AIPAC Zionist Supporter Miranda President of SEIU 87 Janitor’s union: Ahsha Safai or pay $

AIPAC Zionist Supporter Olga Miranda President of SEIU 87 Janitor’s union: Campaign for D11 candidate Ahsha Safai or pay $150- She Also Backs Corrupt SF Mayor Ed Lee
http://www.sfexaminer.com/janitors-union-campaign-candidate-ahsha-safai-pay-150/

Ahsha Safai is a candidate for the District 11 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. (Courtesy Ahsha Safai)
By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on October 4, 2016 1:00 am



If you’re a San Francisco janitor in SEIU Local 87, you may soon face a choice: Pay the union $150, or campaign for Ahsha Safai, candidate for District 11 supervisor.

Whether you consider that to be extortion of already overburdened workers, or a fair way of ensuring union participation, depends on who you are.

On Guard obtained the Aug. 18 meeting minutes of Local 87, which represents more than 4,000 private sector custodial workers. Its president, Olga Miranda, has also stumped heavily for Safai.

His candidacy comes at a crucial time, when five seats on the Board of Supervisors are up for grabs. Any two of them going to the moderates could tip the balance of power on the board back toward Mayor Ed Lee’s allies.

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Safai’s and opponent Kimberly Alvarenga’s campaigns have split unions in this town on either side, seen by the Labor Council’s “no endorsement” in District 11 — a clear peacekeeping move.

Safai earned $9,000 or $19,000 (depending on the year) for his work as a political consultant at Local 87 until 2012. He then began to independently consult for the union as a contractor (for about the same range of cost) and billed it through his consultancy company, Kitchen Cabinet Public Affairs.

Is this pay-to-play? Some Local 87 members sure do think so.

Local 87’s minutes describe members in the meeting proposing “Measures for members that did not show up to picket lines … motion to penalize members who did not show up @ [sic] Rallies during contract time will be fined $150/day or doing campaign activity for candidates endorsed by Local union.”

I can see a future with Supervisor Safai right now: “Comment at the Board of Supervisors, or you owe me $150.” “Curb your wheels, or you owe me $150!”

Essentially, if you’re not out on the picket line, you’ve got to help Safai campaign against Alvarenga — or pay up.

“I’ve worked as a political coordinator for SEIU for 14 years and I haven’t heard of such a thing,” Gabriel Haaland of rival union SEIU 1021 told me.

Now, granted, Haaland supports Alvarenga, but he was still adamant.

“It’s the most odd thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said.


That choice rankled longtime Local 87 members Elsa Almanza and Juan Avila, who I spoke to during the San Francisco Democratic Party board’s meeting last Wednesday.

“He’s not a trustworthy person,” Avila said of Safai. Almanza added, “He doesn’t do anything related to organizing the members.”

As you can imagine, Safai and Miranda, the union’s head, rebuffed the idea there was anything untoward about offering this odd choice.

Safai said the idea that people had to campaign for him or pay money was “a distortion of the truth” because members were given “options” and that “this is not something unique to my campaign. The union has done this in multiple situations in the past.”

Miranda said their union is very small, so it needs mechanisms to make members “accountable.”

She brought up a fair point: Her union only racked wins against tech companies like Airbnb, Uber and Square for better treatment for custodial workers because they picketed.

Miranda said if her members had a problem with stumping for Ahsha, “I would not have been re-elected.” She touted her win for Local 87’s presidency last week as proof that “our members trust us.”

SEIU Local 87 would benefit from a candidate who has its issues at heart on the Board of Supervisors, she said. For instance, a past proposal to extend hours on parking meters in the Financial District was harmful to janitors, she said.

“It benefits us to be involved politically,” Miranda said.

Seeing how hard they’ve stumped for Safai, you’d better believe it will.

* * *

Cue the tiniest of violins for politicians looking to circumvent campaign finance laws, as the Democratic County Central Committee voted last Wednesday to advocate for California lawmakers to restrict the DCCC’s campaign contributions to $500 and to add that limit to its bylaws. Previously, contributions were unlimited.

