Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Wade Crowfoot and The Supervisors



At Tuesday's weekly Board of Supervisors meeting, there was an interesting exchange between a few of the supervisors and Wade Crowfoot (below), Mayor Newsom's new "Director of Global Climate Change," or whatever they are calling his ridiculous new position that's being funded by Muni.



It seems a new solar panel slush fund is being set up by the Mayor through the Assessor/Recorder's office, even though this has traditionally been the province of the Public Utilities Commission, and nobody could quite explain why, or how much was involved. I almost felt sorry for the young, handsome and obviously intelligent Mr. Crowfoot, because he seemed to be carrying a pail of pure sleaze for his masters, and nobody seemed to be very convinced by his explanations.



Finally, Board President Peskin asked where the Assessor/Recorder might be, since the entire program was supposedly his initiative, and his aide (above) went to the podium and made some weak excuse about how Phil Ting was currently indisposed because of some personal matter or other, which just made everybody even more furious.



So she was sent to track him down, and Ting arrived about thirty minutes later.



As punishment, however, Mr. Ting had to sit through the next hour of public comment, including James Chaffee (below) denouncing the Friends of the Public Library and their outrageous slush fund.



What Chaffee and most of the crowd in the chambers didn't notice was a quick but momentous announcement by Aaron Peskin (below), in his last year as Board President, appointing his fellow supervisors to various committee assignments where many of the real decisions are made.



Newsom's thugs like Phil Ginsburg and Nathan Ballard, in concert with the San Francisco Chronicle, have been doing everything they can to smear Peskin and make him look like an unstable little hothead, so he gave them a little gift in return. The loathsome Newsom ally, Ms. "I-want-a-million-dollar-wheelchair-ramp-because-I-deserve-it" Michela Alioto-Pier, who doesn't even bother to show up to about a third of her meetings, was relegated to a single committee assignment, City & School District.



Newsom's nemesis, Supervisor Chris Daly, was put onto the three most powerful committees: Rules, Land Use & Economic Development, and the real biggie, Budget and Finance. (For a list of all the committee assignments, which the Chronicle didn't even bother to write about, check out Luke Thomas' thorough account at Fog City Journal by clicking here.) This should get interesting.

6 comments:

  1. Wade is a really nice guy, and I've had the pleasure of meeting him through mutual friends several times, but it pains me to see him being put in the position he's been put in by the Administration.

    Taking 160,00 of MUNI safety inspector money (maybe folks might have heard about all those MUNI accidents, eh what) for a job that's so ill defined by Measure A and the Mayor is just a dumb idea. I think Wade should work for the Mayor and I think the Mayor oughta man up and find a real way to pay for it so he's not putting one of his people on the firing squad. It's just not right.

    Funny how our city prides itself on being so smart and liberal and "green" and yet it's more tacky and poorly managed than plenty of "lesser" cities. And the corrupt, patronizing corporate press folks don't help. Hmm.

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  2. Hey, Mike, I have a favor to ask. Could you send me an e-mail at mookasaurus@gmail.com?

    Thanks.

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  3. Dear Greg: I get the same feeling about Crowfoot, but he is now up to his nose in Newsom muck so I don't hold out much hope for him.

    Dear matty boy: Mysterious mission accomplished. Hope you got the email.

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  4. I received the following email from somebody who needs to remain anonymous:

    "I’ve always liked Wade Crowfoot, but my eyebrows were raised over his participation in the forged letter that Alioto-Pier tried to use in the debate on the RC-3 legislation. Although Daly was the one to eviscerate Wade that day, it was Peskin who flushed out the truth concerning his former aide. "

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  5. I too have had good interactions in the past with Wade Crowfoot -- but for awhile his job seems to have been to polish Newsom's environmental luster, presumably for future offices. Wade flacked for Newsom at this meeting I wrote up here.

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  6. "Wade Crowfoot and the Supervisors" sounds like a band name.

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