Five employees of the Sacramento Mountain Lions – including former Raiders defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan, who held the same position there – say that owner Paul Pelosi, a real-estate investor and businessman, owes them $250,000, according to the suit filed this month in San Francisco Superior Court.

That would seem like pocket change to Pelosi. He and his wife, the top Democrat in the House, are worth $26 million, according to federal financial disclosure statements. Their investments range from real estate around the Bay Area to their vineyard and home in St. Helena.

The league’s founder is Pelosi’s friend Bill Hambrecht, a San Francisco investment banker who managed Google’s initial public offering.

“It’s a vanity sports league and the people who own them are wealthy men,” said Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco civil-rights attorney who is representing the plaintiffs. “They have ignored their obligations to pay these people. Hambrecht and Paul Pelosi could write a check for what they owe these people without blinking, and they haven’t bothered to do it.”

In meetings before the team, Dhillon said, her clients recall Pelosi guaranteeing that they would get paid.

An additional political twist: Dhillon is the vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party – but she said she this is not about politics.

“I didn’t go out and seek this case; these plaintiffs sought me out,” Dhillon said. “You can take this set of facts, you can take out the name Pelosi and take it to any labor lawyer in California and they would file this lawsuit because it is outrageous.”

Paul Pelosi did not return phone calls requesting comment Monday.

When the league canceled the second half of its season in October, Paul Pelosi said in a statement that “it is our first priority to take care of our players, coaches, and staff and then to raise sufficient funds to take care of our other obligations and to resume fully financed operations in 2013.”

Speaking as a “spokesman for the UFL ownership group” in that same statement, Paul Pelosi blamed postponement on “a lack of sufficient funds due to the high cost of workmen’s compensation insurance and other elements.”

Dhillon said, “They never got (worker’s compensation insurance) from what my clients told me.”

Nancy Pelosi has a 95 percent lifetime rating on labor issues, according to the AFL-CIO rating of legislators.

Paul Pelosi’s stake in the Sacramento football team is in the range of $5 million to $25 million, according to the broad scale used in federal financial-disclosure forms. He claimed between $1 million and $5 million in losses, according to the disclosures.

Founded in 2009, the UFL has teetered on the edge of viability. It promised to return in the spring of 2013 but didn’t, and a future return is in peril.

Earlier this year, 78 of its players sued the league, its teams and Hambrecht for failing to pay them fully. They were seeking $1.5 million plus fees.

Nearly a year ago, Dennis Green – the former Stanford and Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals head coach – sued the Sacramento team for $1 million that he said he is still owed for coaching the Mountain Lions. The matter is in arbitration.

Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/Employees-of-UFL-Sacramento-team-sue-Paul-Pelosi-4667148.php

That would be unequal pay, or what Rosin – who sees the 21st century service-oriented economy playing more to women’s strengths – calls “the last artifacts of a vanishing age.”

How are those artifacts doing? Nationally, for every dollar paid to men, working women are getting 77 cents, according to 2011 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. Working women in California are doing relatively better, earning 85 cents for every dollar paid to men. But if you think women in the progressive Bay Area are doing the best of all, you’d be wrong.

The four congressional districts where women’s median pay equals or exceeds men’s are in and around Los Angeles, suggesting there’s more equality in the entertainment world than in high tech or finance.

The southern part of Silicon Valley, including San Jose, comes close, with women there making 97 percent of men’s pay. But in another Silicon Valley congressional district, including Santa Clara, Los Altos and Cupertino, women are paid just 73 cents for every dollar made by a man – below the national and state averages, and equivalent to an annual wage gap of $21,000, according to an analysis of the Census Bureau report by the National Partnership for Women Families, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

San Francisco, represented by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, also has a ways to go, with women here making 85 percent of men’s median pay – an annual wage gap of $9,800. Alameda, San Mateo and Marin counties do better than San Francisco. Contra Costa lags, with a wage gap of up to $20,000.

Other studies suggest the gender gap may be smaller – as low as 5 cents on the dollar, according to one produced for the U.S. Labor Department in 2009 – but it’s still there, as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 approaches its 50th anniversary.

Scofflaw watch: It’s that time of year again, when the state Board of Equalization puts out its quarterly list of the top 500 tax delinquents.

Many of the names will be familiar to those keeping tabs on California’s biggest offenders; for example, C JD USA Inc., a shipping firm in Oakland, has owed $16.9 million since at least 2010.

One new name did catch our eye, though: Siebel Systems, co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur Thomas Siebel, owes the state $1,371,765 in back taxes, and has a lien placed on the company’s listed headquarters in San Mateo.

One of America’s largest customer relationship management software companies, Siebel Systems was acquired by Oracle for $5.8 billion in 2006, and a Wikipedia entry labels the company “defunct.” Its listed telephone number was disconnected.

So who is actually on the hook for the money, and how far back do the unpaid taxes go? Oracle, when contacted, declined to comment. Oracle continues to market Siebel-branded products, including Siebel CRM Public Sector 8.2.2, released in December.

