John Upton/The Bay Citizen

Mayor Ed Lee at The Bay Citizen Feb. 15, 2011

Judging by the very unscientific survey of San Francisco voters that we conducted last week, most people are not offended by interim Mayor Ed Lee’s decision to run for a full term after promising he would not. Lee’s political opponents are trying to make hay with the issue, but the general sentiment seems to be that a) people are entitled to change their minds and b) politicians are slippery as a rule, so Lee’s actions are nothing out of the ordinary.

But based on the things that Lee said here in our newsroom shortly after he was appointed mayor, I don’t think the issue is so easily dismissed.

We had invited the mayor over to meet with the editorial staff and answer questions on a wide range of topics. At one point, my colleague Steve Fainaru asked him whether there was any scenario in which he would run for a full term in the fall.

After joking around a bit, he gave a very long and rambling answer, but the thrust of it was this: the problem with politics and government is a lack of trust. Politicians don’t trust each other, and voters don’t trust politicians. Running for a full term after promising he would not would contribute to this lack of trust, and therefore he wouldn’t do it.

You can watch the video here, and I’ve pulled out a few key quotes below:

Lee: “I indicated at the outset to the Board of Supervisors that had that historic vote that I was not going to be a candidate for mayor.

“Part of my goal is to restore the trust that used to occur … the divisions within the city make the city unworkable, and if there was anything that I represented in my term as city administrator, as the director of public works … anything I said I would do, I would make sure I got it done. And that, to me, that is the foundation of trust-building with the public. … The way I look at running an office like this, I just want to make sure all the supervisors know they can work with the mayor. I can make assurances on a one-on-one basis, or on a group basis. I'll deliver on something. … I've spoken to so many groups … and they all remind me of promises that were made to them that never were fulfilled.”

Me: “If understood that right, trust is more important, the most important thing, you said you weren’t going to run for mayor, so you’re definitely not running for mayor, is that what I heard?”

Lee: “That’s true, yes.”

Fainaru: “So that’s unequivocal, you’re not going to be running for mayor in the fall?”

Lee: “That’s right.”

Lee now says that he has simply changed his mind since that exchange took place. But if you parse his statement, that can only mean he has changed his mind about trust being the most important thing in government. What he is effectively saying now is, “Trust is the most important thing, but only until it interferes with political ambition.”

Lee also says that he was motivated to run by the fine job he’s been doing, and specifically his success in bringing people together at City Hall and getting things done. But his achievements in that regard appear to be mainly a function of his having promised not to run. As he says above, if the supervisors trust you and don’t regard you as a political opponent, they’ll work with you. But once you betray that trust, you’re just another politician, and many other politicians will then revert to noncooperation.

Lee’s reversal is often referred to as a “flip-flop,” but that isn't quite right. A flip-flop is when a politician changes his stance on a policy issue. Lee’s actions, rather, are about his failure to uphold his end of a deal. I wasn’t there for the conversations with the supervisors who elected him, but Lee clearly promised that he wouldn’t run in the fall, and in exchange, several supervisors, notably board President David Chiu, agreed to support him. Lee, in this case, was not a man of his word.

Everyone has their own criteria as to what’s important in an elected official. But perhaps the mayor needs to find some new talking points; citing the "new tone" of cooperation and trust he has engendered at City Hall rings a little hollow now.