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City Politics at the Eleventh Hour

By Neela Banerjee

District elections gave a voice to the people this year, but also brought out dirty politics in nearly every district, from the machine-supported smear on Sup. Leland Yee in District 4 to hit-piece mailers in District 10.

Linda Richardson’s campaign staff gathered with a multicultural mix of supporters on the steps of City Hall the day before the election to blast a mailer sent over the weekend that tried to drum up Republican support for challenger Sophie Maxwell, who later won the election.

The mailer, an endorsement from “life-long Republican” and Potrero Hill resident Gail Neira, praised Maxwell’s integrity and commitment to neighborhoods while accusing her opponent Richardson as baing “merely an extension of Mayor Brown’s Mafia-like machinery…”

Neira also slammed Richardson’s immigrant status: “Her opponent is still adjusting to a U.S. multicultural diversity her native country has not yet fathomed.”

The mailer also angered the Republican supporters of Richardson, as Neira said: “Please disregard any other Republican endorsement not supporting [Maxwell] as those involved may be virtually clueless …”

Meanwhile, inside City Hall members of the Board of Supervisors finally passed Sup. Michael Yaki’s ordinance to prohibit the audible ringing and use of cell phones and similar sound-producing electrical devices during public meetings in San Francisco. Now, it will be considered disorderly conduct if a cell phone rings during a meeting and the guilty party may be removed.

Yaki also introduced a resolution inspired by the recent energy crisis in California. The resolution directs city departments to reduce their electricity load to avoid future blackouts and reduce the high power costs to the city.

The meeting also saw continued legislation introduced by both Sup. Gavin Newsom and Board President Tom Ammiano aimed at preventing trade with Burma (now known as the nation of Myanmar) because of its human rights violations. Ammiano’s resolution urges the city treasurer and the board of the city’s pension and retirement system to divest the city’s investment portfolio from companies investing in Myanmar. Newsom’s resolution made sure that the enforcement of the Burma ordinance, which prevents the city from doing trade with Burma, would stay active.

During the meeting, a long debate ensued between Ammiano, Supervisor Barbara Kaufman and Supervisor Alicia Becerril over an administrative code that would allow the board to be involved in the appeals process for environmental issues. Kaufman’s revision of the administrative code found that there needs to be an appeals process for Environmental Impact Reports (EIR), which examine issues like traffic or density. The code has already been amended to allow for certain EIRs to be appealed at the board.

Ammiano pushed for all EIR appeals to come to the board. “This is about checks and balances,” he said. “The issues brought up in EIRs really affect people and neighborhoods and they should be able to be decided here. People empower their elected officials to do their jobs and these nuts and bolts things are part of our jobs.”

To this, Becerril pointed out that the EIR reports may be “too complicated for the inexperienced new supervisors, especially since now they will only have two aides instead of three.”