An anti-domestic violence billboard campaign aimed at comments made by suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was financed in part by donations from supporters of a rival candidate for sheriff. Screenshot courtesy Loudsauce.com.
By Luke Thomas
April 19, 2012
A political campaign consultant representing a rival candidate in the race for San Francisco Sheriff last year – as well as several of the rival candidate’s political supporters – contributed funds to a recent anti-domestic violence billboard campaign denouncing comments made by suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, a Fog City Journal investigation has revealed.
The contributions to the billboard campaign launched by La Casa de las Madres – a city-funded non-profit organization committed to preventing domestic violence and providing support services to victims of domestic violence – may suggest the contributions were, in part, politically motivated.
The billboard campaign, funded on LoudSauce.com, took aim at comments made by Mirkarimi following his swearing in January 8 when he said an altercation involving his wife, Eliana Lopez, on New Year’s Eve, was “a private, family matter.”
Seizing on the Sheriff’’s comments to advance their cause, the La Casa billboards displayed, “Domestic violence is never a private matter.”
La Casa de las Madres regularly uses street advertising to spread its anti-domestic violence message, according to records provided by the organization.
Five billboards – one in English costing $4,000 and four in Spanish costing $2,500 – were funded by 137 donations from 102 individual donors, according to records obtained by Fog City Journal.
“Some people donated to the English billboard, then donated again to the Spanish language billboard campaign,” said La Casa de las Madres executive director Kathy Black. “Just a couple of people donated $250.”
Grant Martin, a senior account executive at Storefront Political Media, the consultancy firm that managed Chris Cunnie’s 2011 campaign for Sheriff, contributed $250 to the La Casa billboard campaign, Martin confirmed.
The average donation to the campaign was $47.
“I made the contribution because I support protecting victims of domestic violence,” Martin said. “I hope others will join me in supporting this important effort.”
Martin said it was the first time he has made a donation to La Casa de las Madres, but said he has donated funds to other anti-domestic violence groups.
“The donation was $250,” Martin said in a follow-up email. “I don’t recall giving to La Casa but have given to numerous DV (domestic violence) groups and I have been involved throughout my adult life helping organizations working to protect vulnerable people from the very powerful, politicians or otherwise.”
Martin did not return an email asking him to name the other domestic violence groups he said he has contributed to.
“Is Storefront Political Media somehow behind the Casa De Las Madres people – I don’t even know any of the Casa De Las Madres people, and I think it’s great that they’re standing up for victims of domestic violence – but we’re not a part of this,” said Storefront Political Media founder Eric Jaye.
Jaye would not confirm or deny that he had any knowledge of Martin’s billboard campaign contribution.
“Grant Martin makes his own political contributions – charitable contributions – it’s not a political contribution, it’s a charitable contribution, and he doesn’t need to run his charitable contributions through me,” Jaye said.
Twenty-two individuals who contributed to the La Casa billboard campaign also made contributions to at least one political campaign in the last election cycle, records show. Of those 22 individuals, ten (Anne Stuhldreher, Bilen Mesfin, Joyce Newstat, Marjorie Swig, Sharon Johnson, Susan Lowenberg, Tim Silard, Tim Wirth, Roma Guy and Grant Martin ) contributed to the Cunnie campaign for Sheriff.
Asked to comment on the findings, Corey Cook, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco, said, “Although the findings of the investigation are interesting, I’m not sure if I can conclude anything in the absolute.”
Mirkarimi co-defense counsel David Waggoner was less cautious in his assessment.
“The facts speak for themselves,” Waggoner said. “The billboards were funded by Cunnie supporters. Grant Martin’s contribution was over five times the average. Martin refuses to say which other DV organizations he’s contributed to, and Eric Jaye refuses to say whether he knew about Martin’s contribution. Maybe when Jaye said ‘We’re not part of this,’ he meant the royal ‘we.’”
