Smoke Berkeley BBQ

BERKELEY MAYORAL CANDIDATE SOPHIE HAHN FAILED TO DISCLOSE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM BIOTECH GIANTS ON HER STATE REQUIRED FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE FORMS

This post is for my friends in the City of Berkeley. My fellow Tenants at the Fantasy Film Center recently appealed an illegal demolition of the historic Fantasy Studios to the City Council. After winning our appeals to prevent the possible demolition of the Fantasy Film Center we lost on a unanimous vote. Sophie Hahn was one of those who opposed our appeal. This is the facts about Sophie and her bid for Mayor from a Concerned CItizen of Berkeley.

Today I filed a complaint against Sophie Hahn, Mayoral candidate in Berkeley, with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).

The complaint states that Ms. Hahn failed to disclose her family’s income and stock holdings as required by law.

My 6 page complaint, accompanied by 24 exhibits, shows that since 2020, Ms. Hahn failed to disclose both her share of her husband’s income which exceeded over $500,000 per year as well as family stock holdings that exceed $4 million.

Both of these disclosures are required by California law. The purpose of these laws is to allow California citizens to know the financial interests, and potential conflicts of interest, of those we elect.

Almost all of this income is associated with Biotech, which raises concerns over Ms. Hahn’s voting on these issues. It was Ms. Hahn’s recent vote to evict artists from the Fantasy Studios building in Berkeley to be replaced by Biotech firms that first raised my interest in Ms. Hahn’s finances. Ms. Hahn’s vote overturned the recommendation of Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustment Board which twice turned down this action.


Berkeley will soon be considering granting tax breaks to Biotech firms locating in Berkeley as well eliminating the requirement that Biotech firms need to be located more than 500 feet from residences.

A recent complaint to Berkeley’s City Attorney argued that Ms. Hahn should have recused herself from voting on the Fantasy Studios conversion given the large amount of funds donated to her by biotech interests. 21 biotech executives, only three of which lived in Berkeley, have each donated to Ms. Hahn’s campaign, most at the maximum level of campaign contribution.

This led me in turn to examining Ms. Hahn’s annual disclosure statements of income and investments to the state’s FPPC.

In her FPPC Form 700 filings, dating back to 2020, if not earlier, it appears Ms. Hahn failed to report, as required by the FPPC, her 50% share of yearly earnings from her spouse, who is currently Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mirum Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company. These earnings averaged at least $500,000 per year during this period and were closer to $1 million/year for 2023 and 2024.

A recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing listed Ms. Hahn’s spouse compensation at $4,337,928 for 2023 although this included stock options that may not yet have been awarded.

Ms. Hahn also appeared not to report (other than 2020), as required by the FPPC, her family’s substantial stock holdings in various biotechnology companies. These holdings have been estimated as high as $4 million.

The egregious extent of this under-reporting is particularly troubling given Ms. Hahn’s supposed legal expertise as a graduate of Stanford Law School, and her husband’s work experience as a Chief Financial Officer responsible for numerous SEC and government filings.

This lack of reporting should not be the result of lack of knowledge or unfamiliarity with reviewing necessary filing requirements.

Paola Laverde
District 5
Concerned Berkeley Citizen
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Join us at the City of Berkeley's Council Meeting on July 30 to Protect US Filmmaker/Artists Tenants from being Displaced at the Fantasy Film Center. I have been a tenant at this amazing building for 35 years.

A few tickets o the World Premiere, Friday May 3 for From Here/From There Film at DocLands are available.

Tina and my (Jed) son, Michael Sean Hagler-Pitmaster and Owner of Smoke Berkeley BBQ, passed at 4:30AM, this morning. Tina and I spent some really good quality time with Sean yesterday and last night in the ICU at Kaiser Richmond. Late afternoon yesterday, Chaplain Wilson, a gay African American minister from Oakland came by to support us. Chaplain Wilson is on Kaiser’s Palliative Care team. Sitting with Sean we told the minister the story of Sean’s life as we knew it, being his mother and stepfather of 43 years. Chaplain Wilson said some thoughtful words to Sean. He said sharing our stories about Sean helped him know Sean a bit better, another gay man in a new light. The Chaplain had a story to share too.

Last night, Tina told Sean stories of them growing up together and played his favorite songs for him. I touched Sean and spoke with him gently about all the good things he had done in life. I recalled what he and I experienced working as a father son team at my Skate business in Dallas and at Smoke BBQ. I reminded Sean of how many people he touched and helped in his life. And that many of those folks were sending him so much love.

This morning, we told him how much we will miss him, recounting all the times we made dinner together and shared it in the back yard, many times with our friend Yvonne who has MS. Sean always teased Yvonne and made her laugh. She was planning on coming to see Sean this morning by Paratransit.

He was calm last night when we left, and, of course, much calmer this morning. He wasn’t yet cold to the touch when we got there. We kissed his head and touched his body. Tina and I both cried and cried while telling him how much we loved him and that we will always keep him in our thoughts.

I found a couple of photos of Sean, as we were moving out of original Smoke Berkeley and into New Smoke Berkeley @ Spats. In one, Sean looks like he is reflecting on something important. The photo with Tina and Sean shows their unique loving mother and son relationship. I am looking for more photos. I hope folks who have some good photos of Sean will share them with Tina and me.