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D10 Recall - Arntz Delays Certification of Signatures
Why won’t Elections director put District 10 recall on Nov. 2 ballot? Special election would cost hundreds of thousands and disenfranchise voters
“The recall of Supervisor Sophie Maxwell has really gotten people in the District 10 communities involved in politics,” wrote Apollonia Jordan in the June 16 Bay View, alongside a picture of some of the hard-working signature gatherers, tired but smiling at the end of a long day.
This recall is the essence of democracy: citizens determining their own destiny. The thousands who eagerly signed the recall petition – far more than the 3,900 registered voters required – were exercising their right to choose as their district supervisor someone strong and effective enough to solve some of the City’s worst problems, urgent problems, problems of life and death.
They expected to vote on the recall and a new District 10 supervisor in the general election Nov. 2. That’s a presidential election, giving voters a chance to beat Bush, to elect lawmakers at every level, from Congress to the Board of Supervisors, and to decide the fate of a host of ballot measures. The turnout is predicted to be the highest in decades.
But Director of Elections John Arntz says no, an amendment to the City Charter requires a special election in December for the recall. We say that amendment puts the recall on the general election ballot.
The difference hinges on what the voters meant by the word “it” when they approved this Charter amendment in 1996. Arntz admits in a letter we received Thursday that our interpretation is “one possibility”; his is another. A member of the Elections Commission I spoke with says Arntz is dragging his feet.
More than two weeks after we submitted the signatures, on July 19, Arntz admits the Elections Department has not yet checked a single one. State law allows the sufficiency of the signatures to be decided simply by random sampling if a high enough percentage is found to be valid – that is, if the name and address of the petition signer appears on the City’s “master voter file” of registered voters.
But in over two weeks, the Elections Department has not found the time even to perform the random sampling. Clearly, the recall is not a high priority.
What difference does it make if we vote on the recall in November or December? A difference of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” that a special election would cost, according to Arntz’ letter – hundreds of thousands desperately needed in this budget crisis, especially in District 10, to save lives stalked by poverty, prejudice and pollution.
And a difference that would further disenfranchise San Francisco’s most disenfranchised voters. “For the last several elections,” says well known activist Marie Harrison, a candidate for supervisor in District 10 in 2000, “District 10 has been another Florida. Voters, especially low-income Black voters and other voters of color, were intimidated and treated like criminals, just for wanting to vote.
“Many voters who live in public and subsidized housing were told that if they didn’t vote right, they’d lose their homes – and they did,” Harrison says. City statistics show that 67 percent of San Francisco’s homeless people come from Bay View Hunters Point.
In a special election, with only the recall on the ballot, people going to the polls could come under suspicion for intending to vote the “wrong” way. The level of fear could rise; turnout, always low for a special election, could fall further. Is this democracy?
Elections Director John Arntz knows that the recall is the will of the people. The number of people who signed the recall petition he holds is greater than the votes cast for incumbent Sophie Maxwell in either 2000 or 2002. Why is he not doing all he can to support the people of District 10 who want to exercise their democratic rights?
Recall proponents will hold a press conference at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the hallway outside Room 408 of City Hall just prior to the meeting of the Elections Commission and then attend the meeting at 7 p.m. in Room 408. We will ask the commissioners to find a way to put the recall on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.
We will tell them how hard we tried to gather sufficient signatures sooner than the little over two months it took. And we will tell how little cooperation we got from the Elections Department – their 10-day delay in approving the petition at the beginning of the process and their refusal to give us an up-to-date “master voter file” until the last two and a half weeks.
We urge all San Franciscans who believe in democracy – and the press dedicated to keeping them an informed electorate – to join us at the press conference and the Elections Commission meeting Wednesday.
The Civil Grand Jury, in a report last month, traced District 10’s dire problems to 60 years of neglect by City Hall. Will City Hall fail us again?
Thousands of District 10 voters want desperately to determine our own destiny at the polls on Nov. 2. Let’s see if San Francisco really is the city that knows how.
