February 11, 2008
Gavin's People Gots To Be Paid
The battle over Gavin's new staffing plans went up a notch in lieu of a report by Board of Supervisors Budget Analyst Harvey Rose that will be released today saying that Gavin is spending $959,903 in raises and taking that money out of departmental funds. The report was done at the behest of Jake McGoldrick after the first initial reports came out about Gavin going around City Hall and making it rain.
Knowing that the report wouldn't put the Mayor in that nice of a light, he held a pre-emptory press briefing on Friday in which he said everything was on the up-and-up, that it was nothing out of the ordinary, and the people he had given raises to were working for that department anyways. His people were so adamant that there's so nothing going on that Gavin's Chief of Staff Phil Ginsberg said the report was "bull--" and Gavin added "is it two l's? You can quote him on that." We have no idea what that means either. So concerned were Gavin's people, in fact, they took an early copy of the report (which they weren't supposed to get) and got all Chuck Klosterman with it, adding footnotes wherever possible to explain themselves (since we too got an early copy of the report too, we'll give you an example-- on Stuart Sunshine, for instance, the footnote reads: "No, Stuart Sunshine was not picked for his name and no, despite everyone's confusion, he is not Stuart Smiley Smalley, although he is good enough, smart enough and doggone if people don't like him).
Both Jake McG and Aaron Peskin have said that they won't comment on the report until it's officially released on Monday but as Peskin and Newsom appear to be fighting like cats and dogs lately, it should be rather heated. We eagerly await Aaron Peskin's next bout of drunk dialing.
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I've spoken with Peskin and Ammiano at BoS meetings before and they seem like nice enough gentlemen. Of course, Peskin was sober at the time.
When did Peskin turn into this well publicized jerk? Is he trying to help those people who want to recall him? (as lame as their website is, they actually have signature gatherers out on the streets in his district these days). I thought Daly was the only "arch-nemesis".
Does Gavin have any friends left on the Board at this point?
Silly Gavin! You only want to bill obscure city agencies when nailing your mistress.
"well-publicized" -- you just answered your own question.
Geez, Gav. It's Stuart SMALLEY, not Stuart Smiley. GET IT RIGHT!!!!
Little correction. The mayor's office was actually supposed to receive a copy of the report before it went public. All major government audits include a "management response" section where the target of the audit is allowed a chance to show, for instance, how the auditors may not have taken something crucial into account. Or the bureaucrats on the receiving end of an audit may just want to promise in their response that all recommendations will be promptly implemented.
Either way, that response is the last step before a report goes public, but reporters will sometimes try to scoop one another and get a copy before the official release time. In this case, Newsom's office scooped everyone apparently in an attempt to control the report's impact, which is pretty remarkable. Rose has been auditing local government agencies since the mayor was in diapers, and no small number of journos have used his reports to understand the mechanics of San Francisco bureaucracy.
If challenging Rose's credibility with little more than a blanket indictment -- "bullshit" -- is the mayor's only game plan, then room 200 may be in trouble.
there's no "safe word" in SF politics....and it seems the Mayor's folks know it
http://www.gregdewar.com/2008/02/post_7.html
Nice to know that while half of SF's houses are being foreclosed on and everyone else's rent is still through the roof, Gavin's pals will be doing okay!
I don't get mean and make ugly phone calls. No time for that.
I'm too busy drooling and posting here.
Thanks for the amplification, gwschulz, and you're correct on every count. "Can you spell bullshit?" Phil Ginsburg is asking reporters. And they're saying this about the one person that EVERYONE trusts at City Hall, Mr. Rose. Gavin and the thugs around him are weirdly out of control.
The funny thing is that they can only singletask -- we haven't heard a peep about Daly since this episode started.
Why don't you send in Beth Spotswood to get to the bottom of this? I'm sure she'll do a real hard-hitting piece. *cough cough*