Follow the Money

“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” Thus, spoke H. L. Mencken, a voice from the past.

I don’t know at present whether we can apply that axiom to any of the five major candidates for mayor, but we’ve got irritating practitioners of guile and political pap at City Hall, and I don’t mean Assessor Joaquin Torres, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins – who is a breath of fresh prosecutorial air of the criminal courthouse, 850 Bryant St. – Director John Arntz of the Election Department, Board of Supervisor’s Clerk Angela Cavallo, Controller Greg Wagner and Budget Analyst Fred Broussard, a worthy successor to Harvey M. Rose who has retired but still attends every Board of Supervisors meeting.

The annual budget proposed June 1 by SF Mayor London Breed is approximately $15 billion, and the predicted 2024-2025 deficit is $235.9 million. To save San Francisco, Supervisor Connie Chan, Board of Supervisors Budget Committee chairwoman, proposed, with fanfare from the SF Comical, 10% cuts to all elected officials’ salaries and salaries of department heads, chief adult probation officer, assessor and others. Board of Supervisors members would be reduced $16,000 each from their munificent $170,000 yearly gift by taxpayers for representing about 80,000 residents per district. Chan proposed no decrease in their four aides’ pay, which is $140,000-$150,000 annually, depending on length of service. Ever try to get your district supervisor on the telephone or meet with him or her? Forget it. You might be able to talk to an office intern, but these “big” men and women are too busy for taxpayers.

Chan, representing the Richmond District, is a genuine left-winger, opposed for re-election on Nov. 5 by Marjan Philhour, who has been to the post twice unsuccessfully. The third time may be a charm for Ms. Philhour.

By comparison, in 1971 when I was elected at-large to the Board of Supervisors, the salary was $9,324 annually. San Francisco’s population was about 742,000 residents. The salary could only be increased with voter approval of a ballot measure to do so. It had been $9,324 since 1962. In 1975, I was elected president of the Board of Supervisors because I was the highest vote-getter, and the custom and practice was to elect as president the highest vote-getter. I instantly asked Budget Analyst Harvey Rose to furnish me the Consumer Price Index percentage increase in San Francisco since 1962. My colleagues and I presented the increased amount to voters for approval. Voters granted the increase. We supervisors each had one aide. In 1973 we were granted one secretary also. We represented the entire 49-square-miles of the City and County.

Now, thanks to a 1994 ballot measure by then-Supervisor Barbara Kaufman, dubbed by her “The New Charter,” the Civil Service Commission establishes supervisorial salaries based upon other counties, which don’t have a mayor or city administrator and perform all those county governmental responsibilities themselves. Incidentally, I’ve endorsed Ms. Philhour for supervisor in the Richmond District. Her campaign headquarters is at 5019 Geary Blvd. where mine was in 1971.

A glaring aspect of stylistic San Francisco government is the number of boards and commissions existing, advisory and otherwise: 123 at last count. Such idyllic bodies include Free City College (which has an elected governing board) Oversight Committee, Immigrant Rights Commission, Committee of City Workforce Alignment, Food Security Task Force, and Housing Conservatorship Working Group and Reentry Council (whatever that means!). An initiative which, among other matters, would abolish almost half these commissions, may qualify for the Nov. 5 election. I hope so.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who publicly declared she wanted all motor vehicles prohibited on West Portal Avenue after a collision which killed four people near Ulloa and Lenox on March 16, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which never has seen a boondoggle it didn’t like (see the $2 billion Central Subway project) want to limit vehicle access to West Portal merchants and who, with residents, objected vigorously to a proposal limiting motor vehicle access. That plan was abandoned on April 26, and a West Portal Welcome Committee was formed to create a “plan.” Five meetings have occurred. The next one is July 16 at 1 p.m. in Room 400, City Hall. Plans proposed by genuine West Portal residents and merchants for safety, including intersections at Ulloa/Wawona and Vicente/Wawona weren’t considered. The West Portal Merchants Association at 215 W. Portal Ave. urges attendance on July 16. I intend to do so.

Speaking of our City and County budget, I reported last month the SF Bicycle Coalition’s dipping its avaricious paws into such budget for $5 million from May 31, 2023 until May 31, 2025. It is supposedly for SFMTA’s Safe Routes to School, whatever that means. The coalition wants to put a measure on the November ballot again to prohibit motor vehicles on the Great Highway, which motorists paid for, not bicyclists. (California still taxes motorists 51 cents per gallon of gasoline and the Feds grab 1.84 cents per gallon. Our forebears and we paid for the Great Highway; bicyclists paid zero!

Police officer and Police Union President Tracy McCray observed in her column in the SF Police Officers Association publication Dashiell Hammett’s reminder in “The Maltese Falcon”: “Most things in San Francisco can be bought or taken.” A patient in the hospital was recovering from surgery and a nurse asked him how he was feeling. “I’m OK, but I didn’t like the four-letter word the doctor used during surgery,” he replied. “What did he say?” the nurse asked. “Oops!”

Happy Independence Day!

Quentin Kopp is a former San Francisco supervisor, state senator, SF Ethics Commission member, president of the California High Speed Rail Authority governing board and retired Superior Court judge.