Still, the Housing Authority has decided that Mayfield is a valued employee. Ron Sonenshine, the head public relations spokesman for the authority, says that a position will be found for Mayfield to continue working at the agency.
Mayor Brown has declined to comment for this story, and so his precise reasons for tolerating Mayfield are not known. But Brown clearly operates within a different political realm than either Agnos or Jordan, who, as white mayors, faced specific political problems if they fired a black man -- especially a black man with political "juice" in a disenfranchised part of the city. If for no other reason than that he is African-American, Brown would probably suffer less political fallout for dismissing Mayfield than either of his predecessors.
Some sources suggest that Mayfield and his longtime aide Patrick Lynch were sent to the Housing Authority to remove them from proximity to the mayor. But it is also reasonable to speculate that Mayfield is an ally of Brown, someone the mayor would want as his eyes and ears at the public housing agency, which is, at least nominally, independent of city government.
Whatever the reasons, a man who has made profoundly flawed and wasteful decisions for local government since 1988 remains on the payroll because some kind of political calculus says keeping him is less harmful than letting him go, ethics and efficiency problems notwithstanding.
Of course, most of the answers about why and how Mayfield did what he did rest with the man himself. And he is going to considerable lengths to keep any such answers to himself.
For weeks, Mayfield would not return phone calls from SF Weekly. Finally, he did pick up the phone, but would say only, "We are all under a lot of heat here, and I don't mean to be rude, but I am not going to talk to you." Then he hung up.
Written questions produced similar results. A list of questions faxed to Mayfield's office elicited no response. When Mayfield did not respond to the fax, Housing Authority spokesman Sonenshine tried to get some answers, but was unsuccessful. Sonenshine expressed surprise that the Weekly was able to get Mayfield on the phone. "You actually talked to him?" Sonenshine said. "I can't even do that."
Whether Mayfield will find his voice anytime soon is unclear. But he has found a mouthpiece.
More than a week after specific questions were faxed to Mayfield and no response was forthcoming, a lawyer named Craig Martin called SF Weekly identifying himself as Mayfield's attorney.
Informed of exactly what questions the paper had for Mayfield, Martin offered little hope of a response.
"I'll try and get him," Martin said. "But I can't promise you anything.
