Brown Loses No Time in Pushing New Agenda

He came. He saw. He nabbed an invite for a sleepover at the White House. Not a bad coup for Willie Brown’s first visit to Washington as mayor of San Francisco.

The loquacious, dapper former speaker of the California Assembly, in town for the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was asked to spend Wednesday night in the Lincoln bedroom and join President and Mrs. Clinton for breakfast today.

“I got the invitation a couple of days ago,” Brown said Wednesday with his trademark cockiness.

It could be chalked up to Brown’s enthusiastic support of Clinton’s reelection effort, his promise to campaign statewide for the president or the inescapable political necessity for the White House to sweep California’s cache of electoral votes in November.

But it seemed to have more to do with the sassy confidence exuded by the newly elected mayor and his plan to win over all the federal officials he could to bring money and attention to San Francisco.

Brown also announced that he will invite Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Commerce Secretary Ron Brown to a summit meeting in April on the economic development of San Francisco.

And for good measure, he is targeting the head of the Federal Highway Administration to ask for money to repair quake-damaged highways.

Brown said he decided to attend the mayors conference on the spur of the moment and came without his usual retinue of aides.

“I didn’t travel with anyone, didn’t bring a press secretary and didn’t schedule any press interviews. I’m genuinely here for business,” Brown said at the Capitol Hilton, where 200 mayors from around the country have gathered to talk shop.

“I want to introduce myself to my fellow mayors, to learn exactly what this organization is about, whether or not I should be an active participant in it,” Brown said. “ . . . But I’m told that the Conference of Mayors is an important organization, and if San Francisco can benefit, I want us to benefit. I’m mostly here to learn.”

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan did not attend the Washington conference.

Brown has set up a series of private appointments with federal officials, along with schmoozing with fellow mayors at the three-day conference.

“I want to establish working relations with the White House and all those [Cabinet] secretaries who have a direct impact on San Francisco,” Brown said.

In particular, Brown wants to meet with Rodney E. Slater of the highway administration to lobby for funds to complete repairs of major freeways damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Asked how much money he was seeking, Brown smiled and said, “I want it all.”

Though Brown made it sound as though he was auditioning the Conference of Mayors, its president welcomed the rookie mayor effusively.

“As a former speaker who has worked intimately with state legislatures, he brings a perspective on how we should shape our agenda to relate to the legislatures around the country,” said Seattle Mayor Norm Rice at a press conference.

“Mayor Brown is a leader . . . so I think he’s always had a national voice . . . and he’s going to help us articulate that vision,” Rice said. “California is going to be an integral part in this election campaign, and the mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco are going to have a lot of sway in these debates. We’re glad to have him here.”

Clinton will be happy to have Brown back in California too.

“I hope to play a real important role in the [Clinton] reelection effort in California,” Brown said. “I want to set up little cells, little Bill Clinton cells throughout the state, and I plan to travel throughout the state campaigning for him.”

“I’m not bucking for [the title of] campaign chairman,” Brown added. “I’m still learning about being mayor. I have to be careful not to mess up my [mayoral] time commitments, but I certainly will be very active in the Clinton reelection campaign because it benefits my city.”