Both Mirkarimi and Lopez have maintained from the outset that there has been a political element to Mirkarimi’s prosecution.
Mayor Ed Lee suspended Mirkarimi without pay March 21 on charges of official misconduct after Mirkarimi pleaded guilty March 19 to one count of misdemeanor false imprisonment stemming from the alleged incident.
The Ethics Commission, a quasi-judicial body consisting of five political appointees, is set to investigate Lee’s official misconduct charges during an administrative hearing beginning Monday and present its findings and recommendations, if any, to the Board of Supervisors. The Ethics Commission appointments are made by the offices of Mayor, City Attorney, District Attorney, Assessor and Board of Supervisors.
Three-fourths of the Board of Supervisors must vote in the affirmative to permanently remove an elected official from office. Should the Board vote to uphold the misconduct charges against Mirkrarimi, an election will be held in November to fill what would become a vacancy. Lee named former Chief Deputy Sheriff Vicki Hennessy to serve as Sheriff in the interim.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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April 27, 2012 at 8:44 pm
SF Charter 15.100:
c) Restrictions on Political Activities. No member or employee of
the Ethics Commission may participate in any campaign supporting or
opposing a candidate for City elective office, a City ballot measure, or
a City officer running for any elective office. For the purposes of
this section, participation in a campaign includes but is not limited to
making contributions or soliciting contributions to any committee
within the Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction, publicly endorsing or
urging endorsement of a candidate or ballot measure, or participating in
decisions by organizations to participate in a campaign.
April 24, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Does someone here have the section of the City Charter that made way for the Ethic Commission process underway now, and/or have a link?
April 23, 2012 at 5:00 pm
your bio is almost as long as your article.
April 23, 2012 at 8:25 am
The biggest issue here is the fact that Ross attempted to cooerce his neighbor into withholding evidence in a felony investigation, after he had been sworn in. That may be where he is most vulnerable in this matter. And it goes to the heart of this issue – why he has attempted to sweep this whole thing under the rug from day one. There is serious money involved here. A job where he can count on $200K per year until he retires (as did his predesessor), as this job is not subject to term limits. Plus unlimited health care for life, plus a sweet pension. If he loses he that will all be gone. His wife will be out as well, with an ex-husband who can’t make alimony payments, a politician who is finished politically.
April 23, 2012 at 10:07 am
The salary paid the Sheriff is negligible when compared to the capital budget of that office which must be spent with the properly vetted politically connected contractors, that’s why Willie and crowd are so worked up about ousting Mirkarimi.
April 23, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Ross denies the coercion accusation.
April 23, 2012 at 7:03 am
It seems that many people on this board and on other forums are more worried about losing a solid progressive politician than whether or not said politician is fit to continue to hold office. There seems to be more concern over the possible damage to the “progressive movement” in SF than whether or not Ross can effectively manager the Sheriff’s department.
Not going to lie, I have never been a fan of Ross, I don’t like his politics, his attitude, the way he treats people etc. But in this case, my top concern is whether or not he can effectively run the SF Sheriff’s department. With the state realignment of prisons etc., this is a huge job. It requires someone with integrity, with knowledge, and with an ability to focus on the issues at hand. Further, being Sheriff requires someone who is not compromised. Take this example- What is going to happen when a Sheriff’s Deputy is accused or convicted of a similar domestic violence crime. I think that person should get fired. As a peace officer they are held to a higher standard. If Ross is the Sheriff, how is he going to look a deputy int he face and tell him/her they are losing their job because of a conviction, when he is trying desperately to save his with the only real excuse being, that he wasn’t sworn in as sheriff at the time he committed the crime.
Sorry, Ross needs to go. I think the progressives ought to see the writing on the wall, chuck it up as a lost cause, and take one for the city and move on.
