They're at it again

July 27, 2006

Supervisors Mirkarimi and McGoldrick introduced new resolutions to the Board of Supervisors this week regarding evictions.  When the Peskin anti-condo legislation passed two months ago, that was supposed to put an end to the Ellis eviction debate.  It lasted less than two months.

Of most concern is the  resolution introduced by Supervisor Mirkarimi.  This resolution "urges" the Sheriff's department to break the law and not enforce a court ordered Ellis eviction.  The resolution also asks that the Rent Board not give advise to landlords attempting an Ellis eviction.  The Rent Board is a city agency and is supposed to be a neutral body.  This would turn the Rent Board into a tenants advocacy group financed by the landlords!

Supervisor Mirkarimi also introduced  a resolution requesting the Sheriff's Department to collect data on the Ellis evictions that they enforce.  While on the face of it, it may not seem like a big deal, it is probably just the beginning of something more.  The benefit of this measure may be that the data collection will again show that there is not a crisis here.

On the same day, Supervisor McGoldrick introduced a resolution that the Rent Board and the SF Unified School District track evictions of families with school age children.  While this is only a data collection effort at this time, you can be sure that it is the beginning of further limitations to evictions.

Write to Supervisor Mirkarimi, Ross.Mirkarimi@sfgov.org ,and let him know that you do not appreciate him wasting City money trying to pass a law that is clearly illegal.   Also write to the City Attorney,  Dennis Herrara at cityattorney@sfgov.org to let him know that you do not appreciate him wasting City money by not putting an end to these kind of illegal laws before they move forward.  He needs to tell the supervisor that this is a clearly illegal and will be thrown out by the courts.  If this is passed, it will surely lead to lawsuits that will waste private and city resources litigating the matter.

All of these resolutions will be heard by the Land Use Committee of the Board.  As these resolutions move forward, we will notify you of any hearings.