By Matthew Tom, Silas Valentino : sfgate – excerpt (more)

Trump executive order targets San Francisco treasure Presidio Trust

LATEST Feb. 20, 11:40 a.m. The Trump administration hit one of the agencies tasked with overseeing San Francisco’s Presidio, the Presidio Trust, with an executive order Wednesday, labeling it an “unnecessary governmental entity.” The agency released a statement Thursday defending itself against possible elimination.

“The Presidio Trust has not received regular annual appropriations from Congress since 2013, instead relying on the funds earned by leasing the historic buildings that the Trust has renovated,” wrote Presidio Trust spokesperson Lisa Petrie in response to the executive order calling to eliminate “non-statutory components and functions” performed by the agency. “We will present a report on our activities to the Office of Management and Budget, as required by the order, in two weeks. We are confident that our activities are all statutorily-based.”

Bay Area political leaders have started rallying behind the trust, namely the agency’s original sponsor, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. “The Presidio Trust is statutory, and it has been protected from assaults over time by its statutory strength,” Pelosi wrote online. “We will be carefully reviewing the language of the President’s executive order and its purpose.”

Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council, a regional business advocacy group, called the Presidio Trust a national model for how government and the private sector can collaborate and pleaded with President Donald Trump to reconsider the executive order in a statement shared with SFGATE… (more)