Mayor Ed Lee's office is talking with Occupy San Francisco about relocating its tent encampment at Justin Herman Plaza to a former high school site on Mission Street between 15th and 16th streets, officials tell us.

The site under consideration is the old Phoenix Continuation High School, which amounts to a parking lot ringed by portable classrooms - all contained behind a fence.

Mohammed Nuru, the city's public works director, took a group representing the Occupy camp on a tour of the site Saturday.

"The next step would be to see if we can work out some type of agreement," Nuru said. "After that we would, of course, need to take it to the Board of Education."

A spokeswoman for the school district, Gentle Blythe, said it was the first she had heard about the proposed takeover.

The offer of an alternative site comes on the heels of two major developments in the Occupy San Francisco saga - the police removal of tents along Market Street over the weekend, and the threat of legal action by businesses near the Justin Herman encampment.

"It's time for the mayor to act. It's time for City Hall to say, enough is enough," said Ken Cleaveland, spokesman for the Building Owners and Managers Association of San Francisco.

Nuru is optimistic the Occupy folks will go along with a move.

"There seems to be a feeling within the movement that they are at a crossroads," Nuru said, "and that the large number of homeless and drug users that come into the camp are getting too hard to handle and are detracting from their message."

At the old high school site, Occupiers would be able to pitch their tents in the parking lot, and have access to toilets and use of at least one classroom for their meetings.

They would also have a gate, to keep people out if they wanted to.

Getting the self-proclaimed leaderless group to agree, however, may be impossible.

Plus, says Occupy member Richard Kreidler - who has been in on the talks at the mayor's office - activists suspect that the city is "looking for a place that will be out of sight, out of mind."

Besides, protesters may have a more visible location in mind - such as the plaza in front of the former Bank of America headquarters on California Street.

Power call: Throughout the San Francisco mayoral campaign, state Sen. Leland Yee hammered Mayor Ed Lee for being "beholden to power brokers" like Rose Pak and former Mayor Willie Brown.

After winning, Lee made the usual make-nice calls to his numerous opponents.

When he got to Yee, he left a voice mail: "Sen. Yee, this is Mayor Lee. I didn't really want to call, senator, but Rose and Willie said I had to."

In the family: VMA Security Group, an Oakland outfit that just was awarded a monthlong contract of as much as $545,000 to keep the Occupy tents out of Frank Ogawa Plaza, has a very special connection to City Hall.

Its owner, Vince Mackey - long a security favorite of some of the downtown clubs - served as former Mayor Ron Dellums' $62,000-a-year bodyguard and special assistant.

On board: Oakland Mayor Jean Quan didn't waste much time naming a chief of staff as part of an office shakeup over her handling of the Occupy Oakland encampment.

And while things might run more smoothly in her office, don't bet on newly named Chief of Staff Anne Campbell Washington influencing the mayor's overall political strategy.

"Politics is not her forte," one council member told us privately.

Speaking of chiefs of staff, word is that San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's right-hand man, Steve Kawa - who also worked in the administrations of Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom- is once again making noises about exiting City Hall.

Insiders tell us Lee is leaning on Kawa to stay on at least until the budget is done next summer.

You're a good man: In their warm-up to next year's elections, campaign managers across the state have been holding focus groups to see which "big name" might sway voters one way or the other.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz's namecame up three times as a backer of three different measures - and each time his score was off the charts with Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.

When voters were asked why they held Shultz's opinion in such high esteem, the answer was universal: "I love Peanuts. The comic strip he draws."

EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.