Melissa Griffin

Griffin: SF retirement system bleeds green

This is the second in a series on San Francisco retirement benefits. Last week, “The Good” examined The City’s relatively well-funded pension system. Today, we look at “The Bad”: retiree health care for city employees. ‘Any employee who adheres to the faith or teachings of any recognized religious sect … [that] depends for healing upon prayer” was allowed to opt out of The City’s health care system back in 1937, when it was first added to the City Charter. Back then, the system was funded entirely by employee and retiree participants, with no contribution by taxpayers. Through the years, voters amended the Health Service System and...

Continued...

 

SF’s pension fund envy of others

This is Part I of a three-part series on San Francisco retirement benefits. In the first installment, we will examine “The Good”: the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. By “good” I certainly don’t mean “perfect” or even “not scary,” but I do mean that our system is the envy of other localities. And compared to our retiree health benefits fund (the subject of Part II) the city pension fund is positively fat and happy. Some background: - SFERS provides a “defined benefit,” meaning that when a city employee with at least 10 years of service retires, he or she is guaranteed a certain amount of money...

Continued...

 

Supe targeting drunken firefighters

At today’s Rules Committee meeting, supervisors Eric Mar and David Campos (and Michela Alioto-Pier, if she’s feeling well enough after having surgery) will hear Supervisor Chris Daly’s proposal to amend the City Charter to include a provision demanding termination of any firefighter found to be under the influence of alcohol while on duty. Assuming progressives support the measure (and I suspect they will), this proposal will be on the ballot in November. In 2004, the civil grand jury blasted the Fire Department for not doing enough to stop firefighters from drinking while on duty. Then in March 2005, 28 firefighters brought a lawsuit against the department demanding...

Continued...

 

City’s top resolutions of 2009

My list of New Year’s resolutions has been the same since about sixth grade: Stop cursing so much, lay off the Skittles and find a way to meet Patrick Dempsey. I bring up the depressing fact that I never seem to keep a damn one of them because they are resolutions — that is, they are statements of sentiment that don’t amount to much without action. The Board of Supervisors doesn’t need the prospect of a new year to consider a resolution; it does it all the time. Some resolutions are necessary for a functioning government. Accepting a grant, transferring a liquor license and approving certain contracts are all done using a resolution. The board also uses...

Continued...

 

The devil’s in the security detail

In July 2008, Mistermayor got married in Montana. And instead of springing for a diamond-encrusted meat thermometer, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi offered up a different kind of probe: He demanded to know how much it had cost The City for two police officers to drive to Montana and provide security detail for the mayor. Met with a resounding “Whatever, dude ... that’s classified” from both the Mayor’s Office and the Police Department, Mirkarimi was never able to get to the bottom of his request. By February, Mistermayor’s campaign to be the captain of the Titanic (read: governor of California) was in full swing, so Mirkarimi requested the price of security for...

Continued...

 

Fate of past projects hangs in limbo

I’ve been writing for The Examiner for about a year now, and a number of topics, predictions and explanations have come across this page. While the Board of Supervisors is still on hiatus, I thought this would be a good week to discuss the status of some former subjects. - Healthy San Francisco: The Golden Gate Restaurant Association continues its legal challenge to the employer contribution part of The City’s universal health care program. Right now, the association is trying to get the United States Supreme Court to hear the case, which is not easy to do. The Justices on the court are a picky bunch who only like about 5 percent of the applications each year. On Oct....

Continued...

 

BART board eclipses incompetence

The BART board of directors appears to have scored another victory in the war against accountability for the remarkably dysfunctional BART police force. Not content to simply propose a civilian oversight system that is neither civilian nor oversight, the board has managed to unveil that system so late in the legislative calendar that there’s basically no way it will be passed this year. It did not have to be this way. In February, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, introduced Assembly Bill 312, which was co-sponsored by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo. That bill would require the BART board to create an Office of Citizen Complaints to investigate BART...

