The Great Building Inspector Brouhaha of '05
There's an interesting little battle going on over who is going to run the Department of Building Inspectors. No wait! Don’t go! We swear this will be interesting! Trust us! Anyhoo, earlier in the week the Building Inspection Commission decided to hold off on voting in Gavin's appointment to run the Department, Assistant Director Amy Lee. Gavin wants Lee to replace the acting Director, James Hutchinson, who recently replaced outgoing Director Frank Chiu (and no, not that Frank Chu). Hutchinson, however, has friends in high places, including the powerful head of the Residential Building Association, Joe O'Donoghue, who are all fighting to save him. Gavin wants to replace Hutchinson because he says the DBI has had a reputation for favoritism and being in O'Donoghue’s pockets while O'Donoghue and his allies are claiming that Gavin is meddling in things he shouldn't and that Lee is unqualified for the job. Because she's pregnant. See, we said it was interesting.
During the hearing, O'Donoghue and his allies went out of their way to say they weren’t being sexist and that the Irish love their women, it's just that, well, Lee might have trouble doing her job because of her sex and her condition. One man said that Hutchinson couldn't be replaced by a "person who is not even going to go up a ladder with her dress down." Several others said that Lee will have to take too much time off for maternity leave and that pregnant women have their minds elsewhere. Said another: "My wife refers to it as 'pregnancy brain.' Her mind is on other things… are you going to replace this man (Hutchinson) with 'pregnancy brain'?" Afterwards, Lee said that the comments were "disgusting." In today’s Chronicle, O'Donoghue told columnist Joan Ryan that he never said those things he was being accused of and that he'll sue anyone who says differently. Memo to Joe- SFist is held together primarily by chewing gum, duck tape, and an old Commodore computer and written by illegal Canadian immigrants imprisoned against our will in Jackson's basement-otherwise known as "the SFist Cave." In other words, you got nothing to sue here.
Picture of Joe O'Donoghue at the hearing from SFGate
O'Donoghue is, or more like was, one of those super-powerful behind-the-scenes types who through organizing, campaign financing, plain ole bullying, and malicious use of poetry held a lot of sway over what got built and who built it. He was big in the dot.com days but then, for reasons still unclear, backed Gonzalez against Newsom in the Mayoral election. With Brown gone and Newsom victorious, O'Donoghue doesn't have as much power as he used to. So, in some ways, this battle is a plain ole' political fight between the down-on-his-luck O'Donoghue and the vengeful Gavin. Thus O'Donoghue's complaint that Newsom wants to replace Hutchinson only because he's trying to exert his control over the DBI. Which, of course, is the point. The DBI has had a bit of a reputation of doing O'Donoghue's dirty work, such as having mysterious inspectors showing up at the home's of political opponents (see, told you this was interesting). Newsom wants to replace one of O'Donoghue's cronies with one of his- the wonky and female Lee. If Hutchinson stays on, O'Donoghue retains some of his power. If Lee takes over, well, as Khan (Noonian Singh, not Genghis) once said, "revenge is a dish best served cold. It is very cold...in space."