P.J. on SAN FRANCISCO

Adam Werbach’s Polluted Past

Over the weekend, and through yesterday, I looked through the newspapers expecting to find profiles of the two new commissioners -- Adam Werbach and Robin Chiang --- stealthily sworn in by Mayor-for-a-Moment Chris Daly as members of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Since I found nothing in either of the dailies, I decided to do a little research of my own. I didn’t discover much one way or another about Chiang, an architect. But on Werbach, I found a lot. And it’s scary. So while I hate to go on day after day about politics, it’s time to take a look at this fellow. If Werbach had been nominated in a normal fashion, all of what follows here would certainly have been brought out in public debate. But he was sworn in without benefit of notice to the public, without benefit of scrutiny by the public. Big Irony there, considering he was national president of the Sierra Club, a group that quite correctly has insisted on plenty of sunshine when govt. makes public policy..

But when you see some of the question marks that even a day’s inquiry into Werbach’s past raises, you’ll see that perhaps his sponsors thought it best that he be snuck into office. And, frankly, so bizarre is his record, I suspect as well that Werbach has hidden some of his past from his sponsor, Supervisor Daly, a supervisor who represents a district with a large immigrant population. In this caper, Daly – if in fact he is the original author of this nomination, and not just a dupe -- may be the trickster, tricked. And perhaps Matt Gonzalez, who described Werbach the other day as “exceptionally qualified” may not have known that Werbach was exceptionally weasel-worded when it came time for the Sierra Club, of which Werbach was then national president, to quash immigrant bashing. There many questions about this backroom appointment.

Hellzapoppin

Awful lot of politics. We just have to get through it. … Here a couple of takes on the scene. … First, read below for former Public Defender Geoff Brown’s lashing indictment of DA Hallinan – for being a failed prosecutor -- and Brown’s endorsement of Bill Fazio. … Then secondly, midst all the hellzapoppin of the last few days, came a welcome visit from that for-real voice of insight, inside stuff, and startling lore: The Man Who Knows Just Enough. A visit that includes a typographical fly-by from Angela Alioto, with corrections! We do not fear the truth, nor fallibility. … By the way, when Michael Moore came to town the other day to endorse Green candidate Matt Gonzalez and to play phone pranks on Gavin Newsom, he bunked down with the best of them: The Four Seasons. ... And last weekend you would have found Sean Penn at the Slanted Door. Followed there shortly by the owners of the Kansas City Chiefs. Good thing they got there then. The SL caught fire the next day. It's reopened. ... Barnaby Conrad Jr., one of The City's great bar owners and novelists, comes to Moose's Nov 9 to celebrate his newest novel, "Last Boat to Cadiz." ... Onward to the fray and an unfrayed yarn:

Geoff Brown's heavy put-away of DA Hallinan

Geoff Brown, for 20 years San Francisco's elected Public Defender, has issued an eye-catching indictment of DA Terry Hallinan -- for being a flop as a prosecutor. Brown also endorses Bill Fazio for DA. Brown writes of Hallinan, "The reason for his failure is not that city government has starved his budget. It is not that the police have failed him (although they do solve fewer cases than most departments in the state). It is because he has not managed prosecutions well with good, supportive investigations. It is because he has failed to set standards and supervise staff to achieve those standards. It is because he has driven out experienced staff and demoralized those who remain."

And Hallinan "is unable and unwilling to take those steps necessary to remove serious, guilty offenders from circulation." The complete, but brief, statement, perhaps the most cogent, and platitude-free, press release of the political season, seemed to have been missed by the dailies. It's here. ...

The Man Who Knows Just Enough

The Man Who Knows Just Enough likes to talk where no one can eavesdrop. That is, where no one who could possibly understand what he has to say, could listen. Thus, you usually have to meet him in some spot like the corner of Jefferson and Mason, down near Fisherman’s Wharf, where you’re certain to be surrounded by surrounded by birds, sea lions, and tourists. Not one of whom would have an inkling of what he’s saying. And all of whom are babbling what amounts to cover noise anyway. … But he’s droll. He sometimes likes to talk where it should be busy, but where fate has intervened. So yesterday afternoon, he set a rendezvous for the loneliest, quietest spot in town: McCovey Cove. He had a view on the madness of Wednesday, and an insight into the mayoral campaign:

“Chris Daly’s putting on weight,” he said. “I mean, he’s really getting tubby. It’s the most significant thing about him.”

