By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez : kqed – excerpt
In the name of expediting construction of homeless shelters, San Francisco Mayor London Breed in March 2019 asked the Board of Supervisors to relinquish its oversight of the contract process.
The argument was, if Public Works could simply award shelter construction contracts faster, people living in dire circumstances would be moved off the streets months earlier — saving crucial time.
But it didn’t quite work out that way.
The lack of oversight allegedly allowed former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru to grant more than $1 million in homeless shelter construction contracts to Walter Wong, a permit expediter who was arrested by the FBI last month and charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to engage in money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Nuru was also arrested by the FBI in January on public fraud charges.
Now, Supervisor Aaron Peskin said he will introduce legislation Tuesday allowing the Board of Supervisors to regain oversight and ultimate approval over homeless shelter construction in the city…. (more)
Since the FBI investigation started long before March 2019, it appears that there was already a lack of oversight in place long before the Mayor’s actions took place. If anything, the government has been in the business of removing government and public notice oversight of pending plans and projects for years. Perhaps it is time to slow that train down by stopping some of the state legislative efforts to speed it up. We understand there are 14 state bills being analyzed now by the Planning Department. Details on 9 of those bills are here: https://www.livablecalifornia.org/act-now-3-2/
The SF Planning Dept. is reviewing 14 state bills and will publish their analysis by end of day on Thursday July 16th. They will give a presentation on this legislation at the July 23rd Planning Commission hearing.
The analysis document should be attached as a background document for the Planning Commission agenda for that meeting. https://sfplanning.org/
The Dept will be looking at the following bills:
Some of the bills we are tracking:
https://discoveryink.wordpress.com/ca-bills/ca-bills-2020/
AB 725
AB 1279
AB 1436
AB 2345
AB 2580
AB 3040
AB 3107
SB 288
SB 899
SB 902
SB 995
SB 1085
SB 1120
SB 1385