Prepare for a few more days of Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The mayor on Wednesday said he intends to delay his swearing-in as lieutenant governor unless the Board of Supervisors appoints a successor he approves of before its last scheduled meeting on Jan. 4. Pushing back his swearing-in from Jan. 3 until Jan. 8 would allow the incoming Board of Supervisors, with four new members elected in November, to appoint his successor.
"I want to leave on the third, which means they have to have a special board (meeting) and an 11-0 vote for an interim mayor ... and then I'm gone," Newsom told The Chronicle's editorial board Wednesday, outlining a highly unlikely scenario.
"If that can't happen, then perhaps on the fourth they find someone that we think is wonderful ... and I'll run up and get sworn in quietly, get my dad to do it or something," Newsom said. "If it has to be the eighth, I concur with your assertion that it's perhaps in the best interest of the city."
A Chronicle editorial urged Newsom to delay taking office until the new board is seated.
Some pundits view the incoming Board of Supervisors as slightly more moderate than the current one, where Newsom's political adversaries, progressives from the left flank, hold a majority. Newsom, though, questioned how much the board's ideological makeup will shift, saying: "I wonder what the big difference is now the more I work through the math."
The board gets to appoint a successor to serve the remaining year of Newsom's term, but can only do so once the office is vacant.
- John Coté
Negotiating a winning bid: Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration said Wednesday it was making progress with America's Cup organizers after adding at least a half dozen amendments to its bid in an eleventh-hour effort to host the regatta.
Race organizers said the 2013 event was San Francisco's to lose, but displeased with the financials in the city's bid, they are now negotiating with Rhode Island to return the races to Newport, where they were held from 1930 to 1983.
"We've made a half dozen to a dozen amendments in the last 36 to 48 hours to try to further address and clarify why we are seeing the same thing differently," Newsom told The Chronicle editorial board. "I don't know what more we can do."
The amendments don't materially change the deal, Newsom said, but provide additional assurances for race organizers, led by billionaire Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
BMW Oracle Racing, owned by Ellison, captured the Cup in February and is to decide by Dec. 31 where the next race will be held.
The event is projected to bring more than $1 billion to the local economy.
The stumbling point in the deal was the removal of development rights to Pier 50 near AT&T; Park from San Francisco's bid, officials on both sides have said. Now Newsom says they're trying to work out details of tax increment financing to help make up that value.
San Francisco's proposal remains, offering long-term development rights to city-owned waterfront property in exchange for race organizers bringing the Cup here and paying to shore up dilapidated piers.
When the city shifted public viewing facilities to the northern waterfront and Pier 50 was removed from the equation, race organizers saw their costs go down, but so did their potential to recoup an investment they say will approach $500 million to put on the regatta and pre-Cup races.
Newsom said race organizers are overvaluing Pier 50's development rights, and thus view the current deal as insufficient.
"Our own analysis is they're delusional about its value, but somehow I think they're fixated that it's worth a lot more," Newsom said. Newsom said he has been in regular phone contact with Ellison on the deal.
"Personally, he's been great," Newsom said. "He wants to do it here ... but the risk/reward has to be factored in."
- John Coté
This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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