I Won Second Place With 7.2% of the Vote
By Michael Petrelis

The results are in and I'm damn proud to have received 1,485 of ballots cast in the San Francisco District 8 race for Supervisor, and winning the second place of the campaign.

Election results are for all intents and purposes complete, with 98.57% of the vote in our district counted, and my percentage of votes comes to 7.2%.

It's been a fantastic and long trip running for elective office, and my sincerest thanks go out to everyone who voted for me or in anyway lent support and friendship during the almost year-long campaign. I couldn't have done this without you!

Special gratitude and love to my great and wonderful husbear Mike Merrigan, who had to put up with all the ups and downs of this DIY Democracy effort and kept me laughing and healthy.

I spent the final hours of this Election Day at the David Campos party at the El Rio, my first time there, and glad I schmoozed with everyone. Campos got my vote and at one point told me he was glad I ran against the incumbent and I thanked him for saying that.

Here are photos of me with friends and folks who gave me their votes.

Poz Mag: Positive Politics With Heywood & Petrelis
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

There are two openly HIV positive candidates on the ballot in America this November according to an excellent story by Casey Halter at the Poz magazine web site last week, (http://tinyurl.com/POZ-2014-candidates).

Todd Heywood is vying for seat on the Community College Board of Lansing, Michigan, and Petrelis is running for District 8 Supervisor in San Francisco.

Halter reports that there currently are very few two self-identified positive political leaders including John D'Amico who is the mayor of West Hollywood and New York City Councilmember Corey Johnson. We could use a few more poz politicians.

We're especially pleased Halter quoted us about races here in which there is just a single person, usually the incumbent, on the ballot. This year, Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Assessor Carmen Chu and District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang have no competition and that is very unhealthy for San Francisco democracy.

Here are excerpts from the Poz piece:

"Like [longtime advocate and person living with AIDS Sean] Strub, Petrelis is running in protest. 'In the past few years, there have been too many races [in San Francisco] where there was only one candidate. There were no serious challengers to incumbents.' The former ACT UP member describes himself as the 'underdog' in the District 8 race. [...]

“I say I’ve already ‘won’ in the sense that, for the past 10 or 11 months, I have engaged with voters as a person living with AIDS,' Petrelis says. 'I’ve engaged with many other HIV-positive people in San Francisco and a number of people who are HIV negative and certainly concerned about AIDS. It’s really been a fulfilling endeavor.' [...]

"For Petrelis, being HIV positive is an asset in his race for supervisor. 'One benefit, if I were to be elected, would be that I know how to follow the money through the AIDS groups,' he says. He has a long record of pushing AIDS service organizations to release their federal tax returns to increase financial transparency.

"We’ve been throwing so many millions of dollars at AIDS in San Francisco, but I don’t think we’ve asked the question: Has the money been effectively used?” [...]

"In addition to delivering on policy goals that support people living with the virus, Heywood, Petrelis and Strub believe that getting the HIV/AIDS community involved in politics also helps combat stigma and discrimination.[...] Whatever your politics, remember to vote."

Thank you, Casey Halter, and Poz magazine for this write up!

Here's a photo of Petrelis with his good friend Dean Oullette at a recent City Hall rally.

Vid: If You're Pissed Off, #VotePetrelis!
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

One-week from today, the 2014 election will be over and we hope our DIY Democracy campaign will rack up decent numbers of protest votes from District 8 residents who support what we stand for and also cast ballots for us to send a message of dissatisfaction with the incumbent Supervisor.

We shot this video today to reinforce our campaign slogan, "If you're pissed, vote Petrelis!"

What better way to do this than in a men's room standing near urinals? Needless to say, the candidate gave full permission to be videotaped making good use of the restroom and proudly wore his SF Giants' apparel.

All District 8 voters are asked to vote three times for Petrelis. Mark all three ranked-choice columns, with Petrelis' name at the top of each, and let the incumbent, Mayor Ed Lee, their wealthy tech friends, the real estate and construction industries and power-brokers such as Willie Brown know you're pissed off.

As Election Day draws closer, we again express deep gratitude to everyone who has donated or taped up posters or worn a button or shared campaign info via social media (do more of that, please!) and already voted for Petrelis. Thank you.

 

Which Supes Got Airbnb Executives' Donations?
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Following the money of Airbnb executives for the current election season as listed at the San Francisco Ethics Commission web site led us to some unsurprising info. All of these contributions from the executives were made in 2014.

Varsha Rao gave Supervisor Mark Farrell $500; Stephen Conley donated $500 to Assessor Carmen Chu, $500 to Supervisor Katy Tang, $500 to Supervisor Malia Cohen; Jeffrey Nanney contributed $500 to Supervisor Scott Wiener; and David Owen gave $100 to Chu.

Airbnb Inc contributed $2,500 to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, which is the home club for Wiener.

All of the Supervisors who received donations from the Airbnb leaders voted in the majority last week legalizing short-term stays in private homes and apartments, and absolving Airbnb of having to pay about $25 million in back taxes.

