SF IMC Sits Down with Matt Gonzalez

SF IMC: In SF, when the war in Iraq started, there was obviously a bigger response than anywhere else in the country, coupled with lots of demonstrations and subsequent police action, I wanted to get your thoughts on what happened in those days?

Matt Gonzalez: Well you know the board had passed a resolution opposing the war, and we're very mindful of the impacts that engaging in a war like this, not only the negative impacts on the people of Iraq and the humanitarian issues at stake, but it's a lot of money that's being mispent that should be spend on municipalities and building infrastructure in our own country. Instead we're sending a ton of soldiers to another place and that's very expensive, and just on that level there's a lot for us to weigh in on it.

I thought that the protesters could have focused their energy more on the Federal Building, as opposed to the local more city hall-type buildings. I thought that the protesters by and large behaved well. Those engaged in civil disobendience expected to be arrested, and that's fine.

The police overreacted one day, when they made arrests around McAllister and Gaugh Street when they made a decision to arrest peaceful marchers; and I think that was a terrible mistake. It cost the city probably two or three million dollars, and I think that it doesn't make sense.

When you're in a city like San Francisco, and you've got an extraordinary thing happening, you've got people participating in a peaceful demonstration, do you really want to invoke things like they're obstructing the sidewalk, or they don't have a permit to march?

I think the better course would have been, hey, let folks march. If it's peaceful, you can follow them around. It's easy to do, the police do it all the time. That certainly would have been the better course.

I certainly made my opinion known to the chief of police, and I was a little bit surprised that I was only city supervisor that participated in a press conference condemning the police actions, on the steps of city hall. There was a public sentiment that was rather divided, some felt that protesters should have been arrested, and so I think there were some legislators who didn't want to get in the middle of something they didn't need to.

I felt differently, I felt that important to say, hey, that shouldn't have happened.

SF IMC: Had you been mayor, do you think you would have been able to do something to prevent...

Matt Gonzalez: Yes, the relationship is different. I would have got on the phone with the Chief of Police and say, hey, what the fuck are you doing? When you're the President of the Board of Supervisors, the department heads do not work for you. You don't pick up the phone and they interact with you.

If you don't like what's going on, you can bring it up in hearings, or budget process, but that's much after the fact. When you're the mayor, these folks are working directly beneath you, I would have been very active.

SF IMC: One recent development in the Mayoral race has been a somewhat bizarre turn of events regarding an email that was sent out announcing a protest against Al Gore, Gavin Newsom, and against the Democratic Party. It was supposed to have been sent by the Green Party, but now it is pretty clear that it was sent by Gavin Newsom's campaign. What are you thoughts on this kind of politics?

Matt Gonzalez: Well, I think the Newsom camp should be very embarrased by it. I think it shows the lack of integrity that they have, and a certain degree of desperation on their part.

But imagine, does this city really want a Mayor that's sitting around sending emailing purporting to be somebody else?

I think the whole thing is incredibly embarrasing.

SF IMC: Do you believe that they're engaged in other activity like this?

Matt Gonzalez: We've seen some pretty odd things. We've had some of their people snooping around the office, coming in trying to get information about what we're up to, and things like that.

Yeah, they're doing a lot of that kind of counter-intellegence type stuff. Maybe that always happens with a campaign, we certainly don't engage in it.

SF IMC: A lot of people have been very disappointed and disgusted regarding the integrity of Mayor Brown over the last eight years, and the interests that he has been serving while in office. If you're elected Mayor, what interests do you intend to be serving, and what will be your motivating factors?

Matt Gonzalez: I've been trying to do politics differently. One of the things I've done that I would certainly do as Mayor is not get into office and be thinking about four years later re-election. I would very much go into office feeling, okay, I've got four years, let's make the most of it.

That's not to say that getting re-elected is irrelevent or something like that, but if you're focused on that, then you often water down your ideas, or you're suseptable to influence that you shouldn't be, and it interferes with your ability to make the right decisions.

And that's what I want to be, I want to be somebody that makes the right decisions, and isn't thinking about my own political longeivity. I think as a result of that I'm more effective and more honest and true to the beliefs I hold.

SF IMC: Do you believe that this is why the Green Party is becoming a more viable political option in the United States?

Matt Gonzalez: I think it is in part. I think the Greens that have held office have tried to bring ethics to government, and decision-making that is based on the merits of a particular decision, rather than "Oh, I can't vote the way I want because then it's going to hurt me when I stand for election."

Even in this particular race I've been attacked for taking positions recently at the Board of Supervisors that were the right decisions, but don't play well in the public. Whether it be opposing some school charter ammendment that everybody thinks is the panacea, and I say "Gee, I like it, but where's the money to pay for all of this?"

You're not supposed to do that when you're running for office. You're supposed to do the opposite. You're supposed to pander to the public, and make promises, and tell them how much you're going to give them, without regard to the truth as to whether you can actually do those things.

I'm pleased that the electorate in San Francisco is very smart, and doesn't fool easily, and I think that's why I can get elected in this town.

SF IMC: If you get elected Mayor, in four years do you see the city of San Francisco?

Matt Gonzalez: I think you're going to have a very ethical government, You're going to see a government with a lot of green and environmental standards. You're going to see expansion of solar energy, tidal energy, you're going to have socially responsible investments, you're going to see things like porous concrete.

You're not going to see an administration that wants to scapegoat the poor, or only attack the outward manifestations of poverty. You're going to see an administration that wants to get at what's underneath those problems, that's why I supported something like raising the minimum wage.

If that's the only thing I ever accomplish in politics, then I will have had a good career in politics, because that really matters to the 50,000 employees making $14,000 a year. An opportunity to have a more livable life. And that's the kind of mayor that I want to be.

I want to be a mayor that's trying to invoke the working class ethics of the city, the diversity, the immigrant rights, the civil rights kind of tradition of the city.

And I want to have a relationship to the business community that is honest, firm, and that doesn't really allow them to set the agenda in policy, urban planning policy, and things like that.

It's a community that we have to have collaboration with, but they should not be running City Hall, they should not be running Room 200.