By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt
[Government Oversight and Audit Committee] Committee hearing will give us a clue. Plus: Protecting SRO tenants, preventing evictions and saving nightlife venues…
The last time a measure to create a public advocate – an independent office that could among other things investigate public corruption – some supervisors said it wasn’t needed. After all, they said, the board has a Government Oversight and Audit Committee, that can and should be investigating the kind of evolving scandal that has hit City Hall…
The supes have subpoena power if they want to use it, and can force witnesses to testify under oath.
That hasn’t happened yet in this scandal, but the committee has, indeed, decided to hold a hearing on the matter, and asked controller and the city attorney for updates…(more)
This raises some questions about who is being protected and shows a lack of will on the part of the supervisors to deal with corruption at City Hall differently from the way they handled problems with private contractors related to engineering disasters. Subpoenas were used for these hearings.)