Gavin Newsom's out-of-town businesses with SF addresses

What with his expensive suits, recent A-list wedding, and patronage from the Getty oil fortune, Gavin Newsom doesn't seem the kind of man who would need to moonlight to make ends meet.

And that's just as well, because the city charter forbids the mayor from holding another job or conducting outside business. Doubtless with the law in mind, Newsom told reporters that as part of his 2003 run for mayor, he was stepping back from and divesting of the small-business empire he built with the aid of money from the Getty family during the 1990s.

But reports on file with the San Francisco Ethics Commission and with the California Secretary of State suggest Newsom may be holding down at least one outside job with a paycheck large enough to suggest full-time work. A portion of the picture was revealed this summer when the Chronicle's Cecilia M. Vega wrote about Newsom's personal finances based on his most recent annual Statement of Economic Interest filing with the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

The gist of Vega's story was that Newsom had held on to business interests in Tahoe and Napa while relinquishing companies in the city. According to Newsom's FPPC filing, he is the president of a company called Airelle Wines, Inc., in Oakville, which provides him with more than $100,000 in income per year. A mayoral spokesman told Vega that Newsom had no day-to-day management duties.

Ethics Commission executive director John St. Croix told the Chronicle that this didn't violate the section of the city charter that says the mayor "shall not devote time or attention to any other occupation or business activity" because the business was not based in San Francisco, and the mayor was merely acting as "president in absentia" — a new type of corporate title St. Croix seemed to have invented for the occasion.

But while Newsom was telling ethics pooh-bahs that Airelle was an out-of-town company, SF Weekly has learned that he recently filed papers with the secretary of state stating that the business is actually here in the city. According to his handwritten submission — dated less than a month after the Chronicle story appeared — Airelle Wines is located at 3201 Fillmore Street, which is also the address of PlumpJack Wines, the business Newsom launched with Billy Getty in 1991. Newsom describes himself in the official corporate paperwork as "Member/President."

Newsom's office didn't return a call requesting comment. A request to inter-view an Ethics Commission official about this issue produced no response by deadline Monday.

That may not be all the moonlighting Newsom is doing. His business filings show he is involved in a limited partnership called CNCML, which a 2003 Chronicle story said was set up to manage PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn in Lake Tahoe; Newsom estimates his stake in the partnership as being more than $1 million. Like Airelle Wines, CNCML is operated from the Fillmore Street address.

Our city's celebrity chief executive is a man with barely a minute to spare, given the social galas, international soirées, and publicity events that consume most of his days. And now that the mayor is also campaigning for governor, it's a wonder he attends to any real city business at all.

Online Story Update
We received this answer from mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard after our print deadline.

Mayor Newsom is President of Airelle Wines Inc. and the GP of Villa Encinal Partners. He has no active duties. He has contracted the PlumpJack Management Group (PJMG) to take care of all day-to-day responsibilities and his role is essentially that of an inactive investor.

The address of 3201 Fillmore is simply for mailing purposes. Airelle does not have any dealings in San Francisco, only in Napa.

As to CNCML, the situation is similar. CNCML is the owner of a hotel in Squaw Valley which has contracted with PJMG for operations. The Mayor is an inactive investor in that project.