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Federal service calls on SF environment head original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 7, 2010 |
Now, the longtime legal brain behind The City's stream of radical environmental policies is calling the shots in California and three other states for President Barack Obama.
And he's talking tough.
The plastic bag, composting and Styrofoam laws were enacted under the stewardship of environmental lawyer Jared Blumenfeld.
"Mandatory composting was very controversial - but it was worth the controversy," Blumenfeld told The Examiner while sipping tea in his new South of Market corner office, which features panoramic Bay views and three telephones with varying levels of security encryption.
"We went from 400 tons a day of food scraps being collected at curbsides to 525 tons in two months. That's a 25 percent increase just by saying to someone, 'It's the law.'"
Blumenfeld was raised in England by American parents before moving to Berkeley in 1992 to study law. After graduating, he established a reputation for aggressively pursuing multinational polluters for the Natural Resources Defense Council and International Fund for Animal Welfare nonprofits.
In 2001, Blumenfeld snagged a job running Mayor Willie Brown's eight-person Department of Environment. Working for Brown and Mayor Gavin Newsom, he doggedly expanded the department's staff and responsibilities.
Today, the department employs 65 people, and its lofty environmentalist ideals percolate throughout city government, to which the department serves as an adviser.
"We helped build [the department] up by bringing in functions like solid waste and hazardous waste and energy and transportation," he said. "We wrote most of the laws."
In his new role, which began in January, Blumenfeld is transforming from a local law writer to a federal law enforcer who has pledged to heavily police industries.
"We're not going to be wallflowers," Blumenfeld told reporters during his debut news conference as U.S. EPA Region 9 administrator. "It's very important to make sure that we're diligent and judicious when it comes to enforcement actions. When people break the law and we have the scientific proof and the legal basis to take action, we will."
Ammunition will be provided to help Blumenfeld stay true to his threat: The Obama administration last week proposed a $615-million-a-year EPA enforcement budget.
Blumenfeld sought role in administration
A prolonged courtship began after Jared Blumenfeld told a campaigning U.S. senator that he wanted to work for Barack Obama's administration if he were elected president.
"There is no application form and there is no place to line up and say, 'This is the job that I want,'" Blumenfeld said. "But I certainly let it be known that it was something that I was interested in."
Less than two months after Obama was sworn in as president, Blumenfeld received a call from the Secret Service.
"You don't really know - is that the last step or the first step?" he said. "They don't tell you anything."
It wasn't until June that Blumenfeld was invited for a job interview with new EPA Director Lisa Jackson.
Five months later, Blumenfeld read in a trade publication that he was a contender for the job.
He finally began a new dream role working for the Obama administration in January.
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Ric O'Barry original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 3, 2010 Original Flipper trainer Ric O’Barry, who became an activist, helped filmmakers document dark secrets of the dolphin trade in the Academy Award-nominated film, “The Cove,” which screens Thursday at the Ocean Film Festival. |
How did training Flipper shape your life as an activist?
Having trained dolphins gives me a huge advantage because I understand both sides of the issue — pro-captivity and against captivity.
How do you use that advantage?
When I’m debating with Sea World or Marine Land, or whatever it is, I have the advantage of having been on both sides of the fence.
Did “The Cove” footage bring attention to the Japanese town of Taiji, where dolphins are captured?
Taiji ... has now become an international news story.
Do Japanese people know about the dolphin trade?
There has been a blackout on all whale and dolphin stories. Dolphin meat is a product in Japan and it’s based on supply and demand.
Do you expect the film to be viewed in Japan now that it has been translated?
I’ll be going back and spending all of spring and summer in Japan to try to reach 126 million people who have not seen “The Cove.” I think the film is the solution to the problem.
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49ers Team President Jed York intercepts a legacy original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Sep. 5, 2009 |
The trip would ultimately be disappointing: Minnesota wide receiver Anthony Carter and kicker Chuck Nelson both broke NFL postseason records as the Vikings defeated the York family's 49ers 36-24.
But en route to California, York demonstrated the indoctrinated fortitude that, 18 years later, would provide him with the conviction to help his family finally decide to tear the 49ers away from San Francisco.
As the private jet cruised westward, a circle of gin-playing businessmen sat around a table in the back of the plane with York. They watched in awe as the 6-year-old forced a friend of his family to empty a huge hand.
"I knocked on this guy and I won like 60 points in a hand really, really early on - the guy was just stunned, absolutely stunned," York recalls. "He never heard the end of it."
