Cothran

"A lot of the so-called deal-breakers for labor and the mayor's task force began to go away, one by one," Sullivan says.

For example, merit pay -- a truly radical reform of Muni's union-dominated, seniority-pay culture -- was in. Rescue Muni was actually able to expand the concept to include managers as well as line employees.

On June 15, Rescue Muni, Supervisors Ammiano, Newsom, Yaki, Leslie Katz, Mark Leno, and Barbara Kaufman, Gabriel Metcalf of SPUR, and Eleanor Jacobs of the Mayor's Office stood on the steps of City Hall and announced that they had agreed on one measure for the November ballot. Rescue Muni yanked its petition off the streets as a show of good faith. The compromise measure was approved by the Board of Supervisors on June 21.

Mayor Brown had avoided the unpleasant possibility of getting hammered on Muni while he was running for re-election. But Rescue Muni had done something amazing: It had effected more positive change in public transportation than had ever been dreamt while unions and politicians were cutting the transit deals on their own.

Notably absent from the press conference that announced the Muni compromise were the unions that had, in the past, been so powerful a force in all matters Muni. The unions could still mount a campaign opposed to the charter amendment. In that case, expect Mark Mosher to step in again. He and the Committee on Jobs like nothing better than a good electoral fight with labor -- where Mosher usually wins.

In fact, Mosher is probably disappointed the unions didn't try to mess with the compromise measure while it was at the Board of Supervisors. Had they, he would have been ready. Mosher had a list of 40,000 frequent voters, each of whom would have received a mailing, if the transit unions and the supervisors had tinkered with the compromise Muni reform measure. The mailing included a "Dear Voter" letter from Supervisor Newsom. The letter explained the rest of the packet, which included a mini-initiative petition that the supervisor's letter asked the recipient to sign, circulate for other signatures, and then send back to Rescue Muni -- by prepaid business reply mail.

George Cothran (gcothran@sfweekly.com) can be reached at SF Weekly, 185 Berry, Suite 3800, San Francisco,