Contact Willie Ratcliff, (415) 671-0789
Background Info Links http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/08/1691015.php
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/08/1700778.php
File: 3 minute interview with Willie Ratcliff
This recall is the essence of democracy: citizens determining their own destiny. The thousands who eagerly signed the recall petition – far more than the 3,900 registered voters required – were exercising their right to choose as their district supervisor someone strong and effective enough to solve some of the City’s worst problems, urgent problems, problems of life and death.
They expected to vote on the recall and a new District 10 supervisor in the general election Nov. 2. That’s a presidential election, giving voters a chance to beat Bush, to elect lawmakers at every level, from Congress to the Board of Supervisors, and to decide the fate of a host of ballot measures. The turnout is predicted to be the highest in decades.
But Director of Elections John Arntz says no, an amendment to the City Charter requires a special election in December for the recall. We say that amendment puts the recall on the general election ballot.
The difference hinges on what the voters meant by the word “it” when they approved this Charter amendment in 1996. Arntz admits in a letter we received Thursday that our interpretation is “one possibility”; his is another. A member of the Elections Commission I spoke with says Arntz is dragging his feet.
More than two weeks after we submitted the signatures, on July 19, Arntz admits the Elections Department has not yet checked a single one. State law allows the sufficiency of the signatures to be decided simply by random sampling if a high enough percentage is found to be valid – that is, if the name and address of the petition signer appears on the City’s “master voter file” of registered voters.
But in over two weeks, the Elections Department has not found the time even to perform the random sampling. Clearly, the recall is not a high priority.
What difference does it make if we vote on the recall in November or December? A difference of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” that a special election would cost, according to Arntz’ letter – hundreds of thousands desperately needed in this budget crisis, especially in District 10, to save lives stalked by poverty, prejudice and pollution.
And a difference that would further disenfranchise San Francisco’s most disenfranchised voters. “For the last several elections,” says well known activist Marie Harrison, a candidate for supervisor in District 10 in 2000, “District 10 has been another Florida. Voters, especially low-income Black voters and other voters of color, were intimidated and treated like criminals, just for wanting to vote.
“Many voters who live in public and subsidized housing were told that if they didn’t vote right, they’d lose their homes – and they did,” Harrison says. City statistics show that 67 percent of San Francisco’s homeless people come from Bay View Hunters Point.
In a special election, with only the recall on the ballot, people going to the polls could come under suspicion for intending to vote the “wrong” way. The level of fear could rise; turnout, always low for a special election, could fall further. Is this democracy?
Elections Director John Arntz knows that the recall is the will of the people. The number of people who signed the recall petition he holds is greater than the votes cast for incumbent Sophie Maxwell in either 2000 or 2002. Why is he not doing all he can to support the people of District 10 who want to exercise their democratic rights?
Recall proponents will hold a press conference at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the hallway outside Room 408 of City Hall just prior to the meeting of the Elections Commission and then attend the meeting at 7 p.m. in Room 408. We will ask the commissioners to find a way to put the recall on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.
We will tell them how hard we tried to gather sufficient signatures sooner than the little over two months it took. And we will tell how little cooperation we got from the Elections Department – their 10-day delay in approving the petition at the beginning of the process and their refusal to give us an up-to-date “master voter file” until the last two and a half weeks.
We urge all San Franciscans who believe in democracy – and the press dedicated to keeping them an informed electorate – to join us at the press conference and the Elections Commission meeting Wednesday.
The Civil Grand Jury, in a report last month, traced District 10’s dire problems to 60 years of neglect by City Hall. Will City Hall fail us again?
Thousands of District 10 voters want desperately to determine our own destiny at the polls on Nov. 2. Let’s see if San Francisco really is the city that knows how.
