Is the Sit/Lie Law Really Care Not Cash, Part II?

Now that Gavin Newsom’s run for lieutenant governor is official, the issues that will define his final months as mayor and carry over into his possible new role have come into focus. During his April 7, 2010, visit to the club, he referenced several topics that have since gained significant attention in the city.

Gavin Newsom catapulted himself to the public awareness beyond San Francisco in 2004 when he granted same-sex couples marriage licenses at the beginning of his term as mayor, but it was his work as a city supervisor and his stance on a far more alternative lifestyle that proved more controversial: homelessness.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Quizzed by Gloria Duffy

This past year has been a one of big transitions for San Francisco's second-term mayor, Gavin Newsom. When he sat down at The Commonwealth Club for a conversation with Club President and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy on April 7, lots of people were just as interested in hearing his thoughts about his bid to be the state's next lieutenant governor as they were in hearing his comments about San Francisco.

San Francisco Student Truancy: The Value of Showing Up

Skipping school may have once been viewed as a relatively small transgression committed by all capricious youth at least some point in their lives, but some San Francisco students today have taken it to a new level that is anything but innocuous. The days of Ferris Bueller-like escapades have lost their novelty, and for the repeat offenders of San Francisco’s beleaguered public school system, truancy is considered a crime.

Which is exactly why the system is getting money to make sure students stay in school. San Francisco has the worst truancy record in the state, but recent citywide efforts, including parental prosecution, have appeared to be working, prompting more federal dollars to be funneled to the cause, spurring the launch of more programs to combat truancy. The anti-truancy program at Bayview Hunters Point YMCA – which has served 124 formerly truant teens since its inception two years ago – will receive $238,000 over two years, enabling it to help more students at a time trying to re-enter school.
And if more kids are staying in school, the district gets more federal dollars – over $370,000 was tied to increased enrollment in San Francisco public schools last year.

Mayor Gavin Newsom launched the new Truancy Assessment and Referral Center (TARC) January 15 to address chronic truancy and close the achievement gap in San Francisco schools. TARC will be a citywide, one-stop location at 44 Gough St, allowing police to hand off truant youth to the San Francisco Unified School District and community-based organizations. TARC will assess youth – who are put on a "most wanted" list for truancy – and make the appropriate referrals to reengage them in the academic process. This innovative collaboration is the first-in-the-nation project that leverages existing city resources to specifically target young people who are chronically absent. It is also partnered with SF Juvenile Probation Department (SFJPD), San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), Department of Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF), Huckleberry Youth Services, and Urban Service YMCA.

“The 21st century economy demands an educated, prepared workforce,” Newsom said in a statement. “We must rise to this challenge and close the graduation gap that afflicts underprivileged communities in San Francisco.” (Newsom will speak at The Commonwealth Club on April 7, discussing a range of his citywide programs in a conversation with Club President and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy.)

Though this comprehensive program has thus far been successful, 5,000 kids are still not coming to class on a regular basis, a staggering number that is, remarkably, down from 5,500 – 10 percent of the city's students – in 2007 when District Attorney Kamala Harris started fighting the issue in earnest by implementing the Truancy Reduction Initiative and set up one of the first truancy courts in California. Harris has made combating truancy a main focus of her administration, after learning about four years ago that 94 percent of the city’s homicide victims under the age of 25 were high school dropouts, most of which had problems starting at the elementary level.

“As San Francisco’s District Attorney, I see what happens on the back end of school failures: young lives are being lost to street violence or prison time at an appalling rate,” said Harris in a statement. “Children will either get their education in the streets or in school. Combating truancy is a smart approach to crime prevention.” Harris plans to take her initiative statewide – if she wins the election for the California attorney general.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, "students with the highest truancy rates have the lowest academic achievement rates, and because truants are the youth most likely to drop out of school, they have high drop-out rates as well." It is estimated that that high school dropouts cost Californians over $46 billion over the lifetimes of the 120,000 students who fail to graduate from each class, including nearly $10 billion from increased crime alone. By addressing truancy, the city hopes to close the graduation gap. In San Francisco last year, 32% of African American,  and 19% of Caucasian and Latino students didn’t graduate public high school.

