What Joys Will Gavin Newsom Next Bestow Upon His 'Friends'?

According to grumblings we've heard emanating from City Hall, however, he may be running short of both in the real world. Last week, Michela Alioto-Pier -- a charter member of the Mayor's Nazgûl -- phoned up the Chronicle from her hospital bed and complained that the mayor had filched her business-friendly legislation (triggering a pissing contest with Supervisor John Avalos).
 
Also last week, Newsom met with Muni drivers discussing concessions -- but did so behind the back of Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who had been butting heads with the drivers' union over a pending charter amendment. The supe subsequently pulled the plug on his own amendment.

Incidentally, it's not only Newsom's ideological allies who are complaining about their material being swiped. Staff at Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's office and both the teenage activists and adult workers at Youth Leadership Institute were surprised last month when anti-smoking measures they'd been working on were instead introduced by the mayor. "It's pretty obvious -- the [mayor's] legislation has some of the same key findings we presented to Supervisor Mirkarimi," said Sahad Quarashi, a coordinator at Youth Leadership Institute. "We are currently exploring the issue of why we weren't addressed."

Mayoral spokesman Tony Winnicker saw all this as much ado about nothing. He said that the mayor has "given Supervisor Alioto-Pier credit at every turn" for her legislation -- and didn't realize the injured supervisor would be upset by the mayor moving ahead while she was laid up. As for Elsbernd, Winnicker claimed the supe and mayor "had been in close discussions throughout the week."

And the anti-smoking measure -- well, at this point Winnicker brought up what a busy place City Hall can be, and how the supervisors have introduced some measures in a pretty iffy manner as well. Let's not bicker over who killed who.

Winnicker denied there's any more friction between the mayor and board than usual. This, however, was not at all the vibe we got from making a few calls around City Hall.

"They've really got their own program over there at Room 200," the mayor's office, said a longtime City Hall denizen knowledgable about all of the above. "People have given up trying to figure out what makes that guy tick. At this point it doesn't seem there's any real working relationship between the board and the mayor -- even those members of the board who are ideologically aligned with him."

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