Contact Willie Ratcliff, (415) 671-0789
Background Info Links http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/08/1691015.php
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/08/1700778.php
File: 3 minute interview with Willie Ratcliff
For more information:
http://www.sfbayview.com/
Listen now:
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The San Francisco Election Commission met in Room 416 at City Hall and once again the constitutents of San Francisco were lied to.
There are some very serious problems with the SF Election Department and more with its Director John Arntz. Arnold Townsend the President of the Election Commission is an old friend of Willie L. Brown and as far as he is concerned the Brown Act and the Sunshine Laws can be put on the back burner. The issue as hand is that over 9000 signatures were turned in by the constituents of District 10 in San Francisco which covers the Bayview Hunters Point, Visitation Valley, Portola Distirct, Little Hollywood, Dog Patch, and Potrero Hill.
Also Siliver Terrace.
Most of the constitutents are fed up with Sophie Maxwell who is on the take. Developers have had her blessing on projects linked to the huge Fedex Complex, the UPS, projects at 5800 3rd St, 5600 3rd St, Cargo and 3rd. She has been pussyfooting with Henson Concrete and Aggregate, cronies like Karen Pierce, Olin Webb, Joe Boss, Steve Moss all of them have got benefits through grants and favors. Each one of them has a case and are being investigated.
The media has been very slow to follow the leads. In the interim our children are dying from shootings and killings. Innocent constitutents go hungry for months on end. People have no jobs and no future and there is confusion.Our children have no extracurricula activities as do other children all over the City. Children have to be put their lives on the line to cross turfs to attend school. The $600 MUNI Lightrail project has done little in terms of jobs and opportunities. Many business have folded up because of the lingering constrruction, dust, and noise. Hugh sections are dug up and left open for months on end. People risk getting hurt just walking from block to block on 3rd Street.
It is this confusion that Sophie Maxwell and her thug cronies prey on.
Sophie Maxwell was once the President of the Hunters Point Project Area Committee which is a failure. The Elections of the PAC for the last 7 years were all illegal.
Sophie Maxwell worked hard to create a Hunters Point Shipyard Development Authority and I shot it down. She wanted this Authority much like the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) to prey on the constituents and make money off Hunters Point Shipyard and the contracts there. In fact right now she has favored Olin Webb and given him abatement contracts and he has no training, no certification on anything hazmat. She chaired the $13.3 million grant given by the Power Plants to help mitigate the suffering constituents of Hunters Point. Cronies like Olin Webb and Karen Pierce got $1.5 million from this grant. San Francisco Environment even paid the rent of the building. Steve Moss got $1.5 million and now has a Cooperative, Dana Lanza author of the doomed Living Classroom got $900,000, Angelo King and Mohamed Nuru wrote a grant and gifted $1.5 million for the Conservatory in Golden Park to train some 12 hortoculturists. Sophie turned around and gave her own Mother's School - Enola Maxwell Middle School some $900,000 to place some faulty solar pannels. This is a crying shame. Sophie Maxwell has pandered to the crooks and the media has fallen for her lies.
The Election Department should have conducted their findings on the turned in signatures and adjudicated the situation and put the Recall on the Novermber ballot. Willie Ratcliff the Bayview Publisher wants to run and serve the constituent of District 10. There are other forces who are waiting to put in their candidate - Kim Burton could make a run and a Special Election with big money could favor her. The right thing to do is have a Recall and get Sophie ass out of District 10 as soon as possible. Expose her cronies who do not care about the constituents of District 10. Right now the only thing going for Sophie Maxwell are her lies. The media has been slow to investigate this lying woman and expose the facts which are many. It is time to send this inept, ignorant, and very arrogant woman packing. This woman has to go.
Francisco Da Costa
Director
Environmental Justice Advocacy
4909 3rd Street, CA 94124
There are some very serious problems with the SF Election Department and more with its Director John Arntz. Arnold Townsend the President of the Election Commission is an old friend of Willie L. Brown and as far as he is concerned the Brown Act and the Sunshine Laws can be put on the back burner. The issue as hand is that over 9000 signatures were turned in by the constituents of District 10 in San Francisco which covers the Bayview Hunters Point, Visitation Valley, Portola Distirct, Little Hollywood, Dog Patch, and Potrero Hill.
