BROWN FACES SCRUTINY OVER PARIS FLIGHT.

Byline: Associated Press 

A helicopter ride in Paris could land Mayor Willie Brown Jr. in trouble, though aides deny any wrongdoing, the San Francisco Examiner reported Friday.

Brown and Public Works Director Mark Primeau took the Nov. 16 ride during a visit to the Paris firm that builds San Francisco's street toilets and advertising kiosks, the newspaper said.

In a report filed with the city's Ethics Commission this month, the JC Decaux Co. said it spent $1,198 each to fly Brown and Primeau from Paris to its suburban factory and to entertain them during a mayoral trade mission.

California's main clean-government law - the Political Reform Act - says a public official can accept no more than $280 from a single benefactor each year. Officials who exceed the limit may be fined up to $10,000.

Brown press spokesman P.J. Johnston said the mayor received no gifts from Decaux and didn't violate the law.

He said Decaux was mistaken to report lobbying expenses in connection with the mayor's visit, which Johnston said was ``not a lobbying mission - it was a goodwill mission.''

In other business, Brown says San Francisco's Central Freeway will be torn down, but not for several months.

The massive elevated roadway, which runs for six blocks through the city, was closed in August so the state Department of Transportation could demolish its top deck, damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Brown said Thursday he expects that by June, Caltrans will decide to raze the freeway's lower deck, not rebuild it at a cost of up to $160 million.

``It's ludicrous to spend that kind of money for an on-ramp and off-ramp, which is what the Central Freeway is,'' the mayor said. ``We don't have the money, and the feds don't want to provide the money. The absence of resources may dictate policy.''