Kamala Harris was frequently absent from meetings of the California Medical Assistance Commission, despite being appointed to the position by her then-boyfriend and then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.
Harris and Brown dated for about a year when she was a 29-year-old attorney in the Alameda District Attorney’s Office and he was the influential public speaker running for mayor of San Francisco at age 60.
Brown appointed Harris as a CMAC officer in 1994. He was criticized for his impropriety, despite Brown’s willingness to publicly deny accusations of political clientelism.
Harris had already served six months on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, a job that paid him $97,088 a year, but resigned to accept the new position at CMAC.
It is unclear why Harris missed so many meetings, given that she said goodbye from her job at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Willie Brown and Kamala Harris at a dinner in April 1995
Harris was absent from more than 20 percent of meetings, according to a Daily Mail review of the committee’s minutes. On other occasions, the minutes reveal that Harris arrived after the commissioners had started the meetings and had already concluded some of their business.
Of the 111 CMAC meetings, Harris was absent from 88 meetings, making her the most absent member of the board.
The job required board members to meet twice a month, as it was not a full-time position. The committee was responsible for negotiating contracts with hospitals to limit the costs paid by the government-funded health care system.
But Harris still got a lot of money in return, $99,000 a year, according to a report from SF Weekly. All told, Harris earned more than $400,000 in the five years she was appointed to the statewide office by Brown.
Kamala Harris faced questions about her relationship with Willie Brown and her performance in the roles Brown assigned to her when she ran for San Francisco district attorney
Willie Brown admitted he had an influence on Kamala Harris’ political career
Harris fiercely defended her role on the boards when she was campaigning for San Francisco district attorney, insisting she had done the job despite questions about whether she deserved the position Brown appointed her to.
“Whether you agree with the system or not, I did the work,” she told SF Weekly magazine in a 2003 profile of her career.
“Well, I’ve worked,” Harris told journalist Joan Walsh when asked about her roles at San Francisco City Journal magazine.
“I’ve worked really hard for everything I have,” she said.
Brown confirmed much later in his career that he had appointed Harris to these roles, boosting her career.
“Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state committees when I was speaker of the Assembly,” he acknowledged in a San Francisco op-ed confirming their relationship to the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2019.