The resolution was authored by Petra DeJesus — hat’s off to her.

During last June’s election, DCCC candidates racked up more than $2.3 million in donations because of a fundraising loophole: If you’re running for supervisor, you’re beholden to a $500 contribution limit. But if you also run for DCCC at the same time, you can easily pocket $10,000 or more from a contributor.

Judson True, an aide to Assemblymember and incumbent candidate David Chiu, said Chiu supports the DCCC resolution and is “exploring a bill for next year,” but much work is still to be done.

It’s a start.

On Guard prints the news and raises hell each week. Email Fitz at joe [at] sfexaminer.com, and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @FitztheReporter.

Political Director Of Janitors SEIU 87 Under President Olga Miranda Is House Flipper And Supporter Of Corporate Controlled Ed Lee
http://48hills.org/2016/07/14/the-story-ahsha-safai-doesnt-tell-in-his-campaign-for-supervisor/
The story Ahsha Safai doesn’t tell in his campaign for supervisor
He's a real-estate speculator, house flipper, and gets almost half of his money from the real-estate industry -- so why is he getting progressive support?

BY TIM REDMOND - Jul 14th 1715 16

Ahsha Safai is running for supervisor in District 11 as a labor activist who has the support of some of the city’s unions – and is building some support among what is generally considered the progressive community. John Burton has endorsed him. It’s possible that the Democratic County Central Committee, which progressives fought hard to control, could wind up giving him at least a secondary nod.

He’s well known among city insiders as a former city employee and Housing Authority Commissioner, and ran against incumbent John Avalos four years ago.


There’s a lot to Safai’s resume that isn’t in his campaign material
But there’s a lot about his record that hasn’t received much attention. Safai is a real-estate speculator who made a big chunk of cash buying a house that was in foreclosure and flipping it. He makes most of his money – more than $100,000 a year – from a consulting firm that works with landlords. Nearly half of the money he has raised so far, our analysis shows, comes from the real estate industry.

And while he doesn’t list Mayor Ed Lee among his endorsements (nobody’s listing Lee these days since he’s so unpopular) Safai has long been a Lee supporter and donated to the mayor’s 2015 re-election.

Here are some things we’ve found researching Safai’s history:

— In 2004, he was sued for fraud in a real-estate deal that wound up with Safai buying a house that was in foreclosure at what the suit alleges was an artificially low price and flipping it for a profit of close to half a million dollars.

According to the lawsuit, Safai and his associates took advantage of a woman who was facing the loss of her property. Mary McDowell, who was working as a parking control officer in San Francisco, was living at 78 Latona Street in the Bayview when the bank that held her mortgage filed a notice of default.

She owned four other properties that were also in foreclosure.

Two real-estate sales people arrived at her home unsolicited in December, 2003, and told her they would buy her property and pay her enough to cover the notes on the other places she owned so she could avoid all the foreclosures.

The lawsuit alleges that the real-estate broker didn’t properly list the home on the Multiple Listing Service but instead brought McDowell an offer for $375,000 – “far less than market value,” according to the complaint. McDowell was “frightened and intimidated” into accepting the offer, and the house was sold to Ahsha and Reza Safai.

McDowell eventually dismissed the case, her lawyer told me, because “the defendants were dragging this out forever in court and she decided she had had enough.” Attorney C. Brent Patten said that no court ever determined whether Safai or the others had done anything wrong.

Safai in legal filings denied all the allegations.

But whatever the legality, Safai wound up buying a house that was in foreclosure at what turned out to be an excellent price. In 2005, according to the real-estate service Property Shark, the median sale price for housing in that neighborhood was $336 a square foot. Safai paid $177 a square foot for the 78 Latona St. property.

City records show that he and Reza Safai spent $60,000 renovating the place, and sold it less than a year later for $800,000.

So Safai was part of a group that bought a house in foreclosure from a woman who was in financial trouble and flipped it quickly for a short-term profit. That could be perfectly legal – lots of people have made lots of money buying properties in foreclosure and selling them for a quick profit.

But house-flipper is not part of his public resume.