Playing cards for money as a child with York's mentor and late grandfather, Edward DeBartolo Sr., a first-generation Italian-American who returned from service as an engineer during World War II to build a shopping mall and construction empire, helped mold York into a determined, late-20s executive who was entrusted by his family in December to take charge as president of its once-fabled football franchise, the San Francisco 49ers.
"Playing cards with my grandfather really defines who I am now, because you can't be afraid. You could easily be intimidated as a five-year-old playing against important businesspeople, but if you feel like you're going to fail, then you generally tend to act like that, and that tends to be the result," he said.
DeBartolo Sr.'s son, Edward DeBartolo Jr., who is York's uncle, built the 49ers empire with help from his family, and York was raised playing cards and watching and discussing football with his powerful family.
"I've seen my uncle put a franchise on the map and make it one of the best franchises in professional sports. I don't get the sense of awe being around players - it's just something I've always been used to," York said.
After graduating from Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, York attended the alma mater of DeBartolo Sr., DeBartolo Jr. and his father, the University of Notre Dame, where he studied finance and history.
"I was always going to be a part of my grandfather's business in some form or fashion. But it wasn't a case of, 'This is what you're going to be,'" he said.
York graduated in 2003 and took a job as a financial analyst at Guggenheim Partners in New York. He planned to work for five years before shifting into his family's football business, but the East Coast foray lasted just two years.
From 2005 until 2008, York worked at the 49ers in jobs ranging from special projects manager to vice president of strategic planning. On Dec. 28, he was promoted by his family to team president, a new position that saw him leapfrog in seniority over Chief Operating Officer Andy Dolich, who remains second-executive-in-charge in the team's Santa Clara headquarters.
York, 28, has been thrust into the limelight, but he keeps a modest profile. He works long hours, spends time at the gym and visits his girlfriend's family in Tahoe. He is banking on last year's coaching change to help the struggling team continue last season's late winning streak into this season, which begins Sept. 13 in Arizona.
But York is also wrestling with an enormous off-field challenge: Relocating the team south from San Francisco, where it has played for the entire 52 years of its NFL existence, to the little-used overflow parking lot of the Great America Theme Park in Santa Clara.
Santa Clara voters are slated to decide next year whether their Silicon Valley city of 110,000 people will pitch in $114 million to help build the $937 million stadium. York says he will draw on his family's real estate and building experience to help him oversee construction of a state-of-the-art new home in time for the 2014 season.
York was heavily involved in the 2006 decision to move the team out of San Francisco, where the franchise had tried in vain to build a new stadium since 1997, when San Francisco voters approved construction of a combined stadium and mall.
"We've been working publicly since 1997 to get a stadium built in San Francisco, but the stadium-mall never really came to fruition," he said.
York says the Santa Clara site is already at the juncture of several major freeways, has a train station that can connect commuters up and down the coast and into Sacramento, and has 40,000 parking spaces within a 20-minute walk that sit unused on Sundays.
It's also immediately across the street from the 49ers headquarters and training facilities in a city with an economy that is uniquely focused on entertainment and tourism.
The 49ers' planned move to Santa Clara has attracted controversy, cynicism and criticism in the press and from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration, but York fusses little over it.
"At the beginning, people wanted to play the blame game with Mayor Newsom, and I think there was a lot more of a feeling that Santa Clara wasn't a real option. But now people are looking at, you know what, we're going 35 miles south, it's going to be a better stadium location for us, it's going to be a new stadium, and it's going to be in the Bay Area. I think that some of the negative sentiment has really died down," he said.
Building a stadium in San Francisco remains an option, but it's not a likely option, according to York, who said the Santa Clara site offers the best chance of getting a new stadium built.
"It's sad, because we had worked in San Francisco for such a long time to try and get something done, but it just wasn't feasible," York said. "Sometimes you have to know when to fold your cards."
Road from S.F. to Santa Clara
Efforts to keep the 49ers in San Francisco have been met with one obstacle after another:
- The team tried to partner with homebuilder Lennar Corp. to incorporate condos into rebuilding plans at Candlestick Park to help pay for stadium rebuilding efforts, but the franchise worried that the housing market was already peaking, and transit and highway problems with the site remained unaddressed by San Francisco, according to York.
- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration tried to convince the team to build a new stadium as an anchor in the middle of a planned redevelopment of the shuttered Hunters Point Naval Shipyard by offering a lease of $1 per year.
