Watching City Hall #307 (8-17-04)“I’ll vouch for him. He’s a political satirist.”
Jack Davis validates h. brown
I got to meet the rich man’s Yoda yesterday and it was a thrill. Especially, given the circumstances. Which are, I’m running (not very hard) for supe in San Francisco’s District 5, which has been called “the most liberal place in the world”. I’d gotten an expected call informing me that the powers in the department were challenging my claim to be a ‘political satirist’.
There I was at D.O.E.
At the counter of the Department of Elections, actually. … You know, I was down there with the ‘people in the basement’. … I don’t like them very much and they return the favor as they’re able.
These are the same people (Director/puppet, John Arntz, in particular) … the same people who said that just because people wrote in the name of Terry Baum for Congress, did not mean that they meant to vote for Terry Baum. … Oh, first Arntz said the sensible thing. He said that since people wrote in Baum’s name that obviously they wanted to vote for her. … Then, a couple of days later (after pressure from the Democratic machine, you can bet) … then, he does a complete 180 and throws out enough votes to keep the Green, Baum off the ballot. … It was so, … so, … so, like Florida.
Now, they’re fucking with me
I’d gotten a heads-up last week from a source inside the department that they’d be challenging my occupation, which I listed as ‘political satirist’. My friend said that I’d be challenged cause I made no money from writing, but that all I had to do was say that I’d gotten ‘in-kind’ compensation in the form of temporary housing or food or whatever for my writing. … Sooo, I went down to the DOE to attempt to regain my proper job description.
That didn’t work
It’s a small thing, really. I don’t care if they list me as ‘shit disturber’ or ‘Hell raiser’ or something else … the other candidates in 5 call me the ‘Court Jester’, which I appreciate. … Still, I despise John Arntz and it was the principle of the thing. I knew I couldn’t beat them. I knew they’d offer me the opportunity to sue them for my proper title (which they did, breaking out a schedule of when lawsuits were due) … knew they’d do that. Knew that their real purpose was to draw off resources from the Left to challenge such petty crap.
“Do you KNOW who this guy is!?”
I was talking about Jack Davis. … That’s what I told the clerk (nice young guy named Warren – ‘Hi, Warren!’) nice young guy who informed me out front that he was ready to call the guards if I got out of line. … Don’t you just love that kind of shit? … I wasn’t out of line. Not in the least. That just ain’t me. I told him that I was too little and too old for that kind of thing but his comments worried me a bit. … He threatened me, out front. … Now, that’s a chilling message. … This, brand-new clerk had been informed that not only was it OK to fuck with Greens and their supporters, but that you could have them arrested if they complained. … That’s why I was a little surprised when the #1 Samurai from the other side pipes up in support of my argument.
“You should sue them.”
That’s what Jack Davis said to me. … He was serious, too. I was energized. … I pointed out to the dummies behind the counter that the guy talking had made 3 mayors, a couple of governors and a raft of other initiatives and candidates. … I mean, you couldn’t get a better reference in the State of California.
“So, sue us.”
Naw, I don’t think so. They demanded documentation that I was, indeed, a ‘political satirist’. I asked Davis to jot down a one-line affirmation that this was fact. … He did so and I stapled it to the department’s document and left after inviting Jack to see the Haslett/Hillis documentary of my run against Newsom in ’02. “Is this your documentation?” said Arntz’s flunkies. I said that it was, flashed my press pass and invited them to call the Mayor’s office to confirm my occupation. They weren’t impressed. “We go by rulings from the Secretary of State.” … Yeah, they told me that. … “Is this the same Secretary of State about to go to prison for ripping off public funds for his last campaign?” … It was the same Secretary of State. … Life is strange.
Gonzalez absent for Sue Cauthen
A big part of the job of the Rules Committee is to vet appointments to the various commissions, advisory committees and the like around the City. … Now, that’s some important shit and you’d have thunk that Matt would certainly slant the composition of the committee toward the Left. … He did the opposite and it came back to haunt us at the meeting of the Rules Committee on August 11th.
The San Francisco Public Library is run by and for the rich. The ‘Friends’ of the Library (what a misnomer) … they’ve siphoned off a couple of million bucks in receipts from donated books and the like a placed it into a slush fund that the Mayor’s office has used to throw parties among other things. … The mayoral appointed Library Commission has approved among other things, the reduction of books and approving a plan (the Board of supes loved it) … approving a plan for the Glen Park Library which made the library there, a second floor unit and junior partner in a condo association (although the City paid for the land, the library can be outvoted on any matter) … junior partner to a supermarket and an RBA market-rate housing developer. … They need oversight.
