Brown on Muni: Focus on prospects, not promises

1998-11-18 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor Brown said he is less interested in keeping his word than spending the time and money it takes to fix Muni before he faces the voters again next year.

"We're not throwing money at it," Brown said. "We will keep funding Muni until Muni has all the resources it could possibly use to cause it to run on time, to cause it to be safe, to cause it be reliable, to cause it to be clean and to cause its personnel to be efficient."

Declaring "I love the job," Brown said his mayoral fate doesn't rest solely on the transit system's improvement, pointing to a record of success he can and will tell voters about during his campaign to convince them to return him to office next November.

"Consistency is not necessarily a virtue if it prevents (you) from achieving your goal," the mayor said.

With that, Brown said he wants the Board of Supervisors to give Muni more money just four months after supervisors gave the agency an 8 percent increase as part of a $331.5 million "no excuses" budget.

Muni, citing a cash shortage, quicker hiring and the need for a special trouble-shooter on the Muni Metro, plans to ask for a midyear infusion of cash, The Examiner reported Tuesday.

Despite polls showing continued and growing unhappiness with Muni service - and criticism of the mayor's role in failing to fix the beleaguered agency in his first 100 days as promised - Brown said his political future isn't tied to what happens with the Municipal Railway, or homelessness, or any single issue, for that matter.

Re-election campaign?<

The mayor, though months away from an official campaign kickoff, transformed himself into a candidate for re-election at his bi-weekly press briefing and launched a vigorous defense of his first three years in office. Among the successes he says he'll take to the voters are building the Excelsior Youth Center, fixing the Martin Luther King pool, adding tennis courts in Bayview-Hunters Point, funding children's programs, revamping the Head Start program, making the housing projects safer and restructuring the Juvenile Justice system.

"Those are the kind of things I'm going to talk about," the mayor said.

Then he talked some more, mentioning improvements to Golden Gate Park, a plan that lets citizens participate in renovating their neighborhood parks and a robust budget surplus.

"I will rely upon that performance. It may not be measurable but I intend to take full credit for the budget surplus," Brown said.

Brown entered office with The City showing a projected $89 million budget deficit. Backed by a strong economy, his current budget contains a $102 million surplus.

But the mayor wasn't finished touting, matter-of-factly, his accomplishments: jump-starting Mission Bay; keeping UCSF's second campus in The City; gaining approvals for new stadiums for the Giants and the 49ers; reducing welfare rolls by 29 percent; helping make the streets safer; diversifying city government and completing the retrofitting of City Hall.

"All that ought to be talked about," Brown said. "I'm amazed that only Muni and homeless come up and none of the other things I've done ever seem to matter when it comes time to talk about me."

But the mayor is well aware that homelessness joins Muni as an area in which residents are sharply critical of his administration.

Pledging Civic Center cleanup<

Brown pledged to have Civic Center Plaza cleaned up when city offices return to City Hall shortly after Jan. 1, 1999.

Brown said the view from City Hall windows would be one of kids playing in the playgrounds, people eating lunch and walking their dogs, free from homeless people sleeping in the park and drug dealers peddling their poison.

The mayor said The City provides services for the homeless, treats them humanely, coordinates efforts with nonprofit agencies and is improving its response for treatment on demand.

"If you're in San Francisco, if you want help, help is available to you," Brown said.

But, the mayor said, law breakers will continue to be arrested.

"There won't be any drug dealers (in Civic Center Plaza)," Brown vowed, "if I have to personally patrol it."

Then, again revving up what is sure to be part of his campaign stump speech, Brown said much has been accomplished since he took office in January 1996.

"There's never been a mayor who opens up City Hall on Saturday mornings and gives everyone 10 minutes," Brown said, adding that his home telephone number is listed and he returns calls.

"It is going to be hard for anybody who suddenly decides he's going to take Willie Brown out," said the mayor. "I only sleep 3-1/4 hours a night. Nobody else does that.

"I love The City and I love the job. I'm going to talk to every voter . . . and let that be the measure - period," Brown continued. "I really work at this job. Every day of my life I work at this job. No one is going to be as prepared as I am." <