The legislation was signed by Mayor Ed Lee yesterday, as affordable housing advocates built an alter honoring all the displaced and evicted renters and small businesses over the past few years of the tech boom disfiguring San Francisco.

We're just saying it's rather curious four of the Supervisors who voted for legislation with very favorable terms for this tech firm also received the maximum amount allowed by local law for donations from individuals.

Pissed off about this sort of stuff? Then #VotePetrelis!

Glen Park Area Outreach & Posters on Display
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Our terrific volunteers went out to the Glen Park area of District 8 and taped up a few dozen of our campaign signs. They energetically engaged with voters,distributed our union-made buttons and handed out campaign cards.

We're hoping the voters who expressed dissatisfaction with the incumbent Supervisor check out our Facebook page, as they promised to do. Of course, we'd love to have them also mark their first choice on the ballot for Petrelis!

It's great to see our posters have gone up in Noe Valley, the Castro business district, the Mission, around Dolores Park, along the Church Street business corridor and near Duboce Triangle Park.

Many thanks to the volunteers and contributors who've made this outreach and poster display possible. If you're pissed off, #VotePetrelis!

Closed-Door Job Evaluation of SF Fire Chief Protested
By Michael Petrelis

The San Francisco Fire Commission met yesterday afternoon for a regularly scheduled meeting and I was there for a few reasons, starting with verbally protesting how Chief Joanne Hayes-White's performance would be discussed out of public view.

As you may know, she's been under withering criticism from Supervisor London Breed, a former member of the fire commission, members of the firefighters union and its bosses, and ambulance workers and their parent companies over issues such as long response time for EMT vehicles.

However, Mayor Ed Lee has stood by Hayes-White and has given no indication that he's unsatisfied with her leadership and several women in leadership positions at City Hall have come to her defense.

During public comment about Hayes-White's report to the commission, I protested the closed-door evaluation that would happen at the end of the meeting and stated it was a huge disservice to the taxpayers, the general public and the safety of citizens to conduct the evaluation out of public view.

I mentioned that she's faced a pitchfork brigade and a trial by fire, no pun intended, in the media, and that I wanted facts unfiltered about her leadership protecting the public from fires and solving the ambulance response time crisis.

Even though the job evaluation would be behind closed-doors, I still requested a summary be issued to the public about what transpired in the session. I also distributed my #VotePetrelis campaign cards to folks.

How the heck are we taxpayers supposed to fairly judge Hayes-White's performance if we don't have access to the information and details presented to and debated by the fire commission? Yes, I understand privacy protections for public employees, but when that employee is responsible for a vast portion of public safety a way must be found to provide some degree of transparency to the public.

The fire commission owes everyone additional data about the job performance and evaluation of the chief.

Chief Hayes-White giving her report.

 Two ambulance workers. Minutes do not reflect the diversity of attendees at commission meetings.

Yours truly at the podium before the meeting began.

'Petrelis Requested Records' Page Created at City Attorney's Site
By Michael Petrelis

Sure wish I knew what brought a complete turnaround from City Attorney Dennis Herrera and his staff regarding my May request for his right-hand's emails, which are created with taxpayer infrastructure and public documents. I'd like to repeat the achievement here with other elected officials.

Herrera's City-funded site now includes a Resources page entitled "Michael Petrelis Requested Records" (http://tinyurl.com/SFCityAtty-Petrelis-page), and reads:

"[Here] are records responsive to Michael Petrelis' request for emails to and from Tara Collins between March 1 and May 28, 2014. Because the large file sizes -- which together exceed 68 MB -- may be unwieldy for some email systems, these have been uploaded to this web page for the requester's convenience."

A huge leap forward for San Francisco government transparency has been accomplished with these emails now on the web and just a few clicks away.

First, the City Attorney ended months of ignoring my request. Second, the office profusely apologized for the tardiness and neglect in responding. Third, they agreed to produce the public records.

Now, the fourth and biggest sunshine accomplishment here is the City Attorney has previously unreleased public records, a total of six (6) volumes, available for anyone to read.

This development begs the question of why can't we have Herrera and every City department sharing every public records request made to them and the responsive documents posted on their department's web sites? Doing this on a monthly basis would greatly expand San Francisco's City Hall transparency and make our elected officials more accountable to taxpayers.

African-American Dem Club Endorses #VotePetrelis
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

We've received our first and only endorsement from a local political group. Word came earlier this week from the African-American Democratic Club that they've given us their third choice endorsement and we're pleased to have this stamp of approval.

Honestly, we were surprised when the email from club president Jo Elias-Jackson, arrived informing of us this endorsement because we hadn't received a questionnaire from the club but we're surely delighted they found reason to like our DIY Democracy effort.

The African-American Democratic Club's endorsement is the second backing from a San Francisco based organization, as we previously received the support of the Anti Eviction Mapping Project, which doesn't endorse candidates but their members felt strongly enough about our candidacy to throw some love our way.

