When I cast my vote about 6 p.m. Tuesday, I was only the 62nd person to do so at my precinct. Less than 10 percent of registered voters in our fair city actually went to the polls. Combined with the vote-by-mail ballots, that brings us to a total 23 percent voter turnout. The last time participation was that low was November 2009, when City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Treasurer Jose Cisneros each ran unopposed for re-election.
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The City Charter says the Ethics Commission has to conduct a hearing and make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors whenever an elected official is suspended from office for misconduct. But, there is no formal process in the charter that dictates how to conduct such a hearing.
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Suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was at the Ethics Commission on Monday, where the five commission members agreed on the procedure for deciding the procedure that will govern the hearing on whether to recommend his removal.
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On April 2, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement agencies can strip-search anyone who is arrested and put in the general population of a jail. The case is called Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the petitioner is a man who was pulled over in 2005 for a traffic stop. He wasn’t ticketed, but a search of his name mistakenly showed a warrant for his arrest for failure to pay a fine in 2003.
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The annual San Francisco Chamber of Commerce CityBeat poll results are out, and once again “homelessness and panhandling” top the list of citizen concerns. Because this is prime time for people to plan their summer vacations, and at least some will choose San Francisco, I wondered: Is anyone preparing tourists for frequent, forced fundraising at the hands of our enterprising residents?
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At this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, our representatives considered a resolution “Urging the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Reinstate 31 Categories of Music for GRAMMY Consideration.” Do I even need to tell you who introduced it?
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Happy New Year, dear readers! Having recovered from our election hangover, we must immediately reach for the next fix: the 2012 elections. What can we look forward to this November? Taxes, taxes and more taxes.
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January
The year started out with a giddy Board of Supervisors, whose members believed they had found the perfect temporary mayor. Yes, unassuming bureaucrat Edwin Lee seemed like the perfect replacement for that other guy who lives in Marin now. Unfortunately, they were too busy patting themselves on the back to realize they were readying the area to be stabbed when Mayor Mustache decided to stay in the job.
February
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Supervisor David Campos has proposed a charter amendment to “tweak” San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system by expanding the number of votes each of us gets from three to “however many candidates are running for office.” For example, if his law had been in place this past November, each voter would have been able to rank all sixteen mayoral candidates in order of preference.
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My fascination with watching politics is a constant source of amusement for my family and friends. They don’t see what is so interesting about televised sausage-making, but I think there are gems in every Board of Supervisors agenda. For example, here are some items that are going before the board today.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/taxonomy/term/3315?page=1
