Horrors: Newsom's Hawaiian Weekend Getaway
“I was shocked,” said Board of Supervisors Prez Aaron Peskin after being asked about Gavin Newsom's whereabouts this past weekend. Same here. Word is that Gavin was in Hawaii this past weekend, kicking in the sand and surf. Has senioritis kicked in already, Mayor? Not that you could've mopped up the oil singlehandedly, but still, you should have been here. We're a sensitive lot, us SF babies.
Meanwhile Bevan was our acting mayor, and according to Richard Cole at San Francisco Daily (who are refreshingly online-free, thus no link), "[o]ther politicians jumped into the cleanup effort. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein browbeat federal officials into action, while Assemblyman Mark Leno cleaned beaches and State Sen. Carole Migden set up a senate hearing into the disaster."
That's...pretty remarkable. Sure, he has nothing to worry about seeing as how he's our mayor for another four years, existing in a supreme state of untouchableness. But it's these kind of seemingly innocuous things that don't get guys elected to higher offices; it's moments like this that won't get someone elected President. (We can see the smear campaign now, a commercial juxtaposing tear-stained, oily seagulls with that of a frolicking, shirtless Mayor cruising around in an [gasp!] SUV. Actually, we would vote for him if we saw something like that.)
Anyway, Newsom was back at work on Monday...chatting it up with Oracle folk.
(SF Daily's article after the jump.)
BY RICHARD COLE
San Francisco Daily Staff Writer
While San Franciscans fought to save their beaches, wildlife and livelihoods from an advancing black tide of oil, Mayor Gavin Newsom jetted off to Hawaii on a four-day vacation.
“I was shocked,” Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said yesterday.
He and acting Mayor Bevan Dufty were left to fight federal inertia in the face of the widening environmental disaster.
“I was all the more shocked because I didn’t know anything about it until Bevan called me Thursday night,” Peskin said. “The mayor didn’t have the courtesy to tell anyone else.”
Peskin emphasized that by the time Newsom left Thursday, the mayor already knew the true size of the 58,000-gallon spill.
Other politicians jumped into the cleanup effort. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein browbeat federal officials into action, while Assemblyman Mark Leno cleaned beaches and State Sen. Carole Migden set up a senate hearing into the disaster.
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd helped run the city’s emergency services center.
Dufty, who unexpectedly found himself heading the city during the crisis, was more forgiving of Newsom’s Hawaiian vacation.
“There is a large and able city family, and if you lead the city, you have to have confidence in them,” Dufty said. “I don’t see it as an issue.”
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick called Newsom’s vacation “unfortunate,” but said his critics shouldn’t try to make political hay of the mayor’s absence.
Peskin said it would have been politically helpful to have the mayor in place during the first days of the cleanup.
“The federal government came in too little, too late,” said the board president. “We could have used the mayor’s gravitas, and his supposed close connection with our senior senator and the House speaker.”
Peskin noted that the city’s emergency personnel weren’t initially allowed to enter the federal command center, and in effect had to force their way to the table.
“Federal maritime law has basically allowed the representative of the shipping company to participate as a partner while the affected cities and counties were relegated to the sidelines,” Peskin said.
Newsom arrived back in San Francisco on Sunday night and yesterday met early with Coast Guard officials.
The city still has much to do, said Peskin, who will be introducing legislation to adopt funds to pay for its emergency efforts – money he hopes the city will eventually recoup from the ship owner.