Bored of Supervisors - 4/1/08

Constant Readers,

The Board of Supervisors meeting is over and here's what happened:

1. Despite the fact that California Pacific Medical Center has agreed to participate in a Blue Ribbon Panel made up of community leaders and stakeholders to determine the future of St. Luke's Hospital, Supervisor Mirkarimi has been insistent on getting a snotty resolution passed that calls upon CPMC to "cease and desist all actions in furtherance of any and all plans to close St. Luke's Hospital." (Which CPMC has already done.) Supervisor Alioto-Pier spoke out against the resolution, asking that the Blue Ribbon Panel (which was just recently convened and has only had one meeting) be given time to make progress before we start coming down on CPMC. Sensing that the collaborative effort to save St. Luke's would be enhanced by passing a resolution calling CPMC a bunch of a-holes and asking the City Attorney to investigate them, the Supervisors passed the resolution by a vote of 9 to 1 with Alioto-Pier as the only "no" vote and Supervisor Dufty having recused himself. Nice work, guys.

2. As you may know there were two competing resolutions before the Board regarding the Olympic torch and Chinese human rights abuses. One resolution, endorsed by Supervisor Chu (a Chinese-American), would have welcomed the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch (April 9), the Tibetan Freedom Torch (April 8) and the Global Human Rights Torch Relay (April 5). The other resolution, endorsed by Supervisor Daly, lists a litany of complaints about China's human rights record and calls upon whomever actually receives the torch on behalf of San Francisco to:

"make publicly known that the 2008 Summer Olympic Games Torch is received with alarm and protest at the failure of China  to meet its past solemn promises to the international community, including the citizens of San Francisco, to cease the egregious and ongoing human rights abuses in China and occupied Tibet."

At the Board, Supervisor Chu's measure was considered first and, after speeches by Daly and Chu, Supervisor Sandoval made a motion to table (read: kill) Supervisor Chu's resolution. That motion passed by a vote of 7 to 4. (Supervisor Daly voted against the motion.) Then the Board voted on Daly's resolution which passed 8 to 3. There were loud cheers from a packed gallery and a chant of "FREE TIB-ET" broke out. Bless their hearts! I've never seen a group get so excited about a nonbinding resolution.

Though I'll bet the people over at Fox News are positively giddy, too.

3. At Roll Call for Introductions, a bunch of cost-cutting measures were promised. Supervisor McGoldrick said he will be proposing legislation to limit the amount of overtime claimed by City employees by capping the total number of hours worked by any City employee at 80 per week. The cap would not apply to fire or other emergency services. (Is anyone else working more than 80 hours a week?) He will also be proposing a halt to purchases of new vehicles with City money (noting that he drives a crappy old car from "the 90s"). For his part, Supervisor Mirkarimi asked for a feasibility study to see if we can reduce the number of Public Information Officers employed by the City by 50%.

QUOTE OF THE MEETING:

"We can't be all kissy face and huggy bear about this commission."

-Supervisor Ammiano commenting on the Blue Ribbon Panel. I'll bet more people would come to Panel meetings if Huggy Bear were actually involved.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“With all due respect to Chris Daly, I'm not going to be told what to say by Supervisor Chris Daly.”

-Mayor Newsom responding to Daly's Olympic Torch resolution - which "urges" Mistermayor to "express his concern" regarding the state of human rights in China and Tibet when the torch passes through the City. Here is the snippy clip: http://cbs5.com/video/?id=32746@kpix.dayport.com 

--Melissa

Comments

[Beth Spotswood]

That was some awesome hand jive from Gavin. I loved that whole finger pointing move! And he has a scarf from the Dali Lama? I wonder what he does with it...

[L'Italiana]

Wait, wait...So they slam CPMC for wanting to close St. Luke's, and then they slam CPMC for reversing that decision and instead doing whatever it takes to keep it open based on what this panel decides?! These people are not only clueless, they are dangerous because playing politics with health care will harm each one of us. And where do you think they get their health care? I'll bet you that to the person, they all use CPMC!!

[Andre Pineda]

When Beth and the Mayor (finally) have children, we now know the look that will be on the Mayor's face when he explains to them the errors of their ways.

[Jamie]

God bless Supervisors Alioto-Pier, Chu, and Elsbernd for their sensibilities when it comes to fiscal matters and incendiary resolutions from the attention whores on the Board.

[SFCitizen]

From 2004:
1951 hours of overtime

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/11/RYAN.TMP

"There already is a law -- administrative code 18.13-1 -- that forbids city employees from exceeding 16 percent of their regular hours. But police, firefighters and other emergency personnel are exempt. And for those who aren't exempt, such as institutional police, the law is simply not enforced."

[Greg]

@jamie: yeah those communists are so great on human rights...I heard back in the day we fought an entire so-called " Cold War" against 'em!

God Bless the Chinese for finding a way for Communism to make a profit. They ROCK! When does SF follow along???

[Jamie]

@greg: You're so right ... I think all of us gays should go on Chris Daly's next field trip to Cuba since they treat us LGBT folks so well there. (snark)

[el Greco]

Oh, hey, late breaking news. Frank "12 Galaxies" Chu will be on the torch route. His sign will read "Impeach the Dali Lama, orogonexitcalific treason guiltied, 795,000 galaxies say so!"

[DJTennessee]

Huggy Bear's son plays for the Oakland Raiders, you know. No fooling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Fargas

With all due respect, Sup. Ammiano, maybe we SHOULD be all Huggy Bear about this commission. You know... put on an ascot and a wide-brim hat and such.

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