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The Mayor just got rid of a strong alternative transportation advocate
on the MTA.<br>
<br>
See lower down in this SF Guardian Article;<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5385">http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5385</a><br>
<h1>Heads roll</h1>
<p><i>Newsom accepts more than two dozen resignation letters</i></p>
<p>By Steven T. Jones</p>
<p>In
the week leading up to Mayor Gavin Newsom's Jan. 8 second-term
inauguration ceremony, he accepted more than two dozen of the
resignation letters he demanded Sept. 10, 2007, from his senior staff.</p>
<p>"Today
I am proud to introduce a new team of 27 people that is a blend of
fresh talent, extensive policy expertise, and proven experience in
government," Newsom wrote in a prepared statement released at 5 p.m. on
Jan. 4, a Friday, which is not considered the spot in the news cycle
for "proud" announcements.</p>
<p>"Other than the very
unfortunate firing of Susan Leal from the [general manager job at the
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission] — who, by all accounts, has
been doing a good job — the rest of the changes are fairly perfunctory
and far from the bold or audacious move he promised," Board of
Supervisors president Aaron Peskin told us.</p>
<p>Yet the changes — which the <i>Guardian</i>
discusses in more detail in Editor's Notes, the editorial page, and our
politics blog — do seem to signal that Newsom is placing a high value
on personal loyalty and political pragmatism.</p>
<p>Some
examples are the promotions of inner-circle members Mike Farrah (new
director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services), Ben
Rosenfield (controller), and Wade Crowfoot (now the newly created
director of climate protection initiatives) and the hiring of former
United States attorney Kevin Ryan, a conservative Republican, to head
the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice.</p>
<p>But gone are Leal
and Metropolitan Transportation Agency board member Leah Shahum, the
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition director who has chided the mayor for
not supporting alternative transportation. "The Mayor's Office was none
too pleased that the SFBC did not endorse him," she told us, noting
that she is urging Newsom to fill the spot with another advocate for
sustainable transportation. "I hope this is not a sign of what's to
come." </p>
<div class="entry_created_on">Wednesday January 9, 2008</div>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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