Office Sex

San Francisco supervisors voted down a measure Tuesday that would have barred city managers from engaging in sexual relationships with their employees - a thinly veiled swipe at Mayor Gavin Newsom's admitted affair with a staffer, who also was his campaign manager's wife.

The measure failed with an overwhelming 10-1 vote, with only Supervisor Chris Daly, the legislation's sponsor, voting in favor of it. "It is common practice in the corporate work setting where managers ... are held accountable and these types of relationships are not tolerated," Daly said. The measure would have prohibited city managers from "engaging in romantic or sexual relationships" with employees.

Earlier this year, Newsom acknowledged having an affair with his commission appointments secretary, who at the time was the wife of his campaign manager.

The mayor's spokesman Nathan Ballad said, "Chris Daly has no business poking around in anybody's personal life. We're pleased that the Board of Supervisors had the wisdom to kill Chris Daly's intrusive legislation," he said.

San Francisco also is on track to becoming the largest city in the country to issue municipal identification cards to undocumented immigrants after the board on Tuesday issued its second and final approval of the ID card measure sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the legislation. San Francisco's next mayor will get an extra year added to his term if Supervisor Jake McGoldrick gets his way. Citing the poor turnout in the Nov. 6 mayoral election, the supervisor proposed a charter amendment that would have the mayor, the sheriff, the district attorney, the city attorney and the treasurer elected in even-numbered years.

Putting those offices in the same election cycle as the president and the governor will bring more voters out, he said. The amendment must go through the board and then be approved by the voters before it takes effect.

McGoldrick also wants a ballot measure calling for public election of the seven directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Agency's Board of Directors. The directors would receive $1,000 a month as compensation and be required to ride Muni an average of once a week.

The supervisor also called on the board to make prostitution a low-priority crime in San Francisco, arguing that the incidence of human trafficking, exploitation of prostitutes and exploitation of minors "approaches zero in cultures where sex work is approved." He asked the city's budget analyst to prepare a report to the board on how much money the city is spending to enforce prostitution laws.