From: "Steve Jones" [Steve@sfbg.com]
Sent: 10/31/2007 05:03 PM
To: Nathan Ballard; Joe Arellano; David Miree [Mayor's Office of Communications]
Subject: Halloween

Please notify me if there are any press conferences or other media availabilities regarding Halloween, which we are planning to cover. Thanks.

From: Nathan Ballard [mailto:Nathan.Ballard@sfgov.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 5:17 PM
To: Steve Jones
Subject: Re: Halloween

Halloween is cancelled this year.

Jones wrote:
Will there be any meetings or announcements on evaluating how martial law
went over in the Castro or making plans for next year?

Ballard wrote:
Six arrests is hardly martial law, Steve.

Jones wrote:
No, but six cops on every street corner rudely pushing back anyone who set
a foot in the street is. I saw it over and over and experienced it myself.
Barricades along every street, millions of dollars in heavy-handed
overkill, police outnumbering partiers, businesses pressured to observe an
early curfew, often under threats from city officials like police and fire
marshalls, zero tolerance policies for jaywalking and other minor offenses
-- this is San Francisco?
So, my questions are whether the city officials who unilaterally created
this police state will be taking any questions about it anytime soon? Is
the mayor generally happy with the face that San Francisco showed the rest
of the world last night? Will there be any meetings on how to better plan
for next year? Will there be any opportunities for community input on what
they thought of how this year went and whether they want changes next year?
And will they be incorporated into the decision-making process in any form?

Ballard wrote:
I reject the false allegations that you are making. They paint a distorted
picture of what happened last night -- a picture that is quite detached
from reality.

Here is the reality. We are pleased with the way Halloween turned out this
year. Chief Fong did an excellent job of keeping the peace, and Supervisor
Dufty deserves praise for showing real leadership and representing the
interests of his district. The vast majority of people of the Castro are
sick and tired of having a regional party that brings chaos and violence to
the neighborhood every year, and they can count on Supervisor Dufty to
stick up for them. The City family -- working together with Supervisor
Dufty's constituents in a collaborative way -- carried out a plan that put
an end to the violence last night, and Supervisor Dufty was the glue that
held our successful planning efforts together.

Jones wrote:
OK, you've made clear that the mayor was happy with the scene in the Castro
last night. We can agree to disagree about whether that was heavy-handed police
state and waste of city resources. But it's patently false to say the
community was involved in developing this plan. They weren't even told what
the plan was except that "Halloween has been cancelled," the cops would be
out in force, and there might or might not be street closures and
port-a-potties. Even an elected BART director was bypassed in the decision
to close the 16th Street station and the MTA board wasn't consulted about
closing down the Muni stops.
So my questions remain: Will there be any meetings on how to better plan
for next year? Will there be any opportunities for community input on what
they thought of how this year went and whether they want changes next year?
And will they be incorporated into the decision-making process in any form?

Ballard wrote:
Your questions are premature. Before I can answer them accurately, we're
going to meet with Supervisor Dufty and get his feedback about what kind of
a process he thinks we should follow next year to build on this year's
incredible success. Supervisor Dufty really has his thumb on the pulse of
his district, and, after our succesful partnership this year, we look
forward to working closely with him again to put in place another plan to
keep the citizens of the Castro safe from the violence and chaos that has
plagued the neighborhood in years past.

Jones wrote:
So there are no current plans to evaluate what happened or to begin
planning for next year, when Halloween falls on a Friday?

Ballard wrote:
No, there's a plan. See below.

Jones wrote:
So the plan is to ask Dufty what the plan is?
Will there be any attempt to consult those who don't share Dufty's fearful
approach to this holiday? Or is your boss just going to play the autocrat
again and make another unilateral decision with no public input?

Ballard wrote:
No, see below.

Jones wrote:
I did. You have no plan until you talk to Dufty, after which hopefully
you'll be able to answer me accurately. Do you know when you'll talk to
Dufty? My deadline is Monday for the story about whether you plan to
consider what others thought of your "incredible success" (because you
can't possibly believe that everyone agrees with that assessment) and
whether you plan to ignore Halloween until the last minute like you did
this year, or whether you intend to follow through on previous promises to
take a proactive approach that involves community input. I look forward to
hearing a responsive answer by then.