“So?”

“It’s the hundred-grand salary. He eats like a St. Louis alderman now.”

“So?” The Man looked at me as if I were dense. I said, “Look, maestro, it’s cool to telegraph the language … to make your points in koan, but I don’t satori this one. What’s the point?”

“So,” he said, “It means he’ll never want to leave the Board. Where else is a confrontational guy like that going to make a hundred-grand? … What I mean is that he’s a lifer, he wants to be lifer. He’ll do anything to stay on the board. In five years, he’ll be as stuffy as John Molinari, but he won’t last as long. He’s just another pol. He can be dealt with, and he can be dealt.” The Man insisted we walk along China Basin. Empty China Basin.

“Well, that’s comforting,” I said, “but what about the current crisis?”

“It’s happened before,” he said.

“This is the guy who tried it before,” The Man said, pointing out that the wide strip of pavement mid the acres of asphalt we had started walking on was Terry Francois Blvd.

“Terry Francois once tried the Daly ploy."

Guy in a jam at City Hall: Aaron Peskin

Aaron Peskin, a snappy enough fellow, fun to know, quick with a quip, eager to encourage, and a rising politician of the new philosophical school, recently got himself into a jam. Seems he was part of an effort that used some Old School tricks … gosh, these tricks could get you sent to Reform School … to help some busybodies on Tellygraft Hill, as it was called, show the world that they and they alone are the only law west of Prescott Ct., ... your Constitution, Rule of Law, and Democratic Ideal be damned. So I went to the Bd of Supes yesterday to see if he’d work himself out of it.

I used to think that the old gang that hung out afternoons at the Dovre Club trying to figure out how to raid the Bonding Capacity of the City & County by constantly coming out with ever more weird but lovely sounding Propositions that seemingly would create some wonderful Public Good, but which primarily would benefit their own pockets via contracts and gigs, gamed the people of San Francisco like no others. But they at least would build something, put some people to work. And you knew you were being had.

Notes to the Editors of The Chronicle

The church on Mission Street you wrote about on Page One Saturday is not St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is St. Patrick's Church. It's only been in the neighborhood -- no more than 150 yards away from The Chronicle offices in any of the paper's varied locales -- since 1851. Get to know the neighborhood, guys. Gosh. ... The story you published Tuesday under the 27-word headline, "Frisco, that once-verboten term for the city by the bay, is making a comeback among the young and hip. Herb Caen is spinning at warp speed." is not only dubious theologically, it is also appallingly ignorant. Caen was not, as the article asserts, "The point man for the anti-Frisco brigade." The title of his book, cited in The Chronicle, "Don't Call It Frisco," was not an ultimatum by the author. The title is ironic. If you read the column in the book by that title you'll see it was written in the voice of a bemused San Franciscan recalling that indeed the nabobs shuddered at calling the place Frisco, but so foggy is the debate, the narrator doesn't know why this is so. Indeed, the same book contains an admiring essay on the character of certain old-time San Franciscans under the title "They Called It Frisco." In a later column, bemoaning the stuffy state of The City, Caen reflected that San Francisco was "a city that wished people would call her Frisco again." This essay was titled an imploring "Please Call it Frisco?" Caen's position was nuanced, moody, changeable, like The City. Get it right. Gosh. ... And the article in Sunday's paper that London-style taxicabs will soon be hacking it up on the streets of Frisco is no scoop. Readers of the P. J. Blogolumn (there's a brand-new word -- just made it up this morning -- for you) read it here first last August. ... Gosh....

