What Are You Going To Do, Ed Jew?

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom turned up the heat on Supervisor Ed Jew Tuesday, proclaiming that there is evidence that suggests the embattled lawmaker does not live in the district he represents. Newson said that the anti-Jew bandwagon is rolling down the track a little faster every day and urged him to provide a reasonable explanation quickly. Jew is in trouble, there’s no doubt about it.

The fact that Ed Jew hasn’t resigned yet has a lot of people downtown scratching their heads. Does the man think that if he just hangs on for a couple of weeks and keeps a low profile that it will all just go away? He’s deluded if he does. His attorney has accused Newsom of rushing to judgment before getting all the facts. Well, what is Jew waiting for? If I wasn’t guilty, I would present the evidence of my innocence as fast as I could. Jew is stalling and it’s pretty obvious.

Ed Jew is like a guy who got caught crashing a party and won’t leave.

Newsom expressed apprehension about Jew continuing to cast votes while the legitimacy of his claim to his office has been called into question and said he is reviewing city law to understand exactly what power he has to force Jew out of his seat.

'"The fact that I am reviewing the charter and my role ... is suggestive of the fact that there are concerns," Newsom said, adding that he found the results of a city attorney's investigation into Jew's compliance with San Francisco's residency requirements "very damning" and "quite condemning."

He asked Jew to come forward quickly with evidence that he has lived in the district in which he was elected. "Prove it," he said.

Jew was present at the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, the day after City Attorney Dennis Herrera took what is believed to be the unprecedented step of asking the state attorney general for permission to file a lawsuit to oust a sitting supervisor.

Herrera's investigation found that while Jew has claimed his primary residence is a home owned by his father on 28th Avenue in the Sunset District, the supervisor moved to the house only recently, after media reports began questioning his residency. City law requires supervisors to have lived in the district they represent at least 30 days before filing papers to run for office.
Jew's attorney, Steven Gruel, said the mayor should not be concerned that the supervisor continues to vote on board matters. "You're drawing a conclusion without all the facts," Gruel said.

The monthlong scandal involving the freshman supervisor is in the hands of Attorney General Jerry Brown, who will decide whether the city attorney's office can sue Jew to remove him from office. That decision could take weeks.

The supervisor's troubles began in May when FBI agents raided his City Hall office, his Chinatown flower shop, the home on 28th Avenue and another home in Burlingame where Jew says he and his family spend part of their time. The federal investigation is centered on $40,000 Jew received from Sunset District businessmen who were having permit troubles in San Francisco.

Last week, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris filed felony perjury and election law charges against Jew for allegedly lying under oath and falsifying paperwork when he claimed in candidacy papers and other documents that he lived at 2450 28th Ave.

On Tuesday, Newsom was peppered with questions about Jew during a press conference on another matter.

Under San Francisco law, Newsom has the authority to suspend and eventually remove Jew for official misconduct through the city Ethics Commission and Board of Supervisors. But the mayor said he will not take action until Jew submits to the attorney general a response to Herrera's request for authorization to sue for the supervisor's removal from office.

Jew has 15 days to make his case to the attorney general, but Newsom said he plans to encourage Jew to respond to the attorney general well in advance of the July 3 deadline.

"He should step up to the extent that he feels he is in the right and explain it in a public way," Newsom said. "I don't know that it's that complicated to explain residency. I don't know why you need 15 days. You don't need 10 days. Just come forward. Prove it. It seems like an easy thing to prove."

On Tuesday, Jew voted on a variety of city matters during the board meeting. He refused to answer questions from reporters and had to be escorted to the board chambers by a sheriff's deputy who cleared a pathway for him to walk through a throng of media.

Gruel said Jew would like to be able to discuss the allegations against him with the mayor and resolve his concerns. However, he said, the filing of criminal charges by the district attorney makes that impossible because the supervisor would put himself at risk of saying something that could be used against him by prosecutors.

"If he did have a chance ... I think (Newsom) would have been satisfied with the explanation," Gruel said.

Gruel said he and Jew's other attorneys are considering going to court to bring a halt to the city attorney's investigation until the criminal case against Jew is resolved.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin has asked Newsom to step in and oust Jew from the board, but Newsom has repeatedly said that he was waiting for the various investigations to be complete. Now that the city attorney's investigation is finished, Newsom said he is waiting for Jew to provide a response.

"I've tried to be very independent-minded here, and I read that report, and it's not good," Newsom said.

Both the city attorney's report and similar evidence cited by the district attorney to obtain the arrest warrant against Jew seem to offer "overwhelming evidence" that Jew does not live in the Sunset District, Newsom said.

"The accusations are codified in two reports and suggest that Ed Jew needs to step up now and make it clear why they are both wrong," Newsom said. "And he needs to do that well before the 15 days because we need to make a determination sooner than later."