San Francisco Bay Guardian

Knitpicking

Yahoo's SFSchools message board is a favorite place for parents to gripe about the city's public schools and the people who run them. On Feb. 1, one of the board's most active participants set off a vigorous debate about whether it was appropriate for school board member Jill Wynns to knit during some of the meetings leading up to the board's controversial decision to close, merge, or relocate 13 schools.

The discussion — as San Francisco political discussions will — became a bit larger than life. Check out some excerpts:

Constant Commentator As someone who knits at meetings myself I'm finding the jibes about Jill Wynns' knitting, or needlepointing, annoying — and a sexist putdown of what's largely a women's craft ...

Sometimes Poster Sitting in the peanut gallery, I also know a lot of people find it very rude and offensive ...

Constant Commentator If [board member and sometimes Wynns opponent] Sarah Lipson were knitting they'd be admiring the yarn.

Active Participant Some people actually can't listen unless they are doing something with their hands whether that's knitting, fidgeting, etc.

Occasional Contributor It's a fact. Kinesthetic learners retain information better if they are knitting while listening.

Infrequent Filer The fact is we don't know whether she is a kinesthetic learner and is using knitting as a means to absorb the details or if she has sensory issues and is using it as a means to escape the barrage of public testimony. So the public perception is that she has something better to do ...

Constant Commentator Maybe the reason Wynns is universally viewed as the best-informed school board member is BECAUSE she knits at meetings. Congress could use a dose of that. I personally think this is a civil liberties issue — OK, it's a minor one, but that's where it all starts. Plus, it's a feminist issue. (Tali Woodward)

A $248,000 meeting

What's up with this? Platinum Advisors is a lobbying firm with offices across California and a client list that includes Clear Channel, Oracle, Cingular, the Hearst Corporation, and even Zuffa LLC, the company behind the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Platinum, which has an office here in SF, also does a lot of work locally.

Or maybe not.

The city's Ethics Commission requires lobbyists to disclose whom they're working for, how much they're being paid, and which city officials they're trying to, uh, sway. According to those records, Platinum pulled in more than $248,000 in 2005. Here's the weird part: Though Platinum had a dozen local clients, the firm claims it had only a single "contact" with a city employee or elected official last year.

That's strange 'cause most lobbyists — the disgraced Jack Abramoff, for example — spend their days blabbing with public officials; one of Platinum's competitors had 21 meetings with city staffers on behalf of a single client.

So is Platinum stiffing its clients? Is it fibbing on its city paperwork? Was there just one meeting, worth $248,000? The firm says no. "This business complies with the letter and spirit of the law," spokesperson P.J. Johnston says. "You have ups and downs in terms of contacts." Johnston also says the firm often plays a behind-the-scenes role, helping clients craft their contract-scoring or legislation-influencing strategies.

There may be another factor involved here: The city's lobbying law is riddled with loopholes — more than a dozen by our count — which means, in many cases, lobbyists can legally communicate with city officials without divulging those discussions. Charming. (A.C. Thompson)

Mailboxes, etc.

Some basic amenities may be coming to the city's roughly 450 residential hotels. On Feb. 7 Sup. Chris Daly introduced legislation that would require hotel owners to provide secure mailboxes to long-term tenants. If passed, the legislation would do away with the system currently in place in many of the city's cheap hotels: Desk clerks sort the mail and stick it into open cubbyhole-style slots, making it vulnerable to theft.

Some hotels, according to Jamie Sanbonmatsu of the Department of Building Inspection, are even sketchier. "In Chinatown some of the hotels don't even have desk clerks ... anyone can grab the mail." Sanbonmatsu has also gotten reports of a hotel where all the mail is simply dumped in a cardboard box in the lobby. The legislation, which is wending its way through committee, is backed by Building Inspection, the Central City SRO Collaborative, and assorted community groups. (ACT)