- Master developer Lennar Corp. offered $100 million of expected redevelopment profits toward construction costs. However, planned infrastructure, including transit and roads, has not been laid at the desolate shipyard site for nearly a half-century.
- San Francisco voters in June 2008 endorsed redevelopment plans for the shipyard and Candlestick Point when they passed a measure to demolish the existing stadium and replace it with homes, preventing the stadium from being rehabilitated.
Team president putting faith in leadership of coach Singletary
A strong end to last year's 49ers season under the leadership of coach Mike Singletary has given President Jed York confidence going into this season.
After the team lost an October game in New York to the Giants - the team's fifth loss in seven games - York and his family decided it was time to replace coach Mike Nolan.
"I wasn't the team president at that time but I was the one that sat down with coach Nolan," York said. "He was the first person I've let go."
The team appointed Singletary, the assistant head coach, as interim coach despite his lack of head coaching experience.
"We looked at coach Singletary because he was the best leader in the locker room. It was a risk that we took, but it was a risk that absolutely paid off," York said.
Singletary's first game was a loss against the Seattle Seahawks, but he made his mark during that game by sending tight end Vernon Davis to the locker room following a personal foul penalty.
"Everybody said that was great that coach Singletary made that stand," York said. "Well, what I think is great is that Vernon Davis ended up becoming an alternate on the Pro Bowl team. He's a guy who's stepping up right now and starting to become a leader. I think that speaks to coach Singletary's leadership ability - he didn't just send the player to the locker room, he made a player grow up and take responsibility for himself."
The team won five of its last seven games under Singletary, who will coach the team this season. York says Singletary is helping bring the players together to work better as a team.
"We're going to be a physical football team, we're going to be able to run the ball, we're going to be able to play defense and we're going to be able to hit people in the mouth," he said. "That's what you're going to see from the 49ers."
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Craig Nikitas original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, July 6, 2009 The urban planner and avid bird-watcher will discuss the types of owls found in the Bay Area during a San Francisco Naturalist Society discussion at the Randall Museum at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. |
How many types of owls are in the Bay Area?
During my talk, I’m going to look in-depth at eight species that you can see in the Bay Area, and then I’ll talk a little bit about a ninth species that’s moving into the territory and displacing the spotted owl.
What are spotted owls?
The spotted owls are not that hard to see in Marin County, especially around Muir Woods. They have a very specialized diet — they eat rodents that are found in redwood forests. But they’re being displaced by a similar but slightly larger and more aggressive species of owl called the barred owl.
Where are barred owls from?
They originated on the East Coast in Canada and they’ve spread west. It’s just in the past few years that we’ve started to see them in the Bay Area. It’s really hard to say whether this would have happened with or without humans. I have a feeling that human impacts have accelerated it, but that’s just my theory.
How can you tell the species apart?
Barred owls have vertical, dark-brown streaks on their breasts. They have brown eyes and they don’t have ear tufts. Spotted owls have watercolorlike dark spots on a light breast.
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Mirian Saez brings buried treasure to the surface original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 1, 2009 |
But this was no pompom-waving coed trying to bust her way into a music video.
Instead, the 50-year old boogied briefly while she gazed westward over the sweating, heaving fruit of her labors, and then slunk off the stage as surreptitiously as she had emerged, retreating back to the sanctuary of the festival's VIP section.
"The thrill of seeing this crowd of bouncing people, with The City view on the right hand side, was just absolutely spectacular," said Mirian Saez, the island's operations director and self-described cheerleader for the island. "It was great to see 10,000 people out there enjoying themselves."
The seasoned property manager helped launch the inaugural annual Treasure Island Music Festival in 2007 as part of an effort to build hype about the island and to entice potential future residents to its shores.
Saez, the daughter of Puerto Rican emigrants, was raised with a brother and two sisters in Ohio by a hard-working single mother. She graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1979 with a degree in public administration and completed an MBA a decade later at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia.
Saez's path to island caretaker and promoter began in 2005, when she moved from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco with her partner, Julian Potter, formerly a high-ranking LGBT liaison to the Bill Clinton White House who had been invited to work for Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration.
Newsom has since reassigned Potter to federal government affairs duties at the airport.
Potter and Saez met in 1993 when they were both working as special assistants to assistant secretaries at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton. Saez worked in public housing, while Potter worked in community development.