April 23, 2012 at 7:44 am
If Gavin Newsom could run the city for five years after drunkenly boinking his subordinate while coked out of his head and breaking up their family and was then rewarded with a promotion, if the SFFD can continue to function with an violently alcoholic abusive chief whose rampaging broke up her family, if the SFPD Commission can host a violent abuser who settled out of court for his abuse and was not prosecuted because he donated to the District Attorney, then anything Ross did or pleaded to is minimal in comparison.
Ross has retained the support of his family, unlike Newsom and Hayes-White and Turman, to keep him grounded and on track.
April 23, 2012 at 8:38 am
Great argument- These people screwed up and were allowed to stay in office, so my mess of a politician hero should be allowed to stay. HUGE difference with all those people you cited. None of them were convicted of a crime.
Last I checked it was not a crime to commit adultery in the state of California. Gavin never admitted to using coke- stated he had a drinking problem. The Fire Chief passed a lie detector and her husband recanted the story in writing, something Ross’s wife has never done- apparently for good reason. As for the Police Commissioner- I agree, he should not be in office, just like Ross.
April 23, 2012 at 9:07 am
A lie detector? Really? Did she fail the dowsing rod test, then?
April 23, 2012 at 9:57 am
Really. Do you have some sort of proof that she did commit the crime in question. Last I checked- in this country it was innocent until proven guilty. She was NEVER proven guilty. Ross has admitted his guilt.
April 23, 2012 at 9:17 am
The decision to prosecute or not was made based on whether or not the politico in question was part of the City family in good standing or whether they were a progressive.
That is all that counts. The paid staffers at the Sheriff’s who are consummate professionals will submit to whatever civilian authority gets the nod from the voters, right? The rest of them will have a very difficult time should their efforts at subverting the will of the voters fail.
April 23, 2012 at 9:56 am
“The decision to prosecute or not was made based on whether or not the politico in question was part of the City family in good standing or whether they were a progressive.”
until you can offer up some actual proof- this is nothing more than a theory- in my opinion a pretty out there one at that.
April 22, 2012 at 6:10 pm
I don’t hear everyone clapping. Supervisor Eric Mar posted his former legislative aide Myrna Melgar’s Bay Guardian essay to his Facebook page. That doesn’t mean he’s going to vote to restore Ross to office, but it does mean he read it and wasn’t afraid to share it.
Here for anyone who missed it: Guardian Op-Ed: Domestic violence, a Latina feminist perspective, http://www.sfbg.com/bruce/2012/03/27/guardian-op-ed-domestic-violence-latina-feminist-perspective
April 22, 2012 at 4:21 pm
David, the problem is that more than half of the progressive coalition sold out the other half and then jumped off the train right before it started to run off the cliff, which it is doing right now. If any of them still labored under the misapprehension that independence would be tolerated, what we’re seeing with Ross should relieve them of any such pretensions.
Everyone claps at the show trial. Even still, that is no guarantee that they’ll not be next on the dock.
April 24, 2012 at 11:21 am
Hmm, I responded to that post, to “everyone claps at the show trial, but in the website conversion it came in ahead of what I was responding to.
April 22, 2012 at 10:48 am
To all the progressives with their head stuck in the sand and are to afraid to speak up to defend a fellow progressive, ask your self this question who is behind Grant Martin and Eric Jaye? Next question to ask yourself, why? Here is a hint, Mirkarimi is one of the few elected progressives officials left in SF. when he is removed and it looks like he will be, San Francisco becomes less of a progressive city. And the inactive progressives only have them selves to blame.
April 22, 2012 at 9:06 am
@ Akavandiv very intelligent posts, thank you !!
April 22, 2012 at 7:38 am
@Ralph
Do you really think a billboard meant to taint a jury pool is a good thing? Good, honest DV workers are being used to further an regressive political agenda.
Right-wing forces know they will never win and outright vote in San Francisco. Therefore they do the next best thing: use the progressives against themselves.
Do you think Lee or Gascon care about DV? If this was not Mirkarimi would they spend one minute more than the bare minimum legally required time on it?
