Brown, pal disagree over use of donation

San Francisco property bigwig Joe O’Donoghue asked his longtime political cohort, former Mayor Willie Brown ,to relay a $50,000 check to an independent organization supporting London Breed’s successful mayoral campaign.

Brown says he did just that — but O’Donoghue says it wasn’t the kind of outfit they’d agreed on and now he’s gone to court.

O’Donoghue, former head of the Residential Builders Association, couldn’t have given that much money to Breed’s campaign directly because of campaign finance limits. But in a breach-of-contract suit filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court, he said Brown told him in May that the $50,000 would go to an independent entity backing Breed.

He said Brown had him write the check to the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a nonprofit that does election work but can’t legally endorse a candidate. O’Donoghue said he was told the institute spent the money to boost voter turnout in Bayview-Hunters Point, where Breed ran strongly.

“That was in no way the agreed use of the money,” and Brown owes him a refund, O’Donoghue said in the suit. His lawyer, Daniel Berko, said Wednesday that O’Donoghue had wanted to help Breed directly, to improve her chances for re-election in 2019, and “feels very betrayed.”

Brown, now a Chronicle columnist, couldn’t be reached for comment. In an email to O’Donoghue’s lawyer, an attorney for Brown, Jon

Holtzman, said he was “mystified” by the allegations in view of “the excellent work” done by the Randolph Institute in the election.

— Bob Egelko

What’s in a name? In the middle of Mayor London Breed’s inauguration on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday, mistress of ceremonies Renel Brooks-Moon — also the public address announcer for the San Francisco Giants — gave shout-outs to a long list of elected leaders seated in the crowd.

In all, Brooks-Moon recognized more than two dozen individuals, who she called “some of our most distinguished guests,” including local officials and mayors from across the country who flew in for the event.

But when she listed the members of the Board of Supervisors, one name was conspicuously absent: District Nine Supervisor Hillary Ronen.

The omission “was an honest mistake,” said Tara Moriarty ,a spokeswoman for Breed’s inaugural committee. “We apologize for the oversight.”

Simmering tensions between Breed and Ronen came to a head last month, when Breed timed her resignation as board president to all but ensure that a supervisor from the moderate camp would be elected as her successor. Ronen and other progressives, including Jane Kim and

Aaron Peskin, took pains to point out that Breed would be allowed to help select the next leader of the city’s legislative body while she was still a supervisor.

The board unanimously chose Supervisor Malia Cohen.

Ronen brushed off the snub.

“I’m sure it was an oversight. It’s a big day with a lot of people to thank,” she said. “I’m not preoccupied about being popular and well-liked by the mayor. My preoccupation is fighting for my constituents, and I’m always going to do that.”

— Dominic Fracassa

Email: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com, begelko@sfchronicle.com, dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfcityinsider, @egelko, @dominicfracassa