explain her appointment to, and work for, the CA Medical Assistance Commission [View all]

[highplainsdem]

Harris has made it clear that she believes the primaries should include vettng of what candidates said and did decades ago.

So I hope that she and/or her campaign will offer voters some detailed information on her appointment in 1994 to a California state commission that paid $99,000 a year (plus benefits, according to a San Francisco Chronicle article) for going to two meetings taking a few hours per month.

This is the California law creating that commission:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=WIC&division=9.&title=&part=3.&chapter=7.&article=5.1.

This is the paragraph explaining the requirements for being on the commission:

The commission shall be composed of seven voting members and two ex officio members. The voting members shall be selected from persons with experience in management of hospital services, risk management insurance or prepaid health programs, the delivery of health services, the management of county health systems, and a representative of recipients of service. The Directors of the Department of Health Services and the Department of Finance, or their designees, shall serve as ex officio nonvoting members of the commission.

Emphasis added.

Harris had absolutely none of those qualifications. She was an assistant or deputy DA for Alameda County when she was appointed, and she continued working as a full-time prosecutor while also serving on the medical commission for years, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional income from the commission.

I would really like to know, in some detail, just how much work Harris did for the commission.

I'm particularly interested after reading, in a San Francisco Chronicle artlcle from 2002, that Harris "registered the highest absentee rate during her last two years on the panel, missing nearly 20 percent of the meetings."

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Lawmakers-put-cronies-in-plum-jobs-Big-pay-few-2864693.php

That article explains that a number of people who apparently didn't have proper qualifications were appointed to this commission and others.

But those other people aren't running for president, let alone stressing that it's important to look at a candidate's record going back decades.

So I'd like a detailed explanation from Harris of why she accepted an appointment to a commission for which she had none of the qualifications stipulated by the law creating that commission.

I'd like to know what work she did for the commission during those years. It would be particularly helpful to have statements about this from third parties who did have the sort of experience stipulated by that California law -- expert testimony always helps.

I'd like to know why she had the highest absentee rate, when she only had to show up for two meetings a month.

Please note I'm citing the SF Chronicle, a very reputable paper, for this background.

And please note, too, that I'm also pointing out, via the article, that there was a pattern of unqualified people being appointed to a few California commissions that paid very high salaries for very few hours of work.

I'm not saying that this wasn't a systemic problem, and an embarrassment for everyone involved in it.

But because Harris is running for president, and because she's insistent that candidates' backgrounds from decades ago must be considered, I would like to see her, or her campaign, provide thorough and convincing information about this.

I'd also like to know, since Harris accepted an appointment for which she had none of the qualifications, how carefully she'd consider qualifications of people she'll appoint if elected president...or if she thinks that under certain circumstances the customary or even legally-required qualifications can be ignored.

Having these questions answered would go a long way toward removing some doubts I've had about Harris (who had previously been one of my favorites among the Democratic candidates) after learning more about her background.