My friend Bill Wilson had barely returned from two months in Rome, Italy, when I asked him to be my witness today when I presented myself and the stay-away order from Judge Sam Feng that concluded my legal hassle with an elected official to the Sheriff's Department at City Hall.
Bill and I started out at the sheriff's main office on the fourth floor, were sent down to the deputies' security room on the ground level where we had to pass Bevan Dufty's homeless czar's office, where the above photo was snapped, and could hear his voice conducting a meeting, only to wind up where we started, in Room 456 where the command staff for the sheriff is located.
We met with second-in-command of the department Undersheriff Ellen Brin at a reception area table. The photo of us standing in front of badges from all of California's sheriffs' departments was taken before we chatted with her and she made it clear she didn't want to be photographed or tape recorded. After confirming I was the "infamous activist" himself, and introducing my witness as "the Bill Wilson community photographer", she asked how she could be of service to us.
Brin was given a copy of the three-page order and as she read it, I requested that she share it with deputies who are responsible for security on the second floor in particular since the order is so detailed pertaining to that area of the people's government building. Brin is one smart cookie and understood this was my reintroduction to the City Hall community, that I would be again attending and reporting on various meetings and adhering to the restrictions of the order, and exercising my First Amendment rights.
The barely ten-minute conversation stayed light and friendly, as Bill and I had intended. Before returning to her office, Brin looked me in the eye and said two words of advice: "Just behave."
With Bill at my side, I cocked my head in queenly fashion and replied, "But of course. After all, jailhouse orange is simply not my color!"
And with that, two giggling gays left the sheriff's main office and proceeded to the first floor, and when the elevator doors open standing in front of us was City Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu. She seemed surprised to see me and totally lit up with a smile upon seeing Bill. They know each other and had a chat about same-sex marriages starting up again at her office if the Supreme Court overturns Prop 8.
As we turned around to head to the exit, approaching us was our good friend and diva Veronika Fimbres. She was there gathering information about her pending marriage later this month. It was homecoming time for us pals!
I couldn't ask for a better return, after eight months and an estimated $26,000 taxpayer dollars wasted grinding me through the law enforcement industrial complex, to San Francisco's beautiful City Hall.
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