Employment Forecast
December 31, 2007
CHU SLOWLY: We end the year with San Francisco’s only Asian Pacific American supervisor, albeit interim, gradually bolstering her legislative resume and visibility. The longer Carmen Chu stays, the better shot she has to go from interim to permanent supe by winning a yet-to-be-scheduled retention election (if Mayor Newsom makes her permanent after Ed Jew is formally ousted). And that hurts any challenger who could have defeated her immediately after her September appointment: businessman Ron Dudum, legislative aides Bob Twomey and Jaynry Mak, deputy sheriff David Wong, former police commissioner Doug Chan, and others …
NEW TRIALS: Former Housing Commissioner Julie Lee’s case has no end or trial in sight. Or perhaps the charges aren’t holding up? Lee, in year four of legal limbo, gives an idea of how long the Ed Jew legal brouhaha will take, given that Lee’s and Jew’s deep pockets have turned their cases into marathons. Jew’s trials haven’t even started. Compare it to the Clinton impeachment in the Senate. Do the supes want to be consumed by a trial in 2008, with unresolved critical issues like a budget freeze, affordable housing, shaky economy and rising crime rates? The GOP lost big after failing to nail Clinton, and the supes could lose, too.
STILL SWINGING HER BATON: Police Chief Heather Fong stays for the Mayor’s second term. Fong, like hundreds of department heads, staffers and commissioners under the mayor had submitted her resignation, which still is an opportunity to boost Mayor Newsom’s so-so APA appointment record in City Hall. (Hint: the PUC general manager post, now that Susan Leal is moving on …) The mass resignation order was Newsom’s roundabout way of ousting folks without confrontation.
IDEOLOGY OVER PRINCIPAL: The biggest 2007 loss was the first (ever) APA Superintendent. Interim supe Gwen Chan retired after the writing was on the wall. A year ago, the former principal stood on principle and passionately defended JROTC, whose ranks were dominated by APA student cadets. She and JROTC lost as the board voted to phase out the program, and then appointed a new superintendent, Carlos Garcia. Garcia’s “progressive” principles were lauded and his alibi for using the “n” word once was accepted by most members of the majority APA-school board of Hydra Mendoza, Norman Yee, Eric Mar and Jane Kim.
PEACE, MAN: Avoiding yellow-on-yellow conflict in 2008, Evergreen Community College trustee Paul Fong will run for state assembly next June, while Sunnyvale mayor Otto Lee will forgo that seat to run for Santa Clara County supervisor, which has not had an APA since Congressman Mike Honda in 1990. Paul’s logo is his handwritten name with a peace sign in the “o” of Fong.
POTS CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK: S.F. Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi was stunned by our Black-Asian love cover, erroneously claiming it was a “changeup” by AsianWeek. If he and his editor paid attention, AW covers this year have featured hapa or cultural figures with African American heritage: District Attorney Kamala Harris, Giants outfielder Dave Roberts, and LINES Ballet director Alonzo King, who meshed Shaolin martial arts with contemporary movements. Now, will S.F. Weekly show some love by featuring APAs on its own cover?
CUT IT DOWN: A quickie Freudian look at the e-mail address (fnoto@gcastrategies.com) of Frank Noto, VP for GCA Strategies, which led the fight to downsize the Chinatown community college campus, suggests what his client, the Hilton Hotel, wants to do (as in, pull a Lorena Bobbitt).
NOT LOST IN TRANSLATION: San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement has had an uneasy relationship with the Asian American Contractors Association over enforcing city wage laws and getting a fair shake from a staff heavy on union ties. Then again, what does OLSE mean in Cantonese? Take a dump.
A-HU-A!: Cathay Post commander and ex-paratrooper Bok Pon beating the odds and going into the New Year still doing push ups and running, while defying doctors orders … Doc said he would not last until last Sept.
MY RESOLVE: As always, my New Year’s resolution is not to make any.
Reach Samson Wong at (415) 321-5886 or swong@asianweek.com.
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