Safai describes himself as the political director for SEIU Local 87, and had played his union connections into a number of endorsements. But forms he filed while he was on the Housing Authority Commission show that the vast majority of his income comes from his consulting firm, Kitchen Cabinet Public Affairs, that did work for one of Lee’s main consultants and at least one high-end landlord.

Safai’s economic interest statements for 2012 and 2013 show that he earned less than $10,000 as political director for Local 87, but more than $100,000 as principal in Kitchen Cabinet Public Affairs.

On his website, he describes that outfit as “working with nonprofits, community-based and political organizations throughout the Bay Area building community and revitalizing neighborhoods.”

And indeed, some of his clients include Local 87, the Teamsters Union Local 350, and Mission Housing Development Corp. Also on the list: SST Investments, a landlord that operates high-end apartments, and Left Coast Communications, the consulting firm that ran the somewhat legally dubious “Run Ed Run” campaign.

Clients also included Jacobs Engineering and KJ Woods Construction.


— Safai is the real-estate industry’s guy. A 48hills analysis of campaign contributions filed so far shows that nearly half his money – 45 percent – came from real-estate development, construction, landlords and landlord lawyers, and big downtown companies.

Among his supporters: Janan New, director of the Apartment Association; David Gruber, who holds the landlord seat on the Rent Board, Russell Flynn (one of the biggest landlords in the city), David Wasserman (an eviction lawyer), Oz Erickson (a big developer), Mary Jung (lobbyist for the Association of Realtors), and Jim Lazarus (who works for the Chamber of Commerce).

The fact that a candidate takes money from special interests doesn’t always mean that candidate will do what they want. But it’s pretty clear from the preponderance of money that the people who have been making big money from evictions, displacement, and the destruction of neighborhoods think Safai is the one who will represent their interests at City Hall.

— He is a supporter of Mayor Ed Lee. Not a single politician in June used the mayor’s endorsement; in fact, polls show that more than half of San Franciscans would vote against someone associated with the immensely unpopular mayor.

Safai doesn’t list Lee’s endorsement on his website either. But he’s clearly a fan: In 2015, when 46 percent of the voters chose candidates with no name recognition, no electoral experience, and no real campaigns over the incumbent, Safai donated $250 to the Lee campaign.

That suggests that he endorses the agenda that the mayor has promoted: A tech boom that has created the worst displacement crisis in modern history.

Safai didn’t return messages left with his campaign. He will try to avoid a lot of these issues as he seeks progressive support. But it’s all there, on the record. And it’s worth thinking about.

Research assistance for this story was provided by Don Ray and Sofia Aguilar.

SEIU 87 Pres Olga Miranda Poster Child From Labor For Israel and Zionists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd6JHMYr2ps
http://www.aipac.org/act/attend-events/policy-conference/videos/2014/speeches/miranda
My trip to AIPAC 2014
https://rabbieger.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/my-trip-to-aipac-2014/
by rabbiegerMarch 5, 2014
I have just returned from 2 1/2 days in Washington D.C. I was attending the annual AIPAC Policy conference along with 15,000 others who love Israel. AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. This important organization builds bridges and support for the State of Israel with the United States. AIPAC educates Congress and our elected leaders and works to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the U.S. AIPAC works effectively on college campuses with campus student leaders to combat the Anti-Israel fervor and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at Israel. They educate and reach African American leaders, Hispanic leaders and Christian leaders and educate them about the strategic importance of Israel and a side of the story that they may not have heard before. As we heard from the President of the Washington local SEIU 87, a dynamic Latina, named Olga Miranda said, “I never knew Israel’s story until AIPAC introduced me to it. I merely repeated what I heard on the news. Today I know there are two sides to every story. I am pro-Israel and I am the face of AIPAC.”

While I have attended local AIPAC events I had never been to the annual policy conference. We heard from an array of speakers including Hon Isaac Herzog, the head of Israel’s Labor Party, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Charles Schumer, and Sen. Robert Menendez, head of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry and Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. It was amazing to me in a town so divided by partisanship to see the House Majority whip Rep Eric Cantor (R) stand side by side with the House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D) and together talk about their common and strong support of the Israel -U.S. relationship. Hoyer couldn’t resist chiding the Jewish Cantor that he had been to Israel more times!

