Mayor To Answer Questions in Public-- Finally

Eleven players

​Former mayor Gavin Newsom squirmed his way out of City Hall just in time to dodge the one thing he dreaded more than a an interview with former CBS reporter Hank Plante: mayoral question time.

Last November, voters approved Proposition C, which  forces the mayor to have face time with the Board of Supervisors during meetings. On Tuesday, Supervisor David Chiu introduced an ordinance to implement the question time as soon as March 8.

The question and answer session between the Board of Supervisors and Mayor Ed Lee marks a turning point at City Hall; historically the Board and the mayor have had a prickly relationship, which culminated with former Supervisor Chris Daly's request and Newsom's refusal to appear before the supes and answer questions in a public setting.

With the appointment of Lee as interim mayor, supervisors and City Hall insiders were anxious to repair the broken relationship between the mayor's office and the Board of Supervisors.

"We are extremely pleased with the increased dialogue between Lee and and the board," Chiu said. "But voters want questions to be given and answers received in public and it won't be an exchange of sound bites for gotcha politics."

No, gotcha politics would have been illustrated in a Q&A session with Newsom and the previous board. But times have changed, which means more tempered dialogue at City Hall, for better and for worse. 

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