AIDS Inc Salaries in SF: Too High, Just Right, Too Low?


[Revised on 12/26/06]

When San Francisco activists use the derisive term "AIDS Inc" to describe the AIDS bureaucracy, it is shorthand for the collection of nonprofit service agencies, the enormous number of DPH AIDS Office staffers, myriad HIV programs at UC San Francisco, and all the outside consultants who advise the many public panels in town set up to deal with AIDS.

AIDS Inc, in the eyes of many PWAs and health advocates, is often seen as devoted more to keeping itself afloat and the executives and staffers working within the group getting good salaries, than to meeting the many needs of PWAs.

And speaking of salaries, a friend, also gay and living with HIV, recently asked me how much a certain AIDS executive director was earning and I told him the figure was over $100,000, which seems to be the creepy norm among top AIDS careerists. My PWA pal was horrified and after he got over his shock, asked me to give a snapshot of currently available information on salaries of key AIDS executives and staffers in San Francisco. I agreed to do this for my friend.

These are the salaries for assorted AIDS executives and leaders in San Francisco, from source materials including IRS 990 filings on GuideStar, articles from the Bay Area Reporter and applications by SF DPH for federal HIV/AIDS dollars.

Some key names are missing from the list, such as Jimmy Loyce, the head of DPH's AIDS Office, and Michelle Long-Dixon, the AIDS Office's director for Ryan White CARE Act funded services. Sunshine Act requests for that information has been requested and once I have their salaries confirmed, I will add the data to this list.

I've said it before, but it needs repeating. These salaries are excessive and come at the expense of unmet needs of PWAs. As the city grapples with new restrictions on federal AIDS housing subsidies, and PWAs in SRO hotels are in jeopardy of losing a roof over their heads during this cold season, we must ask, again, that folks making over 6-figures cut their pay and divert the money to help PWAs keep or get housing.

[UPDATE, revised on 12/26/06]

I've added more names and salaries to this survey, and have also included a few gay/lesbian/bi/trans groups along with some drug and alcohol rehab organizations. Even though the gay and rehab groups don't fully devote themselves to HIV/AIDS issues, they nonetheless have substantial programs that directly impact PWAs or AIDS groups, therefore, I've put them on the list.

Looking over the who makes what, it seems as though the highest paid executive on this list is Chuck Deutschman, the head of Walden House, a large, multipurpose drug rehab/housing/AIDS services/welfare advocacy organization. Deutschman was paid $313,275 in FY04.

And in terms of the highest paid AIDS executive based in San Francisco, not providing direct services to local PWAs, the "winner" is Eric Goosby at the SF AIDS Foundation's affiliated Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation -- he took home $248,242 in FY05. Goosby served as an HIV advisor when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

It really shouldn't come as a shock that Goosby has this distinctive salary status, considering his foundation's parent organization, SF AIDS Foundation, which does offer services to local PWAs, in FY04 paid its then-executive director Lance Henderson $212,565. That makes him the top-dog of this survey.

New names and salaries are sprinkled in among the old list of names.

Here are the numbers:

Private Sector:

AIDS Emergency Fund
Mike Smith, ED
$115,010

AIDS Emergency Fund
Jeffrey Johnson, Controller
$72,108

AIDS Legal Referral Panel
Bill Hirsh, ED
$73,099

API Wellness Center
John Manzon-Santos, ED
$104,086

Baker Places Housing
Jonathan Vernick, ED
$145,732

Baker Places Housing
Judith Stevenson, Operations Director
$118,715

Black AIDS Coalition on AIDS
Perry Lang, ED
$70,600

California AIDS Intervention Training Center
Pat Norman, ED
$86,258

Catholic Charities
Brian Cahill, ED
$182,896 (versus SF AIDS Foudation's ED salary of $212,565.)
Total revenue FY 2005: $38.7 million (versus SFAF FY05 revenue of $23 million.)

