Public Defender Jeff Adachi and interim Mayor Ed Lee.
By Luke Thomas
October 13, 2011
With just over three weeks to go before San Francisco voters to go to the polls to cast their ballots, mayoral candidate and Public Defender Jeff Adachi today renewed his challenge to interim Mayor Ed Lee to debate the merits of two competing pension reform measures, Propositions C and D.
Sponsored by Lee and backed by public employee unions, Prop C was placed on the ballot by Lee and the Board of Supervisors. Sponsored by Adachi, Prop D is a voter-approved ballot initiative qualified with over 70,000 signatures.
Adachi’s previous attempt to bring sunshine to the pension reform debate for the benefit of voters was rebuffed by Lee.
“Mayor Ed Lee touts Proposition C as a consensus plan that brought all the stakeholders to the table,” Adachi said in statement. “But in refusing to bring this conversation to the people, Lee ignores the most important stakeholder in this city’s future fiscal health – the taxpayers. The voters of San Francisco deserve to hear the merits of these propositions debated, so that the final say can be theirs.”
“These ballot measures are offered as a means of addressing a fiscal crisis faced by this city,” Adachi added. “In my view, nothing is more important than informing voters about the particulars of these competing measures. Pension reform is as complex as it is crucial to our city’s future. As the proponents of these propositions, Ed Lee and I should stand before the public and answer their questions.”
No word yet from Lee spokesperson Tony Winnicker, but we’ll update this post when he responds.
Update, 2:08 pm, Winnicker responds in typical Winnicker fashion:
“This is like eating cold pizza and watching bad reruns on late-night TV. Jeff Adachi’s dead-end campaign is so desperate he can’t even come up with a new stunt to call attention to himself.”
“Mayor Lee debates pension reform with Jeff Adachi at every forum and contrasts how he brought business and labor together for real reform over Jeff Adachi’s divisive ‘Wisconsin’ approach. Voters deserve to hear from all 16 candidates for Mayor on the issues, from creating jobs to pension reform to improving our neighborhoods, not just two.”
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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October 14, 2011 at 9:37 pm
How about we go after political corruption in contracting and the granting of favors, Twitter quo pro quid, big capital projects, etc?
October 14, 2011 at 11:47 am
I told Adachi about my desire to see a debate on pension reform, and all it brings up, with all parties represented: him, lee, as well as unions reps, and any other candidate who wishes to participate. and audience participation. for the record, he said he’d love that.
I’m told KALW’s Your Call will do a show on it, and I pitched my idea to KQED’s Forum, who think it’s “a good idea and will consider it.” I suggest you all send them an e-mail if you want to see this debate—whether on radio or live.
I for one deplore Winnicker’s response. This is just the kind of mean-spirited, evasive, dumbed-down mentality that so many are sick of. I’ve been to a number of Mayoral Forums and there *is* no debate. There *is* no opportunity for substantive discussion on any one issue, and if Winnaker calls that debate, that’s one more reflection on him and those he represents. Another reason not to vote for Lee.
The only “stunt” I see is using metaphors like “cold pizza”, “bad reruns” and “late-night tv” in a “desperate” attempt to deflect any serious discussion. If that’s your idea of “spin”, Winniker, you’re doing a really bad job…
Pension reform is a serious issue, as it does beg the question of where revenue should come from, but I’m glad that Jeff was the first to work on it–now let’s see him respond to the micro as well as macro issues it brings up and have a real debate, so that us voters can respond from the best-informed place we can. If you don’t have the courage or wherewithal to do this, then you shouldn’t even be in the race. Oh but wait–Lee shouldn’t have been in the race at all because he was the nice guy who agreed to be an interim mayor. Almost forgot…
October 14, 2011 at 9:22 am
“99% 1% 99% 1% 99% 1%” blah blah blah
Gee whiz I’m wondering if the huge pensions of the City’s 200k employees are “robbing” the working-class taxpayers who have to fund them…
But do agree a NO on both present- would be good
October 14, 2011 at 7:56 am
They’re both hypocritical snake oil salesmen. Both of them are two sides of the same coin. Both are using the framework of robbing the 99% so that the 1% can get richer. Neither wants a real debate.
If Adachi wanted a real debate, he’d call or a 3-sided debate where No on Both is represented. Otherwise, his desperate pleas just sound disingenuous.
October 13, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Winnicker translated: “Our plan is a joke- why would we bother to debate Adachi so all voters could learn his plan saves the general fund a lot more money while we opt to protect the City’s highest paid employees.”
KGO invited Lee on last night and he declined.
Yes, all San Franciscans are idiots and believe Lee is actually “debating” pension reform at these forums.
October 13, 2011 at 2:02 pm
The cold pizza sounds good,
I take it that the fact that with 4 years in prison for each of 17 counts of laundering money that Ed’s team is busier trying to negotiate a deal to keep him from doing 68 years at Folsom State Prison.
What is it with ‘snark’ and Room 200 spokespeople? They never give a straight answer anymore. Last mayoral rep to do that was PJ Johnson and his missives as mouthpiece for Stellar at Parkmerced have devolved into that.
Can’t they just say, “No thank you, we’ll stay with our game plan and decline to participate.”?
No, Winnicker’s gotta get all ugly.
Every time.
Gary Brown should open in Center for Giants next year.
h.