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7.8.24 – Claiming our Seats: The Power of Boards and Commissions
Join us for our upcoming virtual panel event featuring FIlAm Board & Commission Members all over California on Tuesday, July 23 from 6-7PM PST. Register via Eventbrite.
Claiming our Seats: The Power of Boards and Commissions
By Cameron Sasai
Imagine a space where your voice holds sway over critical decisions that shape the future of your community. This is the realm of civic engagement, a core focus of LEAD Filipino. While we seek representation in elected offices, significant opportunities lie in local boards and commissions—the overlooked avenues of influence where activism and advocacy can reach their fullest potential and impact. Claiming our seats on boards and commissions is an effective way in which we can directly serve the diverse needs of our FilAm community; it is also an avenue for us to build power within our communities and gain the momentum necessary to expand our influence in a space where we have been historically excluded and, unfortunately, still underrepresented.
In California, there is currently a push for greater transparency and diversity in the selection process for statewide board and commission seats appointed by the Governor. SB 782 (Limon), a State Senate Bill supported by LEAD Filipino and other organizations within the FIERCE (Filipinx Igniting Engagement for Reimagining Collective Empowerment) Coalition, seeks to enhance transparency by mandating reporting of demographic information of appointees—a move that will allow communities to hold the Governor accountable to ensuring that these government bodies reflect the communities that they serve. As this statewide initiative progresses through the legislature, it is crucial for underrepresented communities to also advocate for the diversity and representation that they deserve at the local levels of government. Actively seeking appointments to local boards and commissions allows community members to build the momentum of political influence in their backyards.
The FilAm community holds a rich and powerful history of organizing and activism—notably in the areas of civil rights and worker protections. Here in California, we can point to the Manongs and Manangs who organized in Delano alongside Latine leaders in the United Farm Workers movement to secure fair wages and safe working conditions, fighting the exploitation of vulnerable workers. To the west in San Francisco’s Manilatown, hundreds of FilAm organizers mobilized the iconic International Hotel protests, standing in interracial solidarity with other minority groups in a nearly 10-year anti-eviction campaign that began in 1968, ensuring the rights of tenants and preserving the availability of affordable housing. As advocates, we continue to leverage our collective strength and resilience to challenge systemic injustices and advance our shared vision of equity and empowerment. However, we tend to find ourselves lobbying the leaders who hold the final decision-making power, rather than occupying those decision-making seats ourselves.
Groups like the Black Panther Party (BPP) can serve as a beacon of inspiration to envision how the Filipinx community can lean into public offices as a means to create change. As early as 1968, the BPP embraced electoral activism and began running party leaders for office, including Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown for Oakland Mayor, Huey Newton for Congress, and Eldridge Cleaver for President, hoping to bring about change from within the system. The BPP’s foray into political offices underscores the recognized, transformative power of engaging with institutional frameworks, and the FilAm community should seek to follow in their footsteps by actively pursuing positions within boards and commissions, leveraging our collective voice and expertise to shape policies and build the legitimacy to eventually take elected offices.
City and county commissions are often the roles that candidates hold before running for elected office. These appointed seats provide leaders with the practical experience of working within government structures, alongside staff and other representatives to make decisions in areas like Economic Development, Community Services, and Planning. Boards and commissions also give prospective candidates for political offices more credibility as public servants who understand the complexities of working within bureaucratic systems and ballot designations that are competitive. With over 1.5 million FilAms residing in the State of California, we deserve to claim our seat at the table, and an effective place to start is in our Commissions and Boards within our own communities.
Attend our Upcoming Panel Eon