Catholic Charities
Kimberly Watts, CFO
$139,067

Continuum HIV Daycare Service
Tiffany Mock-Goeman, ED
$119,527

Continuum HIV Daycare Services
Laura Thomas, Government Grants Coordinator
$78,316

Haight Ashbury Free Clinic
Darryl Inaba, ED
$130,746

Horizons Philanthropic Foundation
Roger Doughty, ED
$118,391

Horizons Philanthropic Foundation
Julie Dorf, Director of Philanthropy
$105,285

International AIDS Society
Donna Jacobsen, ED
$169,867

Larkin Street Youth Services
Virginia Price, ED
$109,848

Larkin Street Youth Services
Denise Wells, COO
$108,572

Lyon Martin Women's Health Center
Doretha Williams-Flournoy, ED
$85,625

Maitri Hospice
Tim Patriarca, ED
$95,594

Mobilization Against AIDS
Donna Rae Palmer, ED
$77,326

Native American AIDS Project
Joan Benoit; ED
No IRS 990 available on GuideStar

New Leaf Mental Health
Joseph Neisen, ED
$105,946

Positive Resource Center
Brett Andrews, ED
$112,616

Positive Resource Center
Pat Riley, Deputy Director
$83,031

Project Inform
Martin Delaney, Founding Director
$134,302

Project Inform
Ellen LaPointe, ED
$82,734

Project Inform
Brenda Lein, Education Director
$80,275

Project Inform
Anne Donnelly, Advocacy Director
$80,275

Project Open Hand
Tom Nolan, ED
$164,341

Project Open Hand
Antonio Choy-Koo, CFO
$106,023

Project Open Hand
Robert Brenneman, Development Director
$93,684

Project Open Hand
Michael Baroman-Coggins, Executive Chief
$88,231

Project Open Hand
Frank Ladin, Human Resources
$86,582

Project Open Hand
Artrese Morrison, Volunteer Services
$84,471

San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Mark Cloutier, ED 2005 - 2006
$170,000

SFAF
Lance Henderson, Acting ED 2004 - 2005
$212,565 (versus Catholic Charities' ED salary of $182,896.)
Total agency revenue FY 2005: $23 million (versus Catholic Charities' FY05 revenue of $38.7 million.)

SFAF
Steven Tierney, Public Policy Director
$155,000

SFAF
Daniel Crawley, CFO
$149,993

SFAF
Katherine Miessner, Budget Director
$135,015

SFAF
Fred Dillion, Policy Director
$131,872

SFAF
William Bland, HIV Prevention Programs
$114,695

SFAF
Sue Gallego, Client Services Director
$114,585

SFAF's Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation
Eric Goosby, MD; Chief Medical Officer
$248,242 (versus Catholic Charities' ED salary of $182,896, and versus SF AIDS Foudation's ED salary of $212,565.)
(Comparison of FY 05 revenues: Catholic Charities: $38.7 million, versus SFAF: $23 million, versus $6.2 million for Pangaea.)

SFAF's Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation
Barbara Lawson, Project Director
$164,034

SFAF's Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation
Rene Durrazzo, International Programs Director
$95,430

SF G/L/B/T Community Center
Thom Lynch, ED
$120,087

SF G/L/B/T Community Center
Rebecca Rolfe, Deputy Director
$94,781

Shanti Project
Kevin Burns
$82,805

Stop AIDS Project
Robert McMullin, ED
$103,430

Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center
Tracey Brown, ED
No current IRS 990; Last available year on GuideStar is for 1997

Under One Roof
Mike Marshal, ED
$45,000

Walden House (FY04 Total Revenue: $41.8 million.)
Chuck Deutschman, CEO
$313,275

Walden House (FY04)
Brian Greenberg, VP Purchasing
$155,298

Walden House (FY04)
Larry Nelson, Clinical Services
$144,339

Walden House (FY05)
No ED or Deputy Director named.
$??

Walden House (FY05)
Daniel Sprague, Database Manager
$78,592

Walden House (FY05)
Paul Kroeger, Budget Manager
$74,402

UCSF Sector:

AIDS Health Project
James Dilley, ED
$159,600


SF DPH AIDS Office:

Vacant, Director of HIV Prevention
$145,041

Tracey Packer, Senior Health Educator
$117,070

John Melichar, Health Program Coordinator
$106, 696

William Gaitan, Administrative Analyst
$95,372

Lisa Reyes, HPPC Meetings Coordinator
$93,982

Michael Paquette, Gay Men's Health Educator
$89,506

Betty Chan-Lew, Meetings and Management Coordinator
$87,777

Israel Nieves-Rivera, Health Planner
$86,082

Vincent Fuqua, Gay Men's Health Educator
$84,997

Joseph Imbriani, Gay Men's Health Educator
$73,266

Jenna Rapues, Gay Men's Health Educator
$73,266

Oscar Mascias, Gay Men's Health Educator
$66,452

Doug Sebesta, Epidemiologist
$35,803

-

US Global AIDS Chief Mark Dybul: HIV Rates Falling in Africa, Caribbean
(From left: Mark Dybul, Laura Bush, Jason Claire, Condi Rice.)