One of the most powerful presentations came from Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Pnina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid) the first Ethiopian Member Knesset. Side by side they each recounted a similar story of being refugees: one from Cuba and one from Ethiopia and their journeys to become legislators and all they had in common. The common values of freedom and democracy and opportunity of Israel and the United States were never more evident.

All of this and many workshops on everything from the peace process, the war in Syria, Israel’s technology revolution, Iran, fighting Boycotts of Israel, the rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe, climate change and water issues in the US and Israel and so much more; workshops for Christians, students, Latinos, LGBT receptions and how to lobby Congress. Tuesday of the conference is devoted to lobbying your Congress person and Senators for Israel.

I also learned despite some critics that AIPAC is real bi-partisan. There has been a lot of critique on the left that AIPAC became a Republican stronghold. I didn’t get that. It was clear they were committed to bi-partisanship both in representing Israel’s political spectrum and the here in the U.S. Yes there are partisan Jews on both sides of the aisle. But as someone who is center left on Israel, meaning I believe strongly in states for two people, a Jewish democratic Israel side by side with a Democratic Palestine both who can live in peace and security, I did not feel out of place at all. Other progressives were there and I believe it is important to gather there so that the entire spectrum on Israel is represented and is part of the solution for a healthy Israel -U.S. relationship!

I learned a lot in a short period of time. I hope next year some of you will join me for AIPAC Policy Conference 2015. It is March 1-3, 2015. Registration is already open. If you love Israel and you want the US and Israel to remain strong partners for peace, freedom, trade, innovation, democracy, and security then you want to be a part of AIPAC. Join me there. I have already registered. How about you? If you want to register or view the videos from the conference here is the link: http://www.aipac.org

by JOEL B. POLLAK4 Mar 20143
During Friday’s final plenary session at the Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), thousands of pro-Israel activists were addressed by Olga Miranda, president of Local 87 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In the course of describing her pro-Israel views, she led the crowd in a chant of “¡Si, se puede!” (“Yes we can!”), and asked those present to support immigration reform in the U.S.

Those sentiments were more partisan than anything the conference had heard over three days. And the SEIU is is one of the most partisan organizations in American politics, serving as the Obama administration’s front line in pushing Obamacare and other policies. Occasionally, SEIU leaders have aligned with the most radical of the anti-Israel organizations: in fact, Local 73 was investigated in 2010 for ties to the Hamas terror organization.

Yet Miranda was onstage to testify about how she had changed her mind about Israel, especially once she visited Israel and saw the other side of the story. “Israel is the only thing I ever admitted to being wrong about in fourteen years,” she said. She singled out Israel’s immigration policy: “In Israel, immigrants are humans” (as opposed to the U.S., where they are “criminalized for wanting to provide food for their families.”)

The audience gave her speech a standing ovation. Miranda’s was a timely message about the power of persuasion for activists about to embark on visits to Capitol Hill, and perhaps nervous about convincing skeptical members of Congress to hold firm on Iran.

It was also a message to Israel’s left-wing critics, some of whom led protests on day one of the conference (and at least one of whom was arrested a day later in Egypt for trying to enter Gaza).

Yet AIPAC is hardly doing as much to court conservatives. There were no speakers from the Tea Party–the SEIU’s foe in the political trenches–to talk about what Israel meant to members of that movement, for example.

That may reflect a subtle political bias that persists in spite of AIPAC’s strenuous efforts at bipartisanship. More importantly, it reflects the undeniable political reality today that conservative support for Israel is not in doubt.

The confrontational approach of the Obama administration towards Israel has presented a unique challenge for AIPAC over the past five years. Those Democrats who addressed the conference–Sens. Chris Coons,

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)2%
, and Bob Menendez, plus Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew–were at pains to assure the activists of their party’s support.
AIPAC is trying to help them do so, without alienating the conservatives in its midst.