"Two other lesbians also came in as special assistants to other assistant secretaries in fair housing and housing," Saez said. "So there we all were, serving the principals at HUD, developing policy during the week and spending quality time over the weekends."
"Our days at HUD were special - besides the hard work we put into changing 12 years of Republican policy, it was actually a coming out experience for me," she said. "Having lived a closeted life in Ohio, relocating to an urban area was refreshing and enlightening. The town, the work place, the people were all so gay-positive."
The couple was living in Washington, D.C., when Potter, working as a consultant, prepared a work force development plan for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The newly installed Newsom, who had recently directed officials to conduct gay weddings despite questions about their legality, invited Potter to move to San Francisco to work full-time for the administration to implement that plan.
"This was right after Newsom got elected and right after the whole marriage thing," Saez said. "We were terribly excited to come work for a person of that caliber."
The Port of San Francisco, a city agency, hired Saez as its real estate director in early 2005, and the couple moved their household to The City in April. They would later marry, just one day before Californians overturned Proposition 8, which restricted the definition of marriage to between a man and a woman.
In September 2006, Newsom appointed Saez to the role of Director of Island Operations at Treasure Island.
"It's my job to get you here [to the island] to think, 'What a cool place,'" Saez said. "Then, when the future is here, you'll want to live here. I guess I'm the cheerleader of the island. I find people all the time who have never come to the island."
The number of people visiting the island has swelled under Saez, and so has the number of privately and publicly delivered services that are provided to its residents.
For example, a guard house at the island's front gate was recently replaced with a deli to create a welcoming entrance for visitors while providing a badly needed store for residents.
Under Saez, sports fields have been built on the island and are being used for rugby, soccer, Gaelic football, hurling and little league sports. BMX, dragon boat, sailing and triathlon events have also taken place.
The Treasure Island Music Festival, started in 2007, is a successful annual event, the Exotic Erotic Ball was held on the island in 2008 and weddings and corporate parties are commonplace events that bring revenue and job opportunities to the island.
The island has long been a popular location for filmmakers; "bullet time" visual effects in "The Matrix" and scenes from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" were made there. Continuing that tradition, NBC is leasing hangar space on the island while it shoots its upcoming series "Trauma," and other television programs have also been shot at the island, including "Mythbusters" and "Prototype This."
Meanwhile, basic amenities have been improved. New stop signs were installed, a mobile library service was introduced, dilapidated and unusual buildings, including a jail, were restored and leased out to businesses, which has created local jobs, and Muni's 108 bus line now stops at Safeway to make it easier for residents working in The City to shop for groceries.
When the island is redeveloped, its 3,000 current residents will be required to move into new homes, according to Kheay Loke, who is managing redevelopment planning for Wilson Meany Sullivan, which has partnered with Lennar Corp. on the project.
"Mirian is keeping the population on the island informed," Sullivan said.
In the meantime, those residents will be able to enjoy sets during the October Treasure Island Music Festival by prominent artists such as Girl Talk, The Streets, The Flaming Lips and The Decemberists at a special, discounted rate.
And if they keep their eyes peeled, they might just catch a glimpse of their unlikely cheerleader rocking out at the side of the stage, soaking up the fun that her handiwork helped to make possible.
A brief history of San Francisco's man-made isle
Flat, low-lying Treasure Island was built in 1936 and 1937 from Bay dredge as an extension to naturally formed Yerba Buena Island.
Treasure Island hosted the 1939 and 1940 World's Fair, and it was planned to be reused afterwards as the site of San Francisco International Airport. But when World War II broke out, the U.S. Navy took over the island and used it to stage its Pacific war operations.
In exchange, the federal government gave San Francisco land in northern San Mateo County, where it built San Francisco International Airport.
The Navy left the island in 1996 and the buildings it left behind are now occupied by businesses, government offices and about 3,000 renters, including a large population of disadvantaged youths and people who were formerly homeless.
Now, the Navy is planning to return ownership of the island to The City, and developers are honing plans to build up to 8,000 new housing units, a ferry terminal, a hotel, new yacht berths and artificial wetlands at the soon-to-be hot new address in the middle of the Bay.
New roads and sewers are scheduled to start being laid in 2011, and a build-out of the island is expected to take eight years or more.
Mirian Saez says she's unsure what will happen to her job once the building of 8,000 new housing units begins on the island. But, for now, she says she's delighted to serve as a city manager for the tight community and to drum up interest in the island to help it grow once the timing is right.
