Chris Daly has revived my interest in San Francisco politics. I admit, I haven’t been all that interested since I was mayor. But more about that later.For those of you who don’t know Daly, he’s a supervisor for the city and county of San Francisco who will forever be remembered for the stunt he pulled last week.
Before he went off to Tibet, Mayor Willie Brown made Daly the acting mayor.
So what did Brown expect? Daly acted.
He appointed two key people to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the agency that oversees such things as the city’s water supply, power systems and sewage.
Daly appointed Adam Werbach, a former Sierra Club national president, and architect Robin Chiang, who has worked on public transit projects.
They just weren’t the people the real mayor had pegged for the posts.
This raises the ethical dilemma: Does an acting mayor have the right to do such an end run? To put it in terms even the most apolitical San Franciscan would understand, wouldn’t this be like redecorating your best friend’s Castro Street flat in puce while he was off on a jaunt to the Himalayas?
Very similar.
But though you can always rip out bad wallpaper or make a bonfire out of bad furniture, there is nothing that can be done with some sneaky, behind closed doors appointments to the PUC.
Brown needs eight votes on the 11-member board to reverse the matter, and that doesn’t appear in the cards for the lame duck mayor, who could find out who his successor is on Nov. 4.
Asian Pacific Americans may be interested to know that one of Brown’s “guys” on the PUC was to have been Andrew Lee, who now works for Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. Lee is also the son of big Brown backer Julie Lee.
Daly at least had the good sense to balance out any APA disgruntlement by appointing Chiang.
Still, many people have condemned Daly for a breach of trust. But I think that’s mitigated by the quality of his appointments.
He didn’t appoint a relative. Or pay back a poltical favor.
The trust issue ultimately is put back on Mayor Brown and the typical way appointments are done in the city.
When a mayor appoints a political buddy to a commission solely on the basis of past favors, the public trust is compromised.
So what Daly did was actually a public service. He disallowed some final chits to be paid out to people like Lee.
In city politics, patronage is standard operating procedure.
It shouldn’t be.
But you can’t stymie it unless you guilt the perpetrators into stopping it on their own. Unfortunately, they owe more favors than they have jobs to hand out. They can’t stop it. It’s easier to get Rush Limbaugh to stop taking pills.
That means the only real way to put the kibosh to it all is to find yourself in a golden opportunity like Daly.
And then you’re faced with a dilemma. Sure, you can go along with the system, play acting mayor, smile and wait for the real mayor to come home. They may even let you do it again, go into the mayor’s bathroom, the whole shot.
Or you can do something audacious. That might cost you something, or everything. (Of course, who cares, being a supervisor is an idiot’s job anyway, right?)
It was a can’t miss amok move for Daly.
And he couldn’t have picked a better time. Had it been done with time left in Brown’s tenure, I may not be so approving. But Brown’s a lame duck. Why should Brown be allowed to install his DNA in key city commissions upon exit? He’s done. And he had more than a day.
ME? MAYOR FOR A DAY?
I admit to being a bit nostalgic when I hear the term “Mayor for a day.”
It reminds me of my coup back in the ’70s during the city’s Youth in Government Day.
Last week when I wrote of my Lowell High School reunion, I bumped into Bess Gurman, who remembered the day as well. She was city planner.
But I was Duh Mayor.
I won the job by giving a nice “safe” speech to the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Something about getting kids after-school jobs. I can’t help it that they chose me.
But they didn’t figure that was just my stump speech. For the big luncheon, I prepared an inaugural address.
It wasn’t long. It was just filled with the kind of honesty you don’t expect from a 17-year-old politico.
Alioto (Joe, not Angela) was the mayor and we were a striking pair. I had hair. He didn’t.
That wasn’t the joke that got him. He had just been to Europe for several weeks.
So I had to ask the question: “If I’m mayor, why aren’t I in Europe?”
I wanted to taste the high life of public service. There was just so much that could be done with tax money for my benefit in those days!
Then I issued a couple of proclamations to girlfriends and such, and I must admit, for a 17-year-old, it was all heady stuff.
Let’s face it. I was very Arnold Schwarzenegger for my day. I was the anti-politician, if for one day.
Still, it wasn’t a day like Chris Daly had last week. Some may be ready to say his time is up.
I say unless he normalizes, it’s just the beginning.