The Stuff They've Got In The Oven (Local Politics News, Non-Newsom)
We've been totally neglecting all the other stuff going on these days, so as to better gawk at the Newsom drinking and sexing debacle (does anyone else think it seems a little unsavory for Gavin to be paying off Mr. Tourk, in an Indecent Proposal kind of way?), but that doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot going on! As Ross Mirkarimi proudly announced a week or so ago, "Wait till you see some of the stuff I have in the oven!" Is Ross Mirkarimi pregnant? Or maybe just making us a really nice cake!
--The Board of Supes held hearings yesterday about whether to accept the Google/Earthlink citywide wifi plans. We must confess we're still very vague on the pros and cons of the proposal (all we know is that it's free, but it'd be slow and hard to upgrade), and it sounds like the whole plan's on hold while they look into whether it would make more sense to pay some money and just build a network ourselves.
--Chris Daly's asked the city attorney's office to look into the legality of campaign finance and ethics reform in local elections. You'd think Daly didn't really like the SFSOS putting his name on a bunch of flyers with pictures of human waste products or something! Daly's calling for spending caps on independent expenditures (*cough*SFPOA*cough) and mandatory disclosure of questions and financial backing in telephone polls. It all seems sensible but we wonder if there's going to be a First Amendment problem to put it in place.
--Hey, remember all the fuss about mandatory sick leave for all employees working in the city? Well, everyone is so confused about how it's supposed to work that the Board is voting today on whether to put it on hold until June so people can figure it out.
More Easy-Bake goodness after the jump!
--John Nelson and Byorn are no doubt breathing a little easier now that Gerardo Sandoval's proposed legislation barring the police from reviewing the call logs from the phones in the Board of Supes press room. Doesn't everyone just use a cell phone these days anyways?
--DPW's thinking about jacking up towing fees and city parking lot rates again, since no one's putting any money into city parking meters. Why don't they just crush your car at the lot and sell it for scrap metal too while they're at it?
--MUNI's been told by the feds if they don't get moving on that Central Subway from the Caltrain station into Chinatown, they're going to lose $762 million in funding. We imagine the feds, vainly looking down Third Street, waiting for the MUNI planning committee to show up.
--Ross Mirkarimi has proposed a ban on any new liquor stores opening in the Lower Haight. Look how restrained we're being in not making a Gavin Newsom joke here. (We blame Chris Daly's "let's all take the high road" proclamation for this. Thanks a lot, Chris.)
--And look who's back! Julie Lee, Kevin Shelley's best friend and the mother to the breakbeat star of the local political scene Andrew. The results of her audit are in, and it looks like she may owe over $160,000 to the city if she can't provide receipts for her expenses in running a city-funded agency that actually did no quantifiable work. They think some of that money might have gotten funneled over to Kevin Shelley's reelection campaign instead (though the investigations have all concluded that Shelley had no idea about this whole thing.)