Matt Gonzalez sits as ‘member’ of the Rules Committee. He appointed Sophie Maxwell as Chair and Michela Pier as Vice Chair. This, cleverly, assures that the Progressive wing of the Board can be outvoted every single time in that committee. … The Library needs oversight.
3 people applied for 2 vacant seats on the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Library. There was a retired police investigator who wanted to look into the workings of the library. He took time out to endorse Sue Cauthen, another candidate. There was Cauthen, a decades long advocate for library services (and member of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force) who promised to shine light into the deliberations of the secretive deliberations and goings on in the organization. Then, there was a woman who read an essay she’d written entitled something like: ‘What I did at the library when I was a little girl.’ or something like that. … A half dozen public speakers rose to endorse Cauthen. There were no supporters whatsoever for the other candidates. … It looked pretty good for the home team until Gonzalez stood up and walked out of the meeting, never to return.
Newsom appointee, Pier immediately nominated the benign essayist. Maxwell immediately agreed. Gonzalez was absent. Then, Pier called Deputy City Attorney Ted (the man) Lakey in to explain why Cauthen shouldn’t be eligible for the remaining seat. … Lakey told them that she WAS eligible but that it was up to them to make the decision. … Pier and Maxwell immediately decided to leave the seat vacant. They ignored the public testimony. They ignored the need for sunshine and oversight at the Library. … Cauthen and the other activists walked out of the hearing room defeated. Pier beamed a smile at her victory and Maxwell’s lips tightened into a grim line. … Gonzalez was absent. … It sucked.
Arson for profit and the DBI
I’m sitting the fabulous digs of Michelle Ruggels and Rich Hillis for a couple of weeks and, thank God, they have cable. … I got to watching some of Channel #26’s new offerings and they are fabulous. … I caught a Police Commission hearing rerun at 3am one night, followed by a 4am rerun of the Department of Building Inspections. It was the DBI hearing that was most exciting.
“People think of this as a dictatorship.”
(Debra Walker speaks)
Artist/Activist/former DBI commissioner, Walker was commenting as to why the DBI gatherings drew such a small audience. … She’s right, too. Watching the hearings, you get the general impression that no one takes a dump unless they clear it with Joe O’Donoghue. … This meeting though, was different.
‘Emergency Demolition’ orders
Just about everything in this City comes down to issues of land use and speculation. It’s been a seller’s market in San Francisco since 1849. … So, what do builders do when there is no land left to build upon? … You tear down something and put a new structure in its place. Preferably, you tear down something that comes under the protection of rent control and replace it with something upon which you can charge market rates. … Chris Daly’s Prop. M, scheduled for the November ballot is a prohibition against the destruction of rent-control housing of 20 units or more. While developers wage their direct war against ‘M’, the DBI was hearing a proposal that amounts to, essentially, an end-run to the measure.
The proposal, presented by Roy Guinane makes approval of emergency demolition permits mandatory after 15 days. … Ooooh, I thought. … As an old firefighter and reader of the newspaper, I smelled future smoke in the air.
Fire follows greedy fellows
‘They’ll just burn the places down.’ … That’s what I was thinking. … Cynic that I am. ‘No one will dare mention that.’ … That was my next thought. … I was wrong.
Key word from public: ‘accelerants’
‘They’ll destroy key structural elements of the buildings.’ … That was another thing that came up. Speaker after speaker took the podium to warn of the dangerous incentive this measure represented. … The commission took the fledgling back under its wing and closed shop. But, it will be back. This same measure, or another like it. It’s about class warfare. Elitism. Greed.
Other items of interest
I want to take a moment to endorse Christine Linnenbach for Supervisor of District #7. I worked with her on the Gonzalez for mayor campaign and found her to be brilliant, even-tempered and like, totally informed, man. Plus, she’s beautiful and Savannah Blackwell’s best buddy. … I like Sean Elsbernd, but he is an appendage of Gavin Newsom, and as such, will primarily serve the interests of downtown. If the citizens of District 7 want apartment towers with no parking along their transit corridors, vote for Sean. If they want classical neighborhood representation from a family that has been guarding the District 7 turf for generations, they should go with Linnenbach.
