At Haggerty's urging, the Association of Bay Area Governments executive committee voted last week to begin taking steps to change the name to the Bill Lockyer Bay Trail.
"He is the treasurer of the state of California, he has been a (state) senator, an assemblyman and, quite frankly, he was the one who developed the idea, carried the legislation, and helped raise money for it," Haggerty said.
Lockyer is also one of the most powerful politicos in the East Bay. His wife, Nadia Lockyer, sits on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors with Haggerty.
It's not the first time Lockyer's name has been in play for the trail, which eventually will encircle the bay and connect nine counties. The Bay Area governments group took up the idea in 2005, but shelved it.
Ultimately, it will be up to the governor and Legislature to OK the change - a process that Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, another Lockyer friend, has already started by introducing a resolution.
Not everyone is happy about the idea.
"It's just common courtesy that you would have come to the Bay Trail board first," said former Sunnyvale mayor and current Bay Trail board director Julia Miller, who sounded the alarm among her fellow nature lovers when she learned of the plan.
Haggerty said, "Nobody came and asked me to do this, including Bill Lockyer - I swear on my grave to that."
As for Lockyer, he says he wasn't consulted about the idea, but he's not opposed.
"I don't think anyone would dispute that I was the originator" of the Bay Trail plan, he said.
As for the idea that others should be honored as well?
"Sure," Lockyer said. "But who are they?"
Ticking bridge: Given the already steep $6.2 billion price tag, the Bay Area Toll Authority's decision to spend $106 million to speed completion of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge by six months might seem like a bit of a head-scratcher.
"You don't have to look any further than current newspapers to realize the potential for the Big One is significant, and the east end of the Bay Bridge is vulnerable," said Andy Fremier, deputy executive director of the toll authority.
When Gov. Gray Davis broke ground in January 2002, he promised the bridge would be open to traffic in five years. Instead, even with the speed-up, it will have taken 11 years to finish when the ribbon is cut in 2013 - and a full 24 years since the Loma Prieta earthquake proved the current span wasn't safe.
Sweet deal II: Kevin Shelley isn't the only San Francisco pol who returned to the city fold just long enough to get vested for retirement and health benefits.
Port Commissioner Leslie Katz, who spent 4 1/2 years on the Board of Supervisors, rejoined the city payroll for the first half of 2009 as a senior administrative analyst on Treasure Island, a job with an annual salary of $94,068.
"I had things to catch up on, and she had some specific skills and was looking for a job," island director Mirian Saez said.
Saez says she never posted the newly created position - nor was she required to - because all island employees are considered temporary and exempt from civil service rules.
Katz's main tasks were to help draft legislation to deal with boats abandoned at the island's small marina, lend a hand to restaurant tenants seeking liquor licenses, and work on getting a helicopter pad built on the island, something that still hasn't happened.
"She provided me with expertise I didn't have in-house," Saez said.
Katz said she had hoped to stay in the job indefinitely, but wound up getting her pink slip in a round of city layoffs.
The extra six months of work, however, did give Katz the five years of city service she needed to qualify for certain undisclosed retirement benefits when she turns 50 in August, plus access to the city's health insurance plans.
"She has not completed the purchase of her prior service ... so we have not computed any retirement benefits," said Gary Amelio, executive director of the city retirement system.
Katz, who serves as general counsel for a tech firm in Fremont these days, told us she expected to collect only "a couple hundred dollars a month."
"It's virtually nil," she said.
Katz left the Board of Supervisors in 2001 and recently was confirmed to the Port Commission after an out-the-door appointment by former Mayor Gavin Newsom. She said she hasn't given up the idea of returning to work for the city someday.
"If the right spot opened," she said, "I would love to go back."
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Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX morning and evening news. He also can be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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