Mayor
What was the position of Elihu Harris in Apr 1993?
Elihu Harris Elihu Mason Harris ( born August 15 , 1947 ) is a retired American politician and college administrator . A member of the Democratic Party , Harris served as the 46th Mayor of Oakland , California from 1991 to 1999 ; he previously served for 12 years ( 1978–1990 ) as a member of the California State Assembly . He was the Chancellor of Peralta Community College District from 2003 to 2010 . Early life . Born in Los Angeles , Harris moved to Berkeley , California during childhood and graduated from Berkeley High School in 1965 . Harris earned a B.A . in political science from California State University , Hayward , where he served as student body vice-president . Harris received a Master of Public Policy from University of California , Berkeley in 1969 and a J.D . degree from University of California , Davis School of Law in 1972 . He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi . Career . Harris was the Mayor of Oakland from 1991 until 1999 . He has also served as a California Uniform Law Commissioner since 1981 . From 1992 to 1997 , Harris co-owned Oakland , California radio station KDIA along with former California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown . Harris also co-owned Fresno radio station KFIG with Mark A . Lindquist until it was sold in 2005 and disbanded on Jan 16 , 2008 . Harris was the first major party politician to lose a state legislative race to a Green Party candidate . He ran in a 1999 special election in hopes of regaining the California State Assembly seat he previously held from 1978 to 1990 , but lost to Green challenger Audie Bock . In the 1999 election , Harris , an African-American , sent targeted mailers to households in selected precincts , mostly African American , urging voters to vote for him and receive a fried chicken meal if they presented a voting stub at selected supermarkets . There was voter backlash because of the perception of vote buying and had a subtext of racism . In his losing effort , Harris outspent Bock better than 16 to 1 ( $550,000 to $33,000 ) . His legacy in Oakland includes the naming of the Elihu M . Harris State Office Building after him , which was built in downtown Oakland near the pre-existing Federal Building and City Hall . The three proximate structures form a large triangle of massive government buildings in a larger business redevelopment area . From 2003 to 2010 , Harris was Chancellor of Peralta Community College District . He had been interim chancellor from 2003 until receiving the post on a permanent basis . Following news coverage that raised questions about Harris leadership , his contract was not renewed by the Board of Trustees when it expired on June 30 , 2010 . Harris and his wife also run a Berkeley funeral home that his parents once owned , according to county records listing him as its owner . FBI investigation . In March 2011 , Harris was investigated by the FBI in relation to a no-bid contract awarded to his business partner , Mark A . Lindquist of 1701 Associates , Inc , for $948,796 back when Harris was still Chancellor of Peralta and Lindquist was still President of the district’s foundation , serving as a boardmember on its Board of Trustees . There were complaints about Lindquists work and Harris did not disclose his business relationship with Lindquist until after the contract was awarded . Harris also declared his Piedmont partnership with Lindquist and three other partners in 2008 after Lindquist won the contract . But Harris and Lindquist signed real estate documents in August 2007 when the business bought a Piedmont property from Pacific Gas and Electric Company . Records show the deal had been negotiated for more than a year .