The Commonwealth Club will host a special program on keeping California's schools competitive. Learn more about the March 31, 2010, event.

--By Heather Mack

Newsom Courts California's Left; Says State's Fiscal Crisis Can Be Fixed

Putting a positive spin on California's continuing fiscal crisis, San Francisco Mayor and likely gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom says the problems can be fixed, though he did not offer specifics. The Democrat also maintained his support for same-sex marriage.

“I don't think there's anything particularly extraordinary about the state's problems,” Newsom said Wednesday night at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. He later criticized the lack of creativity from state lawmakers. “The problem we have in Sacramento is an absence of new ideas,” he said.

Newson's visage has recently blanketed the national media, appearing on seemingly every possible news program in an appeal to gain visibility in advance of a probable run for governor. The mayor has also held numerous town hall-style meetings up and down the state and said he believes voters in predominately conservative counties like Placer share most of the same concerns as liberal voters.

"We have the exact same concerns,” said Newsom, “People there have different perspectives and points of view on many issues, but when it comes down to it, at this time, in the world we live in, in the environment we're living in, it's about jobs, it's about education, it's about health care, it's about roads, infrastructure.”

But it was the contentious issue of same-sex marriage to which the mayor is invariably linked by pundits across the nation that was the portion of the hour-long program where Newsom seemed to hit his stride and rationalized his infamous rallying call that proponents of Proposition 8 successfully used against him.

“I learned that I prefer to be the guy that made a mistake saying, 'whether you like it or not' than the guy who just sits there and plays in the margin," said Newsom, "I'm not going play it safe. I'm going to be authentic. I'm going to be myself. You may not like me, but you know where I stand.”

For a politician with state-wide aspirations, Newsom's appeal appears targeted to the most progressive wing of the California electorate, despite the unpopularity and the politically peril that supporting same-sex marriage poses to his candidacy. He was unapologetic in response to a question from moderator Scott Shafer, who at times sparred with Newsom, saying he did not regret officiating the marrying of the first same-sex couple in the city five years ago.

“The idea that someone wants to share that moment and that experience of something that has been denied them their entire life and they want you to share that, and for [me] to say no because I'm worried about my politics is everything I'm not about. If I was worried about politics I would have never done this, ever. Do you think it's helped in the context of everything else? These guys are running around -- these politicians -- on this.

"I know it's not good politics," he continued. "I understand it better than any human being alive. Every single day people are expressing their point of view about how outraged they are and every consultant saying, 'Well, just tone it down.' I can't tone [down] something as fundamental as someone else's rights. If a politician can put aside someone else's rights so they can get ahead politically ... you've got a million politicians who wish to do that. I'm never going to be that person. I never will.”

At one point early in the program, Newsom sounded a bit like an auctioneer, listing his accomplishments and talking points for a nearly two-minute stretch elicited a few groans from the audience. The point was not lost on the mayor. Later, Newsom was asked about his fight with dyslexia and said that “everyone overcompensates in their own way,” and that he has an ability to retain facts and figures that tend to muddle his message. “It's given me more empathy for special education and to recognize that we are not all wired the same, and we all have a wonderful capacity to live our lives out loud.”

--By Steven Tavares

Newsom Rides the Media Circuit to the Commonwealth Club

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has been popping up in some unlikely places lately. He appeared last week as a panelist on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, is slated to speak in Oakland tomorrow night and even chatted with the mortal enemy of "San Francisco liberal Democrats" Sunday morning on Fox News. It seems Newsom's exploratory foray into a possible run for governor is in high gear, to be topped with a conversation at The Commonwealth Club of California Wednesday night. (Check out recent appearances of the mayor on MSNBC's Morning Joe here and CNN Newsroom here.)

Newsom's increased visibility during the past week might be designed to increase an early Field Poll that gave the liberal Democrat just 10 percent of the vote. To be fair, the poll was questionable, because it included Sen. Dianne Feinstein who has declined to state whether she will run (yet she still topped the poll with 38 percent).