The result of this is two fold:
1) Progressives are on notice: don’t mess with the powerful or you are history.
2) Now victims specially immigrant women will be reluctant to talk because their family may be broken up. Many women don’t want forced separation based on the decision of a judge. They want to decide for themselves. If going to the law means giving up control then they won’t go.
April 22, 2012 at 7:26 am
@sfsoma,
It does matter how we got here and what the motives are. If there was a political witch hunt then DV laws were abused. We need to get to the bottom of it. We need to figure out if anything happened that was out of the ordinary and why.
It may well be that Mirkarimi; Gascon; Lee and many others all broke the law. Maybe they should all go. Maybe the misdeeds of others were much bigger than Mirkarimi. Did anyone pay Flores? What happened in the days before Madison went to police? Who did she speak to and what transpired between them.
Is there an organized public campaign to tarnish Mirkarimi? If so who organized and paid for it. It may not be illegal but still people have a right to know. Maybe it will change their minds on who they will vote for next time. This is bigger than the Sheriff and Mirkarimi.
April 22, 2012 at 7:25 am
When will the majority of SF progressives grow balls and protest/comment on the political assignation or as some are calling it a witch hunt of a fellow progressive Ross Mirkarimi.
April 22, 2012 at 7:19 am
Why do some opposing Mr. Mirkarimi always resort to insults? They call him by childish names like “mirk” and in general show mentality of school children.
Do they think this will strengthen their position? This is of course not everyone but a significant number show it. This by itself is a major negative point.
April 22, 2012 at 6:56 am
As a volunteer at the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic where we help battered women obtain restraining orders against their batterers, I give kudos to the designer of the billboard and those who funded it. They took an ill-advised comment by Mirkarimi and made it into a valuable teaching moment.
Will Eliana Lopez return from Venezuela to testify for Mirkarimi before the Ethics Commission?
April 22, 2012 at 6:15 am
@sfsoma, there is nothing wrong with contributing, but the contribution nexus bolsters the case that the government is taking the posture that it is towards Mirkarimi based on political issues not the merits of the gotcha case. The government doesn’t play ‘gotcha’ with every elected official who missteps, only with those who don’t play ball with the powers behind the government.
And when the men who run the government have financial control over female advocates, those en exercise that power and those women, well, there’s no other way to say it but those women know their place.
They did this to Mark Sanchez, to Chris Daly and now to Ross Mirkarimi. Hell, Willie’s guys made Ed Jew look like Quentin Kopp as far as the corruption front went, but who did not play ball with power and who went down? Supporting this makes you the cheering section of a Stalinist show trial.
No, what we’re seeing here is a reaction to the election of 2000. A clear message is being sent that power will tolerate no independence and will destroy anyone who comes even close to challenging their prerogatives. The progressive supervisors have effectively been muzzled by this kind of pantomime slow motion Zapruder film that we’re all living through. And law enforcement is being enabled as it ups the ante on the contempt that is shows to the voters and residents of San Francisco.
Locally, as at the state and local level, we are being forced to accept the prospect that no matter how a majority votes, there is only one possible outcome–corporate dominance. win or lose. When they trot out the prurient, you know that they’re taking someone down. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Anwar Ibrahim, Ross Mirkarimi…
April 21, 2012 at 3:28 pm
There is nothing sinister in those that opposed Mirk for Sheriff contributing to the billboards, It is to be expected. They oppose him as Sheriff and are using their 1st Amendment rights to do so. Can’t you see that having a Sheriff that is convicted on false imprisonment not to mention on probation is just ridiculous, regardless of how we got there? I don’t know or care if it was political witch-hunt at this point, he has to go.
April 21, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Maybe some of the readers of FCJ can help Luke find out how much taxpayers money has been wasted so far.
Luke can assign projects to volunteers to help.
Contact the editor FCJ if you can help/research
April 21, 2012 at 2:34 pm
Hahaha. . . Barry, I agree, “it would be a good journalistic project for someone to look into the campaign contributors for the Cunnie campaign.”