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Mike Boom original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, July 6, 2009 Oakland-based underwater videographer Mike Boom will present and discuss several 20-minute scenes shot off California’s coastline beginning at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Randall Museum. Entry is by donation. |
When did you start filming the marine world?
My wife and I love to dive and we started picking up a lot of information about what we see underwater — it’s nothing like what you see on land. It’s very cryptic and puzzling at first. I bought a camcorder in 2001 so we could take it diving to see different animals, and then identify them when we came up from the dive.
Where is your favorite place in the world to dive?
Probably Fiji — I spent four months working there doing underwater videos in 2008. It has warm, clear water with really colorful fish up top — just clouds of anthias, which are gold and purple fish, and lots of intensely colored soft coral.
What videos will you show tonight?
They will provide an introduction to Californian marine biology. We’ll take a look under the water along the coast, both in southern California and northern California. Most people, we see the ocean, but we don’t actually know what’s under the ocean.
What does the coast have to offer?
Colorful crustaceans and nudibranchs, rockfish of different colors, anemones, types of hydro coral and bryozoans. We get a lot of really colorful vertebrates that I don’t see elsewhere — a lot of colorful crabs, shrimp and a lot of things I miss when I go to the tropics.
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Julia Butterfly Hill original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Jan. 6, 2009 a 34-year-old known for having once spent two years living in a California redwood to save it from logging, will be a key speaker at the Yoga Journal Conference, held Jan. 16 to 19 in San Francisco. |
What is the meaning of the title of the discussion that you are leading, "Taking Our Yoga Practice Off the Mat and Into the World"?
There are such profound and wonderful lessons that one has to get in order to have a strong yoga practice. Lessons of unity, of grace, of forgiveness. All of those lessons are profound tools in this world that is suffering so deeply, if we have the privilege to have a yoga practice, then we have the joyful responsibility to take those tools and lessons and offer them in service to our world.
What are you doing these days?
While I was in the tree, I started a nonprofit called Circle of Life. We recently launched The Engage Network, which is about getting people engaged and active in the community and in their groups.
Where do you live?
My organization is based in the Bay Area and I'm currently living in Oregon, but I'm looking at moving to be part of an intentional sustainable community in Mexico.
Do you miss living in a tree?
I do my best to not live in the world of missing, because what we're ultimately facing is the miracle of this moment.
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Joslin Van Arsdale original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 15, 2008 the owner of Eco Citizen, an 18-month-old high-end fashion store in San Francisco that uses fair-trade labor and environmental standards, will join a panel discussion on "eco-fashion" today at the Commonwealth Club. |
What is eco-fashion?
For me, it's a practice of business and fashion that takes into account people and the planet. It includes sweatshop-free, fair-trade labor and the second part is the materials used.
What materials are environmentally friendly?
Anything from organic cotton to bamboo, lyocell, recycled cotton and hemp.
What's unfriendly about traditional cotton?
Traditional cotton uses pesticides, which therefore poison both the earth and the people that pick it up.
What are eco-fashion's limitations?
The main limitation for designers is the amount of eco-friendly textiles that are available. Nothing's 100 percent "eco," so it's very much a best-you-can-do approach.
Is eco-fashion rising in popularity?
It's definitely taking off. Since I started, there have been three other boutiques in town that have opened up. The price of organic cotton has gone up because demand is higher than supply.
Is eco-fashion stronger in the Bay Area than other places?
Yes. I moved here to start my business because it's the center of the green movement.
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Staffan Terje original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 29, 2008 The owner and chef of the restaurant Perbacco is taking part in this weekend's Slow Food Nation celebration in San Francisco. |
What is slow food?
It's the opposite of fast food - not only fast food as in eating, but fast-produced. It's handcrafted food. It's from food that's grown with care and from animals that are raised with care.
What's wrong with fast food?
It tears at the social fabric. Fast food makes it convenient so we can run out and do all these fun artificial things that companies have invented for us to do, rather than sit around the table and eat some good food, and drink some good wine and live life the way it should be.
When did you become interested in slow food?
I've been cooking for a little bit over 30 years and I grew up on a farm. I've been involved with the food chain for a long time, so when the slow-food movement started, it got me very interested in the big picture of where food production was going.
Where did the slow-food movement start?
In Italy, in the '80s. It came to California shortly after it was incepted and it's been a grass-roots organization that has taken time. It's fairly strong in the Bay Area.
How can people join the movement?
