Angry Mayor Returns Early From China Trip

Mayor Willie Brown said Friday he interrupted a trade mission to China to “keep things from going to hell in a handbasket” in San Francisco after a city supervisor made two key appointments while serving as acting mayor.

Returning home to San Francisco four days ahead of schedule, Brown said he wanted to see firsthand “how much damage” Supervisor Chris Daly had done during his 14-hour mayoral stint Wednesday.

Daly, 31, pulled off a minor coup -- and ruffled Brown’s feathers -- by swearing in his choices for the city’s Public Utilities Commission while filling in as mayor for the day.

A local newspaper reporter, the appointees and their families were invited to the ceremony, but the mayor’s office remained in the dark until after the appointments were already official. Once Brown’s aides found out, Daly had his temporary mayoral powers revoked and another supervisor stepped in as acting mayor and swore in two commissioners the mayor wanted.