San Francisco's annual budget of $6.5 billion dollars would make it No. 376 on the Fortune 500 list, but Mayor Gavin Newsom and his department heads have made it almost impossible for the Average Joe to see whether that money's being well spent.
Mayor's office to Civil Grand Jury: watch our 7.5 hour speech!
So says the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury in a scathing report released today which recommends that the mayor "take charge by managing the city by the numbers, rather than just publicizing those favorable to him."
The report says City Hall has been attempting to measure its own performance for 25 years, but has not been particularly successful. And it says Newsom's administration uses acronyms and buzzwords to complicate matters and doesn't pay much attention to its own departmental efficiency plans.
Nathan Ballard, Newsom's press secretary, said, "The grand jury doesn't know what it's talking about." He pointed out that the mayor has kept a record of every pledge and promise he's made since running for mayor and updates his so-called "accountability index" every year. Check out the latest here.
"Also, if the Grand Jury thinks Mayor Newsom isn't capable of handling 300-plus policy pledges, they need to pop some popcorn and throw the 7.5-hour State of the City in the DVD player," Ballard said.
P.S. The mayor surely didn't help himself by canceling the two meetings he had scheduled with the grand jury during its investigation.
Posted By: Heather Knight (Email) | May 07 2009 at 05:01 PM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=39781&tsp=1
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