Q&A with FX

By Francis Xavier "F.X." Crowley

Since FX Crowley decided to run for Supervisor in February 2012, he has answered hundreds of questions from residents, city leaders, neighborhood groups, issues organizations and political clubs. Below is a summary of the more frequently asked questions and answers, and the more interesting ones, too.

What differentiates you from the other candidates? , Experience and leadership. No candidate for District 7 Supervisor can touch me on jobs. I have generated more than $1.3 billion in middle-class wages over the past 15 years in one of the most vital sectors of our economy: arts, entertainment and convention.

As leader of the stagehand employees, I made difficult decisions every day. I don't believe any other candidate brings that experience to the table. I am pragmatic, flexible and have a demonstrated capacity to work with different viewpoints, all qualities which I honed from years as a chief negotiator.

My skills came into play when I served as the President of the Public Utilities Commission from 2008-09 and as a member of the Port Commission from 2010 to 2012. I have a track record of creating jobs and promoting fiscal responsibility.

What are the three most important issues facing your district? , 1) Public Safety. Three hundred and forty-four police will retire by next summer. We need three police academy classes for the next six years to recover plus satisfy the City Charter mandated 1,971 full-duty officers. The San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) will hold six Fire Academy classes and one Emergency Medical Technicians class to restore staffing levels and use less overtime. I will make funding these initiatives a priority.

2) Neighborhood Preservation. This includes everything from Lake Merced to single family homes. Lake Merced's deterioration frustrates residents. I will work with the SFPUC and the Rec and Park to turn Lake Merced around, restore water quality and improve recreation.

On another front, residents don't want to see the character of their neighborhoods compromised. They're worried about in-law units and over-development. I am against adding secondary units to single-family homes. They impact traffic, parking and can compromise design.

3) Parks and Natural Area Protection (NAP). People are screaming about the Park & Rec's NAP program, which is intended to conserve our City parks' natural heritage. I think NAP has gone overboard with its plan to cut down 18,500 healthy trees simply because they're non-native. In this case, they've taken their mission too literally.

San Franciscans are also passionate about their parks. As a child, I played soccer, baseball and football at Miraloma, Glen Park, Crocker Amazon, the Polo Fields and Kezar Stadium, to name a few. So have my children. I support converting Beach Chalet playing field from grass to turf because it will triple the available field time and increase public safety and family recreation with new lighting.

I support Measure B, the 2012 Parks Bond initiative on the November ballot, which will focus on fixing and maintaining existing facilities including Lake Merced. Going forward, I will work to prioritize funding for Rec and Park operations within our city budget.

What are the three most important issues facing the city? , 1) Jobs. Pure and simple. San Francisco is doing better than much of the country, but we can never become complacent. Not even in boom times. I've spent my career creating jobs and developing job training programs so I know.

2) Public Safety. As I said before, 344 cops are about to retire. We need to anticipate this now, recruit replacements and fund more police academy classes.

3) Affordable Housing. This will always be an issue in San Francisco because there is little to no space left to develop in our 49 square miles. I support Proposition C, the November ballot measure that will put $13 million into the Housing Trust Fund through new business registration fees. As a San Francisco Port Commissioner, I worked to ensure that residential development on Port property included affordable housing.

It's a delicate dance, balancing the needs of current residents with new development. The Parkmerced $1.2 billion development in District 7 has been at the center of the affordable housing controversy.

The Board of Supervisors voted last year to allow Parkmerced to proceed with their plans because it included tenant protections for those people whose homes will be demolished. Some of the folks in Parkmerced feel the protections don't go far enough or worry what will happen if Parkmerced is sold again.

As Supervisor, I will hold Parkmerced's feet to the fire and make sure those protections are not withdrawn. Rest assured, I have a long and public track record of keeping management to their word.

Your career has been in labor. What do you say to people who think you will serve labor first? , I think the working people of San Francisco deserve a voice. People worry that I will vote to grow public pensions because I came from labor. In fact, I served on the negotiating committee that resulted in Proposition C, the public pension reform measure. Sixty-nine percent of San Franciscans voted to pass this proposition, which is projected to save the city more than $1 billion over the next 10 years.

