San Francisco California, July 23, 2012
To: David Campos
From: Aurora Grajeda
Cc: Eric Mar, David Chiu, Christina Oleague, John Avalos, Mark Farrell, Carmen Chu, Jane Kim, Sean Elsbernd, Scott Wiener, Malia Cohen, Office of the City Attorney.
Good morning Supervisor Campos,
This email is a follow up to my approaching you to share my deep and urgent concerns on aspects of the Sheriff Mirkarimi's case, when you informed me of your inability to speak about it, but in terms of sharing my concerns to you, you also informed me that not only you'd listen to me, but urged me to do so, and that this goes for anyone else. Thank you.
As you may have noticed, a Cc of this email goes to each one of all of the other members of the Board of Supervisors and City Attorney Dennis Herrera's Office, there are many reasons for my doing so, but the most relevant are that in the event that you choose to honor my request and for it to be effective, it needs the support from the other Supervisors. It is intended to be Board's business and instead of repeating it to each one of them, I think we all will agree that it is better to do it all at once, in the open and be open about it to all. To that effect, this email will be made public.
Immediately below, please find two propositions that I expose for you review. Hoping that if you find some merit on what I propose, you'll seek a legal opinion from City Attorney for you and the SFBOS to proceed accordingly:
I do propose that the items of the Sheriff Mirkarimi's salary and his back pay, are irrelevant to the case heard in the San Francisco Ethics Commission's hearings in that matter, due to that these items were not before them and thus, are outside the scope of their considerations for their recommendation to the Board, ergo, do not fall under the Supervisors' restrictions on the Sheriff Mirkarimi's case and accordingly, any Supervisor is free to initiate, discuss and pass legislation regarding these two items, and consequently right a wrong, and it is under these grounds that I do hereby respectfully and formally ask of my Supervisor, David Campos, that to at his earliest, introduce and pass, a motion or a resolution to the effect of overriding and reversing Mayor Ed Lee standing directive to withhold salary from Sheriff Mirkarimi, and to instruct that he be awarded back pay hence,
I do further propose, that in view of the fact that it is longstanding practice and tradition to reassign any city officer to administrative duties with full pay while under investigation of official wrong doing and, in view of the fact that the we in the City and County of San Francisco do not treat our employees the way Sheriff Mirkarimi - in an exceptional departure from past and present norms - has been treated and, in view of the fact that the breaking of this longstanding practice and tradition has irrefutably - but hopefully not irreparably - caused great harm and pain to the family of an elected official whose marriage was going through difficult times and, in view of the fact that the couple's wishes and intentions were, and are, to seek marriage counseling to work out their problems and start their healing as a family and, in view of the fact that the lack of family income or other financial resources have curtailed essentially to zero the number of options they could afford to adopt and start their healing and, in view of the fact that neither city agencies, nor the anti-domestic violence organizations involved in the case, even offered material support much less provide it to the - in their understanding - victim, Eliana Lopez and, in view of the fact that as result, Eliana Lopez became a de facto single mother without any financial support whatsoever and thus, had to leave the country to her native Venezuela where there was family support circles and the possibilities of gainful employment to support herself and her 3 year old son and in her opinion, conditions for positive results were better in Venezuela than in San Francisco and, when viewing all of the just enunciated facts, it obscenely offends every sensibility that I have as a human being and as an immigrant to San Francisco, because this city of immigrants that I so much love and cherish, does not treat its immigrants the shameful way in which Eliana Lopez was treated and, in view of the fact that Family Court on July 20, 2012 lifted the stay away order on Sheriff Mirkarimi and thus, the family is in a better position to reunite and have a chance to heal; just as any other family.
I believe we will be in agreement that a precarious state of affairs in domestic finances, is one of the stressors that factors very high in marriages falling apart, this is the current state of affairs for the Mirkarimi family, while at the same time separated by thousands of miles and still working to continue their healing. And since love between the couple is not an issue and neither is lack of desire to heal as a family; an infusion of monetary resources would go a long way in helping them achieve their goals. Funds which should have been available to them from the very beginning by virtue of the City and County of San Francisco's long standing practices which are applied without exceptions, except this time where they have been withheld; should be made immediately available to them. I can not identify any valid reason on why these funds should not be awarded, there is nothing to gain in withholding them, unless, the objective is to impose stress, pain, suffering and curtail the couples' options for healing, all for reasons that I can't even begin to imagine other than to harm the marriage and family; I totally reject that notion.
As I informed you, I'll be present at the July 24, 2012 Board Meetingto lend support. Though last minute, I'll be asking my friends if anyone can and would also like to attend as support, or to make requests to their own Supervisor for passage of a motion or a resolution, either at the July 24, 2012 Board Meeting, or the week after that, or the one after. At their discretion.
Dear Supervisor Campos, it is not only a good thing to do, but the correct thing to do. The mirkarimi family can surely put to good use a helping hand.
Thank you for your attention and consideration to this matter.
Loving regards,
Aurora Grajeda
Mission District
SFCA 072312
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