The suit had the potential to create big trouble for the Brown administration. Ernst's legal argument was aimed at Brown's well-known habit of micromanaging city commissions. The lawsuit sought an injunction prohibiting the mayor from "influencing, or making decisions related to ... contracts and agreements germane to leases of Port property." With hundreds of millions of dollars in port leases and development projects on the table, such an injunction could have crippled the mayor's ability to call the shots at the port.
Before Ernst filed his lawsuit, port officials had doubts about granting the lease amendment they had rejected the previous year, according to e-mails obtained by SF Weekly. Nonetheless, the day after the suit was filed, Port Director Doug Wong faxed a letter to Ernst, telling Ernst that he was now favorably disposed toward his amendment and would put it before the commission.
Paolo Vescia
Ernst rents out office space on the second floor of Pier
38; the first-floor rooms are unoccupied.
Paolo Vescia
Carl Ernst Jr.
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The second vote on the amendment was calendared for Aug. 27. Ernst and his attorney sat in the back of the glassed-in meeting room at Pier 1, behind rows of port staffers wearing dark blue suits. In a moment of anti-climax, Commissioner Denise McCarthy asked, "Is the lease in good standing? There was a problem." Staffers assured her that everything was in order. Ernst's lease amendment passed unanimously.
Wong did not respond to repeated calls from SF Weekly. Port Commission President Michael Hardeman refused to say if commissioners discussed Ernst's lawsuit prior to the lease vote. He also declined to explain why the commission changed its mind on the issue.
The following day, Ernst -- with $1.3 million in state money on the way and 29 years left to figure out what to do with his leasehold -- was jubilant in an interview. He compared his victory at the Port Commission to the fall of the U.S.S.R., casting the port commissioners as anti-capitalist commissars and himself as a valiant entrepreneur.
But then he was asked some hard questions: Why wasn't he paying city parking taxes? Why wasn't he repaying his state loans? Why didn't he submit proper documentation when filing for port rent credits? Why was he subleasing pier space to nonmaritime businesses, in violation of his lease? What happened to the public promenade, and the boat racks, and the restaurant?
Ernst went silent for a solid minute.
"I am not going to cooperate in the publication of an article that is likely to damage the good working relationship that it has taken me seven years to build with the port," he eventually said. "Any article that goes over the history of this thing can't help me." Then he hung up.
