By NICHOLAS KUSNETZ
Our local representative reached national fame this week, or at least fame in the immigration law blogosphere. District 9 Supervisor David Campos was named Immigrant of the Day this past Monday by ilw.com, which dubs itself “the leading immigration law publisher.”
In the immortal words of Greg Siskind, via his own blog, “Guatemalan-born David Campos has overcome his status as an illegally present immigrant kid in the U.S. to become a legislative leader in San Francisco.” Hooray! Well, at least we hope so.
Campos showed up a bit late for the Thursday rally he promised to march in and speak at, but he was supposedly meeting with the mayor, perhaps discussing those very cuts.
In past weeks, cuts to the human service departments have been the hot topic at Budget and Finance Committee meetings, but this week they moved on to public safety. Like all the others, the police department has been asked to reduce its budget for next year, so Chief Heather Fong came to present her proposal to the committee. Campos showed expertise from his days as police commissioner and got into the nitty gritty of civilianization.
Huh?
Years ago, voters told the police department to hire more civilians. By putting regular folks in managerial positions, so says this theory, the city saves money, gets more cops on the street, and can even have a department more responsive to community needs. But the budget mess is messing with the plans for more civilians that has been turned into the new word civilianization, as in Campos’ assertion, “To me civilianization is one of those things that makes a lot of sense.”
Fong concurred. So what’s the problem? They’re going to talk about it again in Campos’ Public Safety Committee, he said, and work it out there.
The full Board meeting was relatively quiet on Tuesday, though the measure adopting the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child was finally passed as reported earlier in Mission Loc@l. Campos also signed on as co-sponsor of a number of amendments, including one proclaiming April 8 as National Start! Walking Day, an effort to get people more active and healthy.
Campos himself may be more active soon. The Rules Committee recommended on Thursday that the District 9 supe serve on the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. The recommendation now awaits full board approval.