Opinion

Every day this week, a small group of janitors has picketed UC Berkeley’s well-known International House—home to many of the university’s international graduate students—in response to what they call unfair working conditions and harassment from the building supervisor. -more-

Anybody with an ounce of anarchism in their blood felt a secret frisson of delight at San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly’s one-day coup last week. While Real Mayor Willie Brown was junketing in Asia, Mayor-for-A-Day Daly appointed two of the five members of The City’s extremely important Public Utilities Commission, and it looks like the appointments are going to stick. Some who believe in maintaining proper decorum (yes, we do have them, even in Berkeley) profess that they are Shocked, Shocked at Daly’s breach of political courtesy, of course. But that reaction misses the very real reason Daly felt justified in seizing the reins: the winner-take-all system for appointing commissioners in the city and county of San Francisco. Technically, the mayor (whoever that might be at the moment) gets to appoint all of the commissioners. Lately there’s been a nod to the power of the Supes, who can now veto some or all of the appointments, in some circumstances. (Here the Daily Planet must confess to haziness on the exact details. The San Francisco charter is a baroque, much-amended document that makes Berkeley’s somewhat fuzzy charter look crystal-clear.) -more-