Also Siliver Terrace.
Most of the constitutents are fed up with Sophie Maxwell who is on the take. Developers have had her blessing on projects linked to the huge Fedex Complex, the UPS, projects at 5800 3rd St, 5600 3rd St, Cargo and 3rd. She has been pussyfooting with Henson Concrete and Aggregate, cronies like Karen Pierce, Olin Webb, Joe Boss, Steve Moss all of them have got benefits through grants and favors. Each one of them has a case and are being investigated.
The media has been very slow to follow the leads. In the interim our children are dying from shootings and killings. Innocent constitutents go hungry for months on end. People have no jobs and no future and there is confusion.Our children have no extracurricula activities as do other children all over the City. Children have to be put their lives on the line to cross turfs to attend school. The $600 MUNI Lightrail project has done little in terms of jobs and opportunities. Many business have folded up because of the lingering constrruction, dust, and noise. Hugh sections are dug up and left open for months on end. People risk getting hurt just walking from block to block on 3rd Street.
It is this confusion that Sophie Maxwell and her thug cronies prey on.
Sophie Maxwell was once the President of the Hunters Point Project Area Committee which is a failure. The Elections of the PAC for the last 7 years were all illegal.
Sophie Maxwell worked hard to create a Hunters Point Shipyard Development Authority and I shot it down. She wanted this Authority much like the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) to prey on the constituents and make money off Hunters Point Shipyard and the contracts there. In fact right now she has favored Olin Webb and given him abatement contracts and he has no training, no certification on anything hazmat. She chaired the $13.3 million grant given by the Power Plants to help mitigate the suffering constituents of Hunters Point. Cronies like Olin Webb and Karen Pierce got $1.5 million from this grant. San Francisco Environment even paid the rent of the building. Steve Moss got $1.5 million and now has a Cooperative, Dana Lanza author of the doomed Living Classroom got $900,000, Angelo King and Mohamed Nuru wrote a grant and gifted $1.5 million for the Conservatory in Golden Park to train some 12 hortoculturists. Sophie turned around and gave her own Mother's School - Enola Maxwell Middle School some $900,000 to place some faulty solar pannels. This is a crying shame. Sophie Maxwell has pandered to the crooks and the media has fallen for her lies.
The Election Department should have conducted their findings on the turned in signatures and adjudicated the situation and put the Recall on the Novermber ballot. Willie Ratcliff the Bayview Publisher wants to run and serve the constituent of District 10. There are other forces who are waiting to put in their candidate - Kim Burton could make a run and a Special Election with big money could favor her. The right thing to do is have a Recall and get Sophie ass out of District 10 as soon as possible. Expose her cronies who do not care about the constituents of District 10. Right now the only thing going for Sophie Maxwell are her lies. The media has been slow to investigate this lying woman and expose the facts which are many. It is time to send this inept, ignorant, and very arrogant woman packing. This woman has to go.
Francisco Da Costa
Director
Environmental Justice Advocacy
4909 3rd Street, CA 94124
In the hearing, John Arntz stated that it would only take 3-5 days to verify the signatures. You will notice from listening to the hearing that there is a discrepancey between the deadline the community was given to turn in the signatures, and the amount of time the DOE said it needs to certify them. The DOE still had 2 full weeks to get this very important matter done and it didn't. The real deadline is August 5th, so if it only takes 3-5 days and they recieved the signatures on July 19th, well, that would have given them 2 weeks to get this done.
I ran out of tape at the hearing, and the meeting became even more interesting. Check here for minutes of the meeting: Elections Commission Meetings - Info and Minutes
We watched as John Arntz pretty much refused to cooperate or take any action to do everything in their power to make the deadline of certifying the petition a priority. The Elections Commission requested that this item be put on the meetings next agenda and John Arntz will then report back on the matter. Also on the agenda for the next meeting is the subject of undervoting, as pertains to what happened in the case of Green Terry Baum write-in votes not being counted and also pulling her from the November election as well.