Siebel, a former Oracle executive, is currently chairman of First Virtual Group, a holding company headquartered in Palo Alto, and of C3 Energy, an enterprise management software company in Redwood City. Calls and e-mails to both companies were not returned on Monday.

Citing confidentiality rules, the Board of Equalization says it could not provide details of the date or dates of the unpaid taxes, but referred me to published information about the tax lien, first dated March 7, 2012.

Are there cases of companies or business owners being cited for unpaid taxes dating back several years? Yes, said board spokesmen.

Going begging: The state of California has $6.1 billion to give away. That’s the amount of unclaimed property it’s collected on behalf of 17 million individuals and organizations, according to the controller’s office.

No, not real estate; these are bank accounts, safety deposit box contents, cashier’s checks, money orders, stocks, mutual funds, CDs, matured insurance policies and more that owners, or their heirs, have forgotten to collect.

They’re being held under California’s Unclaimed Property Law, designed to prevent institutions like banks and insurance companies from pocketing the uncollected money for themselves.

Feeling lucky? Check out the controller’s unclaimed property page at scoweb.sco.ca.gov/UCP.

Back to the table: The California Public Employees’ Retirement System must be feeling luckier than the last time it dabbled heavily in real estate.

CalPERS recently announced a $530 million investment in Chinese real estate funds, despite rumblings of a bubble in that country’s real estate market.

“Income growth and urbanization remain the key themes for growth in China,” said Joe Dear, the pension fund’s chief investment officer. “China’s office and retail sectors offer stable rental income and potential for capital value growth.”

Previous investments in Chinese real estate have done well for CalPERS, earning a 19.2 percent return for the year ending March 31. On the other hand, CalPERS’ real estate investments have taken a shellacking at home, losing almost half their value in 2009 when the U.S. bubble burst.

Not to worry, though.

“We believe foreign investment in the Chinese real estate market will continue to grow over time, notwithstanding near-term challenges and some price volatility along the way,” Moses Song, head of ARA Asset Management, which is handling CalPERS money, told the English-language China Daily last week.

Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Blog: www.sfgate.com/columns/bottomline Twitter: @andrewsross Facebook: sfg.ly/doACKM

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/L-A-beats-Bay-Area-on-gender-gap-in-pay-3890940.php

For more than four years a chiropractor, a financial advisor, a sheet metal contractor, a paralegal, a real estate investor and a bisexual prostitute have met every month in a yoga studio on San Francisco’s Sansome Street to discuss a shared interest in small government, modest foreign policy, and antipathy toward the U.S. Federal Reserve.

In August, the group began telephoning voters in Iowa, urging them to support a certain Texas Republican’s presidential campaign.

This week, some members of the group traveled to Iowa to help Congressman Ron Paul win the Jan. 3 Caucuses.

The focus on Iowa represents a strategic shift for the group. Members decided to apply their time, money, and ingenuity to Iowa, after spending the 2008 presidential primary season fruitlessly waving Ron Paul banners over Bay Area freeway overpasses and staffing tables in front of local stores.

In 2010, some of Paul’s supporters rallied behind John Dennis, a Republican who tried to unseat Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Dennis lost, but his campaign raised about $2 million, earned national media attention, and helped the group develop its more strategic approach.

This summer, before the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, Dennis and Jun Dam helped set up a local phone bank operation using voter data from the Iowa Secretary of State and special telemarketing software. In a typical weekend, between five and ten volunteers make calls to Iowa voters, according to Dam.

“One woman said she wasn’t sure about Ron Paul. Then I told her about his anti-war views,” said Pat Lamken. “She had just gone to a funeral of a boy who’d been killed in Afghanistan. She said, ‘If Ron Paul will end that war, I’ll vote for him.’”

Another member of the group, Dan Pickell, 52, a Pacifica sheet metal contractor, said Iowans have been surprisingly receptive to unexpected phone calls from the San Francisco Bay Area.

“People are a lot more open to the message now because, for one, things are a lot worse in the country as the economy goes,” Pickell said. “Before, people just said he was some kind of kook. But now I think people who are actually paying attention do grasp the message of sound money, and the liberty message, and a humble foreign policy, and following the constitution.”

Dam, a 36-year-old financial planner, said he was inspired by Paul when he heard him advocating for noninterventionist foreign policies during a 2007 debate with Rudy Giuliani.

“I was never politically active before that,” said Dam. “But ever since them I’ve been helping out, trying to spread the ideas of freedom and liberty.”

Members of the Sansome St. group pride themselves on their iconoclastic views. Lamken, a 60-year-old paralegal, said she is a registered Republican who is also involved with the anti-war group Code Pink.

“A lot of us are self-employed, or small business owners in one way or another. I don’t think we have any member of the group who works for the government,” Lamken said. “One person who worked with a defense contractor had to quit because it didn’t fit well with her job.”

While San Francisco may be a liberal bastion, the region is also fertile ground for Libertarian ideas, including those espoused by Paul, according to Dorien Zandbergen, an anthropologist at Leiden University in Amsterdam, who studies Bay Area culture.