Thank you, Jo Elias-Jackson, pictured, and fellow leaders of the African-American Democratic Club for your endorsement.

City Attorney Apologizes for 'Tardiness and Neglect'
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Never underestimate the amount of bull fecal matter that can flow from an elected official in San Francisco when having to adhere to open governmentsunshine laws, especially City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office.

He's supposed to be the chief enforcer of such laws and yet his office has ignored my public records request filed on May 30, for copies of the emails from Herrera's top assistant Tara Collins.

As our #VotePetrelis team noted on October 17, the City Attorney sought a continuance regarding our impending hearing at the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force regarding the failure to produce the public records, and Herrera cited no reason for the continuance which we emphatically opposed.

A few days ago, Herrera's staff publicist Matt Dorsey, who was copied on my original records request and subsequent emails to the City Attorney's Office, sent this remarkable note:

It came to my attention earlier this week that our office had never responded to your request for emails to and from Tara Collins between March 1 and May 28, 2014, and I write to apologize to you on behalf of the City Attorney's Office for our tardiness and neglect.

I also want to apologize to you personally, because my team is ultimately responsible for processing Sunshine requests, and it is clear that I was less diligent in my oversight than I should have been in making sure your request was being handled appropriately.

A number of people pitched-in over the last few days to go through the material you requested as expeditiously as possible, in order to make the necessary redactions, and I now have six PDFs of responsive records to send to you. [...]

Again, my apologies for this. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yes, it's good to see the City Attorney acknowledge this outrageous tardiness and neglect, which is sadly standard operating procedure for Herrera's staff and we look forward to poring over the responsive records, however, we intend to pursue our SOTF complaint in order to once and for all put an end to the delays and obfuscations of Herrera's office.

We must point out Dorsey is a member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and once told the New York Times the SOTF was a "rogue, lawless jury" and its meetings "tedious kangaroo court (http://tinyurl.com/Dorsey-NYTimes), to bolster our case that he is a professional and loyal functionary of the permanent ruling class at City Hall and within the Democratic Party.

Don't like this sort of underhandedness from a public servant, at the City Attorney's Office where the incumbent District 8 Supervisor was a deputy before being elected to the Board of Supervisors? Want to send a message to Herrera, Dorsey, City Hall and Democratic loyalists carving up San Francisco for the rich and powerful?

If you're pissed off, #VotePetrelis!

Campos or Chiu: Who Got $ From Parks' Boss Phil Ginsburg? 
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

You've probably heard about the video showing Latino youths and techies arguing over the Mission Playground soccer field, and who had the right to play on it one recent afternoon.

The video has been viewed on YouTube almost 348,000 times and you can watch it here: http://tinyurl.com/Mission-Soccer-mess.

There's a rally today, Thursday, October 16, from 9 to 10 am at City Hall to send a message to the Parks and Recreation Commission that the Mission Playground is not for sale and should remain public space without fees needed to play soccer.

As longtime proponents of returning the rainbow flagpole and LGBT Pride flag at Harvey Milk Plaza, which is public property, to the public and ending the control of the city owned property by the Castro Merchants, we're pleased to see the grassroots uprising over the Mission Playground and who gets access to public space.

The #VotePetrelis team will at the City Hall rally and more info about it can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/Rally-4-Mission-Playground.

Curious about the political leanings of Phil Ginsburg, the general manager of San Francisco Parks and Recreation, we checked his donations to candidates and discovered that he donated $250 in June to David Chiu's assembly campaign and nothing to his challenger David Campos.

Our source for this data comes from the Secretary of State's search engine for contributions made to candidates and committees: http://tinyurl.com/Cal-Access.

We want to make the political agenda of Ginsburg fully transparent as the battle over who gets access to San Francisco's public spaces enters a new phase.

ACT UP Vets Mark Castro Sweep Via Protest Songs
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Members of the original ACT UP/San Francisco chapter who were present at the October 6, 1989, Castro Sweep twenty-five year ago marked the anniversary with a one-hour vigil and singing of protest songs on Monday, October 6, 2014.

Francis Collins, who's at many a progressive protest with his guitar adding music to demonstrations, and Dennis McMillan, alias Sister Dana Van Iquity of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, spoke at Castro and 18th Streets about the SFPD roughing up LGBT and HIV activists to the point of leaving them bloody and harmed.

The vigil commemorated the Castro Sweep and also delivered visual solidarity with the Yes on G ballot prop, the anti-speculation tax that will protect renters if passed, and the #VotePetrelis candidacy.

Dean Oullette was a member of ACT UP/New York and he used a Sharpie and large piece of cardboard to spell out why we gathered in the gayborhood last night.

A gay couple and their pooch came to the vigil to get #VotePetrelis signs and let us know they're voting for Petrelis. They allowed Petrelis to pose with their adorable little dog.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the vigil and to Bill Wilson for snapping the great photos.