Always lots of good journalistic projects to be done if someone can find the resources, including time, to pursue them. The Chronicle, which of course has considerable resources, seems to spend them mostly on columnist snark.
I’m chasing another aspect of this story around for KPFA today, and that’s going to be all I can do for awhile.
I hope Luke has time to chase a ballpark estimate of the City’s no doubt enormous costs for all this.
April 21, 2012 at 8:38 am
What gets me is that we have a white woman fronting for a group that claims to deal with domestic violence in the Latino community, who is economically dependent upon two powerful non-Latino men, Lee and Gascón (white/Spanish Cuban), and appears to have perfected the art of marginalizing, in the most paternal of manners, Latinas both in her work and on command for the men who pay her bills.
Black is to Latino families in crisis what General Westmoreland was to Vietnamese villagers during the war, in order to save them, they must all be destroyed.
April 21, 2012 at 8:05 am
Seems like much ado about nothing. So some anti-Roas people donated money against him. Big shock. Show me a nexus between this and the actual filing of charges etc., then you have a story. Right now just looks like a bunch of pro Ross people grasping at straws.
April 20, 2012 at 10:58 pm
It would also be a good journalistic project for someone to look into the campaign contributors for the Cunnie campaign. This data can be easily perused at the Ethics Commission website. Some big, and well-known names come up, many from law enforcement on all levels up to the national, many from the city establishment and the hoi polloi, and a few celebrities thrown in. Very interesting reading indeed.
April 20, 2012 at 10:53 pm
I didn’t know Casa de las Madres was funded by the city. It was not made clear in the FCJ report whether they get their entire funding thusly. But even if it’s just a substantial portion, it shows a leading nexus between the anti-dv people and the City Hall establishment. The connection between that old water carrier for Gavin News Some, Eric Jaye, and Ms. Black and Upton could certainly bear some closer scrutiny because these same folks will be coming up soon for funding grants in a time of great budget calamity and unless it is a cut and dried procedure, what they get (and got) and why should make for a very juicy subject for some deeper investigative reporting.Thanks, Fog City Journal.
April 20, 2012 at 10:27 pm
@The Commish: But not this? http://youtu.be/o7zFRuwNUsE
April 20, 2012 at 4:38 pm
@ Commish FCJ or any of the readers on this site are not disputing the importance of donating to an ant-domestic violence group, unless you have been living in a cave since early Jan. you have to be aware there has been a witch hunt going on against Mirkarimi, Kathy Black has been a part of this witch hunt.
April 20, 2012 at 2:20 pm
How dare these people donate to an anti-domestic violence group! It must be political. Or a conspiracy.
April 20, 2012 at 1:29 pm
@ Paul,
Do you really think, Paul that these good folks would have donated thousands of dollars for billboards to Casa de Las Madres if NOT for the ulterior, partisan, motive? I think Luke is only beginning to document the paper trail, and I am looking forward to seeing where it leads….Whatever you think about the Sheriff and his actions, there is no question that there has been an orchestrated political campaign around it. The question is who – and I for one don’t think it has to do with domestic violence.
April 20, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Nice title, do you think that Mirkarimi supporters should have supported the billboard, if not I think that it is only logical that it would be someone who didn’t support him that would contribute. However, having said that I do believe that “New World Order” people are behind this and that it is indeed a conspiracy. Hi Ann, Nice to see you here, Go Mirkarimi!
April 20, 2012 at 12:50 pm
The writ was argued today and denied. More on this later.
April 20, 2012 at 12:33 pm
But, I’ll be returning to FCJ to see if I’m wrong.
