In selecting Coleman Advocates Director Margaret Brodkin to head the Department of Children, Youth and Families, Mayor Newsom has made an excellent choice. It was Brodkin's vision that led to the Department's creation, and she will ensure that funding for San Francisco's children is allocated wisely. Prior mayors have been put off by Brodkin's independence, and it is to Newsom's credit that he was not.

After several months appointing has-beens and political hacks to key city positions, Mayor Newsom may be starting to take his campaign promises seriously. His Treasurer appointee was well qualified for the job, and there is nobody in America more accomplished in the field of children's advocacy than Margaret Brodkin.

As a rule, politicians fear appointing activists to high-level government positions. Loyalty is a central requirement for political appointees, and activists are seen as too likely to put their constituency's interests ahead of the political interests of their boss.

We all know cases of activists who are hired by mayors for their ability to co-opt their constituencies. But there is no chance that children's advocates are going to back off from their longstanding challenges to the Fire Department budget and youth incarceration due to Brodkin's appointment.

Brodkin also differs from activists who have been co-opted by high-paying government positions because she did not seek the DCYF position because she needed the job or a high salary. She is entirely motivated by the belief that she can best ensure a fair shake for kids.

As with any progressive appointee in the Newsom Administration, Brodkin will have to quietly accept the fundamental contradiction in the mayor's approach toward the city's economic diversity.

On the one hand, the Mayor has received high marks for funding services for a kids population that is majority low-income and overwhelmingly Latino, African-American, and Asian-American. On the other hand, the Mayor's housing and economic policies are pushing low-income families out of the city; San Francisco will have better children's services with fewer low-income kids to serve.

In prior years, mayors have raided restricted DCYF funds to help balance the city budget. Brodkin may not be able to prevent this in the future, but is unlikely to remain silent in the face of such action.

Brodkin has long complained about city administrators who mistreat the groups they are supposed to serve. She now has the opportunity to create a positive model for working with constituency groups that could carry over to other city departments.

One thing Brodkin knows for sure: if she is ever seen as compromising the interests of kids, the folks at Coleman Youth Advocates will be all over her.

She wouldn't have it any other way.