The HBO appearance may be instructive about how Newsom plans to run as the progressive candidate on the Democratic side. On the show, he spoke candidly on topics such as gay marriage and medical marijuana (unequivocally supporting both) and skillfully wove his talking points regarding his accomplishments in the city. Though Newsom was an early supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations, he might stand to benefit from the coattails of President Obama's liberal resurgence across the country. One theme likely to be espoused by Newsom in the race is his talking point touting the existence of universal health care in his city. If President Obama follows through on his pledge to offer health-care legislation nationally by mid-year or later, Newsom might get a bounce. And as one of the first politicians to stick his neck out for gay marriage, the mayor might lead the way on two popular statewide issues that could vault him from a dark horse candidate to serious contender.

Former Governor (and former just about everything in California politics) Jerry Brown is hoping to represent the state's future with an eye at its past. The other challenger, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, suffered somewhat of a letdown last week despite winning re-election. With only 15 percent of the electorate voting, Villaraigosa garnered just 128,000 votes, raising statewide electability questions.

If Newsom's past media appearances are any indication, his remarks at the Commonwealth Club should be candid -- and palatable to the hometown San Francisco audience.

--Steven Tavares

State Supreme Court Takes up Prop. 8

California’s Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Proposition 8, in San Francisco this week, in the Earl Warren Building courtroom on McAllister Street. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was a prominent and vocal opponent the 2008 ballot initiative to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Seating in the court is limited to 20, but you can watch the proceedings online here.

Barack Obama is rumored to have declined a photo op with Newsom during his visit to SF, not wanting to be seen posing with the same-sex-marriage-friendly mayor.

But Prop. 8 hearings aren’t the only reason Newsom is back in the family values spotlight. Criticism of Newsom reached a new height recently as the mayor and wife Jennifer Seible announced that they will be having a child.

San Francisco Chronicle writer, Erin Allday wrote Thursday, February 19, “City Hall chitchat has turned to how this might play in Newsom's run for governor. Analysts say that starting a family can only help the campaign -- and maybe reverse Newsom's long-standing playboy image.”

The baby announcement prompted Guardian Editor Tim Redmond to offer family advice too. “If the mayor, or the president, or the school superintendent, or the school board members, or the supervisors choose private schools, then they're saying that public education is good enough for the poor kids, but not for their own.”

Facing a tumultuous economic climate and a massive city deficit, Mayor Newsom has tough decisions to make in 2009. In his quest to keep San Francisco a thriving center for commerce and a livable city, Newsom’s had trouble meeting some campaign promises, and he is moving forward with staff cuts, opting for 1100 layoffs in the last 7 months (300 last week).

With a potential 2010 run for governor in his future, Newsom is also on the hook for stewarding some of his favorite issues -- homelessness, universal health care, and MUNI reform -- through the current recession and state budget mess.

Dispelling myths behind celebrity politicians can be a real challenge. Try your hand, and listen to Newsom’s recent appearance on KQED Radio. Or better yet, hear from the mayor directly here at The Club. Newsom will sit down for a frank and candid discussion about the issues facing the city, with Scott Shafer, host of KQED’s California Report, 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 11th.

Meg Whitman Wants the Governor's Office

Former eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman has thrown her hat into the ring by announcing her intention to run for the California governor's office. The business leader, who was an advisor to Republican Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, is expected to make a high priority out of California's business competitiveness.
That was also the focus of her September 23, 2008, speech to The Commonwealth Club (see video below.) In it, she openly questioned whether California's tax and regulatory environment would allow a company like eBay to be born and thrive today like it did.
"A significant portion of our population is unsuited for today's high-paying jobs," she told the audience. "You can't grow your business if you can't find the people you need, and if you can't find the people you need, you have to move the company to where those people are. We need to make education a priority in California."

Whitman joins a possible field of candidates including current San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, former Governor and current state Attorney General Jerry Brown, current U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and others. His possible candidacy is likely to be brought up when Newsom speaks to The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco March 11. For information on that event, go here.