Leland Yee joins effort to stop affirmative action measure

Sen. Leland Yee signed onto a letter against the partial repeal of Prop. 209. Sen. Leland Yee signed onto a letter against the partial repeal of Prop. 209. Photo: Mathew Sumner, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Mathew Sumner, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Leland Yee joins effort to stop affirmative action measure 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Three Asian American state senators - including San Francisco's own Leland Yee - are asking fellow lawmakers to shelve a measure aimed at allowing California's public universities to once again consider race in admissions.

The idea behind the proposed constitutional amendment is to make more room for Latinos and African Americans, who have been falling behind in admissions in recent years.

But it appears that rainbow politics goes only so far.

Yee said he had heard - loud and clear - from Asian Americans who fear that undoing the ban on affirmative action in college admissions would hurt their children's chances of getting into the highly competitive University of California system.

"I feel that more time must be taken so this issue could be publicly discussed and these concerns addressed," Yee said.

Voters approved the affirmative action ban in 1996 as part of Proposition 209, which barred the state from considering race, ethnicity or gender in college admissions, hiring or contracts. Before then, UC and other public universities were allowed to grant preferences to students who came from underrepresented groups.

Asian Americans aren't exactly underrepresented these days in the UC system. They make up about 14 percent of the state's population, while the 2013 freshman class at UC was one-fourth Asian American.

Yee, who is running for secretary of state, said he signed a letter to Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, seeking to table the partial repeal of Prop. 209 "after hearing from thousands of people throughout the state concerned about the impacts the change could have on their children's ability to get into the school of their choice."

At issue: SCA5, a proposed constitutional amendment sponsored by state Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina (Los Angeles County), which would restore racial and gender preferences for public university admissions.

The amendment sailed through the state Senate along party lines and is headed to the state Assembly, where it would need a two-thirds vote. If it passes, it would go before the voters.

Also signing the letter to Pérez were fellow Democratic Sens. Ted Lieu of Torrance (Los Angeles County) and Carol Liu of La Cañada/Flintridge (Los Angeles County). Both of them joined Yee in voting for SCA5 in the Senate, but it appears they've had a change of heart.

"As lifelong advocates for the Asian American and other communities, we would never support a policy that we believed would negatively impact our children," the three senators wrote.

The measure's prospects in the Assembly are uncertain. Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco, a longtime advocate for affirmative action, said he wasn't ready to vote for it.

Even San Francisco's Chinese for Affirmative Action isn't fully on board. Executive Director Vincent Pan said the state should figure out how to increase overall enrollment rather than focus on "the scarce number of slots and how they get divvied up."

Traffic crackdown: The crosswalk crackdown that San Francisco police launched after a recent wave of pedestrian deaths is producing results - at least if you go by the number of tickets the cops are writing.

Ninety percent of the 10,989 traffic tickets that police wrote in February went to motorists for running red lights, failing to stop for pedestrians and the like. The total was up 54 percent over the same month in 2013.

About 5.5 percent of the tickets were for jaywalking.

Fewer than 2 percent went to bicyclists. Cmdr. Mikhail Ali, who heads the police traffic unit, said that may sound low - but it's double the total from last year.

Chief call: After 10 months - and four tries - Oakland's search for a permanent police chief is back to square one.

The most recent search for a top cop came to screeching halt when city officials learned that the International Association of Chiefs of Police - which they planned to hire for the search - didn't offer the same benefits to partners of same-sex couples as to heterosexual employees' partners.

The latest snag comes after the city paid $25,000 to headhunters at Bob Murray and Associates only to have the company quit in mid-search, saying then-mayoral Chief of Staff Anne Campbell Washington had talked with a candidate on the side.

City spokeswoman Karen Boyd said Mayor Jean Quan and newly named City Administrator Fred Blackwell were looking at whether to seek out yet another headhunter, use the list they got from the Murray team or pick someone themselves.

Oakland has been without a permanent chief since May when Howard Jordan, who was under pressure for not complying with federal monitors overseeing the Police Department, abruptly left, citing health reasons.

Quan then appointed Assistant Chief Anthony Toribio, who lasted all of two days before federal monitors had the mayor install Deputy Chief Sean Whent as interim chief.

Whent would like to keep the job, but Quan - who is facing a tough re-election fight - wants to spread the net.