By SABRINA SHANKMAN
With no supervisors’ meeting this week, Campos sat down with Mission Loc@l on Wednesday for a quick (read: 10-minute) chat between meetings. Relieved to finally see the sun after days of rain—’cause the supe likes to ride his scooter to city hall—an apologetic but busy Campos talked with us about racial profiling, tat removal for young’uns on their way out of gangs, and the hope that the federal stimulus package might help Latino business owners in the Mission. Coming out of a three-year gig as a police commissioner, Campos’ priority is public safety, which partly explains his recent campaign to address racial profiling in the Mission and his concerns about finding the right candidate to replace Heather Fong as police chief.
Along with public safety, Campos said he’s also putting finances at the top of his list. He said in upcoming weeks he’ll be fighting to ensure that budget cuts don’t overly compromise the police department, and that the federal stimulus plan’s small business loans may help Latino business owners in the Mission.
Campos’ staff are still nailing down his weekly schedule, but the plan for now is he will spend Fridays in District 9 meeting with members of the community. This week that meant a merchant walk through Bernal Heights; last week it was a stroll through the Mission. No word on whether these weekly meetings will always be mobile, but we’ll let you know when he’ll be back in our ‘hood.
In the meantime, we’ve got 10 solid days of rain ahead of us so it looks like it’s back to the Muni for our guy in charge.