The United States' global coordinator for AIDS, Ambassador Mark Dybul of the State Department, the openly gay man who brought his male partner Jason Claire to his recent swearing-in ceremony, at which both Secretary Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush made glowing mention of his partner's mom as Dybul's mother-in-law, held an "Ask The White House" online chat on World AIDS Day.

He pretty much did what all Bush appointees do during such chats -- tout the administration's policies as good and working to improve the world.

What I found somewhat surprising was Dybul twice citing falling or stable HIV infection rates in resource-poor developing nations, but never said anything about America's failure to achieve similar declines in new infections.

Despite billions spent by the CDC in America, a resource-rich fully developed country, the HIV infection rate here has remained steady for about a decade, at 40,000 new infections annually. Over the past ten years, CDC officials have sounded loud alarms about alleged surges in domestic infections, giving some credence to the claim that infections are not really stable in the USA, but increasing.

Dybul did not address how nations with illiterate and uneducated populations, and lacking the many technological and informational tools available in abundance across America, can see their HIV infection drop, while in the USA HIV numbers climb or remain fixed. However, he should address this puzzling discrepancy between America's HIV rate and comparable rates in under-developed nations.

Something else Dybul might reference in the future is the anomaly of one USA city with a falling HIV infection rate -- San Francisco, of course -- while the rest of the country is not seeing similar drops.

Just in case no one has informed Dybul of San Francisco's latest HIV/AIDS epi report and data, and the good news contained therein, here it is in an excerpt from the SF DPH's latest annual surveillance summary:

2005 HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Report
Published: August 28, 2006
Lead Author: Mitch Katz, MD, SF Department of Public Health

The current HIV/AIDS epidemic is characterized by no apparent increases in HIV infection rates over the past five years, and with considerable decreases in some populations.

These are the pertinent excerpts from Dybul's online chat on December 1:

Q: Dear Ambassador Dybul: there are many who believe condoms are the best way to combat aids and many, like the Vatican, that believe condoms send the wrong signal--how does the administration deal with such conflicting views? Especially in the case of Africa? Thank you.

A: [...] We are starting to see significant declines in HIV rates in several countries and stabilization of infection in others. [...]


Q: Ambassador Dybul, Will you please take a few moments to put the Global AIDS epidemic in proper persepctive? Even today there seems to be a strong sentiment that this disease affects mainly drug users, low income persons, and third (fourth) world countries. Is it possible for you to provide a statistical break down of whom this disease affects and its costs to society as a whole on an per annum basis or at least provide a website reference.

A: [...] As I mentioned in the previous answer, new evidence shows that in additional nations in Africa and the Caribbean, people have changed their behavior to avoid HIV, causing infection rates to drop. [...]

No Popcorn String on Cheney's Xmas Tree; Symbolic Drops of Blood Instead?

I can't wait for this couple to retire from public service and their policies hit the historical dust bin.

Nice tree behind them, but it lacks a string of popcorn, which really makes a Christmas tree a thing to behold, in my opinion.

But I notice little dark red droplets or balls hanging on the tree branches. Could they be symbolic of the American and Iraqi blood spilling daily on the streets of Baghdad?

(Photo credit: David Bohrer, The White House. December 12, 2006.)

13 Months & Counting - No DPH HIV Prevention Boss. Eliminate the Job.

For more than a year the San Francisco DPH has lacked a head of HIV prevention, and there's apparently no qualified gay man in the city who will soon become HIV prevention chief, a job with a $145,041 salary and fringe benefits package.

In October 2005 openly gay Steven Tierney resigned from this position to take a job with the SF AIDS Foundation. He's now a public policy director at the nonprofit agency, earning $155,000, according to a story in the Bay Area Reporter last year. No one's taken his place at DPH. Maybe there are no gay health educators who want Tierney's old job.

(Longtime watchers of AIDS Inc know there's always been a revolving door between DPH and the AIDS foundation and all other HIV service organizations, and vice versa, making for one big happy family of bureaucrats who rotate in and out of DPH and AIDS Inc. There are no ethical rules stopping DPH bureaucrats who've been doling out millions of government dollars one day to an AIDS group, to quit and the next begin work at that private agency, but good government principles should include a one-year delay before DPH employees can work for private health agencies.)

