Gonzalez threatens elephant man!
(While ‘Swells’ watch monkeys screw)
If you ever needed to see an example of why privatization of public assets is a bad idea, you should have seen the exchange last week between the new head of the San Francisco Zoo (owned by you & managed by a gang of incompetent & kinky rich louts) … between the zoo’s new director (Manuel Mollinedo) and Board President Matt Gonzalez.
Dufty has been doing good work
The conversation took place before Bevan Dufty’s City Services committee and apart from content, was full of interesting asides. For instance, there was the first sign that Gonzo’s ‘lame duck President’ status could start to become a bigger factor as the year wears on. At one point, committee Vice-Chair, Fiona Ma (sponsor of resolution) … she ducked out and when member Tony Hall went to take a few calls, only Dufty and ‘guest’ Gonzalez remained. … That’s when it happened.
“Mr. Chairman, we no longer have a quorum.”
That’s what the clerk told Dufty. ? It was a surprise to Gonzalez who, as Board President can pretty much go any damned where he wants. I mean, he created the committees! Here he was trying to question a pool of very talented and distinguished witnesses and the clerk is trying to cut him off.
Looking more than a bit perturbed, Gonzalez looked down at the clerk, then to the Deputy City Attorney: “I am the President of the Board! Will it be necessary for me to appoint myself to this committee?” … It wasn’t. … And, here came the elephant man.
Noah’s dna?
When Manuel Mollinedo arrived from San Diego a couple of months ago ? the ‘Swells’ got him a de rigeur puff piece in the Chronicle that seemed to say he was the best friend of animals since Noah. They might be right in at least one way.
Noah, you recall, got famous by stuffing animals into as small a place as possible and trusting God to keep them alive. ? Clearly, this is also the guiding philosophy at the San Francisco Zoo. (Since the zoo was privatized a decade or so back, pretty much all of the money - 75% - has gone into buildings where the Swells have meetings and party and sell things.) What kind of director would want to serve under a board of directors with such a priority? (Oh yeah, on Valentine’s day, the Swells all come out to the zoo and drink champagne while they are driven from cage to cage to watch the animals have sex. ? Or, maybe it’s the other way around. I’ve never been certain.)
Back to Mollinedo. Turns out this was the same guy who refused to cooperate with an animal rights group raising money to move the elephant from San Diego that ended up here, from moving the elephant into a sanctuary. … Nope, he sent the poor beast into an enclosure something like 50’x50’ when such animals need miles to roam. … Yeah, he was awaiting a decision from “The American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s Species Survival Plan Committee” about where the elephant should go.
It’s your friggin’ elephant!
When Gonzalez found out this was the guy who had sent the elephant here and that Mollinedo was now attempting to block the move of the 2 surviving elephants, he got a bit pissed. … Further testimony revealed that Mollinedo’s revered ‘AZA’ was simply a trading association. Let me explain.
Although, as taxpayers, you are the ultimate owner of all of the zoo’s animals (a point Gonzalez made forcefully – ?as the elected representatives of the owners of these animals?) ? though you own them and the entire facilities, in your wisdom, you handed over control of the zoo to that kinky bunch of socialites. Kind of like the equivalent group that runs your Fine Arts Museum, they can buy, sell or trade everything in the place. In the case of the zoo, this includes ‘Dumbo’.
Mollinedo refused to promise anything regarding the elephants. It was clear that he didn’t give a shit about them. He’d gladly send them to an even smaller enclosure in another zoo to keep up good relations with his cabal of fellow animal slave traders.
Resolutions should be perforated
Remember, all of this was about a simple Board resolution. These things aren’t binding in any way. For all of their innate value, they should be perforated. At least then, you can tear off strips and wipe your butt with them. That’s all they’re worth. Just ask Aaron Peskin and the seniors who watched in awe as the Department of Public Works smiled at a Peskin resolution to keep Ferry Park intact and bulldozed an unneeded road right through it. The next day! … Resolutions … Resolutions … (What did you do on ‘Elizabeth Goldstein day’?) … This director from the zoo wasn’t even going to smile and say he’d do everything he could. He didn’t work for Dufty or Ma or Hall or Gonzalez. He was hired by the Swells. Gonzalez got his attention.
“How much do you get from us a year?”
Yep, he said something like that. When he does stuff like that, it makes me smile and remember the brash kid who first sat down at the Board (can it be less than 4 years?) … The corners of the zoo director’s mouth turned downward. … “About 4 million dollars.” … Now, I’m gonna approximate the rest of the conversation, but, trust me … it’s pretty accurate.
Gonzalez: “Do you need that 4 million dollars?”
Director: “Of course we do.”
Gonzalez: “These are tough times and we have lots of budget cuts to make and I can think of lots of places we can spend that 4 million dollars.”
(It was at about this point that Supervisor Ma returned and realized she’d walked right into the center of a confrontation brought about by her resolution – now, let me throw some more roses at Dufty … throw him a bow tie and the guy is the perfect Hollywood picture of a referee … more and more, he’s become one in Board intercourse … in this case, with a concerned look on his face, he gently got in between the two contenders – so, Ma comes back and Gonzalez finishes)
Gonzalez: ‘I want to know that those elephants are being acclimated for their move to the California elephant sanctuary where they will have adequate space with wading and soaking ponds. If this does not happen, I will personally be there to oppose any funds for your agency.’ (this paragraph is paraphrased)
Director: “We have already begun to acclimate them for their move.”
