San Francisco Finances

The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park celebrated its 100th birthday last week. Museum patrons marked the occasion on Thursday at a $375-a-ticket, black-tie dinner and preview of an exhibition of Claude Monet's late paintings of Giverny, loaned by the Musee Marmottan in Paris. Two days later, the public was invited to a free "Centennial Saturday" including musical performances, children's activities and a drawing for airline tickets to European art centers.

Officials at San Francisco International Airport spent $5 million on a set of backup generators only to discover the sprawling complex is exempt from rolling blackouts. But airport officials say they will fire up the generators when power emergencies hit. The airport leased the 10 generators, which run on jet fuel, to keep escalators and baggage conveyors running uninterrupted this summer.

The city of Los Angeles has close to $249 million in unpaid parking tickets on the books--almost three times the city's annual ticket revenue and enough money to fund the Fire Department for a year. A total of 5.4 million tickets have not been paid, records show. And 74,000 vehicles have accumulated five or more tickets, making them susceptible to towing or impounding by the city.

The city that has reveled since the Gold Rush in living la vida loca finds itself facing the embarrassing prospect of welcoming in the millennium with more of a whimper than a bang. Some less than fully booked hotels in this tourist mecca have had to drop sky-high New Year's Eve rates and four-day-minimum stay requirements to lure guests. Now protests by environmentalists and a lack of money have forced Mayor Willie Brown to drastically scale back what he hoped would be a world-class blowout.

City Charter may force her to quit her "bully pulpit" next month, but San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein is not going to let that stop her from continuing to deliver her political sermons. When she leaves City Hall on Jan. 8 at age 54, San Francisco's first woman mayor will hardly fade away. In addition to lecturing and writing, she is raising money for a possible 1990 gubernatorial election bid--and waiting to see if there is a job for her in any new Democratic presidential team.

Every speaker enjoys preaching to the converted, and Willie Brown is no exception. So when this city's convention and visitors bureau recently invited the mayor to speak in favor of a proposed $325-million football stadium to be voted on Tuesday, he jumped at the chance. "Why, the Phoenix folks spent $300 million" to build a stadium, he said with amused contempt. Phoenix? "We charge more at a Motel 6 than they do at their Grand Hyatt!" The audience of local hotel and tourism executives roared.

Now that long-reigning Democratic Speaker Willie Brown is safely out of town, it's payback time for conservative Bernie Richter. Literally. Assemblyman Richter (R-Chico) steered a bill through the lower house last week that seeks to spread around to 42 counties a bonanza of $87 million a year by raiding the tax base of one city--San Francisco. The city by the bay, maintained Richter, has been hogging more than its rightful share of property tax revenues for 17 years.

Catholic Charities' refusal to disclose the number of gays and lesbians on its board and staff is threatening $1.5 million the agency receives from San Francisco each year for AIDS projects. A city Health Commission rule, passed four years ago, allows contracts only with agencies whose staff and board are "representative of the target population" with respect to sexual orientation.

San Francisco officials approved a five-year agreement with the Giants in which the city will absorb the $3.1-million per-year cost to operate Candlestick Park.

A new report shows that the city of San Francisco is spending as much as a $250,000 a year more than necessary on planning and architecture. The report, released Wednesday by the city's budget analyst, shows that the city spent money on outside planners and architects for jobs that could be carried out by staff. The outside technicians cost as much as $25 an hour more than in-house employees.

The proposed shopping mall at Candlestick Point will not generate enough money to pay off the city's share of costs to build a new football stadium for the San Francisco 49ers, financial documents show. Sales taxes could come up several million dollars short of the $7.3 million that the city needs each year to pay off voter-approved bonds for the stadium, the San Francisco Examiner reported Sunday. Mayor Willie Brown had promised voters that the $525-million stadium-mall would pay for itself.

Every speaker enjoys preaching to the converted, and Willie Brown is no exception. So when this city's convention and visitors bureau recently invited the mayor to speak in favor of a proposed $325-million football stadium to be voted on Tuesday, he jumped at the chance. "Why, the Phoenix folks spent $300 million" to build a stadium, he said with amused contempt. Phoenix? "We charge more at a Motel 6 than they do at their Grand Hyatt!" The audience of local hotel and tourism executives roared.

This city Thursday became the first local government in the United States to sue the tobacco industry, seeking to recover millions of dollars the city and county of San Francisco spend annually in the treatment of smoking-related illnesses. The San Francisco city attorney's office, aided by a high-powered law firm, filed suit in U.S.

Now that long-reigning Democratic Speaker Willie Brown is safely out of town, it's payback time for conservative Bernie Richter. Literally. Assemblyman Richter (R-Chico) steered a bill through the lower house last week that seeks to spread around to 42 counties a bonanza of $87 million a year by raiding the tax base of one city--San Francisco. The city by the bay, maintained Richter, has been hogging more than its rightful share of property tax revenues for 17 years.

The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park celebrated its 100th birthday last week. Museum patrons marked the occasion on Thursday at a $375-a-ticket, black-tie dinner and preview of an exhibition of Claude Monet's late paintings of Giverny, loaned by the Musee Marmottan in Paris. Two days later, the public was invited to a free "Centennial Saturday" including musical performances, children's activities and a drawing for airline tickets to European art centers.

Catholic Charities' refusal to disclose the number of gays and lesbians on its board and staff is threatening $1.5 million the agency receives from San Francisco each year for AIDS projects. A city Health Commission rule, passed four years ago, allows contracts only with agencies whose staff and board are "representative of the target population" with respect to sexual orientation.

Maybe this is the debate the two Democratic candidates for governor promised. Not the old-fashioned, face-to-face stuff with live candidates in a spontaneous format--but television commercial vs. television commercial, each carefully scripted and produced by professionals. Atty. Gen. John K.

Budget analysts have made it clear that the financial aftershocks from the Oct. 17 earthquake will shape the city's revenues for years to come. In their first major report since the temblor, the city analysts estimated that the disaster has cost San Francisco as much as $15 million in lost revenue from sales, business, parking and hotel taxes. The city anticipated collecting $852 million in revenue overall and the money has already been budgeted.

S&P Downgrades Some Muni Bonds: The credit quality of state and local governments deteriorated in the first quarter, as Standard & Poor's Corp. lowered its ratings on $3.1 billion of municipal bonds while upgrading $1.4 billion of bonds. The rating company said it slashed ratings on 52 municipal bond issues, while giving improved ratings to 42 issues. Many of the lower ratings resulted from a decline in revenue, caused by the economic recession and other state budget problems.

Forty people showed for the kickoff of a petition drive aimed at reversing $15 million in stadium lease concessions for the new owners of the San Francisco Giants, whose bid saved the team for the city. The monthlong signature gathering drive is being organized by the Committee to Stop the Giveaway. David Spero, drive organizer, said the group needed about 19,500 valid signatures to qualify a referendum for the November, 1993, ballot.