It's safe to say not many gay men have noticed the absence of an HIV prevention boss at DPH, and if they have, there certainly hasn't been a loud cry for someone to fill the position. Seen any stories or letters in the gay press clamoring for new HIV boss, not just lately, but ever? Heard of any pressure being applied on the DPH to fill the slot?

Since San Francisco's gay community has managed to survive quite nicely all these months without such a boss, and the DPH is no hurry to replace Tierney, let's consider eliminating the HIV prevention chief's job at DPH and putting the money saved from cutting a rather unnecessary city job into rental subsidies for people with AIDS.

Can you think of a single reason why DPH should continue to fund an HIV prevention boss when the senior HIV health educator, openly straight Tracey Packer, has served in this capacity and has done an exemplary job? I can't.

She has been with the DPH for years and is cochair of the HIV prevention council. Ms. Packer's compensation from the city for her services is $117,070.

We also have the controversial and kooky Dr. Jeff Klausner, head of the STD control and prevention unit, who has considered quarantining PWAs and called for restricting gay men and PWA's access to Viagra, fulfilling his responsibilities to stop HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. I don't know Klausner's salary, but it's probably in the range of what the HIV prevention boss was making.

If DPH leaders are serious about hiring an HIV prevention chief, and I don't know why they should, they would do us all a favor by explaining why the position is necessary, when they plan to fill it and why it's taking so long to fill this supposedly important DPH position.

But just cutting out the position, and diverting the money saved to directly meet the housing needs of PWAs, would better serve the gay and AIDS communities.

NIH FOIA Appeal Filed: Release All 1,000-plus Pages of HIV Drug Panel Records

It's been way too long since I heard from the FOIA office at NIAID regarding a request from me, so I wrote to the agency today and received a brief reply.

Now is the time for NIAID's FOIA office to finally release the requested documents. Continuing to withhold these public records is without legal merit.

The deliberations that took place prior to NIH's report on HIV treatment recommendations must be shared with me, as a person with AIDS, my doctor, and all AIDS activists.

December 13, 2006

Karin Lohman
FOIA Office, Acting Chief
National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD

Ms. Lohman:

This letter is an appeal related my Freedom of Information Act request from April 3, 2006, to which you've assigned it FOIA Case No. 32469.

The June 27, 2006, letter from NIAID's FOIA office informed me that more than 1,000 pages responsive to my request for documents pertaining to the Panel on Clinical Practices for Treatment of HIV.

As you know, I've requested all agendas, minutes of meetings, materials distributed at meetings and transcripts of the Panel's monthly teleconference, and believe you and your office have unreasonably, and without merit, delayed release of the found records to me.

Neither the NIAID nor the NIH FOIA office have provided me with legitimate arguments as to why these records are not ready for release.

You have mentioned in several phone conversation over the past few months that NIAID's FOIA office reviewed and authorized release of the records, but that the NIH FOIA office needed to go over them before allowing their release to me.

First, as far as I know, requested documents need only pass review by only one branch of NIH before release. Second, if there is a cogent and valid argument why the records must pass an additional review, it should not take seven or more months for that review to occur.

Therefore, today I am requesting immediate and full disclosure of all 1,000-plus pages of files responsive to request number 32469, which, I need remind you, have already passed NIAID's process for release.

Please send all of those pages to me, via overnight FedEx.

Thanks for your prompt attention and response to my appeal.

Sincerely yours,
Michael Petrelis

Here is the acknowledgement I received today:

Mr. Petrelis,

This is to confirm receipt of the email you sent to me earlier today. I will check on the status of your request.

Sincerely,

Karin

**************************************
Karin N. Lohman, Ph.D.
Acting Chief, Strategic Planning and Evaluation Branch
Acting Chief, FOIA Office
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, DHHS
Bldg. 31 Room 7A-17F7
Bethesda, MD 20892

Let's hope the NIAID FOIA office gives me an early Xmas present -- all of the pages they've located responsive to my outstanding request!

Foley Refunds Zero to HRC & Rosen; $460K Back to Donors, PACs

Has it really been only two months since the Mark Foley erupted on the national scene and he was put under lots of microscopes? Seems like ancient history now, looking back his resignation and my probing of his FEC records, particularly who donated to him.

In October I blogged about the Human Rights Campaign, the gay wing of the DNC, had donated $27,000 to Foley's PAC over the years, and HRC board member Hilary Rosen also gave him money, $2,000 to be exact.

