Joseph Lawrence Alioto (February 12, 1916 – January 29, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 36th
mayor of San Francisco
The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, from 1968 to 1976.
Biography
Alioto was born in San Francisco in 1916. His father, Giuseppe Alioto, was a Sicilian immigrant who owned and operated several fish processing companies. His mother, Domenica Mae Lazio, was born in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. His parents met on a fishing boat while escaping the
1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Education
He attended Sacred Heart High School (presently
Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, commonly known as SHC or SH, is a Catholic school located in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Founded in 1852, Sacred Heart Cathedral is the oldest Catholic secondary school and wa ...
).
He graduated with honors from
St. Mary's College, Moraga, California in 1937 and from law school at
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...
with honors in 1940.
Law practice
Alioto worked for the
Antitrust Division of the
Justice Department
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
and then for the Board of Economic Warfare. He returned to San Francisco after World War II and started an antitrust practice, representing
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
and
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...
, among others, eventually becoming a millionaire. He was on the briefs in ''
Radovich v. National Football League
''Radovich v. National Football League'' (NFL), 352 U.S. 445 (1957), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that professional football, unlike professional baseball, was subject to antitrust laws. It was the third of three such cases heard by th ...
'' and argued ''
Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp.'', 370 U.S. 690 (1962), an antitrust landmark, and ''
Utah Pie Co. v. Continental Baking Co.'', 386 U.S. 685 (1967), all three
Supreme Court of the United States cases. In Radovich, the Supreme Court held that professional football, unlike baseball, was subject to antitrust laws. Continental Ore is one of the most comprehensive and important antitrust cases ever decided by the Supreme Court.
In 1980, he represented
Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders in a landmark antitrust case entitled ''
Los Angeles Coliseum Commission v. The NFL''. The case established the right of football franchises to move to football markets throughout the United States without the approval of other franchise owners. In 1993, he represented his father-in-law
Billy Sullivan in his lawsuit against the NFL. The court ruled that Sullivan was forced by the league to sell his team at below market value and awarded him $114 million.
Early government career
Alioto served on the
San Francisco Board of Education
The San Francisco Board of Education is the school board for the City and County of San Francisco. It is composed of seven Commissioners, elected by voters across the city to serve 4-year terms. It is subject to local, state, and federal laws, an ...
from 1948 to 1954; and in 1955, he served as the first Chairman of the
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) was an urban renewal agency active from 1948 until 2012, with purpose to improve the urban landscape through "redesign, redevelopment, and rehabilitation" of specific areas of the city.
SFRA demoli ...
.
Mayoralty
Alioto signed on as campaign finance chairman for the mayoral candidacy of California State Senator
J. Eugene McAteer in the
1967 San Francisco mayoral election. When McAteer collapsed and died while playing a game of
handball, Alioto entered the race.
John Shelley, the incumbent, bowed out, allegedly because of poor health but probably because Alioto was more pro-development than Shelley; additionally, Shelley was expected to lose a re-match against his 1963 opponent,
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
Harold Dobbs. Alioto defeated Dobbs, 44.2%-37.8%, in an 18-candidate field. He would be reelected
in 1971.
Alioto delivered the speech nominating
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
at the
1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus maki ...
. There were rumors that Humphrey would select Alioto as his running mate, but Humphrey selected
Edmund Muskie. An article in the September 23, 1969 issue of ''
Look'' magazine claimed that Alioto had business and personal ties to the Los Angeles
Mafioso boss
Jimmy Fratianno
Aladena James Fratianno (born Aladena Fratianno; November 14, 1913 – June 29, 1993), also known as "Jimmy the Weasel", was an Italian-born American mobster who was acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family. After his arrest in 1977, Fratianno ...
. Alioto later sued ''Look'' for libel and won a $450,000 judgment.
In the course of the litigation, Alioto proved that ''Look'', desperate and on the verge of bankruptcy, simply conjured up (with no proof) an alleged mob meeting in
Vacaville, California
Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it t ...
at the
Nut Tree Restaurant.
He later claimed that he had documents that showed that the
Nixon administration
Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment because of the Watergate Scanda ...
leaked
disinformation
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate.
The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...
to the magazine in order to stall his career.
In January 1970, the State of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, three cities, a port authority, and eight public utilities brought a civil suit against Alioto because he split a $2.3 million fee in an antitrust case with Washington State Attorney General John J. O'Connell and an O’Connell deputy, George Faler. Attorney General O’Connell had maintained Public Utility Districts as private clients during his time as AG. The Public Utility Districts were suing electrical manufactures that were fixing prices at an improperly high level. The case began in 1962 and O’Connell retained Alioto, a very successful anti-trust attorney, to work on the case. Originally, Alioto agreed to receive 15% of what was awarded with a $1 million cap. Later, O’Connell, apparently without telling his clients, abolished the fee ceiling. Alioto ended up receiving approximately $2.3 million and gave $802,815 of those fees to O’Connell and Faler. The state and other groups sued to have the entire $2.3 million returned; Alioto successfully sought a change of venue from Washington to San Francisco. The trial took six months and jury unanimously found the three were entitled to the $2.3 million.
