[img_assist|nid=1236|title=San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom|desc=Getty Images Photo|link=none|align=left|width=420|height=279]San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking the long way around the block to get approval for a community drug court to service the city's crime plagued Tenderloin and South of Market areas.

This week Newsom filed paperwork to place a ballot measure on the November ballot to create a "Community Justice Court" modeled like one in New York City to deal with small scale drug offenses, petty theft and disorderly conduct.

Newsom is asking that voters approve spending an initial $1.7 million on the project, which includes $500,000 to build two detention cells near where the court will operate on Polk Street. But long before ink in the filing could dry, longtime Newsom critic Supervisor Chris Daly told the San Francisco Chronicle that the whole project was just a "re-election proposal to get votes."

Daly added that it was a wasteful idea as the city continues to struggle with its multi-million dollar budget deficit. Newsom spokesman David Miree, when asked about Daly's criticisms of the initiative said: "Just consider the source. Supervisor Daly is needlessly politicizing a program that is needed and which has been proven successful elsewhere."

Miree confirmed that the mayor's choice to pursue the program through the auspices of a public ballot initiative is evidence of the legislative and political gridlock he often encounters with the board of supervisors. Miree said the idea behind the court is to sentence convicted defendants to community service in the very neighborhood where they committed their crimes.

The court will also require the defendants to enroll in drug treatment and job placement programs to help them avoid breaking the law again.