April 20, 2012 at 12:31 pm
BTY, I’m assuming that Ross and his legal team did not appear this morning to contest the tentative ruling, which I copied off the Court website and posted here last night: http://www.anngarrison.com/content/tentative-ruling-in-mirkarimi-vs-city-and-county-of-san-francisco
I.e., I’m assuming that, if Ross and his team had appeared, I would have heard about it by now. I couldn’t see much point to contesting Judge Kahn’s ruling, since it was not a ruling on the merits of the case, but a ruling that the motion was untimely, and would not be timely until after the Ethics Commission and Board procedures had run their course.
April 20, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Just today I discovered the City Attorney’s office has 4 deputy city attorneys working on this case. However, we will not know the total man-hours spent on this prosecution until the case is resolved in full.
April 20, 2012 at 11:59 am
Luke, truth does not like the light of day.
April 20, 2012 at 11:57 am
Re what David said:
“Suggestion: FCJ should investigate and report to its readers the dollar amount of San Franciscans taxpayers money that has been wasted on the Mirkarimi witch hunt.
Someone needs to be held accountable, as this is the crime – not Mirkarimi’s argument with his wife.”
Many people have called for such an investigation, whether by FCJ or someone else. If the hourly cost of Georges Gascón, Ed Lee, Dennis Herrera, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn, the Ethics Commissioners, and the Supervisors, if it comes to that, and all their staff, and their expenses, could be tallied, I imagine that San Franciscans might ask why pre-trial diversion wasn’t considered. I believe that Gascón could have given Ross a choice between anger management classes with the possibility of charges pending until he completed them and his right to a speedy trial.
That would most likely have helped Ross’s family instead of putting them through this agony, public humiliation, and expense, and it would have spared the rest of us. It also might have circumvented the obsessive distraction of the press, who, as Randy Shaw wrote in January, were making this their main issue in every press conference that newly elected Mayor Ed Lee held. I’m not in the habit of attending the Mayor’s press conferences, so I don’t know whether this is still true now, in mid-April.
April 20, 2012 at 11:07 am
@Paul, thank you for the background info on Paula Jones and her relationship to “right-wing Christian conservative groups,” but no where in this report is such a parallel drawn or nexus made.
April 20, 2012 at 10:21 am
Oh please, Luke … this is much ado about nothing. So a few Cunnie campaign people gave $250 to fund the billboard. Did they have an ulterior, partisan motive?? Maybe … But it’s not like these people are right-wing conservatives who have been bad on domestic violence, or woman issues in general.
In the mid-1990’s, the National Organization for Women tried reaching out to Paula Jones (who, of course, had accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment) because they believed every woman should have their voice heard. She never returned their call, because she was too busy hanging out with right-wing Christian conservative groups who have an awful track-record on women — and who had a partisan agenda against the President.
Sorry, I don’t see the same thing happening here …
April 23, 2012 at 7:35 am
If Paul Hogarth, Randy Shaw or Kathy Black’s meal ticket was predicated upon their attacking Ed Lee and Chris Cunnie, they’d do that just as fast. One thing that we can say about the nonprofit sector is that when their cash flow is predicated on the vicissitudes of politics, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
This is how corporate power corrupts progressive politics through cooption.
April 20, 2012 at 10:03 am
Those who live in glass houses………(Kathy Black)
Suggestion: FCJ should investigate and report to its readers the dollar amount of San Franciscans taxpayers money that has been wasted on the Mirkarimi witch hunt.
Someone needs to be held accountable, as this is the crime – not Mirkarimi’s argument with his wife.
April 20, 2012 at 9:33 am
I think some intrepid reporter should look into the relationship between Beverly Upton and Eric Jaye – I think Kathy Black just got caught up in something much bigger – they all did – and she is just getting it where she is vulnerable and has been for years.
April 20, 2012 at 9:04 am
@Ann: Actually, it could be looked at another way. DA Gascón didn’t want to try Mirkarimi, not because he was afraid to lose, but politically it was better for all if Mirkarimi plead guilty. The DA gave Mirkarimi a break by letting him plead to an offense where Mirkarimi could still carry a gun and therefore, still carry out his duties as a sheriff.
