As San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi heads to court today to end to his legal troubles, he's facing another potential challenge. For the past week, Mayor Ed Lee has been in consultation with City Attorney Dennis Herrera on what would be needed to make the case that Mirkarimi should be removed from office.
"Basically it comes down to the question of whether someone convicted of unlawfully imprisoning his wife should be the sheriff of San Francisco," said one source close to the talks, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of issue.
Lee had been prepared to suspend Mirkarimi on the spot if the sheriff had been found guilty of domestic violence for a New Year's Eve incident involving his wife, and thus been barred from carrying a gun.
But last week's plea bargain, in which Mirkarimi admitted to the hazier charge of misdemeanor false imprisonment, threw the mayor for a loop.
"One problem is that for whatever reason, the district attorney has refused to hand over the tape," the source said, referring to the 55-second video of Mirkarimi's wife, Eliana Lopez, tearfully showing a bruise on her arm that she says her husband inflicted.
"The video was obtained by search warrant, but the mayor has other ways to obtain it," said D.A. spokeswoman Stephanie Ong Stillman. "The court has a copy and the police have a copy. There is also a full transcript of it in the court record, so there is plenty of evidence available."
Meanwhile, Herrera and a team of five lawyers have been going over what they have so far. If they give the thumbs-up, Lee will have the grounds to take a case of official misconduct against Mirkarimi to the Ethics Commission and, eventually, the Board of Supervisors.
On the rails: A Canadian firm, Bombardier Transportation, topped two other finalists for a $3.5 billion competition to build BART's new 765-car rail fleet - but local transit officials might want to call Chicago first.
Bombardier gets 15 days to prepare for a "Buy American" audit - proving that it can meet federal and BART requirements for at least 60 percent of labor and materials to come from the United States.
Officials, however, might also want to take a closer look at Bombardier's work in Chicago, where 52 new cars produced by the firm have been either pulled or held from service since tests revealed defective steel parts made by a Chinese supplier.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the parts could break and potentially cause a moving train to derail.
Bombardier says it fired the supplier.
BART board member Bob Franklin told us Friday that any deal with Bombardier would be "fully vetted" before he and his colleagues sign off on the first installment of the contract, probably in May.
Fellow director Tom Blalock told us he wasn't overly worried, based on Bombardier's 1995 contract to refurbish BART's entire original fleet of 439 cars.
"There were problems with suppliers and equipment that cropped up," Blalock said, "and they made good on every one."
Big guns: The competition is heating up for the multimillion-dollar contract to run the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex - and some big names are orbiting the play.
SMG, the outfit that has held the Coliseum management contract for 13 years, has hired on former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, local lobbyist Shonda Scott and PR ace Sam Singer to press its case.
Former San Francisco Mayor and Chronicle columnist Willie Brown is advising rival Global Spectrum, a subsidiary of Comcast, though he insists he isn't lobbying on its behalf.
The third bidder is L.A.-based Anschutz Entertainment Group, which has hired on local lobbyist and former Oakland City Council candidate Melanie Shelby.
Perata is already knocking the Anschutz group, saying it's trying to woo the Raiders to Los Angeles and the Warriors to San Francisco.
For the record, Anschutz Entertainment reps have assured Coliseum officials that they have no plans to poach the Raiders. No such commitment yet, however, on the Warriors.
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