Mayor Gavin Newsom Holds SF Families Hostage!

Hostage Situation at City Hall Continues: Mayor Destroys Historic Budget Compromise
Indybay
July 1, 2010
by General Fund
After weeks of seemingly productive negotiations, Mayor Gavin Newsom has jettisoned a historic budget compromise with the Board Of Supervisors. The package of add-backs and cuts would have preserved the essential services San Francisco families rely on to survive the recession. In an eleventh hour maneuver, Newsom abruptly insisted that the Board Of Supervisors drop various charter amendments slated for the November ballot in order to buy his support for the budget package. In order to leverage political gain on unrelated issues, the Mayor chose to hold hostage the package of restorations to vital senior health services, youth violence prevention programs, mental health treatment and cuts to waste.
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COH sends in "hostage negotiators" during budget talks
Bay Area Guardian
July 2, 2010
by Rebecca Bowe

Members of the Board of Supervisors, their legislative aides, and other City Hall regulars were all looking a bit sleep-deprived as they darted from office to office at City Hall July 1 after ongoing budget negotiations kept everyone up late the night before. Just as an agreement on the city budget seemed within reach on June 30, Mayor Gavin Newsom and his chief of staff, Steve Kawa, had expressed strong opposition to several initiatives that progressive members of the Board of Supervisors sought to place on the November ballot.

The mayor's last-minute move was described by some as a quid pro quo that withheld support for an amended budget -- which included about $40 million in restorations to community programs that are high priorities for members of the board -- unless four different proposals were struck from the ballot. Three were proposed charter amendments dealing with commission appointments that would distribute power more evenly between the board and the mayor, and the fourth was a proposal put forth by Sup. Ross Mirkarimi that would have required the San Francisco Police Department to adopt a community-policing model and engage in neighborhood foot patrols, initially cast as an enlightened alternative to Newsom's proposed law banning sitting or lying down on the sidewalk.
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