I suggested to HRC and Rosen that they ask for their gay money to be returned, as a matter of principle, and to show some political backbone.

Lou Chibbaro at the Washington Blade asked HRC about getting their money refunded. Here's the reply from the group:

“It’s an interesting idea,” said HRC spokesperson Luis Vizcaino. “We’ll consider it.”

Apparently they considered it and dismissed the idea. Newly released FEC records for Foley's PAC posted on the PoliticalMoneyLine site show even though Foley returned $423,800 to 46 donors and $36,500 to 14 PACs, Rosen and HRC were not among them. Guess they were content to let the disgraced former Congressman keep their gay funds.

I expect so little from HRC, and they keep delivering.

Audit of CDC-Funded HIV Prevention Grants Requested



[This letter was transmitted through various means to HHS, S.F. DPH, Rep. Nancy Pelosi & Sen. Tom Coburn. Such an audit is _long_ overdue.]

December 5, 2006

Daniel R. Levinson
Inspector General
Department of Health and Human Services
Room 5541 Cohen Building
330 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Mr. Levinson,

It has come to my attention that in September 2005 you conducted a much-needed audit of HIV prevention contracts and grants managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and your overall finding was that there are "widespread deficiencies" in how the CDC oversees HIV prevention grants.

Your audit gave the following explanation for it and made some disturbing conclusions:

"During fiscal years (FYs) 1999 through 2003, the period of our audit, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used more than $2.6 billion of HIV/AIDS prevention funds to award grants for State and local health departments and community-based nonprofit organizations to carry out surveillance, testing, counseling, research, conferences, outcome evaluations, and other related activities. These grants serve as important tools in carrying out CDC's mission of preventing and controlling HIV and AIDS. [...]

"The objective of our audit was to determine whether CDC complied with applicable laws, regulations, and departmental policies in managing its HIV/AIDS prevention grants.

"During FYs 1999 through 2003, CDC management of HIV/AIDS prevention grants did not always comply with applicable laws, regulations, and departmental policies. We reviewed PGO (Procurement and Grants Office) and Center records related to 15 grants and identified widespread deficiencies throughout the preaward, award, and postaward phases of CDC's grants management operations."

In the context of those deficiencies, I write to you today because I am very concerned about the CDC's various grants to the Better World Advertising agency of San Francisco, for the HIV Stops With Me social marketing campaign, which is underway in eight gay markets: San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Seattle, Buffalo and across the state of Oregon.

Health officials estimate that since the campaign began in San Francisco in 2000, a little more than $3 million in CDC grants have been allocated just for this city, and the seven other regions receiving CDC money for their own local versions of HIV Stop With Me efforts have each received between $1.5 and $2 million in federal prevention funds.

It's been projected that total costs of the campaign are a minimum of $13.5 million in grants from the CDC. All of these grants in all eight regions must be subjected to your office's oversight processes.

I am requesting a full fiscal audit and an extensive performance audit of all moneys given to the Better World Advertising agency, by the CDC, for the entire HIV Stops With Me campaign, from its start date through the date of this letter. There are concerns among HIV prevention advocates that potentially inappropriate expenses from one jurisdiction of the eight regions involved, may have been charged to a different jurisdiction.

Additionally, I ask that you carefully examine every expense report and all itemized receipts from Better World Advertising submitted to the CDC, whenever the ad agency's project directors attended HIV prevention conferences throughout all of the years of the contracts, as contractually mandated in CDC's grants to the agency.

The CDC contracts with the ad agency state, in the quality assurance section: "The Project Coordinator will attend at least one HIV prevention related conference this funding cycle."

Absolutely no justification is made by CDC in the contract as to why such travel, hotel, meals, and other incidental expenses incurred attending such HIV conferences is required and helps with prevention.

Therefore, I formally request you immediately begin an audit of the Better World Advertising agency's grants from the CDC for HIV Stop With Me.

A prompt reply is requested and appreciated.

Best regards,
Michael Petrelis

After 99 Lashes, Iranian Woman Spared From Death by Stoning. Parisa Akbari is Free!


(Photo credit: Iranian Students' News Agency. Women demand equal rights at Tehran University gathering; June 12, 2005)

Through my organizing work this year on behalf of gay and lesbian Iranians, and my opposition to the death penalty in all countries, I made the acquaintance of Lily Mazahery, and Iranian-American lawyer working from Washington, DC, on behalf of all women in Iran, and especially women in the Islamic Republic facing death by stoning or any other means.

