The Northern California Carpenter - May 2012 Vol. 15 No. 5

Pat Mulligan, Local 22, appointed Director of SF Local Hire

Pat Mulligan, Financial Secretary for Local 22, was appointed as the Director of San Francisco's Local Hire program in April. Mulligan has been a delegate to the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council for 15 years, and is also a trustee and delegate to the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council.

When Pat Mulligan, a union carpenter for 23 years and Local 22's Financial Secretary for the last 9, traded in his tool belt for a desk in San Francisco's City Hall, he kept his commitment to people working in the construction industry.

Appointed by Mayor Edwin Lee a month ago, Pat Mulligan began his work as Director of San Francisco's Local Hire Policy program on April 30. The Local Hire ordinances mandate hiring a certain percentage of local residents—this year it's at least 25 percent—on all city-funded projects, as well as putting a "good faith effort" toward local hiring on other projects that receive Planning Department approval.

"My role in overseeing these ordinances is to make them work for carpenters and the construction industry as a whole," Mulligan said.

The San Francisco native will also oversee the CityBuild Academy, run by the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Operating on one of the campuses of San Francisco City College, the academy prepares city residents for careers in local construction.

"Local Hire is a business service with social benefits," Mulligan said.

And understanding what kinds of benefits—both business and social—accompany steady union employment is something Mulligan knows first-hand. He's the son of a 60-year member of Local 22, and the brother of another union carpenter. Moreover, Mulligan says, "I've worked on high-rises, bridges, stadiums and churches—many of them in San Francisco."

He's also served as a delegate to the Regional Council for 15 years, and is a trustee and delegate to the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council as well.

Mulligan, who brings hands-on experience as a carpenter, along with ample industry knowledge and a familiarity with the city's political, historical and labor landscape, sees his new Director position as an opportunity to help San Francisco's Local Hire program run smoothly, and do right by local residents and the construction industry in the process.