San Francisco, CA — Today Mayor London N. Breed announced she will appoint Joaquín Torres as the next Assessor-Recorder of the City and County of San Francisco. Torres currently serves as the Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. He will fill the vacancy left by Carmen Chu, who will begin serving as San Francisco City Administrator at the beginning of February. 

The Office of the Assessor-Recorder is responsible for locating all taxable property in the City, identifying ownership, establishing a taxable value, and applying all legal exemptions. The position of Assessor-Recorder is a citywide elected position, and the newly appointed Assessor-Recorder will have to run in the next election, which is currently scheduled for June 2022, to complete the current term.  

“Joaquín Torres is a dedicated public servant who has been working tirelessly over the last year to help our City navigate this pandemic,” said Mayor Breed. “He has a wealth of experience working with businesses both large and small, as well as communities throughout our entire City that are too often ignored, and he understands how important this office is to our economic recovery. I know Joaquín will build on the incredible work that Carmen Chu has started to strengthen the Assessor-Recorder’s Office. He has been a strong leader for the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and he will bring that same strength and sense of purpose to this new role.”

Torres has served as Director of the City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) since 2018. Under his leadership, the department’s budget has grown approximately 35% from $67 million to almost $92 million, constituting a substantial expansion of services for businesses and workers. During his tenure, he has significantly increased support for small businesses, pioneered a community-driven departmental budget process, and firmly centered racial equity in the department’s mission and operations. Together with the Human Rights Commission, he has also helped to successfully implement Mayor Breed’s Opportunities for All initiative. 

“I want to thank Mayor Breed for entrusting me with this responsibility. For the past eleven years, I’ve been proud to work hard for the people of San Francisco, to earn their trust and to make a positive difference alongside our diverse communities, businesses and residents that I’ve been fortunate to work closely with and to learn from,” said Director Torres. “Local government is at its best when it understands and meets community need. This requires integrity and a commitment to ongoing improvements that ensure good government services are secure, fair, and accessible to all San Franciscans.  I’m honored to assume these responsibilities essential to our economic stability and recovery and to build on the improvements of Assessor Chu to continue serving the City and County in this new role.”

Mayor Breed nominated Assessor Chu to fill the vacancy at the City Administrator’s Office, and on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously confirmed her for the position. She will be sworn in next week.  

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with Joaquín for many years now and most recently as Co-Chair of the Economic Recovery Task Force,” said Assessor Carmen Chu. “During this pandemic, I saw him work tirelessly to get help out the door as quickly as possible to serve small businesses and workers.  He is a compassionate leader who understands the significance of the Assessor’s work in supporting critical City services. He will be working with a great group of people at the Assessor-Recorder’s Office and together I know they’ll continue to elevate the work we started. I thank my team at the Assessor’s Office and will miss working with them more than they know.”

Since the onset of COVID-19, OEWD has helped lead the City’s response by serving as a central information hub and support for businesses and workers as they grapple with the incredible uncertainty and challenges created by the pandemic, coordinating with public health officials and the business community to maximize safety and limit economic damage, leading development and implementation of relief programs and policies for businesses and workers, and building a foundation for an equitable recovery. Torres has been able to strategically marshal the department’s staff and resources, as well as its extensive network of civic and business leaders, philanthropy and community-based organizations to drive these critical, overlapping COVID-19 relief initiatives.

“I want to thank Mayor London Breed for selecting Joaquín Torres for the role of City Assessor-Recorder. There is no question that Joaquín’s long track record of public service prepares him well for this position,” said Malcolm Yeung, Director of the Chinatown Community Development Center. “Like his predecessor, Carmen Chu, I know Joaquín will lead the Office with integrity and an eye towards maximizing accessibility for our diverse communities. Joaquín has always operated from a framework of social and racial equity, and I’m excited to see how he imbues these deeply held personal values into this new work.”   

“Our community applauds Mayor Breed for her selection and appointment of Joaquín Torres as San Francisco’s next Assessor-Recorder,” said Sam Ruiz, retired Chief Executive Officer of Mission Neighborhood Centers. “Mr. Torres is respected because of his proven professionalism, integrity and excellent public stewardship here in San Francisco over the past decade. We are proud and delighted that he will continue serving the City and County of San Francisco in this new capacity.” 

Torres also serves as the President of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission, where he leads the oversight body as it works to complete the process of rehabilitating over 3,400 units of public housing with $750 million in improvements, ultimately transferring ownership to affordable housing providers to better serve low-income communities. He serves as Chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) and has also served on the Executive Board of SPUR since 2019, helping to develop regional solutions to major urban challenges ranging from housing, land use and transportation to food access, climate and governance. 

“Joaquín is an excellent choice to serve as San Francisco’s Assessor-Recorder. He is an experienced, committed public servant who has demonstrated his ability to lead with resilience and compassion - and provide stability - in the midst of one of the most challenging periods in San Francisco’s history,” said Alicia John-Baptiste, President & CEO, SPUR. “The office of the Assessor-Recorder is critical to the City’s financial well-being and Joaquín’s commitment to racial equity will be central to his leadership of this important function, to the benefit of all San Franciscans.”  

Previously, Joaquín served as Director of the San Francisco Invest in Neighborhoods initiative, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services for Mayor Edwin M. Lee, and Liaison to the San Francisco Latino and American Indian communities and to Supervisorial Districts Nine and Eleven for Mayor Gavin Newsom. He is a graduate of Stanford University and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in the Outer Mission with his wife, Ruibo Qian. 

The Office of the Assessor Recorder carries out the property tax-related functions governed by the State Constitution and local laws. The Office’s core responsibility is to identify and assess the value of all taxable property in the City and county of San Francisco and apply all legal exemptions. Property tax funds public education and is the single largest revenue source supporting the City’s general operations. The office also records and maintains official records of the City, and collects transfer tax from changes in property ownership.

###