San Francisco Blog

Last week's revelation that the city's 311 call center charges MUNI almost $2 every time someone asks them to look up a bus schedule was like blogger crack. Not a single San Francisco political blogger had sex last week because they were all too busy telling their partners about it.

Why? Well ... bloggers. Also because, to be blunt, the 2009 political season has been incredibly dull.

How dull? About as boring as watching an appropriations hearing called to discuss pricing structures for procuring paint intended to dry on a wall in conformity with prevailing use codes. That's how dull. Except for the guy who gets up in public comment to scream that the use of white paint is an insult to the memory of the slave trade, there's nothing interesting to see.

That's because our budget is in crisis and so far our solutions are all based on imaginary pixies coming to San Francisco and drinking tea with leprechauns, who will suddenly realize that they owe the city back taxes.

This is not likely to happen, although it does recall a nightclub act I once caught at Chicken John's place.

The crisis has frayed nerves and led to sharp tempers among the political and chattering classes both: The politicians and want to solve the world's problems, and, instead, are being forced to consider cutting programs near and dear to their hearts. The chattering classes want to report on something happening, but can't because nothing is actually happening.

Nobody's taking it well. They're kind of cracking up. Sean Elsbernd is even rumored to have an enemies list, including entries No. 3 "the economy," No. 8 "Milton Berle", and No. 15 "the sun."

Last week's 311 story was the best to come along since David Chiu was elected board president by running on a platform of "Nobody hates me yet." And we loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

I'm glad that Bevan Dufty's hearing revealed it, and I appreciate the SF Appeal being at the meeting where it was mentioned, and I'm happy everyone else picked it up. We should be outraged.

But I'm stunned that anybody's surprised. We have absolutely no right to be surprised.

It was established years ago that MUNI gets used as a cash cow by other departments. Just last year we were outraged that Gavin Newsom raided MUNI's budget to pay for expensive new positions in his administration ... and before that we were outraged that the SFPD was charging MUNI every time a cop stepped on a bus ... and before that we were outraged that the health department charges MUNI when people who fall down on a MUNI bus go to SF General for treatment.

Really, people, we should have known that this whorehouse is a den of prostitution.

This kind of thing has been happening a long time ... and it's going to keep happening as long as the mayor appoints all the members of the SFMTA board.

So long as the MUNI honchos all owe their jobs to the mayor, no one is going to stop the mayor from deciding that MUNI's training budget would be better spent on a stripper pole for city hall. (it would take all that money because, hey -- have you ever tried to build a handicapped accessible stripper pole?)

The real scandal here isn't this particular instance of gross city mismanagement -- it's that we've known about such gross city mismanagement for years and still haven't addressed the root causes.

For the record, here are some other things that we can get outraged, but not surprised, by:

1) That the city bureaucracy is too big and too sprawling for anyone to keep effective track of. There's no effective oversight, enormous duplications of services, large service "holes," and no effective cooperation between departments.

2) There's no culture of accountability at city hall. No one is fired for extraordinary mistakes. Incompetence is rewarded more than competence, because incompetence lets elected officials get away with more.

Okay, people? We got this? There IS gambling in this casino. The wine bar is serving alcohol. Israel is in league with the Jews. And city hall is inept and unaccountable. Just as with MUNI funds getting raided by other departments, no matter how many specific incidences of this incompetence we address, unless we change the whole structure of the place, these things will keep coming up.

To be clear: Nothing that happens at city meetings this week will address the root causes either. Because that's the way we roll.

Still, and much to my astonishment, some pretty good efforts to at least not screw up any more will be made by the end of the week. The kind of measures that, if taken to heart, really would make for better long-term city management. It's kind of heart warming.

And genuinely surprising.

Monday, April 13, 2009

10:30 a.m. - City Operations & Neighborhood Services Committee

Supervisors Dufty and David Campos have a bill proposing that San Francisco guarantee "freshwater as a human right and the importance of access to safe drinking water for all."

You see how little these people are getting done while our budget eats the city from within?

1 p.m. - Land Use & Economic Development Committee

In addition to a hearing about the property at 1250 Missouri Street, Sophie Maxwell would like to urge "City Departments to develop a Home Improvement Plan for the Bayshore Corridor."

