Mere days after the head of the environmental department broke with Aaron Peskin and other city leaders on a Public Utilities Commission policy, this week he introduced a wee bit of legislation that would obliterated said department. Yoinks.

According to Wyatt Buchanan's article in today's Chronicle, cutting the department would mean the loss of 64 jobs, save its its director, Jared Blumenfeld. Blumenfeld went on to say "I was really disturbed that someone, without even phoning me, would decide to cut all these great staff people we have in the department."

Peskin's plan to get rid of the department -- which, really, he can't do seeing as how only voters can make such a decision -- got support from Gerardo Sandoval and Sophie Maxwell, prompting Blumenfeld to (correctly) assume that this strike had more to do with supporting the status quo, not the environment.

Alioto-Pier, it seems, also got in on the fun. She questioned Peskin about the move in a closed-door meeting. And, in a stellar move, Peskin replied to her, "Payback's a bitch." (Bam!) Seems he's "punishing Alioto-Pier for giving a television interview opposing Proposition A, the Muni reform measure he sponsored on November's ballot."

Wow, never a dull moment at City Hall. Well, okay, often a dull moment at City Hall, but...not this week.