Alioto was also indicted by a federal
grand jury in March 1971 on bribery charges because of the means by which the fees were awarded. When the case went to court, Alioto was cleared of the federal charges by a judge who ordered acquittal because he was convinced a jury would not convict when it considered the evidence.
Under California law it was illegal for public employees to strike. Nevertheless, city employees called a strike in March 1974, picketing city hall and shutting down municipal services. After a week Mayor Alioto and the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors agreed to the strikers' demands. The city controller, however, refused to pay out what he believed were illegal salaries. In April 1975 the
California Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...
ordered the city controller to pay the salaries, with Justice
Mathew Tobriner
Mathew Oscar Tobriner (April 2, 1904 – April 7, 1982) was an American lawyer and law professor who served as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court from 1962 to 1982.
Early life and education
A native of San Francisco, Tobriner ...
finding that contracts secured through illegal strikes are still legally enforceable.
Major crime became a problem with the
Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history. It became a fixture of popular c ...
, the
Symbionese Liberation Army
The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the ...
attacks and the Black Power
Zebra Murders
The "Zebra" murders were a string of racially motivated murders and related attacks committed by a group of four black serial killers in San Francisco, California, United States, from October 1973 to April 1974; they killed at least 15 people a ...
all occurring during Alioto’s mayoralty.
During the Zebra Murders in 1974, Alioto's wife, Angelina Alioto, vanished, reappearing after 18 days to claim that she had taken off to "punish" her husband for neglect. During the time Angelina was missing, she toured the
missions of California
The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a
series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests o ...
as part of a religious pilgrimage. Angelina filed divorce proceedings against him in 1975. He remarried in 1978.
Alioto ran in the
1974 Democratic primary for governor, finishing second behind
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of ...
.
In July 1975 the
LAPD unexpectedly announced a pay raise. For years the
San Francisco Police Department had been the top paid in the state, with the
San Francisco Fire Department
The San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) provides firefighting, hazardous materials response services, technical rescue services and emergency medical response services to the City and County of San Francisco, California.
History
Volunteer Depa ...
guaranteed the same pay. The SF police promptly demanded they be paid more than the LAPD.
[Comment, ''Emergency Mayoral Power: An Exercise in Charter Interpretation'', 65 Cal. L. Rev. 686.](_blank)
/ref> The Board of Supervisors, however, determined that the pay raise would drive the city into deficit, and unanimously approved a raise only half of what the police requested.
California law still prohibited public employees from striking. The police and firefighters elected to strike anyway, with 90% illegally abandoning their posts.
The city then obtained a court order declaring the strike illegal and enjoining the officers to return to work. The court messenger delivering the order was met with violence and the police continued to strike.
Only managers and African-American officers remained, with 45 officers and 3 fire trucks responsible for the whole city. Supervisor Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she wa ...
pleaded for Mayor Alioto to ask Governor Jerry Brown to call out the National Guard to patrol the streets but Alioto refused.
When enraged citizens confronted police at the picket lines the police arrested them. Federal authorities were forced to intervene after striking firefighters attempted to seize San Francisco International Airport. Heavy drinking on the picket line became common and after striking police officers started shooting out streetlights the ACLU obtained a court order prohibiting strikers from carrying their service revolvers. Again, the police ignored the court order.
On August 20 a bomb detonated at the Mayor’s home with a sign reading "Don’t Threaten Us" left on his lawn. On August 21 Mayor Alioto advised the Supervisors that they should concede to the strikers' demands. The Supervisors unanimously refused. Mayor Alioto then immediately declared a state of emergency, assumed "legislative powers", and granted the strikers’ demands.
The Supervisors and taxpayers sued but the court reaffirmed that contracts obtained through illegal strikes are still legally enforceable. Nevertheless, the Supervisors placed on the November ballot charter initiatives revoking the mayor’s emergency powers, requiring police to be automatically fired if they strike, preventing firemen from holding second jobs, and requiring future pay raises to be averaged with California’s other large cities. All the ballot initiatives passed by extremely large margins.
In 1974 and 1975, Alioto served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors
The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayors or other chief elected officials. The organization was founded i ...
Later life
After he left office, Alioto went back into private practice. He and his son Joseph Jr. lost a major malpractice case against a cattle rancher in 1980. He received millions in legal fees after counseling the Oakland Raiders win against the City of Oakland. In 1991, he and his son went to battle in court against each other over legal fees in the Raiders case.