The Streets of San Francisco

Teetering on ancient metal legs, windows smudged and smirched by taggers, panels a dirty brown, two pay-phone booths, about the last in The City, stand on the corner of Van Ness & Golden Gate, anachronisms anchoring down a quiet spot in a noisy rendezvous. That is their only reason for being -- the corner is so loud with the roar and the beep of the four bus lines -- the Van Ness Fortysomethings -- and all other traffic that no caller could possibly hear or be heard were it not for the baffling walls of the phone booth. So sure enough, at 8 p.m. Saturday night, as the theater crowds marched by, there stood a lady in the first pay-phone -- talking on her cell phone. ...

S. F. Names on Arnold's Transition Team:

Willie L. Brown Jr. ... Warren Hellman ... Frank Jordan ... George Shultz*... Tom McEnery*, ex-San Jose Mayor ... Rebecca Morgan, ex-state sen. from S.F./South Bay, CEO of Silicon Valley Network, non-profit business/go/educ group ... Annelise Anderson, Hoover Inst. Fellow ... Bill Baker, ex-U.S. Congressman, Contra Costa ... David Crane, Hastings grad, partner Babcock & Brown law firm ... Carly Fiorina, Hewlett Packard chair/CEO ... Bob Grady, Carlyle Group venture Capital firm ... Jillian Manus*, Palo Alo Lit Agent, TV heavy reps authors who "empower women physically, psychologically and spiritually." ... Sally Pipes, CEO, Pacific Research Institute, on Bd. of Federalist Society, S.F. ... William Reilly, ex- U.S. Environmental Agency under Bush 41, S.F. enviro lawyer ... Charlene Zettel, "Public Interest Director," Fed. Home Loan Bank, S. F.
(*) denotes known contributor to Arnold's campaign. For complete list of Transition Committee Members Click Here
Want a job with Arnold? Go Here. Read in posts below for Election Night story about those (few) San Franciscans who gave money to Arnold's campaign.

Da Mayor and Der Governor, and Der Gov. and P. J.

Shrewd of Arnold to name Willie Brown to his transition team. And not all that surprising. There's no stauncher Democrat than Da Mayor, but he picked Arnold early on as a political comer and made friends with him. Last year, when Arnold was campaigning for his Children's Initiative ballot question, he and Willie spent a few cordial -- raucous, even -- lunches at Le Central. Arnold was also grateful for the advice Da Mayor had on the Initiative. ... And, now that you're governor, Arnold, let me remind you of our first -- raucous, even -- encounter. Think back, Arnold, to those balmy days when the 1984 Olympics were just opening in L.A. At DeLaurentis' then new deli/bistro in Bev Hills, there was a reception for the Italian Olympic Soccer team. The worldwide media was there. You were going to introduce the team. ... But the team wasn't there! In a van, with an Italian Olympics official at the wheel, they had taken a wrong turn on Olympic Blvd., and were lost somewhere in Boyle Heights. The TV people were panicked: they had only a few minutes window into the passing satellite above to transmit. You thought fast, Arnold. ... You grabbed me away from Maria, with whom I was discussing matters Irish, ... and introduced me to world-wide TV as the Captain of the Italian Olympic Soccer team. It was my finest athletic performance. ...

Welcome to the Corridors of Power, Arnold!

The orderly transition is underway. The Civil Service is doing its part to welcome Gov. Arnold. ... Today at the massive State Office Building at 505 Van Ness, scores of office employees wore their Union tee-shirts to work. If John Burton doesn't Rebuff the new Administration, the bureaucracy will. ... Phil K. Rooney suggests beginner Schwarzenegger get a quick and secure handle on the state government -- by appointing Willie Brown "Prime Minister." Sez Phil, "Then Arnold can make himself Kaiser, and enjoy being a movie star monarch. And if he does well, then in a few years we can make him Kaiser Permanente." That's a good citizen, Phil ... Willie Nelson, direct from his appearance Sunday at Warren Hellman's Bluegrass Fest in The Park, took off to Lancaster Vineyards in Sonoma where he played at a private do Monday night for 100 wine and food industry types. While there, The NY Post's Braden Keil reports, Willie honored Gov. Arnold with a rendition of his hit, "To All the Girls I've Groped Before." ...