September used to be the month I returned to school after being released in the middle of June. That’s gone with the wind. San Francisco public schools opened up for business on Monday, Aug. 17, two weeks before Labor Day. My Napa grandsons, Emmett and Brooks (16 and 12) reported for academic duty in their schools on Aug. 10. Naturally, football practice began even before that.
Last month we learned from a reported City Hall audit that a wily operator, former Chief Assistant Treasurer Tajel Shah, ignored procurement rules to ensure that a $7 million City Hall contract for a new tax collecting system went to tech corporation Mechanical Orchard. The system handles billions of dollars in San Francisco‘s infamous business taxes. City Attorney David Chiu, City Controller Greg Wagner and the Controller’s Auditor of City Services uncovered Shah’s perfidy. Shah never revealed her friendship with the chief revenue officer of Mechanical Orchard whose subcontractor (Ratio PBC) then hired Ms. Shah’s niece. A complaint was thereafter filed by a knowledgeable citizen with the Ethics Commission in late 2024. The San Francisco Standard reported such malefeasance on Sept. 25, 2025. Mechanical Orchard pulled out of contract talk the day before Shah’s perfidy was revealed. Shah resigned on Nov. 21, 2025.
As we reach the pinnacle of our California primary election on June 2 – early voting by mail starts May 4 – the effect of 62 candidates of which 24 are Democrats, 12 are Republican, 19 are “no party preference” (meaning they’re Independents like me!), one Libertarian and one Peace and Freedom who present themselves as worthy of serving four years as our next governor.
It’s been said that: “There is nothing quite as permanent as a temporary government program.” And, as we enter income tax month, I’m reminded of someone who observed: “Patrick Henry ought to come back and see what taxation with representation is like.”
Last month brought cheer to many readers as AAA and Gas-Buddy data reported gasoline prices declined to a $2.90 per gallon nationwide average, although not in California where the best locations charge $3.95 per gallon. The aforementioned $2.90 is 17 cents lower than November and 7.3 cents lower than 2024. You naughty non-electric motor vehicle drivers can consider this your holiday present.
“In addition to this year’s superb induction class, the NCJSHOF will also celebrate and award 10 local youth with scholarships for their upcoming college careers,“ announced Steve Sockolov, the NCJSHOF President.
Furthermore, if we still had at-large elections, there would have been no recall – whom would you recall? The whole Board? Those board members who voted to put this on the ballot?
The author remains anonymous, but it could’ve been President Donald Trump or his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who only a mother could love, who declared: “In my whole life I’ve only had one client – my career.”
As our new mayor settles into Room 200 at City Hall, San Franciscans often ask me to grade his performance. He’s certainly chosen an extremely well-qualified person (Staci Slaughter) as his chief of staff, replacing Sean Elsbernd, Esq., a former Board of Supervisors member before ex-Mayor London Breed hired him. Slaughter is a long-time San Francisco Giants executive and daughter of Dan Walters of Cal Matters, who knows more about California politics and government than anyone in our state.
American corporations are deciding they would rather pay low wages with no benefits to immigrants and manipulate the H-1B visas to hire vulnerable non-union immigrant workers at a lower cost than they would have to pay if they hired Americans.
It’s been said that many politicians should beg for pardons instead of granting them.
Mark Twain once explained to readers in the 19th century: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
I read Quentin Kopp’s voting recommendations for the Nov. 5 election with dismay.
By Michael Durand I spoke with Quentin Kopp this morning and he acknowledges his September column was not accurate when he wrote that District 1 supervisorial candidate Marjan Philhour endorses Proposition K […]
Nov. 5 Voting Recommendations Separation of church and state in the United States of America, California and San Francisco could hardly be more complete. The church (or synagogue or mosque) teaches us […]
