Supes Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del on Department of Tech's Plea for $750,000 Temporary Home

The city doesn't have any money for you to find a home either, Johnny

On Monday, SF Weekly's Benjamin Wachs was bewildered that the Department of Technology was begging the Board of Supervisors for a $750,000 new temporary home -- after three years of failing to locate a permanent home, which won't be rendered one penny cheaper as a result of this proposed temp site. What's more, this project was punted by the Supes last year after the Department of Tech could not produce a detailed expenditure plan (they still can't).

So, yesterday, the Supes concurred. The proposal to move the Dept. o' Tech from its current digs at 1 Market St. to a temp site at 200 Paul was "continued at the discretion of the chair" of the Budget and Finance Committee -- that'd be Supervisor John Avalos. This means the proposal could come up at some unspecified time in the future, if Avalos sees fit; his legislative aide, Frances Hsieh, diplomatically noted that Technology was told to "go back and take a look at other options."

Less politely, it appears Avalos' move is the governmental equivalent of what one playground basketball player might bellow at an opponent whose shot he's just emphatically blocked: "Get that weak-ass shit outta here!"

Those with a desire to lay wagers on the outcome of Budget and Finance meetings, by the way, could have predicted this result. On the day of the vote, Avalos was quoted in the Examiner noting, "We are going to have to pay all over again to have them place it in a permanent site. They've had three years to figure out the permanent site. Now, with a gun to our head, we have to vote for this to pay twice? I'm not very pleased." It warrants mentioning that, when asked if Avalos had strong feelings about this subject, Hsieh would only laugh -- and say no more (Avalos didn't get back to SF Weekly on this -- but, in his defense, that meeting lasted well into the evening).

Ron Vincent, Tech's deputy director, said he anticipated there would be some "meetings taking place between the department and the Board of Supervisors, and, when we're able to answer any questions they might have, we can re-schedule the item for a future meeting."

Vincent wasn't able to answer these questions of SF Weekly's -- and it's a good bet the Supes will ask them as well:

• Why has it taken so long to locate a new home, or even lay out a plan for doing so?

• Why did the department opt to set up camp at 1 Market -- one of the swankier addresses in the city -- in the first place? The proposed temp site is out in the Bayview and next to the railroad tracks -- certainly there were more affordable sites before, weren't there?

• If vital city computer systems are "unreliable" in their current location -- is there something 1 Market's law firms, engineering companies, and restaurateurs should know? Should someone bring this up before the next visiting U.S. Senator hosts a fund-raiser there?