Petrelis Files

Wiener's Sunshine Puppets Begin Tenure;
Guardian Defends Dorsey Endorsement

He may officially represent District 8 constituents, which now includes Mike and I due to redistricting, but make no mistake about Supervisor Scott Wiener carrying the various agenda items of downtown business interests and remnants of the Willie Brown machine in his work on the Board.

Wiener's got a game plan to undermine and probably eventually do away entirely with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force and our good government laws requiring much transparency, and he engineered the appointment of two terrible puppets to the task force recently. They are Todd David and David Pilpel and begin their tenure at tomorrow's meeting that starts at 4 pm in Room 408 at City Hall.

Todd David is not known to have basic or historical knowledge of sunshine laws and practices, but has his hitched his political wagon to Bevan Dufty and Wiener and their commitment to Mayor Ed Lee's City Family reigning over boards and commission. Color me wrong if he sides with citizen complainants over the City Family personnel respondents.

The other Wiener puppet, David Pilpel, as on the SOTF before and wasted hours nitpicking over complaints, applicability of sunshine laws and generally voted favorably toward the City Family.

I heard from Steven T. Jones of the Bay Guardian today regarding my kvetching that the paper that touts its sunshine credential ought to rescind their endorsement of City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey for Democratic County Central Committee. Dorsey is out to do away with SOTF in the long run, and when necessary, as he did with sunshine stalwart Kimo Crossman, sling the mud against an opponent to dissuade enforcement of public records laws. Jones wrote:

Matt Dorsey is the spokesperson for the City Attorney's Office and must therefore defend its actions, and we'll be the first to say that department could be stronger on sunshine issues. But that's just one issue, and our endorsement of Dorsey goes far beyond that one issue. Matt is part of the progressive slate created by Sups. John Avalos and David Campos and other progressive leaders, he's someone whose intelligence and values that we've come to know and appreciate over many years, and we stand by our decision to endorse him.

Translation? The Guardian cut its sunshine conscience to suit this year's alleged progressive slate for the DCCC. Oh, and they throw in the names of Avalos and Campos, two Supes who ain't done much that I can see lately about Wiener eviscerating the old SOTF membership.

Memo to Guardian editors: Count me among the folks over progressive electeds retaining seats on the DCCC, a body with questionable influence at the polls, witness their 2010 District 6 and 8 endorsed candidates who lost. Bring in some fresh air to the City Family members and those who wanna be among their ranks who currently control too many levers of power in this town.

It troubles me that the paper continues to give cover to Dorsey's solid opposition to sunshine and will give me pause as sunshine proponents respond to Wiener's assaults on open government regulations.

If you haven't voted in San Francisco today and will do so later, please take a stand favoring good government and rejecting progressive cronyism and backscratching of the Guardian machine - withhold your DCCC vote from Dorsey and Wiener.