Continued...

 

Sizing up Mistermayor’s L.A. rival

‘When he’s on top of his game, [Los Angeles Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa is catnip to wealthy, white, liberal voters — and that, combined with Latino voters, makes for a powerful coalition,” Democratic pollster Andre Pineda recently told me. Pineda then added that Villaraigosa, who is eyeing a run for governor but has yet to commit to the race, is far from being on top of his game. I’m sure the thought of a race without Villaraigosa inspires awkward high-fives all around Mistermayor’s gubernatorial campaign headquarters. Despite the fact that Villaraigosa only has 1,634 followers on Twitter compared with Newsom’s 422,970, he and Newsom have been...

Continued...

 

Public access and your cable bill

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has introduced a bill aimed at saving The City’s public-access television. Two teensy issues, though: It will increase monthly fees for Comcast customers and it might not actually save public-access television. At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the supes voted to postpone consideration of that bill for two weeks. In exchange for the privilege of doing business here, each year cable companies (Comcast and Astound) pay 5 percent of gross revenues from San Francisco video operations into The City’s general fund. Last year, it received $8.6 million from Comcast alone. In addition to the general-fund money, The City has negotiated extra...

Continued...

 

Proposition carves out kids’ cash

“BABY KILLER” reads a newspaper advertisement recently released by a group called “Stop 1D.” The accompanying picture of sweet, tiny baby feet sporting a toe tag invariably inspires a mixture of concern and confusion commonly expressed with the response “oh-kaaaaaaaaaay.” Who are the baby killers? According to the ad, people who vote to reduce funding for child-abuse prevention (Proposition 1D) at the statewide special election May 19 will have blood on their hands. To understand Prop. 1D, let us reflect on Prop. 10. It was passed in 1998 and levied a special 50 cent tax on tobacco to pay for the First 5 program, whose purpose is to provide...

Continued...

 

Your ticket to talk trash

On Tuesday afternoon, the Municipal Transportation Agency met for the second time to consider options for closing a $129 million budget deficit. The public was treated to a proposal that everyone can hate: service cuts, fare and fee increases, and a plan to allow the sale of 100 taxi medallions. The meeting went on for more than five hours. Here are my top five quotes from public comment: 5 On the sale of taxi medallions: “It literally takes it out of the hands of the people who deserve it, professionals who love this city, and puts it into the hands of anyone who can afford to buy it. This probably means lenders and banks. Guess what they have done to the United States? We all...

Continued...

 

Bill more vindictive than effective

Petty, vindictive and childish. That’s how the opposition describes Proposition 1F in the voter guide for the May 19 statewide special election. Oh, I love the dicey ones! I’ll be writing about the special-election measures in the coming weeks, but I could not resist starting with this one. If the name Abel Maldonado rings a bell, it’s probably because he was the final vote in favor of the scabby scramble that passed for a “state budget” this year, thus temporarily ending the 8-month financial cluster in Sacramento. In exchange for ruining his future with the GOP, the state senator, R-Santa Maria, demanded, among other things, that two “good...

Continued...

 

All’s fare in taxi-medallion fight

On Tuesday, about 40 cab drivers spoke against “limited pilot proposals” that would allow taxi medallions to be purchased or auctioned. Medallions are little metal plates emblazoned with numbers that authorize the driver to operate as a taxi. According to a 2007 report by the (now extinct) Taxicab Commission, there are 1,431 medallions in circulation and 7,000 drivers licensed to operate a taxi. How does this work? Subject to certain rules, medallion holders can lease the use of those little plates to drivers and cab companies. People who have medallions cannot sell them, but leasing out a medallion can fetch anywhere from $1,800 to $4,000 per month. How does a driver (since...

Continued...