Support local farmers and producers - go to the farmers market, cook at home and invite friends. People used to go to markets - it wasn't only to procure what they needed, but it was also to meet people in the neighborhood, and that still exists.
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David Talbot original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 28, 2008 The author of "Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years," Salon.com founder and San Francisco journalist will speak at Grace Cathedral on Sept. 14. |
How were you affected by the Kennedy years?
My own two teenage sons, who are roughly the same age as I was when Bobby Kennedy ran for president in 1968, are very excited about Barack Obama's candidacy. I was equally excited by Bobby Kennedy's candidacy. I thought he was America's last, best hope.
What did the research for your book reveal?
I think it definitely showed that Bobby Kennedy was the country's first conspiracy theorist when it comes to the [JFK] assassination. He believed it involved the government itself.
How did researching and writing the book affect you?
We tend to see [John F.] Kennedy as a charismatic prince, but without any true grit. But his true grit and intelligence is what came through for me, and how he put his life on the line - as did his brother - to lead the country to peace and harmony.
Do you have advice for journalists or would-be journalists?
You should take risks and whatever you've been scheming and dreaming of doing, take the leap. When I started Salon, I had no idea there would be a market for it, but we took the leap and, lo and behold, there was this audience that was just waiting for a new kind of writing.
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Van Jones original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, July 22, 2008 The Green For All founder will join incoming California state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on Thursday evening for a discussion about green-collar jobs at the Commonwealth Club. |
What is a green-collar job?
A traditional blue-collar vocational job that's been upgraded to better respect the environment - it could be anything from installing solar panels to working in organic agriculture to manufacturing wind turbines.
What is Green For All?
It's a national organization that advocates for green-collar jobs and opportunities for disadvantaged communities.
Who in San Francisco stands to benefit from green-collar jobs?
All low-income people and people of color who need work - it's the people who've been left out of the pollution-based economy who stand to benefit the most from the transition to a green economy.
What is a pollution-based economy?
The economic theories that we've been operating on were created in the 1800s when you had a whole lot of nature and very few people. Now you've got a planet with a whole lot of people and very little nature. A lot of stuff used to be off the books - like carbon and the idea of inexhaustible resources.
How realistic is it to think we can move to a green economy?
Well, how realistic is it to think that we're going to be able to base our economy on drilling and burning oil and baking the planet?
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Ben Rosenfield original / top By John Upton San Francisco Examiner, May 27, 2008 The 34-year-old city controller, who started the job in April after working for The City for 10 years, will discuss The City's budget at a forum today at the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. |
What does your new job involve?
The City Controller's Office is really the chief financial office in The City. We handle The City's accounting rules and administration, and we're charged with auditing city departments.
Does that make you unpopular with other departments?
I would hope city departments see our office as a vehicle to help them make difficult choices. We're not the ones actually making the choices - those are decisions for the mayor and Board of Supervisors - but we're certainly here to try to help make their jobs a little easier.
How big is your department?
About 200 people, with a budget of $29.6 million.
What was your previous job?
I was working as the deputy city administrator under Ed Lee for the past three years, and before that I was working as the mayor's budget director from 2001 through 2005.
How is your department helping to balance the budget?
The Mayor's Office has to submit a balanced budget by June 1 to close the $338 million problem The City's facing. Our budget shop and myself and my deputy are spending a lot of time chasing budget-savings ideas.
What's the biggest challenge?
We have a budget problem for the coming year, and we're likely to have a significant budget problem the year after. The state's budget is not in a good place, and their habit is to pass along cuts to local governments.
For how many years do you expect budget problems?
Hopefully two, but who knows?
top
← Federal service calls on SF environment head, Feb. 7, 2010
← Flipper trainer-turned-activist speaks out for 'Cove' screening, Feb. 3, 2010
← 49ers President Jed York, Sep. 5, 2009
← Bird watcher Craig Nikitas, Aug. 11, 2009
← Treasure Island Director Mirian Saez, Aug. 1, 2009
← Underwater videographer Mike Boom, July 6, 2009
← Activist Julia Butterfly Hill, Jan. 6, 2009
← Eco-fashion merchant Joslin Van Arsdale, Sept. 15, 2008
← Chef Staffan Terje, Aug. 29, 2008
← Journalist David Talbot, Aug. 28, 2008
← Green jobs activist Van Jones, July 22, 2008
← City Controller Ben Rosenfield, May 27, 2008
