ACTION ALERT: Help Eileen Hansen Now - send email to board today

The Chronicle, fresh from a paper assasination of Kevin Shelley , has turned its sights on Eileen Hansen. Please join me in vigorously defending her:Check out the links below for history and reasons. Contact the SF Board of Supes at the email link and let them know you think Eileen is best for the job.

We couldn't save Kevin Shelley but we can certainly save Eileen.


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/08/EDGCCB6GKU1.DTL
EDITORIAL
S.F.'s ethics power play

Tuesday, February 8, 2005


The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is poised to make a mockery of government oversight today when it votes on whether to put Eileen Hansen on the Ethics Commission.
>snip<
Unlike outgoing-commission chairman Mike Garcia, who served the ethics panel with distinction, Hansen's nomination came from two supervisors, Tom Ammiano and Sophie Maxwell, both of whom received campaign contributions from Hansen. That alone should disqualify her, but this is just a power-play by the board's progressive political wing.

In addition to having ties to numerous board members, Hansen also participated in one of Ammiano's previous mayoral campaigns. One can imagine the uproar from the left if Mayor Gavin Newsom tried to sneak a political pal onto the Ethics Commission, but fairness is clearly not an issue in this case.
>snip<
You can express your views by e-mailing Supervisor Dufty and other supervisors at board.of.supervisors@sfgov.org.

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The SF Chronicle, fresh from its successful paper assassination of Kevin Shelley, is turning its sight's on Eileen Hansen. Now, if after reading this editorial, you think there is something to their charge other than outrage that she is a liberal democrat as opposed to a Republican in Democrat's clothing like Gavin Newsom, I would like to point out that it was Gavin Newsom whose campaign used paid government staffers to campaign for him while they were at work and other irregularies

http://sfindependent.com/article/index.cfm/i/012104n_ethics
Ethics chief, destroyed docs & allegations
By Adriel Hampton | Staff Writer
Published on Tuesday, January 27, 2004

The director of The City's Ethics Commission demanded that members of the commission staff destroy documents disclosing $185,732 in spending relating to Mayor Gavin Newsom's swearing-in, according to a complaint by two city employees.

Documents included in the complaint show large payments under the heading "San Francisco 2004 Swearing-In Committee" to more than two dozen individuals, most of them salaried employees of Newsom's mayoral campaign and several who now work for the new administration. They also show a $54,000 payment to Newsom's mayoral campaign.



and it was Tom Ammiano who spearheaded the Sunshine laws in this city and supported the Sunshine Amendment.

http://www.sfbg.com/sunshine/

Among local elected officials, only two supervisors have come out in favor of Prop. G: Ammiano and Leland Yee. Seven supervisors put their names to a paid argument in the ballot handbook opposing the measure: Barbara Kaufman, Michael Yaki, Alicia Becerril, Sue Bierman, Leslie Katz, Amos Brown, and Mabel Teng.

Other evidence of Ammiano's support for ethics and fairness:

http://www.asianweek.com/1999_12_09/bay_ammiano.html

Finally an endorsement of Eileen herself:

http://www.sfbg.com/39/17/news_ed_hansen.html


JUST DAYS BEFORE San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin is slated to announce new committee assignments, a lame-duck board panel is poised to recommend that Mike Garcia – who has been wrong on a long list of major issues – be reappointed to the Ethics Commission. If that happens, the full board should reject the recommendation.

>snip>

Hansen has a long history as a progressive political organizer and activist. She's demonstrated her commitment and principles over many years of work on a wide range of issues. She's energetic and told the Bay Guardian she sees Ethics as a focal point for political reform. She deserves this critical job.



Which side is the more ethical?

Dear Board of Supervisors,

Please support Eileen Hansen for a post on the Ethics commission. She has always supported the side of fairness, has conducted herself with integrity and is being unfairly smeared in the Chronicle.

May I please remind the Board of some ethics questions on the behalf of the Ethics Commission itself and of Mike Garcia himself?

http://sfindependent.com/article/index.cfm/i/012104n_ethics
Ethics chief, destroyed docs & allegations
By Adriel Hampton | Staff Writer
Published on Tuesday, January 27, 2004

The director of The City's Ethics Commission demanded that members of the commission staff destroy documents disclosing $185,732 in spending relating to Mayor Gavin Newsom's swearing-in, according to a complaint by two city employees.

Documents included in the complaint show large payments under the heading "San Francisco 2004 Swearing-In Committee" to more than two dozen individuals, most of them salaried employees of Newsom's mayoral campaign and several who now work for the new administration. They also show a $54,000 payment to Newsom's mayoral campaign.

Sutton and Partners, the law office that handles Newsom's financial transactions, said the documents were incomplete invoices accidentally sent to an Ethics Commission staff member who has a name similar to that of an attorney in that office. Upon learning of the mistake, the law office requested that the commission dispose of the document.

According to the complaint -- which was filed Friday with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force and in which the city workers are claiming whistleblower protections -- Kevin De Liban and Oliver Luby of the Ethics Commission staff believed the documents might have legal significance and "evidence of a violation." Therefore they defied repeated orders to destroy them.

"The Ethics Commission retention policy forbids the destruction of a document with legal significance, even if its legal significance has not been established," the complaint reads.
http://www.sfbg.com/39/17/news_ed_hansen.html


Among other things, Garcia approved former supervisor Tony Hall's move to take over the top job at the Treasure Island Development Authority (despite City Charter provisions against elected officials getting plush public jobs). He supported former Ethics director Ginny Vida's decision to let Kamala Harris flout campaign-spending rules in the district attorney's race and backed her attempt to destroy public documents that implicated Mayor Gavin Newsom's inaugural committee in possible violations of campaign finance laws (see Editorial, 1/12/05). Perhaps most important, Garcia has made it clear he doesn't want Ethics to be an aggressive, active force for clean politics and government.

Please do not let big money influence color your perception of the right way to go here. Now, more than ever, we need some confidence in our government agencies .

Sincerely,

Dani Weber