@ Chickens Roosting: I am not sure what hearings held 9 years ago has to do with a billboard supporting anti-domestic violence. Actually, one good thing about the Mirkiarim-Lopez matter, it put a much needed spotlight on domestic violence.
April 20, 2012 at 7:27 am
La Casa is run by Kathy Black, who has come under fire in the past for racism, lack of Spanish translation, and grossly providing shelter victims, expired meat and substandard living conditions.
Check the Commission on Women Hearings from back in 2003:
Here is what they had to comply with:
1. La Casa must maintain a minimum of one, but preferably at least two, Spanish speaking staff who interact with clients (advocates, facility assistants, managers of client services) 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Language line and pagers cannot take the place of staff on site. We recommend that La Casa develop a proposal for how to accomplish this by June 1, 2003. We would like to see appropriate staffing in place no later than September 1, 2003.
2. La Casa will develop a written policy expressing their opposition to the use of children as interpreters, which will be prominently posted in English and Spanish by June 1, 2003, a copy of which will be provided to DOSW.
3. La Casa must submit to DOSW the grievance policy and Client Bill of Rights currently posted at the shelter for our review by June 1, 2003. Furthermore, we request that La Casa work with us to develop a more comprehensive policy, which would include a means for clients to grieve to an independent body if they so choose. This revised grievance policy should be in place no later than January 1, 2004.
4. Food staples, particularly those needed by children, (such as milk, juice, cereal, bread, peanut butter, etc.) must be available and easily accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Furthermore, La Casa must prominently post (in English and Spanish) a clear policy on food availability and accessibility. This policy should be provided to DOSW by June 1, 2003.
5. Anti-racism training must be provided to all staff and volunteers who work with clients. Training must be provided by January 1, 2004.
6. We recommend that DOSW conduct another site visit in July, 2003.
http://www.sfgov3.org/archive.aspx?dept=1006&sub=&year=2003&dtype=1939&file=18672
Just sayin’.
April 20, 2012 at 6:29 am
@Ralph: I don’t think it could be more obvious that Ross pled guilty for expediency’s sake. If he were one of San Francisco’s fabulously wealthy political royals, with a few million dollars to throw into his defense without feeling it, I’m sure he would have continued in court and asked for a different venue. But he is not one of them.
I also don’t believe that DA Gascón would have agreed to the plea bargain on this obscure misdemeanor false imprisonment charge, which did not prohibit Ross from carrying a firearm and remaining in office, if he, Gascón, thought that he could convict Ross on the more serious misdemeanor charges.
April 20, 2012 at 6:13 am
The KPFA Morning Mix will be doing a segment on the case on Monday, sometime between 8 and 9, on 94.1fm and streaming at kpfa.org.
April 20, 2012 at 6:05 am
It is not inconsistent to support an anti-domestic violence campaign to counteract a stupid comment by Mirkarimi. La Casa de las Madres, by the way, is a shelter for domestic violence victims providing a vital service.
Mirkarimi stood before the court and plead guilty and then in mea culpa pieces is now saying he plead guilty for expediency. Why is he telling his story now when shortly after the New Year’s Eve incident he could have cleared the air and probably saved himself and his wife the grief that was to come? Instead he and his wife quickly lawyered up and stonewalled the investigators. He gets no sympathy here.
April 20, 2012 at 3:18 am
Surprise Surprise,
There is politics in the establishment! Next thing is finding out there are politics involved in the handling of his case. Anyone with a bit of sense would have know this; but we are just supposed to close our eyes and pretend justice system is totally honest and nothing happens for politics. Sorry folks I was never that naive.
April 20, 2012 at 12:57 am
There has been a witch hunt since the beginning to oust Ross. These latest discoveries confirm what many of us have long suspected. This is all about politics. Excellent reporting Luke.
April 19, 2012 at 9:36 pm
Political assassination against Mirkarimi. Good investigating and reporting FCJ, again you’re ahead of the pack.