Death
Alioto died of prostate cancer in San Francisco on January 29, 1998 and was interred at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, California
Colma (Ohlone for "Springs") is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,507 at the 2020 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924.
...
. A cenotaph is located at Holy Cross Cemetery (Section D).
Legacy
Alioto presided over a time of turmoil and change in San Francisco.
Events that occurred during his tenure as mayor included strife in the Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
with the drug culture, anti-Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
demonstrations, the start of the gay Castro District
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
, Black Panther marches, the Zebra murders
The "Zebra" murders were a string of racially motivated murders and related attacks committed by a group of four black serial killers in San Francisco, California, United States, from October 1973 to April 1974; they killed at least 15 people a ...
and Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...
killings. He ran on a platform of reducing taxes and fighting crime.
Alioto put his energy behind the development of three major building projects: the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART); the Transamerica Pyramid
The Transamerica Pyramid is a 48-story futurist skyscraper in San Francisco, California, United States, and the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline. Located at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets in the c ...
; and the Embarcadero Center
Embarcadero Center is a commercial complex of five office towers, two hotels, a shopping center with more than 125 stores, bars, and restaurants, and a fitness center on three levels located in San Francisco, California. There is an outdoor ice sk ...
. These efforts engendered opposition in the development stage but were eventually built, transforming the quality of life and skyline of San Francisco.
Alioto helped to bring more minorities into city politics, launched a reform of the city charter, and mediated protracted police and fire department strikes in 1975. Alioto's tenure began with a citywide newspaper strike of the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' and the '' San Francisco Examiner'' in February 1968. The first faculty strike at a college or university in the United States was at San Francisco State College, now San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
, during 1968–1969; Alioto gave the law enforcement resources of the City and County of San Francisco to the university president, S.I. Hayakawa
The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. E ...
.
The Joseph L. Alioto Recreation Center at his alma mater, Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California
Moraga is a town in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family. As of 2020, Moraga had a total population of 16,870 people. Moraga is ...
opened in 2015 and is named after him. The privately funded facility cost $23.5 million, and includes an outdoor aquatics center, indoor exercise equipment, a rock climbing wall, and a cafe. The center serves the general student body, while varsity athletes use separate dedicated training facilities.
After his death, the Civic Center Plaza
Civic Center Plaza, also known as Joseph Alioto Piazza, is the plaza immediately east of San Francisco City Hall in Civic Center, San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California. Civic Center Plaza occupies two blocks bounded by McAllister, Larkin ...
in San Francisco was dedicated as the "Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza" on October 28, 1998. Additionally, there is a mini park and community garden named for him in the Mission District of San Francisco.
Alioto family
Alioto had five sons and a daughter with his first wife Angelina Genaro, and a son and daughter with his second wife Kathleen Sullivan.
Members of Alioto's family are still involved in San Francisco politics. His second wife, Kathleen Sullivan Alioto
Kathleen Sullivan Alioto (born June 20, 1944) is an American educator and politician who served on the Boston School Committee as a member (1974–79) and its president (1977). She played a role in the desegregation of the Boston public schools. ...
, was a member of the Boston School committee and a candidate for a United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
seat in Massachusetts in the 1978 primary. Sullivan and Alioto married in 1978 and remained together until his death in 1998. Because they were both divorced, the wedding was performed by excommunicate
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the Koinonia, communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The ...
d Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
and activist Joseph O'Rourke.
Angela Alioto
Angela Mia Alioto Veronese (born October 20, 1949) is an American attorney, politician, member of the Secular Franciscan Order, and founder of the Knights of Saint Francis at the Porziuncola Nuova. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the d ...
, the daughter from his first marriage, served eight years as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, two as its President. One of Angela's three sons, Joe Alioto Veronese, campaigned for a California State Senate seat in 2008. One of his granddaughters, Michela Alioto-Pier
Michela Alioto-Pier (born April 29, 1968) is an American politician and small business owner who served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2004 to 2011. A Democrat, she represented District 2, encompassing the Marina and ...
, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 2003 by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California f ...
and won election to the Board in 2004. His grandson Joseph Alioto Jr. ran an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in District 3. Several of his sons, as well as many of his grandchildren, are successful attorneys and businesspersons in the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alioto, Joseph
1916 births
1998 deaths
Alioto family
Catholics from California
United States Department of Justice lawyers
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery (Colma, California)
Mayors of San Francisco
Deaths from prostate cancer
American politicians of Italian descent
Saint Mary's College of California alumni
Columbus School of Law alumni
Deaths from cancer in California
20th-century American lawyers
Presidents of the United States Conference of Mayors
Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park