Today, Mazahery shared some good news with me. An Iranian woman who had been on death row, is now free, her stoning sentence withdrawn.

Now, attention must focus on the other women in Iran jeopardy of being stoned to death. You can find more info on these women at this Amnesty International web site. Go there and learn who and where to send appeals to in Iran, asking that they not be executed.

And click here to read a recent column by Nat Hentoff in the Village Voice about the barbaric Iranian practice of stoning women until dead.

Here's the wonderful news from Mazahery:

Parisa Akbari, one of the Iranian women sentenced to death by stoning for “adultery,” walked out of jail as a free woman today after receiving 99 lashes for having sex outside of marriage. Based on a motion filed by her new, volunteer, lawyer in the High State Court, Parisa was granted a new trial, which was held last month. At the new trial, lawyers were able to present evidence of Parisa’s innocence.

Additionally, the lawyers successfully argued that the lower court had used erroneous legal and Islamic standards in issuing Parisa’s original sentence. Based on the new evidence and legal arguments, the High State Court dismissed the original charges against Parisa and vacated the sentence of death by stoning.

According to Parisa’s lawyer, who is also representing Ashraf Kalhori (another woman sentenced to death by stoning for committing the crime of “adultery”), although the head of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary has issued an stay of execution in Ashraf’s case, Ashraf continues to remain in jail and on death row, awaiting a response to her motion for acquittal.

The lawyers representing Ashraf have been informed that her case has been sent back to the prosecutors for a new investigation in her case and they are currently working to find out more details about this new investigation.

From DoD: Rummy in Philly, Dec. 1, 2006



Get me one of those barf bags from an airline, and quickly too! I've just seen the photo released today by the Pentagon of outgoing DoD head Rumsfeld wearing the Gold Medal awarded to him on Friday by the Union Club in Philadelphia and I feel like throwing up.

Rumsfeld should be facing a war crimes tribunal, preferably in jailhouse orange sweats, not being honored with a red, white and blue ribbon with a dangling piece of bling and the soon-to-be ex secretary of defense in a snazzy tux.

According to the AP, several handfuls of protesters voiced their opposition to him receiving the honor and his deadly policies. Thank you very much, Philly protesters, one and all! Interesting that the Union Club lays blame for the event's shroud of secrecy at Rumsfeld's feet:

About three dozen people rallied outside Philadelphia's venerable Union League to protest the organization's decision to honor departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Officials at the selective private club presented its Gold Medal to Rumsfeld at a black-tie affair on Friday night, but would not discuss the reason behind the award.

"My family is traditional Republican, and they are sick about the Union League giving Rumsfeld a medal," said protester Elizabeth Doering, whose grandfather and father were longtime club members. "It's such a crass gesture."

When the league gave then-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor its Gold Medal in 2004, the event received full press coverage. But the league kept the Rumsfeld medal cloaked in secrecy until the Philadelphia Daily News broke the story on Thursday. [...]

When asked about the secrecy surrounding the Rumsfeld medal, league spokeswoman Patricia Tobin said, "It's up to the awardee. We always try to respect the wishes of the awardee."

SF Chronicle: Pelosi, Please Disclose HIV/AIDS Earmark

Maybe with the SF Chronicle printing my letter today, Rep. Pelosi and her staff will deign to reply to the query I sent them on November 21 about this HIV/AIDS earmark.

From the Chronicle:

Letters to the Editor
December 2

Pelosi, please disclose

Editor -- Your editorial on ethics and earmarks ("Ethics -- do it right," Nov. 27) says there "is no reason to conceal the author of an 'earmark' -- the spending line-items that are now stuffed into legislation anonymously." I couldn't agree more.

Last week I sent U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, a series of basic questions about a $1.5 million earmark for an HIV/AIDS demonstration project to be conducted by the San Francisco health department. I am trying to ascertain if she is behind the earmark and would also like for her office to provide me with the contract for the project.

One way to bring much-needed ethical reform to Congress would be for Pelosi to fully disclose any and all of her recent earmarks, or if she hasn't any, to clearly state that. But if Pelosi is behind any earmarks, and the $1.5 HIV/AIDS earmark is hers, then I hope she will explain her reasons for orchestrating the grant to the city's health department.

MICHAEL PETRELIS
San Francisco