‘Good’ Job, Supervisors
September 26, 2003
The effect of Proposition N — or Care Not Cash (CNC) — is still reverberating, regardless of its legal and political fate. Last week, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted down the measure 6-5 after a superior court judge ruled that only supervisors could reform welfare benefits, not voters who overwhelmingly passed Prop. N last November. However, a state appeals court could invalidate the lower court’s ruling and let the public vote stand.
CNC may not ultimately survive the courts, but we should credit Supervisor Gavin Newsom for driving homelessness to the top of the agenda. Last year, Newsom introduced CNC among his 30 homelessness proposals. Newsom was risking his political career on an issue that doomed the careers of Mayors Art Agnos and Frank Jordan.
Further, a recalcitrant Board of Supervisors committee last year bottled up most of Newsom’s measures and shunted them off to the black hole of a homeless coordinating committee. The supervisors had enough difficulty deciding whether to ban public urination and defecation.
With board inertia, Newsom took the initiative route and won 60 percent voter support for CNC and a mandate for City Hall to act. Reacting to Newsom, Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano rushed a measure that was defeated at the ballot. This summer, Supervisor Chris Daly crafted housing legislation that won the support of supervisors and the mayor, while former Supervisor Angela Alioto has qualified a shelter measure for the November ballot.
Meanwhile, supervisors were waffling in key Asian Pacific American districts, which voted overwhelmingly for CNC. North Beach/Chinatown legislator Aaron Peskin and Richmond representative Jake McGoldrick switched back and forth before finally supporting the measure. The Sunset’s Fiona Ma and West of Twin Peaks’ Tony Hall tried to amend the measure before voting against it.
We should give the sups some credit. The 11 supervisors were the few to get an annual pay boost in this year’s austere city budget — going from $37,585 to $112,320 in annual salary. The increase means 2,342 fewer $351 cash payments that the poor and homeless won’t get in one month.
So, who’s really taking from the poor? “Good” job, supervisors.
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