Up North, Another In-Your-Face Mayoral Moment

County Supervisor Aaron Peskin recently had what he terms a frightening brush on the City Hall steps with a man who spewed obscenities just inches from his face. He left so shaken he later called police.

Turns out, authorities knew the fellow well: He’s the mayor, Willie Brown.

Peskin told police that an enraged Willie Brown, at just 5 feet 8, loomed so close that the brim of his trademark Italian-made Borsalino almost touched Peskin’s forehead.

“You don’t know me! You don’t know what a killer I am!” Brown shouted during the Friday evening face-off before stalking off to his limousine, according to Peskin.

On Sunday, Peskin decided to report the scrape. He says he was influenced by the 1978 murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were gunned down inside City Hall by embittered former Supervisor Dan White. (White would later win acquittal after claiming that junk food, Hostess Twinkies in particular, had propelled him to kill.)

The fight between the two diminutive politicians last week remains at a standoff, with each insisting the other blew the episode out of proportion. It’s unclear whether San Francisco police have investigated. They did not return a phone call about Peskin’s report.

“I’m not afraid of Willie Brown as a politician,” the 5-foot-5 Peskin said of the mayor. “But he’s a powerful man with lots of connections and he does have a share of his friends who are thugs.”

He added of the police report: “In case I go missing, it’s nice to know there’s a piece of paper so someone will know where to look.”

Brown spokesman P.J. Johnston, who said he was present at the imbroglio, insisted Peskin is exaggerating.

“Mr. Peskin is offering a self-flattering version of events,” he said. “It was an argument like any of those the two get into frequently. For him to sell the story as anything more is mere creativity on his part.”

The confrontation was the second reported in a week involving California politicians. In South Gate, Mayor Xochilt Ruvalcaba hit a rival councilman with a roundhouse punch at a crowded City Council meeting.

But here, in this oh-so-genteel city, political standoffs have usually remained on the high road.

Until quitting time Friday, that is. Peskin, who was elected supervisor in 2000, said he had heard from several callers that the mayor, one of the state’s most colorful orators, had bad-mouthed him and his policies during a speech that day. “I thought it was unfair and unprofessional and I thought he should know about it.”

Coincidentally, when Peskin left his City Hall office that evening, he spotted Brown on the steps outside the domed building’s graceful marble portico. “I waited until he was done talking and then told him with due respect I didn’t appreciate his comments,” Peskin said. “I said that it was inappropriate for him to talk about me in public, that it makes us all look bad.”

After a brief exchange, Peskin said, Brown blew his stack.

“He began screaming and yelling. His hat didn’t touch me, but it was pretty close. He just lost it. I never responded: I just stood there in shock. I mean, I know Willie Brown often shoots from the lip and has anger issues, but I never witnessed him behaving in that way. And it scared me.”

Peskin says he hasn’t received an apology from Brown. The mayor’s spokesman made it clear: Don’t expect one.

Johnston said Peskin accosted Brown as the mayor walked to his car. “He got into his face,” he said. “But in the pantheon of disagreements, this one wasn’t very good or even very heated. Both men calmly walked away.”

He acknowledged that Brown used one mild epithet in response to a political threat made by Peskin.

Peskin says he wants to put the fight behind him. “This is a town where one elected official once did terrible harm to another,” he said. “I have every desire to believe the mayor meant me no physical ill will. But I had to note his threat in an official way.”