At the end of the year, Dennis Herrera will step down as San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) general manager, marking the end of a 25-year career working for the City.
Appointed to the lead SFPUC by former Mayor London Breed, Herrera previously served as San Francisco’s elected City Attorney from 2002 to 2021.
“My career with the City has been unbelievably rewarding. It’s time to take the next step in my journey,” Herrera said.
Under his leadership, the SFPUC finalized its 10-year Capital Improvement Plan, made progress toward securing regional water availability agreements, and advanced efforts to value Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s assets as part of a multi-year attempt to municipalize the for-profit utility’s San Francisco infrastructure.
Herrera attributes much of his management capabilities to his two decades leading the City Attorney’s Office.
“That experience taught me how to think strategically and understand things from a manager’s perspective. A big part of success is motivating your workforce to carry out the plan,” Herrera reflected.
Herrera, who has Colombian and Italian roots, grew up in Glen Cove on Long Island, New York. After graduating from George Washington University Law School, he arrived in San Francisco in 1987, quickly joining the North by Northwest Democratic club and volunteering on local campaigns. In 1990, future Supervisor Carole Migden appointed him to the Waterfront Plan Advisory Board as her representative, taking advantage of a selection structure that allowed both sitting officials and supervisorial candidates on the ballot to nominate members.
In 1993, Herrera bought a home on Tennessee Street in an area real estate agents then pitched as “lower Potrero Hill”— known today as Dogpatch. That same year, the Clinton administration appointed him to the U.S. Maritime Administration in Washington, D.C. He returned to San Francisco in 1996 to become a partner at the maritime law firm Kelly, Gill, Sherburne & Herrera.
Then-Mayor Willie Brown appointed Herrera to the San Francisco Transportation Commission in 1996, and to the Police Commission in 2000, where Herrera was elected president after just one year of service.
In 2001, Herrera became the first Latino elected as San Francisco’s City Attorney. He would be reelected five times.
A highlight of Herrera’s career was his fierce legal defense of same-sex marriage licenses, a battle sparked in 2004 when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the City to issue them. Herrera argued that California’s marriage laws were unconstitutional. His office built the foundational evidentiary record outlining the harms of marriage discrimination through years of California court trails. This extensive legislative and factual groundwork paved the legal pathway for the landmark 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
“Dennis went in to defend the Mayor and the City where there was no legal precedent for the City to act,” recalled Therese Stewart, presiding justice of Division Two of the 1st District Court of Appeal of California, who served as Herrera’s chief deputy City Attorney during that period. “We pushed hard against legal boundaries to change the law through the courts… Dennis got it. I could see and feel how much this battle mattered to him.”
Herrera’s office consistently picked high-profile national fights. In 2017, he successfully sued the Trump Administration over Executive Order 13768, which attempted to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in San Francisco’s favor, declaring the order unconstitutional. That same year, Herrera sued Equifax for failing to protect the data of 15 million state residents, filed multiple lawsuits against the National Rifle Association (NRA) over gun regulations, and sued five major oil conglomerates—including BP and Chevron—demanding billions to fortify local infrastructure against climate-induced sea-level rise.
The Equifax data breach lawsuit eventually contributed to a $700 million multi-state consumer settlement that established stringent new data security mandates for the credit reporting giant. His litigation forced the NRA to disband its unpermitted corporate-sponsored insurance program, “Carry Guard,” inside the state of California. The groundbreaking 2017 public nuisance climate change suit against Big Oil survived years of jurisdiction battles. It set a legal precedent when both the U.S. Supreme Court and local appellate courts cleared the way for the cities’ cases to proceed in state courts, laying the structural groundwork for subsequent climate accountability lawsuits across the country.
Between 2005 and 2010 Herrera lent his legal weight to a grassroots battle to decommission the Potrero Generating Station, which shuttered in 2011.
“He worked with the community for years to get rid of the power plant, taking on a leadership role,” said former Mayor Art Agnos, who served from 1988 to 1992, noting that the southeastern waterfront had long been treated as a dumping ground.
Potrero Hill native Kimiko Burton, whom Herrera hired in 2003 to run the Children and Family Services team, remembers meeting him on Russian Hill years before becoming his neighbor.
“He is the consummate professional, but also a kind and caring person,” Burton said, praising Herrera’s focus on breaking down institutional silos.
Susan Eslick, who has lived across the street from Herrera for more than 30 years, called him a “straight shooter” who was accessible to southeastern residents even after rising to municipal power.
Dames Shouman, owner of Reno’s Liquors on 22nd Street, echoed the sentiment.
“I’ve seen him talking and listening to Hill and Dogpatch residents but also take the time to clean up litter outside,” Shouman said.
“I raised my son here. I saw the progression of Piccino from a little corner coffee shop to a burgeoning empire,” Herrera said.
He’s a fan of local improvements, including the Green Benefit District’s revitalization of Angel Alley and recent renovations to Esprit Park. Recently, he switched from relying on his car to get around to depending on the Third Street light rail and local public transit.
“At first, no one knew where Dogpatch was. It was an outlier neighborhood,” Herrera said. “Now it’s become a mature, recognized neighborhood… That’s mirrored my progression as a person and a professional. I closed my career right when the neighborhood became an exciting place to live.”
While he’s retiring from public office, Herrera plans to stay active through part-time consulting and helping local nonprofits.
“Make contacts early and keep in touch,” Herrera advised. “That friendliness, that transparency, benefits everyone.”
Lori Higa 
Tracy Tanner 