By Robert Haugh
The 49ers made a big deal about the City Council’s recent action to take away their procurement authority for stadium expenditures. The City did this after discovering the team violated state wage laws.
The 49ers requested 10 minutes to speak on the issue at last night’s council meeting. That’s more than the public gets for comments. The City gave it to them and agendized it. But the 49ers’ attorney, Jonathan Bass of Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass didn’t show up. Yup. He was a big no show.
So the Council went ahead and took two actions.
First, they ratified an action that they took two weeks ago. That’s when the Council unanimously gave City Attorney Brian Doyle the authority to terminate the 49ers’ non-NFL stadium management contract in closed session.
They took the vote last night in open session. Doyle said that the action was to prevent a potential legal challenge and “to demonstrate to the public that, unlike the 49ers, we’re very transparent.”
But the 49ers’ biggest supporter, Councilwoman Patty Mahan, said she would abstain on the vote. Mahan’s reason was that the issue is now in the courts. That didn’t seem to make sense to anyone. (We texted a long-time attorney who said he never heard anyone use that excuse before.)
The vote was 5-0 with Mahan abstaining. That was her punt. (Councilwoman Debi Davis was absent from the meeting.)
Second, the Council had a second reading of the vote to take away the 49ers’ procurement authority. This time Mahan came up with some legal reason to object. It didn’t make sense to anyone and Doyle had to correct Mahan and remind her that the second issue wasn’t a subject of a lawsuit. Whoops. That’s when Mahan got sacked. She voted against it anyway. It passed 5-1.
On 49ers issues, Mahan is the team’s lone supporter. And she’s not being very persuasive with her colleagues.
Other Stuff
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The Council called for a Special Municipal Election on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, to elect a new Police Chief.
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EMC Research conducted an anonymous survey of city staff. About half of the employees responded. In general, they are happy to work for the City and believe their jobs are important.
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Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC was selected as the Downtown Precise Plan consultant.
[…] abstained from the vote. And we know Mahan knows how to abstain from votes. Earlier this month, Mahan abstained on a vote to terminate the 49ers stadium contract when she didn’t have to and gave some confusing […]
I didn’t know the 49ers are in district 5. I’m unhappy with Patty supporting the 49ers and not backing the City.
Selling out the city due to your hate for the Mayor and influence from the 49ers is not why you were elected. I don’t believe they get a vote.