 

All Ed Jew needs is that crazy coif

Before Illinois had Gov. Rod Blagojevich, San Francisco had Edmund Jew. Sure, Ed lacks Blago’s charisma, showmanship and astonishing coif, but both men share an allergy to responsibility — even in the face of irrefutable evidence of corruption. Now that Ed Jew will be sentenced in federal court Friday, let us take a moment to remember our former Sunset district supervisor. As a crude recap: Jew was elected supervisor in District 4 in November 2006 and took office that December; about three months into his tenure, he learned that several Quickly tapioca stores in his district were in violation of a formula retail law; Jew explained to the store owners that, for the bargain...

Continued...

 

JROTC issue reporting for duty, sir

Last month in Sacramento, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill that would grant physical-education credit to participants in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and direct San Francisco to allow JROTC programs in city high schools. According to Ma, the bill, AB 223, will be heard in the Assembly Committee on Education this week. At Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, board members Jill Wynns and Rachel Norton introduced a resolution that would direct school district superintendent Carlos Garcia to continue offering JROTC at city high schools. Unlike Ma’s bill, the board resolution will not reinstate the PE credit, but Norton hopes state...

Continued...

 

Time for a stimulus spree

A dear friend called me Tuesday with an idea for a “project.” We know that city officials are going to Washington, D.C., to lobby for stimulus money, but no one seems to know what’s available. Figuring this out would require reading the stimulus bill. “It’s like 400 pages long!” I protested. “Yeah, that’s why I thought of you. Who else would be nerdy enough to read it?” “Gee, thanks, but no way.” We hung up and curiosity got the best of me; I started reading the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. And since I don’t have a reputation for being cool, I guess it can’t hurt to tell you that I went...

Continued...

 

Controller too controlling

Oh no he didn’t! On Jan. 16, the office of state Controller John Chiang publicly declared that certain state payment to counties due in February will be delayed until March. Then, we found out that March payments will likely be delayed. It’s easy to feel disengaged from the fiscal slap-fight in Sacramento. A potent apathy born of frustration is seemingly rampant among us. If the state taxed eye-rolling, we’d have a budget surplus. But according to Chiang’s plan, San Franciscans will soon start to feel the effects of trickle-down bleakonomics to the tune of $9 million to $12 million per month in “delayed” payments. State programs whose funding will be...

Continued...

 

It’s business as unusual at the Board of Supervisors

Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier could not make it to Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting because of a personal emergency. While I know she has a very competent staff, I took it upon myself to send her an e-mail summarizing what happened. Here it is: Dear Supervisor Alioto-Pier, You were missed at Tuesday’s meeting. Without you, the average level of attractiveness in the room was obviously down several notches. Though I have noticed that Supervisor John Avalos is a snazzy dresser. Don’t you agree? Anyway, remember how last Friday, Cousin Gavin vetoed an ordinance declaring that The City is in a state of emergency? (That declaration has to be in place before we can...

Continued...

 

The honeymoon is officially over

Red Bull in one hand, notebook in the other, I had barely settled in to watch Tuesday’s board meeting when Supervisor Chris Daly kicked things off by saying, “First, let me announce: ‘new spirit of cooperation’ my a--.” I put down the drink; suddenly caffeine wasn’t necessary. Daly then went on to say that Mistermayor’s December promise to write, call and generally respect the Board of Supervisors was belied by the fact that since then he has vetoed three ordinances (and is about to veto a fourth — see special-election update). One of those ordinances would have defunded the Community Justice Center, a proposed alternative court whose...

Continued...

 

Campos steps up, budget heats up

Tuesday’s Board meeting lasted more than seven hours. Statistically speaking, any meeting that long is bound to have interesting moments. Here is my summary of the best parts — remember that the accompanying dialogue is not made up of actual quotes. Agenda items: Two waivers that allow for the award of contracts without a competitive bidding process and one retroactive award of a contract to a vendor already working for The City. Supervisor David Campos: We require competitive bidding for a reason. The Board shouldn’t be asked to give out waivers like condoms at the Folsom Street Fair. Why can’t these departments get their act together and follow the process?...

Continued...