Hayashi to run for Alameda County board

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, left, talks with her seatmate, Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012. Hayashi currently faces a felony shoplifting charge for allegedly shoplifting $2,500 worth of merchandise from the San Francisco's Neiman Marcus store. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) less Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, left, talks with her seatmate, Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012. Hayashi currently ... more Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Hayashi to run for Alameda County board 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

East Bay Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi has quietly filed papers declaring her intent to run in November for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors seat vacated by Nadia Lockyer.

"She has done her research," said her campaign spokesman, Mark Capitolo, "and she is not going into it blind."

Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, remains on probation after pleading no contest last year to shoplifting $2,500 worth of clothes from the Neiman Marcus in San Francisco's Union Square.

Although the $583,000 stashed in her various campaign and officeholder accounts would seem to give Hayashi a healthy advantage over competitors, County Counsel Donna Ziegler tells us she is barred from transferring more than $20,000 total for a county run.

"Even if there weren't limits, (Hayashi) intends to start from ground zero and seek financial help and endorsements," Capitolo said. "Locally, in Sacramento and from anywhere she has friends."

The supervisors appointed former Union City Councilman Richard Valle last month to fill the vacancy left by Lockyer, who resigned in April amid a drug and sex scandal. He intends to run in November.

Even if Hayashi has a big hill to climb, thanks to her shoplifting conviction, campaign observers say she shouldn't be underestimated - as evidenced by the $15,600 in checks she picked up from the state medical and dental association PACs in February, when she was still eyeing a 2014 state Senate run.

Anyway, Capitolo said, "research shows when people take responsibility for their mistakes, voters are cool with it."

Party time: They're pulling out all the stops for President Obama's visit to Oakland on Monday - canceling police days off, closing off streets and activating the city's Emergency Response Center in preparation for the anticipated protests over the administration's crackdown on pot clubs.

And there is no question that locals are holding their breath over the visit.

"I always get excited when the president of the United States comes to Oakland, but I hope we don't have to deal with all the insanity of the past from Occupy Oakland," said City Council President Larry Reid.

And rest assured, he said, "they're all going to turn out."

In fact, the city-permitted rally to legalize marijuana at Frank Ogawa Plaza should be breaking up just as things get rolling a few blocks north at the Fox Theatre, where Obama is expected to address a sold-out, $100-a-head crowd of supporters sometime after 7 p.m.

The Fox is right across the street from a marijuana ID card center. It's also just blocks from where dozens of federal agents back in April raided Oaksterdam University, the big pot training and cannabis dispensary founded by legalization crusader Richard Lee.

As for Mayor Jean Quan, who was attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Philadelphia last week, she returned home Friday - and is scheduled to be among those on hand to greet the president at the Fox on Monday, according to her aides.

On the money: Suspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi still hasn't paid any of the $125,000 he owes to the pair of lawyers who handled his domestic violence case, as well as the attorney first hired to represent his wife, Eliana Lopez, according to knowledgeable sources.

As for the legal team handling Mirkarimi's official-misconduct hearing before the Ethics Commission?

"I don't discuss my fee agreements with clients," said Shepard Kopp, one of Mirkarimi's two lawyers.

San Francisco attorney Lidia Stiglich, who took over Mirkarimi's legal defense after the sheriff had a falling-out with his first lawyer, Bob Waggener, reportedly charged him a flat up-front fee of about $50,000.

While she declined to discuss her financial arrangement with Mirkarimi, Stiglich did tell us, "For anyone owed money, hope springs eternal that - if Ross is reinstated as sheriff - they'll get paid."

Incidentally, Lopez's current attorney, Paula Canny, hasn't been paid either - but then, she says she wouldn't have missed the ride for anything.

Given the mounting legal bills, we wondered how Lopez could afford to show up with Canny for Thursday's Ethics Commission hearing in a $200-an-hour limousine.

"Every good criminal defense lawyer has one good limo driver as a client - so I called my friend who owes me money, and that's how I got it," Canny said.

And finally: That was an awkward moment the other day when state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg accidentally introduced Ed Lee as "the mayor of the great city of Sacramento" at the signing of the high-speed rail legislation in downtown San Francisco.

Lee took to the microphone and deadpanned, "At least he didn't call me Jeremy Lin."