Within minutes of Ross Mirkarimi’s defiant insistence that he will not resign, Mayor Ed Lee announced late this afternoon that he is suspending the sheriff from his post and will serve him with misconduct charges tomorrow. And he named Vicki Hennessy, who was director of the city’s Department of Emergency Management after a career in the Sheriff’s Department, where she retired as chief deputy, as interim sheriff. (She's no relation to recently-departed sheriff Michael Hennessey.) That’s the first step in the mayor’s attempt to remove Mirkarimi from office permanently for official misconduct.Add: “He has chosen not to resign and now I must act,” Lee said at a 5 o’clock press conference. He said that Mirkarimi’s actions “fell below the standards of decency and good faith” for a public servant. More: Chronicle; The Bay Citizen
