The “Traveling Filibuster” Comes to the Excelsior

by Paul Hogarth, 2007-04-23

Whatever you call Mayor Newsom’s monthly Town Halls (“Fake Question Time,” a “Town Hall lecture,” an “infomercial” or a “filibuster”), no amount of policy talk can replace the fact that he has snubbed the will of the voters. Last December, Newsom refused to attend a regular Board of Supervisors meeting to answer their questions to comply with Prop I, and instead opted to hold monthly Town Halls – one in each of the City’s eleven districts. Not coincidentally, he was up for re-election in 11 months.

Newsom’s fourth Town Hall on April 21st (which focused on “Youth and Families”) at the Excelsior Boys and Girls Club left me wondering why I continue to cover these events. The Forum was called on relatively short notice, and on the same day that various “Youth and Family” events were being held throughout the City. The crowd was smaller than at previous gatherings, and even the chicken-suit protesters failed to show up – but police were ready to keep them out if they did.

Unlike at previous sessions, people were allowed to ask their questions directly into the microphone. But again, they were told to first write their questions on index cards, and the Mayor selected which questions got asked – calling on the person who had written the question to ask it out loud. Again, Newsom usually did not answer the questions himself, as he had a legion of Department Heads available to take the “hot seat.”

“Youth and Families” is a broad topic, so the questions ranged a whole gamut of issues – like Recreation Centers being shut down, too many park facilities closed on weekends, insufficient resources for schools, and private businesses discriminating against youth of color. But it was when the questions shifted to affordable housing – specifically, how families of color are being driven out of the City – where it got interesting.

“We have put $210 million this year in affordable housing,” said Newsom, “but that’s clearly not good enough.” Matt Franklin from the Mayor’s Office of Housing was on hand to tell the crowd that they had 1700 units of affordable housing in the pipeline. While some attendees chided the Mayor for not getting more, he replied that he has done “more than we’ve ever done before,” and Franklin added that it’s “due to your advocacy that we have done this.”

So if Newsom believes that we should get more funding for affordable housing, will he support Chris Daly’s budget supplemental to allocate an extra $28 million – which the Board of Supervisors approved last week? Youth Commissioner Luciana Carvalho asked the Mayor to support it, but he refused – despite proclaiming the need to “do more.”

“I don’t support it,” said Newsom. “It was submitted one week before my balanced budget, and was not part of the process. This Administration has done more for housing and homelessness last year than we ever have done before. I’m going to submit a budget that increases housing in the City and I will have that budget to the printers on May 15th.”

On affordable housing, Newsom added that they were committed to using some of these funds to redevelop the City’s public housing projects. “We need to maximize an increasing housing density,” said Dwayne Jones, Director of the City’s Communities of Opportunity, “in the area most available to development – the Southeast sector.”

Unmentioned was that the City plans to let Lennar redevelop the Southeast sector – despite the company’s bad track-record of broken promises when it comes to affordable housing. Furthermore, most of the proposed housing in the area would not be affordable to current residents of Bayview-Hunters Point.

The topic then shifted to public safety, where Elmira Ortega of the Mission Child Care Center asked the Mayor about getting more police foot patrols. “Yes we will,” said Newsom, “and we have an extraordinary ambitious plan.” Police Chief Heather Fong added that the Department was “very grateful to the Mayor and the Board [of Supervisors] for their support for police foot patrols.”

Unmentioned was that Newsom twice vetoed the Board’s legislation to mandate foot patrols last November. Fong was also resistant to police foot patrols until the Board voted to override the Mayor’s veto, making her statements now seem very insincere.

Every Town Hall Forum has had a pre-arranged subject, with a request that the audience limit their questions to the topic at hand. But at this forum, Newsom picked a question from the index cards about the Health Access Plan – despite last month’s session focused entirely on that subject. This could mean that the Mayor is becoming more flexible about what questions get asked at each event, a welcome change from what we’ve had before.

It’s been four months since the Mayor refused to follow the will of the voters and attend a regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors to answer questions. Instead, we have had four Town Hall Forums – four efforts by the Mayor to filibuster the fact that he’s avoiding Question Time, and four (City-funded) chances for him to talk directly to voters before his re-election.

After attending all of them, I’m wondering what the point is for me (or anyone else) to continue going, especially with the election coming up in seven months. Will the public and the media allow itself to get sucked into this “traveling filibuster,” when the bigger story is the monthly Board meetings that the Mayor refuses to attend?

Very few other media sources covered this last Town Hall meeting in the Excelsior for an obvious reason. It’s not “news” anymore and is no longer worth writing about.

Send feedback to paul@beyondchron.org