Gallagher for TI Deputy
In an ideal Progressive world, Sister Bernie Galvin would be appointed to transform Treasure Island into the refuge for the poor and homeless that federal regulations say it should be. Her Deputy would be Paul Boden. … Now, think really hard and guess if this is going to happen.
Nope. What will actually happen is that the island will be handed over to political insiders like Ron Burkle of L.A. (who has Bill Clinton on the charm bracelet of his Board of Directors) and Darius Anderson of Sacramento. … Now, y’all go ahead and bet on that one cause it already happened.
Given that, look around at who the mayor chose and those whom he could have chosen. … First, we got rid of Annemarie Conroy who has the looks and personality of a rabid wolverine. Second, there was talk of appointing Nate Nayman, who is not nearly as cuddly as Conroy. … But, Gavin gives us, instead, the suave and mature former decathlon standout, Tony Hall. And, while Nayman is a lot like Richard Nixon, Tony comes across as more the Burt Lancaster type. Tony is a reasonable, hard working & responsible family man who happens to be a fiscal conservative and a social moderate.
Then, there’s Gallagher
Frank has a little vine covered cottage with a mortgage in Berkeley, a fabulous wife and a baby daughter (Noel & Katie, respectively). Frank’s a great writer, and an ex-bike messenger from a small town in New England. He has season bleacher tickets for da Giants and 2 wonderful aging hounds named Jake and Harvey. He is friendly, funny as hell and generous. … He’s also a talented conservative political consultant who has beaten me and my side’s ass on numerous occasions. I am proud to count him as a close personal friend.
To the Left
Folks, we lost the mayor’s race. … Now, I still (and always will) think we wuz robbed, but either way, we lost. Reality is that for, probably, the next 8 years, we have to deal with the victor (congrats, Gavin) and his appointees. The very most we can hope for is that Gavin includes positive human qualities in his choices. In choosing Tony Hall to head up the TI kingdom, Mayor Newsom has done just that. In choosing Frank Gallagher as his deputy, Tony has done the same. Like or loathe these boys’ politics, you can talk to these guys.
D-5 Candidates’ Collaborative meets challenge
“All for one and one for all!” … That was the unified message the fledgling candidates collective sent to Cheryl Brodie’s SF5T (SF District 5 Together) when they were informed that only 7 of 22 candidates would be invited for formal presentations before SF5T’s forum. Meeting at the stately mansion of candidate Jim Siegel, all but one of the candidates agreed to boycott Brodie’s event unless ALL candidates were invited and allowed to participate equally. As the first venue for the finally settled field was involved, the decision by the candidates undoubtedly saved the Collaborative.
Just ask Chris Daly
If you think it’s not possible to have a credible forum with 22 candidates participating, just ask Chris Daly. In 2000 in District 6, 18 candidates (I was one) took stage after stage by storm in an entertaining revue that produced some of the most original and often hilarious uses of 1 and 2 minute presentations imaginable (you haven’t lived until you’ve heard James Earl Dunne explain in 60 seconds why drilling a huge hole into Nob Hill and filling it with 10,000 homeless people is a good idea). Only 2 months ago, the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Cooperative hosted a public dialogue including over 20 participants divided into 3 groups of candidates who revolved before 3 separate sections of neighborhood audiences. It worked. It will work again. Hey, this is the City that ‘knows how’ and this ain’t no tall hill for a stepper. A talented and fair person like Brodie will find a way to allow all candidates to participate EQUALLY.
Gonzalez, Mirkarimi & duh Greens
The Greens met last night (more fun than watching a greased pig catching contest) … they met and endorsed candidates for District 5. Amid the heavy smell of burned out clutch plates and the stutter of missing gear teeth, the group made Ross Mirkarimi their first choice, Lisa Feldstein their second choice and Susan King their third pick. Fortunately, the group failed to follow local party star and Board of Supes President, Matt Gonzalez who saw fit to abandon the IRV system when he named his mayoral campaign spokesman, Mirkarimi as his sole pick in D5. That shit is strange at best.
