John St. Croix, Executive Director john.st.croix@sfgov.org
Susan Harriman, Chairperson sharriman@kvn.com
Emi Gusuka, Vice-Chairperson egusukuma@haasnaja.com
Eileen Hansen, Commissioner eileenhansensf8@yahoo.com
Jamienne S. Studley, Commissioner jstudley@publicadvocates.org
Charles L. Ward, Commissioner cward@ybca.org

Dear Commissioner,

I am an San Francisco resident, and an arts administrator for the City of Palo Alto. I was shocked and disappointed to see the way one of the mayoral candidates, “Chicken” John Rinaldi was treated by your commission.

I was under the impression that public funding (matching funds) as administered by the Ethics Commission as a way to invite grass-roots organizations and non-mainstream candidates into the system, as a way of keeping the playing field more even so that the ideas favored by big money would not always dominate the discussion.

Judging by your actions as committee, I now see that you are there to keep the status quo, and keep “the little guys” out of the public eye.

I must admit, the way the process works seems ethical at first glance, but that is deceptive. It is clearly loaded in favor of big money.

Specifically:

• Your minutes should match the actual content of your meetings. See:
http://www.chickenjohn.com/ethics2.html

• Donations via Pay-Pal should of course be accepted as legitimate! Don’t we live in the center of the high-tech world?

• There should be clear, concise and understandable parameters of what will be accepted as proof of address.

• Small cash donations should be acceptable with sworn statement.

• It should be easier for people who have moved recently, or who have expired driver’s licenses, or people whose business name is on their personal checks, or have other minor discrepancies to have their donations counted.

• You should understand that with grass-roots organizations, there will be a few typos or other mistakes. These organizations should not be punished for this.

Please be on the side of “small d” democracy! Many of us will be closely watching the outcome of this situation. Of course, you did already succeed in muffling an important voice in favor of the arts, and of renters, and of local color during the election. Hopefully you will change your priorities before the next one.

Larnie Fox
San Francisco, CA