SFO Milk Terminal is in Holding Pattern

Nineteen months after he agreed to name a terminal at San Francisco International Airport in honor of gay icon Harvey Milk, Mayor Ed Lee continues to drag out the process for determining which one will receive the designation.

Despite repeated pledges from the mayor that he was close to naming his picks in 2014, Lee has yet to reveal his five nominees to the advisory committee tasked with choosing which of the airport's four terminals should be named for Milk.

Christine Falvey, Lee's director of communications, told the Bay Area Reporter that due to Nicole Wheaton, the mayor's appointments secretary, out on vacation this week, she wouldn't know the status of the selection process until after the Christmas holiday.

Meeting with the paper's editorial board in September, Lee had said at the time that he was "getting close" to naming his appointees to the panel.

"I am committed to that," Lee said of selecting a Milk terminal. "We have an approach. I think it will be complementary and okay to everybody that is interested in this."

Tom Temprano, the outgoing co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, took issue with how long it has taken to get the advisory committee up and running.

"I think many of us are really disappointed at the lack of movement around the airport naming committee. I have not heard anything about it, which is also disappointing, from anyone really," he said. "If the city and mayor's office can hold such a grand Harvey Milk stamp release party at City Hall, the least he could do is show interest in permanently honoring Harvey at the San Francisco airport. It should be a no brainer to get the city moving on this."

The idea for honoring the city's first out elected official at SFO dates back to January 2013 when gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos first proposed renaming the entire airport after Milk. Elected to a supervisor seat in November 1977, Milk was killed the following November along with then-Mayor George Moscone by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White.

Campos' proposal stunned the city's leaders and was even met with derision from some quarters within the city's LGBT community. Looking to salvage his idea, Campos brokered a compromise with Lee in May 2013 to name only a terminal, rather than the entire facility, after Milk.

By early 2014 the Board of Supervisors had selected its four members to the Airport Facilities Naming Advisory Committee, as it is officially known. In May ahead of the annual statewide observation of Harvey Milk Day, held each May 22 to coincide with Milk's birthday - next year is Milk's 85th - Campos told the B.A.R. that the board had no power to force the mayor to make his appointments and the process was in a holding pattern until Lee did so.

Campos did not return a request for comment for this story prior to deadline Tuesday afternoon.

Gay Supervisor Scott Wiener, who supported naming SFO in its entirety for Milk, told the B.A.R. this week that he has no idea why it is taking the mayor so long to name his people to the advisory committee.

"I have never spoken to the mayor about that," said Wiener, adding that in terms of selecting a terminal, "I would like to see this happen, absolutely."

Temprano suggested the hold up could be due to behind-the-scenes objections to seeing the airport's international terminal, which is the building that greets passengers arriving to SFO from the highway, named for Milk. The advisory committee has been tasked with recommending people to name all the airport's terminals afterwards, if it chooses to do so, as well as other major structures.

The supervisors, who can either accept or reject the panel's guidance, will then vote on the matter before sending their decision to the mayor.

"Now there is still jockeying over who gets the international terminal and who gets the new terminal, but we will see," said Temprano, referring to the redevelopment of Terminal One.

The mayor also suggested as much earlier this fall when meeting with the B.A.R.

"There are a lot of interests in the naming of particular buildings and infrastructures," said Lee. "We need to make sure there is a good approach to that that is inclusive to everybody."