I also served as a Trustee of the Stagehands` privately-managed pension, health and welfare fund for 18 years. Several times as trustee I voted to adjust contribution levels and cut benefits to ensure proper management. I made difficult decisions that were not always popular with my members but I preserved people's retirement and kept families in health coverage. No stagehand ever lost his or her home because health care bills went unpaid.

How do you plan to support small business development? , When I served as Business Manager of the Stagehand Employees, our union functioned as an incubator for small business. Many of our members who trained with the stagehands started small businesses including prop houses, power distribution, and scenery services to serve the entertainment industry. Although independent business owners, they retain their union membership and have access to our self-funded health, welfare and pension programs.

Start-up costs for small businesses can crush anyone's dreams and I would look to the experience with the stagehands as an example of what I could do in the public sector to stimulate business development: develop training programs and support access to health care for small businesses. I also think Measure E on the November ballot, which will shift the payroll tax to a gross receipts will stimulate business development. It will spread the tax obligation more evenly among the business community and level the playing field for San Francisco, which is one of the few cities that imposes a payroll tax.

There's an opportunity to create a dialogue among the business districts that populate District 7 including West Portal, Lakeside Village and Ocean Avenue. I would convene a West of Twin Peaks small business committee to exchange ideas and start the conversation about how we can help small business grow in D7.

You were the only candidate at the D7 Harvey Milk debate who went on record opposed to legalizing prostitution. Why? , Good question. There's a much bigger issue at stake here, which is sex trafficking. Unfortunately, San Francisco is a booming stop on the international sex-trafficking route. By regulating prostitution, we're opening the doors to more sex slavery. I can't support this on any level.

You also were the first candidate for Supervisor to say that Ross Mirkarimi should not be reinstated as sheriff. Why did you take this stand? , A lot of voters asked me for my opinion. I think they deserve an answer. I made my position known after the Ethics Commission agreed that Mr. Mirkarimi had engaged in official misconduct.

What do you see as hot button issues down the road? , Public Power. Cleaner energy sounds like a good idea. The costs associated with it are not. The city is investing more than $13 million of its own money to get public power up and running. We will recover our investment if 90,000 people sign up for public power, but public power still will cost approximately 23 percent more than our current energy bill.

State law requires that all public power programs operate as an "opt-out," which means you're automatically signed up to receive public power until you tell Shell Energy of Houston, our public power provider, otherwise. The opt-out provision may also prove confusing to many consumers, especially seniors, immigrants, low and fixed-income residents.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely support cleaner energy and have a track record as past president of the SFPUC to prove it. But our Board of Supervisors needs to resolve these issues before I will "opt in" for public power.

CPMC. The Board of Supervisors has pushed back the vote on CPMC until after the election. There's a $2.5 billion project at stake not to mention our city's health services network and safety net. In my opinion, it would be a huge mistake to let CPMC go somewhere else. We need to figure out a way to make a deal. By the way, I think I can help with that.

What is the first thing you would do as Supervisor? , I would focus on the parks in my district. If the Park bond passes, I want to make sure that our District receives its promised allocation and that oversight is in place.

At the city level, I would introduce legislation to support the expansion of Moscone Center's footprint, which is in the design phase. Moscone's expansion will keep San Francisco competitive with other tourism and convention markets, preserve and expand middle-class jobs and increase our general fund tax revenues without burdening homeowners.

Who are your local political heroes and why? , U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and not just because she endorsed me. First, she became Mayor of San Francisco under the most tragic of circumstances and led our City with grace and dignity. Second, as Mayor of San Francisco, Senator Feinstein saved our historic cable cars, demonstrating her leadership on a national level when she secured federal funding.

Senator Feinstein showed vision and a great understanding of our city's economy because she knew how incredibly important cable cars were and are to San Francisco's tourism business. Today our tourist economy accounts for $8.3 billion in spending and the cable cars remain our number one attraction.

How important do you think your native San Francisco credentials are to your resume? , I think they're vital. I bring a deeper understanding of and history with many issues that our city faces because I've lived here all my life. I've seen the various iterations of our challenges through the decades. There is no learning curve for me when it comes to San Francisco.