By Heather Knight
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal for the 2009-10 fiscal year contains plenty of pain for Muni riders, cigarette smokers, the mentally ill and others. But the Fire Department’s budget would actually rise 3 percent under Newsom’s plan.
Yes, the firefighters are deferring previously scheduled raises, but major changes like brownouts — rolling closures of fire stations — aren’t part of Newsom’s plan.
That raises the question of whether the mayor’s being influenced by Eric Jaye, who’s running his campaign for governor and works as the paid political consultant for the firefighters.
After first saying he didn’t “accept the frame” of our question, Newsom said he included brownouts in his 2005 budget even though Jaye has worked for the firefighters since 1996.
“I never wanted to do it. I held my breath when I did it,” Newsom said.
Jaye said he has a strict policy of never discussing any other client with Newsom.
City voters in 2005 said they wanted no brownouts, but they can’t force city officials to pay to keep all stations open. The Board of Supervisors last month passed a nonbinding list of budget priorities including “increase regular work time for firefighters or schedule ‘rolling brownouts’ of fire stations” meaning it’s sure to be a, um, hot issue in the coming weeks.
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