Ballard wrote:
No, you've got it wrong. But one thing you do seem to understand is that
Supervisor Dufty will be a big part of the planning process, which is true.
Check back with me in a few months and I'll let you know how it's going.

Jones changed subject line to "Sunshine Ordinance request" and wrote:
First, let me address your comments then get to my Sunshine Ordinance
request.
I'm not sure which part that you say I have wrong, although I suspect that
you just prefer your spin to my emphasis. I'm asking whether there is any
current planning taking place for next year or evaluation of this year, and
whether that will involve community input. In response, you say to check
back in a few months and that Dufty will be a big part of the planning
process. Unless you can give me specific information to the contrary, I'll
surmise the following from your answers to our exchange: 1) There are no
current plans to solicit public input on what happened this year; 2) There
are no current plans to establish a plan for next year that will input
community input; 3) The soonest you plan to address this issue is a few
months from now.
OK, now on to my Sunshine Ordinance request, which I'm presenting to your
office because it involves a few agencies that are under the control of the
mayor's office and I assume this information will at some point be flowing
through executive agencies and therefore subject to this request under the
Sunshine Ordinance requirements to disclosure any document or information
in your possession. Basically, I want to know how much the city spent on
its Halloween preparations and response. This includes, but isn't limited
to: Police Department and Sheriff's Office salaries and overtime,
Department of Public Works salaries and overtimes, MTA salaries and
overtime, expenditures on everything Halloween-related from barricades and
port-a-potties to the website and outreach campaign, and any estimates of
lost city revenues from sales, payroll, Transient Occupany, or other taxes
related to the businesses that were pressured to close by city officials or
from estimates of lost revenue from the estimated 200,000 who were
encouraged not to come to San Francisco. I understand that some of this
information may not be immediately available, so please give me the
information or related documents as soon as they become available and
consider this letter to be a standing Sunshine Ordinance request for
information that may become available in the future. Thanks in advance for
your cooperation.

Ballard wrote:
No, it is not safe to surmise 1, 2 and 3 below. You've got your facts
wrong. In fact, planning is already underway. Supervisor Dufty's staffers
and Mayor's office staffers have already begun the planning process by
having a series of conversations about what contributed to our success on
Halloween, and part of what we're talking about is the right way to
facilitate public input next time around. We'll announce future details of
our plan at a later date. But you do have it right that Supervisor Dufty
was key to the succes of our operation. He did a great job on Halloween
this year.

I can't help you with that sunshine request as it's presented. I would
advise you to send separate sunshine requests to the individual city
departments that you are seeking information from. That would be the best
way to approach it.

Jones wrote:
OK then, if planning and evaluation are already underway, I hereby request
all e-mails, Blackberry messages, memos, phone records, or any other
documents related to those discussions, pursuant to the Sunshine Ordinance.
That includes any communications in the days leading up to the event
related to deployment of city employees or other resources, the ordering of
port-a-potties, and any other decisions related to the city response to
Halloween. If the mayor or any of his staff have conducted meetings on
Halloween, I want to know when that meeting took place, who attended, get
any notes from that meeting, and have you characterize whatever the outcome
was.

Ballard wrote:
I have no documents repsonsive to your request. We will check and see if
any other Mayor's staffers do.

Jones wrote:
You're giving me contradictory information. If "planning is already
underway" and "there have been a series of conversations," then you should
be able to give me information about those conversations and planning
meetings and any related documents. I look forward to getting documents
from the other mayoral staffers, because clearly there were communications
that led to the decisions to order toilets, erect barriers, and otherwise
plan for this "incredible success." You can't have it both ways. Either
admit nothing is being done or give me details on what is being done. And
if the mayor and Dufty want to claim credit for this "incredible success,"
give me the documents and information that detail the involvement of the
Mayor's Office.

Ballard wrote:
In this case yes, I can have it both ways: conversations about planning
next Halloween are indeed underway and ongoing, and no, I don't have any
documents responsive to your request.

We will check and see if any other Mayor's staffers have documents
responsive to your request.

Jones wrote:
So I just need to take your word for it. Fine. I'll post our exchange online and we can let people judge for themselves whether you're being the honest and forthcoming conduit to public information that taxpayers are paying you to be.

Ballard wrote:
OK, thanks.