If there’s one thing that supporters and opponents of suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi can agree on – and judging by the vitriolic tenor of the reader comments every time I write about this case, there isn’t much – it’s that everyone will be happy when this sordid scandal is behind us, which could happen today when the Board of Supervisors holds a marathon hearing and likely vote on whether to remove Mirkarimi from office for official misconduct.
The hearing begins at 2pm in the Board Chambers in City Hall, but get there early if you want a seat, although you can always settle for the overflow room. Better yet, just follow my updates on the SFBG Twitter feed. I’ll post the important highlights, and a few ugly lowlights, and you won’t need to sully yourself with this muck and mire. You’re welcome.
This has been an unseemly case from start to finish, from the revelations in early January that Mirkarimi grabbed and bruised his wife’s arm during a New Year’s Eve argument to the sensational way it was played in the local media to Mayor Ed Lee’s decision to pile on a bunch of other unsupported charges that were dispelled during Ethics Commission hearings that dragged on and on.
Unfortunately, no matter what happens today, there will be aftermath. Reinstatement could at least end things today and send him back to an office that is usually fairly low-profile, at least until domestic violence advocates and other Mirkarimi-haters launch a recall campaign against him (whee, won’t that be fun?!?!).
If Mirkarimi is removed, then we can probably expect this case to continue rattling through the courts for awhile as Mirkarimi and his attorneys challenge the city’s untested official misconduct language, adopted in 1995, as unconstitutionally broad and pursue other avenues of appeal. But, no matter what happens, this will all soon be just a disturbing memory.