City yanks its repainted SUV from S.F. official (Newsom gets one right)

SFGate.com ^ | 3/14/04 | Matier&Ross - SF Chronicle

[NormsRevenge]

The high-ranking official at San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission who ordered a $4,000 paint job on his new city-owned SUV because he didn't like the color has had his wheels yanked.

Not only that, but an incensed Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the red-faced official, Harlan Kelly, to repay the city $6,000 spent for the new paint job and other extras that Kelly had tacked onto the ride.

[NormsRevenge]

You wonder where it will stop or how it got this bad, that salaries of this magnitude are payed to officials? And you wonder why your taxes are so high.

Not a very good ROI , imo. But who runs government as a business these days?

sickening..

[NormsRevenge]

.

[Unam Sanctam]

Why should any official obey rules and regulations when after all, their mayor is a scofflaw of any law he disagrees with.

[ECM]

Why is it people on the public dole are provided 'company' cars in the first place?!

[RichInOC]

Harlan, you should have gone to Earl Scheib instead. They have two locations in San Francisco, more all over the Bay Area, and best of all...they'll paint any car any color for $199.95!

[MEG33]

I may be really behind the times,but how on earth can someone charge $4000 for a paint job?

[Paul Atreides]

The paint job was for less than a thousand. Guess where the rest of the money went.

I wonder what the action would have been, had the official been a poof.

[ahayes]

Maybe he got flames painted down the sides.

[geedee]

This cat makes the same as Dick Cheney. Hmmmmmm.

[MEG33]

Gold plate instead of chrome trim?

[jocon307]

"Earl Scheib" Hey, he lives, who knew. The price used to be $69.95 years ago. LOL, thought this outfit was defunct years ago, didn't know they went "left coast"!

[taxed2death]

Considering a quality clear coat costs $190.00 a gallon with hardner....the material bill on a hi quality paint job itself can easily exceed $500.00. To prep, sand, mask and / remove parts for a quality paint job on a SUV can take 16 to 20 man hours. Actual spraying time is only a small part of the complete operation, typically 2 1/2 to 4 hours. After the clear coat dries, one could easily spend 16 hours colorsanding the clear coat, compounding and polishing the auto. Then there is clean-up


....or, like a previous poster commented, you could "Shieb-a-tize" it for $150.00 and drop the value of the auto by $5000.00

I just charged $5200.00 for a paint job on a 2003 Ducati 998 motorcycle.

[MEG33]

Amazing.

[Cobra64]

Now Kelly says he just wants to put the car flap behind him so he can do his job.

Right out of the Liberal play-book; "Let's just move on."

[Cobra64]

I may be really behind the times,but how on earth can someone charge $4000 for a paint job?

I paid $4,500 to have my 1964 Cobra prepped and painted.

[chickenlips]

What to do with it?

Maybe they can rent it out as a limo for weddings?

Oh, it's SF they will only ride in a stretch Prius!

[NormsRevenge]

lol.. a stretch Prius limo... full of ,, uhh, newlyweds .. well, sort of. ;-)

[CIB-173RDABN]

All public owned vehicles (except police, fire and undercover) should be painted like zebras. Black and white stripes. They should be for official use only, and there should be a bounty on them if a citizens sees one where it does not belong and report it, the citizen gets a reward.

Polictician love to pass rules and regulations backed up with fines to modify the action of us peons, perhaps it is time to remind them who the boss really is.

[Azzurri]

Why is any city employee anywhere making $85,000 per year, let alone $185,000? Corrupt, high on the hog city bureaucrats have been the downfall of our nation's once great cities.

[Fresh Wind]

What the heck is a "Hetch Hetchy" system?