I (heart) David Campos

At first I chalked it up to the fact that he was an eager newcomer, but some five months later Supervisor David Campos is still vigilant as ever when it comes to city contracts.

See, there are a number of budget actions that require a vote by the Board of Supervisors. Waiving the competitive bidding process for a city contract and paying contract overruns are just two examples of the kind of measures the board votes on routinely. Often, such resolutions sail through with approval, but since Campos has joined the board it has been a whole new ball game.

Possessed with the unquenchable skepticism that is one of the least offensive side effects of a legal education, Campos wants to know: Why should we waive the bidding process? Why is this an emergency? Why did we not see this cost overrun coming? And while at times you can practically hear the other supervisors roll their eyes as Campos stands up to begin his cross-examination, I’m a fan.

For example, at Tuesday’s meeting he basically accused Office Depot of underbidding (at $9,999,999, right under the $10 million dollar threshold for board approval - sketchy!) on purpose to get The City office-supply contract, then ripping us off later with contract extensions that contain large cost increases. He requested that the next contract (bidding starts in about six months) make the vendor pay a 10 percent penalty for cost overruns.

I may not always agree with Campos’ politics, but he deserves credit for digging into each of these contractual duck bites that add up to huge costs for The City. He’s pretty much alone among supervisors in this crusade, but I’m watching the meeting with Red Bull in one hand, notebook in the other, scribbling “Thank You, David" on its pages.

Comments

[Benjamin Wachs]

I cried.

This is such a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Sheer despair at San Francisco's unique hybrid of incompetence and corruption (I call it "corrupetence") was pushing me over the edge: I'd been planning to end all my suffering by jumping into the Bay while tied to a copy of Gavin Newsom's "Accountability Matrix." My only fear: that I might float, because the Accountability Matrix has absolutely no substance.

But the fact that at least one member of the Board of Supervisors wants to hold the city contracting process accountable to both the letter and the spirit of the law is enough to get me through one more week in San Francisco.

Thank you David Campos. Thank you Melissa Griffin.

[Melissa Griffin]

You are welcome. Smartass.

[Neo Displacer]

Thank you for the reporting. Campos reps my district. In general, I'm frustrated with city govt in toto, what a punch of clowns, Peskin, Daly, Ammiano, Newsom. I'm glad to hear he is scrutinizing contracts. Maybe the freshmen will bring me new hope.

[generic]

So I guess we can't mock his "being a lawyer and all ... " asides anymore.

Fair enough.

[livinintheloin]

I'm starting to (heart) Campos too. Everything I've heard him say seems to be driven by the needs of his constituents -- a really weird thing for a San Francisco supervisor to do. We should encourage him to wash his hands often, and spray Lysol all over the damn place. It would suck if he caught whatever bug makes the other supervisors irrational. Maybe the BOS will fund a $70,000 study to test for Trichothecium mold in the walls.

[livinintheloin]

p.s. I found "Trichothecium" on Mold-Help.org. "The BEST toxic mold site on the web"? Their holiday parties must be a upbeat and fun.