JUST DAYS BEFORE San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin is slated to announce new committee assignments, a lame-duck board panel is poised to recommend that Mike Garcia – who has been wrong on a long list of major issues – be reappointed to the Ethics Commission. If that happens, the full board should reject the recommendation.

Among other things, Garcia approved former supervisor Tony Hall's move to take over the top job at the Treasure Island Development Authority (despite City Charter provisions against elected officials getting plush public jobs). He supported former Ethics director Ginny Vida's decision to let Kamala Harris flout campaign-spending rules in the district attorney's race and backed her attempt to destroy public documents that implicated Mayor Gavin Newsom's inaugural committee in possible violations of campaign finance laws (see Editorial, 1/12/05). Perhaps most important, Garcia has made it clear he doesn't want Ethics to be an aggressive, active force for clean politics and government.

But two of the three Rules Committee members, Sups. Sophie Maxwell and Michela Alioto-Pier, appear to support Garcia – despite the fact that there's another candidate for the job who's much better qualified and would make an excellent Ethics commissioner. Eileen Hansen, a longtime community activist who ran for supervisor in District 8 in 2002, has applied for the post, and the committee should forward her name to the board as the preferred nominee.

But if that doesn't happen, the full board should refuse to accept Garcia and either appoint Hansen or send the matter back to the Rules Committee for reconsideration.

Hansen has a long history as a progressive political organizer and activist. She's demonstrated her commitment and principles over many years of work on a wide range of issues. She's energetic and told the Bay Guardian she sees Ethics as a focal point for political reform. She deserves this critical job.

P.S. With Rules Committee member Ross Mirkarimi critical of Garcia, Maxwell is the swing vote here, and if she sides with Garcia, it will be a repudiation of the pro-neighborhood values she has always claimed to support. This is an important political test, and we urge Maxwell to side with Mirkarimi and vote for Hansen.