From the Wall

I'm posting something that I read on SF Wall this afternoon about Joe Lynn and a charter amendment that Alioto-Pier is putting forward. I have known Joe Lynn, an Ethics Commissioner, for many years and have an incredibly high opionion of him. When he worked for the Ethics Commission, he was a Local 790 member. He was being jacked up for the whole PG&E debacle and I went over to the Commission testify and to let them know that he had the support of his union.

I find the following story from Joe to be incredibly compelling. I lived in SF during this time and watched thousands of my gay brothers die. It is easy to forget the sense of crisis we all felt. The anger and confusion. Those that were left behind were so, so guilty and confused.

So when I read Joe's story, my heart went out to him. And I hope it does for you too. I hope you take the time to read it and maybe even contact Sup Alioto-Pier to explain to her that targeting a gay man who survived the AIDs crisis and trying to shame Joe is not the answer. If you don't believe that someone can pull themselves out of the life of drugs and turn their life around, fine, but do you have to go out of your way to draft a charter amendment to kick him off a commission?

An anonymous poster called Milkclubber posted a statement from Joe Lynn. The poster wrote:

I appreciate folks for having the patience to read through this lengthy posting. I believe that good people can make a difference in creating a better, more civil politics, and that Joe is one of the most valued people in that process.

I am posting this in the hopes that others may feel the same as I do, and want to oppose language targeted at Joe -- and only Joe -- from being written into the charter as an absolute bar to service on the Ethics Commission.

I couldn't agree more Milkclubber.

Here is the statement from Joe Lynn:
I thought I would write out my drug and professional history for you as a
means of my reviewing the past 25 years, a sweep of time since 1978. I didn't come out as a gay man late, in 1978 when I was almost 33 years old.

I separated from my wife that year. I was practicing law with Bartko, Welsh, & Tarrant, an Order of the Coif and Thurston Society graduate of Hastings, at the top of my 1974 class. Among the attorneys with whom I practiced was John Hetland, considered by some (Chief Justice Trainor) to have been the most influential legal mind in California real property finance law. I was successfully involved in complicated business litigation.

In 1979, I found out about "partying." My drug use became so severe that I was asked to leave my law firm in 1982. The next year my lover, Dana, the biggest romance of my life, left me because of my habit. It was about then that I met our friend, Ron Pearson, who died last year.

1982 was when San Francisco began feeling the AIDS epidemic. By 1986, I had seen many die, two of whom were very close to me, one my best friend, Wayne. He passed away seconds after I gave his hand over to his roommate, Patti. Suddenly, he bolted up in his bed, spat out blood on Patti, and that was it.

I stopped counting the number of people I knew who died from AIDS sometime around 1990 when it reached 200. I remember becoming weak in my knees when I first saw the AIDS quilt. I was overcome as quilt after quilt gave me news about someone else's death, someone whom I knew.

1990 was the year when Patti's lover, David, another best friend, died a grisly death. He was terrified of dying. Despite all his agony, he still valued the living. His fear was evident in his eyes when he realized why my lover, Bruce, and I had come to visit him that last week.

Bruce was my second gay lover. He was an architect with great talent. During his last year at Heery architecture, he received the second highest raise they gave out to their thousand or so employees. He had severe dementia and a brain tumor his last months. He died in 1991 just a couple of weeks after the Oakland fire. He hallucinated that Oakland friends of his affected by the fire were sleeping with us in our bedroom. He wanted to take care of them so badly, that was the dream he constructed, his way of helping.

My first lover, Dana, and I had remained close to each other after we broke up. We had agreed that when Bruce entered his final days, Dana would come from his home in the Sierra foothills and help me out. I called him when Bruce had less than a week to live. I learned then that Dana had just been hospitalized with AIDS, his first diagnosis.

Bruce's deathwatch was chronicled by his best friend, Harriet, in an article named by the Associated Press as the best article in the nation for that month. She tied his death to the announcement that week that Magic Johnson had AIDS and a description of my keeping watch over Bruce.

After his death, I stopped doing drugs (mostly speed) and in the summer of 1992 won a major jury trial. The judge then took the verdict away from me, ruling that an attorney who rapes his client is acting within the standards of the profession!

My response to that ruling: "Speed, here I come." Four-day binges without sleep, months and then years on end. Escape.

I was collapsing. My boyfriend of the time had gone to the hospital in January 1993 with his first diagnosis of AIDS. I thought I was starting the deathwatch again - way too soon. I had a client who needed attention. I seroconverted with a nasty fever.

I was practicing from my home where my clients would call. One needed my attention. I abandoned him, not able to return his calls. I lost everything, my property, my law license. I was crushed.

I was evicted from the Castro home which Bruce and I had shared. I moved South of Market and lived with urban nomads in a warehouse there.

Fortunately for me, I never shot up with drugs and never was involved in criminal behavior - other than using illegal drugs.

In 1996, I got clean, started HIV treatment at a City clinic, and volunteered at Project Open Hand and the Main Library. In 1997, I got a clerical job at the Ethics Commission through Positive Resource. It's a non-profit that rehabilitates people with AIDS for the job market.

1997 was also the year Dana died - took his life in a spiritually whole suicide when he could no longer raise his bottom off his hospice bed to use the bedpan.

I had told Mark Misrok at Positive Resource that I wanted to get a job where I could do good. I had a lot to return to the community for how much I had wasted. The Ethics Commission turned out to be an ideal opportunity for me to demonstrate my commitment to public service and my recovery from drugs.

I hope my subsequent record there is just the beginning of my giving back to the community. I'm not proud of my past, but I am very proud of how far I've been able to come back.

Best regards,


Here is a post from MilkClubber after Joe's statement:

That, folks, is the personal story that Alioto-Pier's measure would use to declare Joe unfit for service on the Ethics Commission.

But here is the performance story of what Joe has accomplished there as a staff member and then as an Ethics Commissioner:

He helped to inaugurate an electronic campaign reports filing program that was ranked best in U.S. by the Center for Governmental Studies. He managed a program for disclosure of financial conflicts that was ranked best in California by the Montclarion newspaper.

In 2002, Joe uncovered reporting problems by PG&E that eventually led their attorneys to be fined $240,000. Management reprimanded him for this! The Society of Professional Journalist for Northern California awarded him the prestigious James Madison Freedom of Information Award in honor of his courageous whistleblowing.

He received Certificates of Commendation and of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, one sponsored by Supervisor Newsom and another by Board President Matt Gonzalez. Mayor Brown gave him Certificates for Mentorship Work . Joe had started a mentorship program at the Ethics Commission which took in people with special disabilities as well as top graduates of prestigious schools. Joe's ability to help the public earned him Government Employee of the Year from the local San Francisco Weekly.

Joe resigned from the Commission when he saw incompetent management there refusing to recognize its budget crisis. Joe has successfully reversed the Commission budget policies under Mike Garcia. The Civil Grand Jury has vindicated his views on the budget crisis at Ethics earlier this year. The Mayor and the Board are responding to Joe’s cries for public support.

The Commission is turning around after years of mismanagement. Serious reform of enforcement practices and campaign finance laws is underway.

I appreciate folks for having the patience to read through this lengthy posting. I believe that good people can make a difference in creating a better, more civil politics, and that Joe is one of the most valued people in that process.

I am posting this in the hopes that others may feel the same as I do, and want to oppose language targeted at Joe -- and only Joe -- from being written into the charter as an absolute bar to service on the Ethics Commission.