Liz and Lee Heidhues 4.10.2022
It is an appalling public record.
Supervisor Connie Chan met with Platinum Advisors, Lobbyist for the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 14 times in a 12-month period beginning in March 2021.
The most recent meeting occurred on March 16, 2022.
On April 5, 2022 Supervisor Chan, harsh foe of Car Free JFK Drive in San Francisco’s historic Golden Gate Park, introduced legislation.
If approved it will open a 1.5 mile safe strip of peace and tranquility to cars. This now quiet Peopleway has been car free the past two years.
The afternoon Chan introduced her legislation, she received a phone call from Platinum Advisors lobbyist Ryan Blake. See attached.
Platinum Advisors, a powerful national lobbying firm whose deep local connections date back to Willie Brown’s time as mayor, started going to work on Supervisor Chan in March 2021, right after she took office.
Platinum Advisors contacted Chan four times over the next two weeks, according to disclosures required by the city’s Ethics Commission.
Contacts between lobbyist Platinum Advisors and Supervisor Chan have continued to the present time. Supervisor Chan’s relationship includes being cultivated by FAMSF CEO Thomas Campbell who, the public record shows, has worked relentlessly on the first term legislator.
At the same time Chan met with Platinum Advisors, the first rally on JFK Drive in March 2021 was held by car free supporters. I asked the organizers, “Where’s Connie?” Connie Chan was not a participant. I was told “she is not a supporter” of the effort to keep JFK Drive car free.
On a recent tour of the museum, Helena Nordström, an employee of the non-profit Corporation of the Fine Arts Museum (COFAM), acting on behalf of the Fine Arts Museum told The Standard that officials are “incredibly desperate” to see JFK Drive reopened.
COFAM is so “desperate” that it, “went on a spending spree, rolling out a new lobbying campaign last Fall called Park Access 4 All, with its own webpage and ads being blasted out across a variety of platforms. COFAM has spent roughly $133,000 since October to lobby city officials and blast out political ads,” according to The Standard.
Link to The Standard article 4.8.2022
Lee's Perspective 