Petrelis Files

Mirkarimi's Hotel Tab So Far as Sheriff?

 (Eliana Lopez shows the bruise she received at the hands of her husband, the sheriff of San Francisco.)

Admitted wife-bruiser Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's legal counsel Freya Horne has responded to my Immediate Disclosure Request for public records related to his travel, paid for with either public or private dollars from January 2012 though this week. She also addresses my concerns over his compliance with gift disclosure laws. Horne writes:

Pursuant to your request I have enclosed records for reimbursement to the Sheriff in the amount of $161.85 for attending a Public Safety Realignment Conference in Sacramento on November 1 and 2, 2012, and a record submitted for reimbursement for two nights at the Hilton for attending a California State Sheriff's Association Conference in Santa Cruz on April 10 and 11, 2013. [In the amount of $188.]

Additionally Sheriff Mirkarimi attended a conference in Monterey hosted by the Forensic Health Association of California and was provided a hotel room for the night of March 13, 2013. I am unable to provide any responsive records for that date because the Sheriff's Department is not in possession of them.

You have also asked whether the Sheriff has complied with the San Francisco
Sunshine Ordinance requiring the reporting of gifts worth more than one hundred dollars in the aggregate for the purpose of carrying out or assisting any city function pursuant to San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.29-6. The Sheriff has not accepted any gifts pursuant to this section during the time frame you have requested.

So far, Mirkarimi's hotel tab to the taxpayers is only $166, with an additional $188 soon to be reimbursed and maybe another $100 for a one-night stay, for a rough $450 total cost. No much at all, in the grand scheme of things.

But, what with the $17,000-plus cost for City Attorney Dennis Herrera's campaign reelection junket to SCOTUS last month over Prop 8, and questions raised on this blog about tardy and/or lax disclosure of gifts of travel by elected officials, we really need to start insisting our government workers produce travel and expense records more voluntarily on their sites.

Mirkarimi is as corrupt as the rest of our elected law enforcement leadership, the mayor and the supervisors, and they all need to be watched by hawks to root out some of the corruption. Large or small travel expenses, it's not just the size is the disclosing that is of equal importance.