The case against Feldstein
Gonzalez believes in people participating in the electoral process. If he hasn’t encouraged you to run for one office or another, you either don’t know him very well or you’re an asshole. Only an idiot would assume that because he thinks you should be a candidate that he’s going to personally carry you into City Hall on his shoulders. … These facts make Lisa Feldstein’s reaction to her failure to obtain a Gonzalez endorsement in 5 regrettable.
“She called him everything but a white man!”
(Eileen Left reading SF Sentinel)
I guess because he isn’t. Still, she managed to play both the race and gender cards against Gonzalez after he formally endorsed Mirkarimi. … I guess he’s lucky she didn’t play the orientation and anti-semite cards.
Now, I watch ‘Elimidate’ enough to understand how people react when they’re rejected. Still, Feldstein was way out of line. I mean, shit, he gave her the biggest plum appointment available to him in the last 4 years (made her a Planning Commissioner). Hell, I don’t blame him for not choosing a ranked choice slate that included her. The woman has a narrow set of social skills that need lots of work. I can’t see her building coalitions with any breadth on the Board of Supervisors. … I stay with my original IRV picks: Mirkarimi first, Robert Haaland Second and Bill Barnes Third.
Goons supporting Joe Blue destroying signs!
Now, I’m not saying good ole St. Louis born (like me) Real Estate Broker (not like me) Joe Blue … not saying that Joe sent these guys out to destroy the signs of Feldstein (she does have the best looking signs), Haaland, Siegel, O’Connor, Mirkarimi and on and on … not saying Joe sent these guys out to businesses to remove and destroy signs of the other candidates while replacing them with his. … I’m sure Joe is shocked to hear of such a thing. … I also believe in the Easter Bunny. … You want to cause trouble, Joe? Get a press card.
“Lord can you smell that smell?”
(Jay Guiles @ SF Police Commission)
Putting the Police Commission meetings both at City Hall and on the tube (#26) at the same time was a brilliant move. The Taxi Commission now has some serious competition for the Weird Award.
It was a triple crown. The audience, staff and commissioners (with rare exceptions) all blew. They were lying, conniving, suspicious, duplicitous and malicious. … And, that was just Louise Renne!
The audience spent all of their time crying and hugging each other and condemning the cops for ‘murdering’ their loved ones; most of whom were in the process of attempting to kill the cops. It was like some kind of sickening exorcism.
The cops countered with a ‘Captain O’Leary’ who is to obfuscation what Bobby Fisher is to chess. You couldn’t understand a fucking thing the guy said except when he volunteered to transgender Commissioner, Theresa Sparks that the department was learning to be more sensitive to her kind. This guy was bad. You don’t believe me, go watch the tape. Observe this guy for a few minutes and you can see how cases against cops can easily take years to be completed.
I don’t know all of their names off the top of my head but I did catch a few. There’s ‘Judge’ Peter Keane who is a pretentious, pontificating poseur. There’s a lawyer named ‘Chan’ who’s one of those people you just don’t trust on instinct. There’s the Vice Chair, a black woman, whom I actually liked. She kept her humor while others boiled or blah, blah’d. Renne, who belongs in Attica. … Sparks, who kept her poise when the cop acted like a pig. And, Joe Alioto-Veronese who is already the best. Poor guy gazes around at the others at times with the expression of a sane man viewing Bellevue up close for the first time. As I said … look out Taxi Commission.
I’ve been bad about keeping in touch. My columns 303, 304 & 305 I’m told, only got to a few of you and didn’t make my Bulldog blog. We’re digging for them and will put em in the archive when I dig them out. I move around lots, people. And, sometimes there’s no computer or limited access. Beggars can’t be choosers.
I got my medical pot card. (I’m beat up enough for two.) I’m growing a beard. I got enough money from Halliburton to pay my entry for the District 5 supes race. The quality pot actually quietens my arthritic right shoulder enough for me to help friends with big paint jobs. I’m still not getting laid. … I’ve been showing cuts of the Haslett/Hillis film on my run against Gavin in D-2 in ’02 to friends and they love it.
So, I’m broke, homeless, out of work, without romance and constantly on the move. … On the other hand, I have many, many dear friends who are producing children and grandchildren which warms a doddering senior’s heart. I am writing, which is all I ever wanted to do. I’m respected and reviled. I’m both stoned and observant. I’m old but feel young. … In short, I’m where I want to be, doing what I want to do, surrounded by my favorite people. Ya can’t beat that cowboys & cowgirls.
Dance now … make a memory:
