S.F. mayor gets keys to city's computer JAILHOUSE DEAL: S.F. tech worker accused of reconfiguring codes had lawyer call Gavin Newsom

** FILE ** In this Tuesday, March 25, 2008 file picture, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom addresses the Sacramento Press Club in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom, a Democrat best known for challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage early in his first term, filed papers on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 to form an exploratory committee so he can start raising money and conducting polls for a possible gubernatorial campaign. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) less ** FILE ** In this Tuesday, March 25, 2008 file picture, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom addresses the Sacramento Press Club in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom, a Democrat best known for challenging California's ban ... more Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close S.F. mayor gets keys to city's computer 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

"The first thing I want you to know, Mr. Mayor, is that when you walk out of this room, you will have the computer codes."

Those words - delivered to Mayor Gavin Newsom by imprisoned city computer tech Terry Childs in a small, fourth-floor room at city jail Monday - signaled the beginning of the end of the weeklong standoff in which San Francisco officials found themselves in the embarrassing position of being locked out of their own computer system.

Childs - whom some have described as a friendly, hard worker at the city Technology Department, and others have labeled an over-the-top control freak - has been sitting in jail since July 13 on $5 million bail, after being arrested for reconfiguring key passwords in the city's computer system.

A team of code crackers brought in from Cisco Systems had been working around the clock to try to decipher Childs' codes, but with only marginal success.

"It wasn't cheap and I just couldn't see us keep spending that kind of money," Newsom said.

Then, out of the blue, Childs' lawyer, Erin Crane, called the mayor's office Monday afternoon, offering a jailhouse meeting.

Childs, according to the lawyer, was ready to give up the codes - but only to the mayor, who had gone out of his way in his public comments not to portray Childs as some sort of monster.

Newsom didn't hesitate. Without asking the city attorney for an opinion or giving a heads up to police or the district attorney, he was at the Hall of Justice in half an hour.

With Crane by his side, Childs told Newsom about the computer system he'd set up and how all the current problems sprang from a series of misunderstandings.

Crane didn't let him go on for too long, and Childs got to the business at hand, asking for a pen.

He then wrote out a very long computer code.

"This better be right," Newsom said.

"It is," Childs assured him, but asked the mayor to deliver it in person to the Cisco specialists - not to the city's computer brass.

Newsom took the code to the city computer center and gave it to a Cisco techie, who found that it didn't work - prompting a call-back to Crane.

"He said you would be calling and you would be upset," the lawyer said. "He forgot to give you the protocols to go along with the code" - and she read the accompanying computer prompters to the mayor over the phone.

By Tuesday morning, the system was back in the hands of the city.

Wedding flash: It turns out there's a reason for the "Out of Africa" theme at Mayor Gavin Newsom'swedding Saturday in Montana.

Following the nuptials, Newsom and his bride, Jennifer Siebel, will return home for a week - then jet to Africa for a two-week combination honeymoon and vacation with Siebel's family.

"We're going to South Africa, Kenya and I'm not sure where else," Newsom said.

"Jennifer used to work in Africa for Conservation International and she wants to show me around," Newsom said.

Rolling on: The hundreds of San Francisco and Oakland city workers receiving take-home cars and free gas fill-ups during these hard times are hardly alone.

Over at the pollution-monitoring Bay Area Air Quality Management Control District - an agency funded from a combination of permit fees and county, state and federal money - 128 workers have take-home car privileges. That's more than a third of its 300-strong workforce.

Seventy-three of the employees are inspectors out in the field, and 55 more are tech staff and executives who "do so much traveling around the Bay Area for meetings," according to agency spokeswoman Lisa Fasano.

The agency keeps an additional 32 cars - mostly gas-saving Toyota Priuses, hybrid Ford Escapes and vehicles that run on natural gas - for the rest of its workforce. Plus eight bikes.

Employees who are assigned cars get gas cards for work-related driving - and in all, the agency spends nearly $260,000 a year on fuel.

Fasano said the cards do "not cover commuting to work."

The gas bills can be checked by the district's bosses, but Fasano acknowledged it's largely an honor system.

The air quality district - whose goal is to push people out of their cars and onto public transit - also provides all its employees with free BART and bus passes at a cost $276,000 a year.

Muscle flexing: Big fight down at San Francisco's Democratic County Central Committee, as Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Chris Daly try to grab control from gay activist and Deputy City Attorney Scott Wiener.

Their idea is to replace Wiener as committee chairman with Peskin, who was just elected along with Daly to the central committee.

Wiener's supposed offense: not condemning the Human Rights Campaign when it supported a federal anti-discrimination bill that left out protection for transgender people.

The real play: Peskin, who will be termed out of office in November, and Daly, who still has 2 1/2 years left in his final term, are looking to reassert their political power.

They figure that by taking control of the central committee, which is expected to hand out slate-card endorsements and money to candidates running for the Board of Supervisors this fall, they'll stay in control.

When Daly heard that one central committee member might not go along with the play to dethrone Wiener, he fired off a blistering message on his Blackberry warning that Wiener's re-election could stymie efforts for progressives to take control of the party.

"I, for one, have already committed to make it my personal mission to make sure that any members voting for Scott never receive the endorsement of the Guardian, Tenants Union, Sierra Club and Milk Club in subsequent races," Daly said. "I hope that you decide to be with us."

And you thought Don Corleone was dead.

Peskin, who predicted Tuesday he may have just enough votes to replace Wiener when the balloting is conducted tonight, said he had nothing to do with Daly's threats - and he even condemned them.

EXTRA! Catch our Web page at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.