SO glad we had this meeting.

Tuesday, April 14, 2 p.m. - Full Board of Supervisors

This meeting is touched with sadness, as the Supes had really hoped that they'd never get back from the ballgame. Still, here we are, and I suppose they'd better talk about city stuff.

In addition to confirming various appointments (yawn), the Supes will likely pass a bunch of stuff that passed the first time around, like the Film Rebate Program (Yawn), and they might even adopt the redevelopment plan for Visitacion Valley. (YAWN! Although I'm trying to stay awake on that one. I really am).

But mostly they'll commit themselves to a large group of symbolic measures, including:

• Urging the organizers of the Bay to Breakers to collaborate on a comprehensive plan that protects the neighborhoods while preserving the unique spirit of the race;

• Offering condolences to the people of Italy and those affected by the L'Aquila earthquake;

• Commending and thanking Dwayne Kinner on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Workers' Children's Fund Softball Tournament;

• Urging Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf and HEI Le Meridien Hotel to allow its workers to choose, free from delay and intimidation, whether to have a union through a card-check neutrality agreement;

• Condemning the persecution and murders of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Iraqi Citizens;

• Urging Federal authorities to approve the citizenship of Shirley Tan and pass the Uniting American Families Act;

• Declaring April 24 to be Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day;

• Support to California State Assembly Bill 324, the Elder Economic Dignity Act of 2009;

• Supporting Assembly Bill 560 that would raise the cap on net metering, and possibly eliminate the cap entirely;

... and so forth.

Now do you see why they're all getting so frustrated? It's galling enough having to report on this BS ... I can't imagine having to propose it.

Wednesday, April 15

11 a.m. - Budget and Finance Subcommittee

We've got $42 million in proposed bonds for street improvements. That's really all you need to know.

Well, that and maybe $2.4 million in emergency appropriations for two new boilers for the airport.

But, I have to say, upon reviewing the documents, that this proposal actually seems pretty well thought-out. The airport had already been planning to replace the boilers with more energy-efficient models, and now that the boilers to be replaced have failed early, the airport is planning to go with the bid-winning contractor to install the planned energy efficient boilers, for almost exactly the approved amount -- just on an expedited basis.

Way to go budget subcommittee!

1:30 p.m. - Budget and Finance Committee

I was gonna say that if you've seen one heart-rending Budget and Finance committee meeting, you've seen them all. But that's not quite true. Out of the muck a few decent attempts at fiscal sanity are emerging.

The first is a proposal by committee chair John Avalos to approve a report that would identify which juvenile crime prevention programs in SF have been effective, and to focus on funding only those programs in the coming year.

Evaluating program effectiveness - and then supporting the effective ones? Mmmmmmmm. Can you taste the sweet, sweet, sanity? It's like eating a smile.

Then Avalos is having a hearing on whether the "Mayor's Office of Community Investments" and the "Office of Economic Workforce Development" can be merged without having a major impact on service delivery.

I can't imagine that they couldn't. All the MOCI really does is invest Community Development Block Grants - something that the Office of Economic and Workforce Development could not only do, but do better by coordinating it with other economic development efforts.

So it's a good idea - but I have a better one still. How about we just eliminate any city department that has the word "Mayor's" in its title?

You'd be amazed how much clutter that would eliminate - and how little we'd miss them.

Still, I know that's thinking big. One thing at a time. By all means, merge those departments, John Avalos. It does my heart good to see that this week hasn't been completely wasted.

Thursday, April 16, 10 a.m. - Rules Committee

Aaaaannnnnnnnnnd ... we're back to business as usual.

In addition to settling some $700,000 in lawsuits, this committee will appoint members to:

• The Police Commission
• The Historical Preservation Commission
• The Immigrant Rights Commission
• The Commission on Aging Advisory Council
• The Child Care Planning and Advisory Council
• The Bicycle Advisory Committee
• The Children's Collaborative Task Force

You know, with the exception of the Police Commission, I bet these committees could all be merged too.

Wouldn't it be easier all around if we just had a single "Immigrant Children's Collaborative Aging Bicycle Preservation and Planning Council?"

Wouldn't we accomplish about as much?

Big questions, I know. Think about it, and we'll regroup next week.