I think the elephants recognized Mollinedo
There was talk a couple of years ago that the zoo would be better off without elephants. Well, they got the right guy to do the job. If only he had the best interests of the animals in mind. … Two elephants of four have died since the guy became director. … Now, I’m certainly not saying the guy personally killed the elephants. I’m saying that conditions such as people like him consider acceptable for the animals are in some cases, a sentence to an early death. And, … he doesn’t care. He knew in San Diego that he was sending that poor elephant into a horribly confined area in San Francisco, but he did it anyway. He knows that both of your remaining elephants would be far better off in a spacious sanctuary, but, … he insists upon reserving the right to send them to another tightly packed zoo. … Noah? Naw, the Chronicle puff piece was just another smokescreen for a heartless bureaucrat. Mollinedo and Noah have a basic difference. While it’s true that they’re both charged with gathering and caring for exotic animals in a small space, Noah had to do it. God was on Noah’s side. Noah answered to God. Mollinedo answers to a bunch of arrogant and tasteless, selfish millionaires. Since they’ve taken over, the administration and gift spaces in buildings (always Swell nests) this space has increased, while animal facilities deteriorate and animals die. … Oh yeah, for $8 ($10 for your friend from Oakland) … you can watch the animals suffer.
Zoo as template
They gave the old public library at Civic Center to the Asian Museum people for $1. Like the zoo, it costs you $10 to get in there now. After the ‘Friends of Golden Gate Park’ rebuilt the Conservatory of Flowers for free, it suddenly costs you $5 to get in. The list goes on.
My yacht’s bigger than your yacht
The way this thing works is that if you’re rich, you spend all that’s necessary to get your candidate elected mayor. That gives you 99% control of the money in the General Fund plus appointment powers over the billions controlled by ‘enterprise’ operations like SFO and the PORT.
Then, you choose which City properties you’d like to personally control for the private use of you and your friends. Places like the museums and the yacht harbors and the golf course and the stables in the park with the polo field. The water and sewer system. … then
Then, you let em rot
Defer maintenance in all of the facilities that you want to take over and blame their sad state upon the incompetence of City employees. Despite the fact that you’ve fired gardeners and carpenters, then hired more bureaucrats with their own PR and security staff. … Let the Chronicle run pictures of how bad the harbor is and announce that you’re going to rebuild the yacht slips and as long as you’re at it you’re going to go ahead and put a new breakwater out there that’s much larger than the old one and that is also not recommended by any expert on coastal erosion who warn strongly against it … but, Newsom & Peskin push it through … Reason for the new breakwater?
Bigger yachts
Yeah, they’re cutting out most of the berths for the little 15 or 20 footers and making serious-ass big slips for yachts over 50’. ? Now, I know that like me, you own a yacht of over 50 feet and that this is OK with you ? but what about the poor yacht owners who can’t afford the new digs? ? Yep, even the friggin’ yacht harbor is being gentrified.
Where was I?
How’d I get from talking about elephants to yachts? Sometimes I amaze even me. … Yeah, the Randall Museum.
Do not privatize the Randall!
Ever been to the Randall museum at night? Lord, Lord, what an incredible view. … That will get you on a lot of lists you don’t really want to be on. The one the Randall got on was the list of the 20 or so Swells who formed a group calling themselves: ‘Friends of the Randolph’. They want to take the place over. They got the City to fire the lady who’d been director of the place for the past 23 years & announced they’d pick the new director once they’re handed control of the space … and, they’d pay the director themselves. … You see the tie between the Randall and the Zoo? The new group of ‘friends’ will hire a flunky who’ll toe the line in transforming the facilities into a great place to close off to the public and have a great party. In fact, they’ve already cut some rules for the kids (and, they’re not even in charge yet). They don’t want the kids crawling on the sculptures there. Now, that would sound reasonable until you realize the sculptures were designed for kids to climb all over and kids climbed all over them for over half a century when they were in the play area of the Valencia Gardens apts.. … Let’s close on a lighter note.
Peskin to coach Stanford?
Downtown only needs to shake loose one Progressive supervisor to have a guaranteed sustainable mayoral veto on ANY legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors. Back channel gossip has some very interesting offers being made to incumbent board members willing to trade their elected positions in exchange for a larger salaried, higher profile and more secure position. A couple of rumors that people swear have been making the rounds:
Aaron Peskin (actually has 3 offers)
Stanford basketball coach. Salary 1.5 million
Archbishop of San Francisco. Salary unlimited (plus, as a perk, he can send people to Hell)
Makeup man at Centerfolds (no salary)
Jake McGoldrick (offers he can’t refuse)
Coroner/Medical Examiner. Salary 250k
Gap runway model. Salary unlimited
Unlimited cell phone minutes.
Sandoval will listen to anyone, but he won’t leave the Board. … First, because he’s never gotten so many offers and so much respect in his life and knows it’s only going to get better and, second … he can’t be beaten in 11.
Then, there’s always the possibility that Gonzalez (who loves surprises) will surprise us all and quit before November. ? Wouldn’t that be a riot? Given the boy’s history, let’s guess a few things he might trade for his Board seat. ? Naw, let’s not.
Housekeeping item
Hey, to all … thanks for the house-sitting gigs. I’ve watched all sorts of things that crawl, run and fly over the past few years and I’m grateful for the opportunity to live with your pets and raid your liquor cabinets. I’ve lived like a king from the vineyards in Sonoma, to penthouses in Russian Hill and pied a’ terres in the Mission. Give me a call if you have to scoot out of town. I promise I’ll treat your animals better than the zoo treats your elephants.
Define ‘work’:
