SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Mayor Gavin Newsom is literally restructuring his office, with plans to throw city staffers into one room on the second floor of City Hall, the latest confirmed change being made for his upcoming second term in office.

An open office, otherwise known as a bullpen, will be created in Room 201, across the hall from Newsom’s office, around the time he is sworn in for his second term on Jan. 8, Newsom’s spokesman Nathan Ballard confirmed Friday.

“The mayor is reinvigorated and wants to shake things up in his new term. He’s going to be bringing in new department heads, changing his structure of his senior staff and this is part of that creative process,” Ballard said of the bullpen.

The bullpen in city government was made famous by New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg praised the bullpen concept during his 2002 State of the City address, saying that it was created to “improve efficiency” and foster creativity. The idea comes from the stock-market trading-floor layout in which everyone works together in one big room.

Ballard would not say specifically where Newsom got the idea for his new City Hall office structure, but said “the mayor’s always interested in best practices from other cities,” adding that a bullpen is meant to “reinvigorate policymaking.”

“[Newsom] wants to bring senior staff members from key policy areas he is focusing on and put them all close together and close to the mayor’s office so there can be a better exchange of ideas,” Ballard said.

As to how many cubicles will be put in Room 201 — which is currently used for occasional meetings — and who specifically will be in the bullpen, Ballard would only say those “plans are being developed right now.”

The bullpen will include those policymakers focused on such issues as greening, the environment, transportation and education, he said.

Newsom’s proposal would then differ from Bloomberg’s in that New York City’s mayor himself and his staff actually conduct their business in the bullpen.

Borrowing ideas from other mayors is nothing new or unusual for Newsom. In the summer of 2005, Newsom toured Chicago with Mayor Richard Daley and touted that city’s use of surveillance cameras — which has now been initiated in San Francisco — to combat crime.

Additionally, the Mayor modeled The City’s SF Stat program — which tracks and reports how well city departments are performing — on Baltimore’s CitiStat.

Other changes could be just around the corner. In September, Newsom requested senior staff members and department heads to submit letters of resignation dated for when he is sworn in for his second term. At the time, Newsom said the letters would make it easier for him to make significant changes in his administration.

jsabatini@examiner.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

11:47 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 22, 2008 re: "Newsom uses radio gig to move beyond City Hall"

Examiner Reader said:
The jerk completely forget that he was elected to focus on SF not "something much bigger than who�s up and who�s down at City Hall" Resign and start running for governor now and let us have someone to run SF.

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2:29 PM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008 re: "Vacant city positions given the ax"

Examiner Reader said:
I had posted a comment regarding reducing the number of SF Board of Supervisors as a start. But somehow the post is no longer there. So here it is again. Eliminate some positions at the Board. there is no need for 11 Board members plus a mayor to run this City. And the excuse that SF is a "City/County" wont fly. We only need about 5 people to efectivly run this town.

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11:54 AM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Newsom mum about governor run"

Examiner Reader said:
Can one say Rebulicans? They will have a field day with this loser if he runs.

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12:24 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
Why no photo of the ex-con MORON who was arrested? Laughable. Never, never trust an ex-con.

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12:19 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
We, the voters, need to develop & place on the ballot via an initiative some sort of State Constitutional mandate that funds paid into any City, County, or the State Treasury be used for specific budgets. The State until recently, as we all recall, had been diverting "transportation funds from transportation taxes" to NONtransportation budget items. i.e. funds diverted to the pork projects of slick and manipulative politicians. If the Mayor cannot do his job on his own, he should resign. The so called public "services" have obviously been damaged by taking funds from the departments w/o alerting the public.

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10:34 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
Well thanks to this article for telling everyone in the world where we can find Newsom's car at 9am. Let's hope there are more acts of vandalism.

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10:33 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
When facing a 220 million dollar shortfall the mayor should be the first one to sacrifice and set a good example but obviously he just wants to put the blame some place else and call it politically motivated. Well gee, when the residents in your city are calling for you to set a good example and not hire your buddies to senior positions which pull money from already cash strapped programs I do not think that is politically motivated. Democrats are just as corrupt as Republicans.

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9:24 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
So the price tag for a homeless czar is the same as paying 311 homeless CAAP recipients $59/mo for a year or 53 housed CAAP recipients $345/mo. Running guvmint like a bidness, huh?

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11:21 PM MST on Mon., Feb. 25, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
Yep, I'm afraid we must live with the fact we put Mayor Newsom in office and must now endure this mayor for 4 more years.

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3:00 PM MST on Sun., Feb. 24, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

fred said:
who is stupider -him or us for electing him in the first place? How do we get this idiot out of office?

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12:05 PM MST on Fri., Feb. 22, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
These salaries are outrageous for government service.

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11:40 AM MST on Fri., Feb. 22, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
Can't that Mayor do ANYthing himself?

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4:57 PM MST on Sat., Jan. 12, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
i saw the resulting arrest. There was some 'resistance' that's certain. And there were about ten cop cars and a couple unmarked ones all over the place. It was like they thought they'd caught a terrorist!!!! Go sfpd!!!

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2:06 AM MST on Sat., Jan. 12, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
But if the cops actually saw the person doing it like they did in this story I'll bet they would respond exactly the same way -- even if it had been the vehicle or home of any "anonymous taxpayer."

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8:44 AM MST on Fri., Jan. 11, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
The only reason the cops did anything is because this is Newsom's car. Had it been the vehicle or home of any anonymous taxpayer, the cops would have laughed at requests to investigate--do you think this is an episode of Dragnet or something?--and gone back to eating their donuts.

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11:53 PM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
It�s amazing how a story about a parolee vandalizing Newsom's car and resisting arrest devolves into people berating him for things that have nothing to do with the story, and embellishing it with expressions of jealousy about SF cloaked in disparaging comments. Of course if this happened to any of you it would be a huge issue and you�d be happy to see the guy arrested and charged with a felony.

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9:00 PM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
Mr. Burgos, who is probably a bi-polar street person needs an ACLU attorney who could plead the San Francisco twinkie defense previously used by Dan White. Frisco unfortunately has earned the reputation for being the weirdest city in America and not wholesome & family friendly. How sad.

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6:18 PM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
If the damage is over $400, it is a felony. This amount is a drop in the bucket and anyone who's had so much as parking lot dings can tell you what a body shop charges for repairs.

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10:54 AM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Man vandalizes Newsom�s car near apartment"

Examiner Reader said:
A felony for vandalism? Is that because it was Newsom's car? Welcome to the city.

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10:03 PM MST on Mon., Dec. 31, 2007 re: "Newsom gets engaged"

Examiner Reader said:
After Gavin spent all this time campaigning for same-sex marriage, why is he marrying a woman? If he thinks marrying another man is the same as marrying a woman, he should practice what he preaches...

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2:58 AM MST on Sun., Dec. 30, 2007 re: "Newsom pitches idea of an open office"

Examiner Reader said:
Settling "homeless" people in full-service centers is arguably a "different" approach to this on-going problem. I'm not sure how that necessarily equates to "courageous." Other cities/states were already in the forefront when it came to same-sex marriage before our mayor endorsed it. Our State Supreme Court invalidated the mayor's decision and will, if history proves true, line up against same-sex marriage, too. So it would seem while the mayor's decision might leave him with a black eye for not correctly reading the political winds in California, it likely ingratiated him to a considerable portion of the gay community, which is a major voting block in San Francisco. "courageous?" maybe, politicaly smart, absolutely.

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7:15 PM MST on Sat., Dec. 29, 2007 re: "Newsom pitches idea of an open office"

sickofrisco said:
I will give Newsom grudging respect for attempting to do take on the entrenched homeless advocacy establishment when he showed up. As far as pushing for same-sex marriage, that doesn't strike me as being especially "courageous" in a city where people think that being sexually confused elevates you to the status of "protected species"...

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10:21 AM MST on Sat., Dec. 29, 2007 re: "Newsom: Second term as daring as first"

James, San Francisco said:
Mayor Newsom's first term implemented the project for homeless that placed many of them in full-service residential centers. His first term was also marked by his courageous stand for same-sex marriage. Granted, both of these initiatives require a commitment for the long-term, which he has demonstrated. These were both daring moves and his first term can be therefore described as such.

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5:58 PM MST on Sun., Nov. 11, 2007 re: "Newsom: Second term as daring as first"

Examiner Reader said:
Mayor Newsom's first term was daring? How so?

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10:59 PM MST on Thu., Nov. 8, 2007 re: "Newsom: Second term as daring as first"

Examiner Reader said:
Who would want to be Mayor of Sin Fransico ,still a beautiful city run by no brainers. Newsence can keep it.

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