Photo by Luke Thomas
“Mr. Mayor, it’s great to see you in Chambers. We need to have your cooperation,” Sup. John Avalos (far right) tells Newsom (second from right), as newly elected Board President David Chiu (second from left) and Clerk of the Board Angela Cavillo (far left) look on.
Text by Sarah Phelan
Newly sworn-in Supervisor John Avalos told the Guardian yesterday that he had asked to be on the board’s powerful Budget and Finance Committee and would happy to be its chair.
And now comes news that Avalos, who represents the predominantly working class District 11, has got his wish.
Avalos, who was sworn in yesterday by newly elected Board President David Chiu, will take over as the Budget and Finance Committee chair from termed-out Sup. Jake McGoldrick.
The move comes as the City faces its worst budget deficit since the Depression.
But though Avalos is a first-time supervisor, he already has a deep and broad understanding of the City’s budget process, knowledge that he gleaned while working as Sup. Chris Daly’s legislative analyst for the past three years.
“John Avalos has more experience of budget issues than me,” Daly told me yesterday, outside the Board Chambers, after the inaugural meeting was over. “Because while I was in there (Daly gesticulates towards the Board chambers) listening to endless hours of public comment, John, as my legislative analyst was meeting with the Controller and the Budget Analyst and all the other people involved in the budget process.”
But even Avalos is awestruck by the tsunami of bad financial news that has hit the City.
“I was visibly shaken” Avalos told me of his reaction during in a recent meeting about the City’s budgetary woes.
Avalos’ appointment as chair means that he can get on with advancing measures related to the city’s staggering $576 million deficit. These include holding hearings about legislation that former Board President Aaron Peskin’s introduced earlier this week, on his penultimate day on the job.
That legislation proposes a special election in June, so voters can weigh in on a number of proposed, but as yet-to-be finalized revenue generating measures.
Avalos will also oversee hearings on $125 million in midyear budget cuts, including Peskin’s proposal to get rid of the Small Business Assistance Center and cut ballet, symphony and opera funding in half.