The region’s mix of New Age, hippie, and tech-reverent ideas produces “first and foremost an anti-authoritarian stance — the notion that there’s no authority higher than yourself,” Zandbergen said in an e-mail.

In the days before the Jan. 3 Caucuses, at least three members of the Sansome St. group traveled to Iowa, to knock on doors and campaign for Paul.

On Wendesday, Dam was in Davenport chaperoning out-of-state volunteers.

“I’ve been renting them hotel rooms, getting people connected through phone banking, and getting them connected with people here in Iowa,” he said.

A man named Starchild, who described himself as an erotic services provider and refused to reveal his age, left San Francisco for Iowa Wednesday. A perennial Libertarian candidate for office in San Francisco, Starchild has long been a fixture of the Bay Area’s underground political scene. Like the other members of the Sansome Street group, Starchild says he sees a kindred spirit in Ron Paul.

“I really like his authenticity. He’s a humble guy who’s an ideologue. He’s genuinely passionate about the ideas,” Starchild said, “And he sees the potential of having a major impact, and changing the course of history, by running for president.”

Article source: http://www.baycitizen.org/politics/story/ron-paul-strategy-four-years-making/

The 34th America’s Cup is coming to San Francisco in 2013.

• Eric Young
• Reporter
• Email: eyoung@bizjournals.com

The group assembled to collect $32 million to cover San Francisco’s costs during the America’s Cup is a who’s who of Bay Area business and philanthropy circles.

Led by former real estate executive Mark Buell, the 56 members have a big task ahead of them. The San Francisco America’s Cup Organizing Committee can’t offer big advertising deals or worldwide exposure in exchange for contributions. Instead, the group likely will make its pitch by offering smaller promotional packages, behind-the-scenes experiences or VIP treatment on race days.

The group’s efforts are aided by a more robust economy, said Buell. But rebound or not, it’s always a challenge to get people to open their wallet. The group has until 2013 to reach its goal and it wants to raise $12 million by the end of this year.

Below is the list of the Organizing Committee members. (There are 37 honorary members as well – all politicians – including people like Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Jerry Brown.)

• Andy Ball, CEO, Webcor Builders.
• Doug Band, director, William J. Clinton Foundation.
• Roger Barnett, CEO, Shaklee Corp., and wife Sloan.
• Steven Bing, founder, Shangri-La Industries.
• Mark Buell, former real estate executive, chairman of San Francisco America’s Cup Organizing Committee.
• Malin Burnham, chairman, Cushman Wakefield.
• George Clyde.
• Tom Coates, principal, Jackson Square Partners.
• Lloyd Dean, CEO, Catholic Healthcare West.
• David Festa, vice president of West Coast operations, Environmental Defense Fund.
• Bob Fisher, board of directors, Gap Inc.
• Pat Gallagher, former San Francisco Giants executive.
• Lou Giraudo, co-owner of Boudin Bakery.
• Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, author.
• Warren Hellman, co-founder Hellman Friedman LLC.
• Richard Horne, former president, Shreve Co.
• Lucy Jewett, philanthropist.
• Dwayne Jones, advisor, Platinum Advisors.
• James Keenan, senior vice president, United Airlines.
• John Kilroy, Jr., CEO, Kilroy Realty Corp.
• Martin Koffel, CEO, URS Corp.
• Dick Kramlich, chairman, New Enterprise Associates.
• Mike Latham, global head, iShares.
• David Lewis, executive director, Save the Bay.
• Cameron Lewis.
• Peter Magowan, former managing general partner, San Francisco Giants, and wife Debby.
• Deborah McDonald Messemer, managing partner, KPMG.
• Kenneth McNeely, president of external affairs, ATT Corp.
• Alex Mehran, Jr., general manager, Bishop Ranch.
• Peter Moore, president, EA Sports.
• Walter and Ellen Newman, philanthropists.
• Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel Corp.
• Tom Perkins, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.
• Katie Pettibone, yacht racer.
• Tony Pohl, partner, PMB Helin Donovan.
• Peter Ragone, founder, PWR LLC.
• Dawn Riley, sailor, America True Office.
• Cristina Rubke, vice commodore, Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors.
• John Sangmeister.
• Wendy Schmidt, president, The Schmidt Family Foundation.
• Harry Schoening, managing director, Jones Lang LaSalle.
• Charles Schwab, chairman, Charles Schwab Corp.
• George and Charlotte Shultz, philanthropists.
• Mimi Silbert, CEO, Delancey Street Foundation.
• Tom Steyer, Co-managing partner, Farallon Capital Management.
• Peter Stoneberg, vice commodore, St. Francis Yacht Club.
• John Stumpf, CEO, Wells Fargo Co.
• Jim Swartz, partner, Accel Partners.
• Sandy Tatum, retired partner, Cooley LLP.
• Casey Wasserman, CEO, Wasserman Media Group.
• Diane B. Wilsey, philanthropist.
• Marcus Young, commodore, Golden Gate Yacht Club.

Email Eric Young at eyoung@bizjournals.com / Twitter: EYoung03

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2011/02/organizing-committee-americas-cup.html