I ran out of tape at the hearing, and the meeting became even more interesting. Check here for minutes of the meeting: Elections Commission Meetings - Info and Minutes
We watched as John Arntz pretty much refused to cooperate or take any action to do everything in their power to make the deadline of certifying the petition a priority. The Elections Commission requested that this item be put on the meetings next agenda and John Arntz will then report back on the matter. Also on the agenda for the next meeting is the subject of undervoting, as pertains to what happened in the case of Green Terry Baum write-in votes not being counted and also pulling her from the November election as well.
Also on the agenda next time will the subject of undervoting, as pertains to what happened in the case of Terry Baum not being on the November ballot. John Arntz actually stated that "the Eagle machines were not programmed to handle undervotes, and in order to do so would have to be recertified by the state." They won't be programmed to handle undervotes for the November election either. This is what messed up Terry Baum's election. They refused to do the hand count in her case, which would only have taken a week according to Arntz's assessment. Terry lost her court case on a technicality that they pulled out of the lawbooks, but the real reason is because the machines were not programmed to handle a write-in, and the department didn't want to take the extra steps needed to compensate for a fair election process.
In the Sunshine Ordinance, Chapter 67 of the San Francisco Administrative Code, it states: Government's duty is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public. Commissions, boards, councils, and other agencies of the City and County exist to conduct the people's business.
It was also noted at the meeting that the DOE was getting ready to do some extra unpaid work for the state of California. My question is, what business do they have doing this work if they can't even take care of San Francisco's work? If the department is not serving in the public's interest, then whose interest are they serving?
In the Sunshine Ordinance, Chapter 67 of the San Francisco Administrative Code, it states: Government's duty is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public. Commissions, boards, councils, and other agencies of the City and County exist to conduct the people's business.
It was also noted at the meeting that the DOE was getting ready to do some extra unpaid work for the state of California. My question is, what business do they have doing this work if they can't even take care of San Francisco's work? If the department is not serving in the public's interest, then whose interest are they serving?
Sophie Maxwell the District 10 Supervisor has no clue what is going on in District 10. Reporters have not done any investigative reporting on this woman who is inept, ignorant, and very arrogant. She has no clue what her constituents want and how she has let them down in Little Hollywood, the Portola District, Visitation Valley, Dog Patch, Silvier Terrace, Bayview Hunters Point. The White folks of Potrero Hill are close to Sophie Maxwell because she panders to them. Over 40% of the folks in District 10 have no jobs. Children go hungry to bed for months on end. Pollution is rampant from the two old toxic spewing power plants. Now, Sophie with Joe Boss, San Francisco Environment, LEJ, is all geared up to place 3 Combustible Turbines near the Mirant Plant to further pollute District 10 and beyond. The killings and shootings go unabated because Sophie has no clue how to put a plan together. She listens to Karen Pierce and Olin Webb two cronies who are only for themselves and see no point in caring for the constituents. Sophie is on the take and one has just to check the records linked to the projects at 5800 3rd St, 5600 3rd St, the Fedex and UPS complexes, Cargo and 3rd, relations with Henson Concrete and Aggregate. The fiasco of the 3 conduits under Islais Creek.
The media has listened to Sophie Maxwell as she lies. She can look you straight in the eye and lie. The woman has no education and is poor on issues. Watch her at the Board of Supervisors and guage for yourselves - why such a woman should be representing any one if ever? Much less the constituents of District 10 who are in need of real representation.
The media has listened to Sophie Maxwell as she lies. She can look you straight in the eye and lie. The woman has no education and is poor on issues. Watch her at the Board of Supervisors and guage for yourselves - why such a woman should be representing any one if ever? Much less the constituents of District 10 who are in need of real representation.
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