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64 software bugs, complex union rules and a $15.8 million mistake: Why S.F. can’t pay its teachers on time

By Bilal Mahmood : sfchronicle – excerpt

If our bureaucracy makes it difficult to accomplish something as seemingly simple as paying a teacher on time, how can we solve the rest of the challenges we face as a city?

Charles Sylvester has been a special-education teacher for over 20 years in San Francisco Unified School District. He’s seen plenty of ups and downs during that time, but in 2023 he encountered a career first.

The district misreported his taxes. Thousands of dollars of payments were effectively missing…

He isn’t alone. Over the past year, over 5,000 school district staff members have reported missing payroll, taxes misreported or delayed 403(b) payments…

In 2022, the school district transitioned from a 17-year-old payroll system to a new system dubbed EMPowerSF. Almost immediately, hundreds of employees reported payroll issues.

Over a year later, those issues still persist, despite the district spending over $30 million on the new system. That’s almost $10,000 per teacher…

To add insult to injury, the same software underlying the EMPowerSF system had been used once before in a California school district. In 2007, Los Angeles Unified School District also launched a payroll system powered by the same software, and it also failed to pay teachers on time…

“SFUSD’s job is education, not writing code,” said Autumn Looijen, a software engineer and co-founder of the public school advocacy group SF Guardians, which investigated the district payroll debacle on behalf of her organization. “The problem is, the school board approved a contract that relied on Infosys to build a software system but left SFUSD on the hook for fixing software bugs.”

A $15.8 million mistake

So, what caused a critical service like a payroll system to fail so spectacularly?

Talking to current and former district officials involved with the software implementation, one persistent issue kept emerging — a lack of testing…

Bilal Mahmood is a civil servant and entrepreneur, and a board member at SF YIMBY…(more)

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Financing Plan for Firefighting Infrastructure Released

By Thomas K. Pendergast : richmondreview – excerpt

A study on financing the expansion of the Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS) – a separate heavy-duty pipeline system designed to fight a devastating conflagration following a major earthquake – was recently released by city agencies.

The report was in response to a resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors last September which called for the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning (ORCP) to come up with a financing plan by Dec. 31, 2022, to expand the EFWS.

The EFWS, formerly known as the Auxiliary Water Supply System, was initially built after the 1906 earthquake because so many water mains and connections in the regular system were broken that there was almost no water pressure left to fight fires. A fire break was created along Van Ness Avenue and a U.S. Navy firefighting ship pumping seawater from off shore was able to stop the fires from going further west…(more)

If you live in the western side of the city, you should read this article that describes what is needed and what may happen next.

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SF School district approves $43k more for payroll system fix

By Allyson Aleksey : sfexaminer – excerpt
Teachers from more than 10 San Francisco public schools protest in front of SFUSD’s main office at 555 Franklin Street and blocked traffic on Franklin Street on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022…

More money is trickling into the San Francisco Unified School District’s faulty payroll system, albeit a drop of cash compared to the wave of millions spent so far.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to approve a contract amendment with SAP America, Inc., a software company that the district has worked with since 2018, to assist with its bungled payroll system EMPowerSF.

Since its rollout in January 2022, teachers have found their paychecks missing entire days of pay, retirement contributions deducted but not deposited in accounts, and more recently, errors in state tax filings…

No public comment was received, and because the item was placed under the meeting’s consent calendar, there was no discussion between commissioners. As of press time, there is still no concrete date as to when the system will be fully fixed, leaving teachers in the lurch for the rest of the school year…(more)

RELATED:

The dire state of substitute teaching in San Francisco

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California shifts to an experiment in coercion to treat the homeless

by Scott Wilson : msn – excerpt

…In a few months, altering its past path, the state will begin an experiment in what amounts to coercive compassion, an initiative that unlike today’s mental health system will force people into treatment programs instead of jail and monitor their progress for at least a year.

More than three dozen states have some version of courts designed for those suffering from mental illness, many of which fall under the criminal court system and often include jail as a key part of a sentence. No state is attempting to establish a civil court program on the scale of California’s. Estimates by the National Alliance on Mental Illness show that a quarter of the state’s 170,000 homeless residents, more than a quarter of the nation’s total, has a serious mental illness.

But in California, sharp criticism has been raised, including by medical associations and civil rights groups, that the system Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has pushed will stigmatize people with certain mental illnesses and fail to provide enough protection for them from being drawn into the proposed process. Severe housing shortages for the mentally ill — and how appealing the idea is to the homeless — are key questions that have yet to be answered…(more)

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Who Wants To Run San Francisco? Mystery Polls Lay Out London Breed’s Potential Challengers

by Josh Koehn, Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

Multiple polls have been commissioned in San Francisco to see who has the strongest odds to win the mayor’s race next year, The Standard has learned.
The results have not been published, and the list of candidates vary between polls—but at least one of them lists as many as seven individuals, including Mayor London Breed, three supervisors and a tech entrepreneur.

The Standard reached out to the potential candidates, their campaign consultants, political insiders and special interest groups to gauge who has a real interest in running for mayor, as well as what chances they might have to win the race to lead San Francisco…(more)

Who do you trust? Who do you trust to replace the next round of Directors of the SFMTA Board and District Supervisors? Who do you want to appoint many of the Commissioners? Who do you want to represent San Francisco? Who do you trust to write the checks appropriated by the legitimate body?

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Governor Newsom Announces Public Safety Partnership to Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking in San Francisco

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: In new partnership with the City of San Francisco, Governor Newsom is directing California Highway Patrol and California National Guard to identify personnel and resources to assist the city in combatting fentanyl trafficking — strengthening law enforcement presence and public safety.

SAN FRANCISCO — Today Governor Gavin Newsom announced an agreement between the California Highway Patrol (CHP), California National Guard (CalGuard), San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office (SFDA) to assist the city in its ongoing efforts to address the fentanyl crisis. This agreement will lead to the formation of a new collaborative operation between all four agencies focused on dismantling fentanyl trafficking and disrupting the supply of the deadly drug in the city by holding the operators of large-scale drug trafficking operations accountable…(more)

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Newsom Makes Unannounced Visit to San Francisco’s Tenderloin To Survey Fentanyl Crisis

by Annie Gaus :sfstandard – excerpt (video on twitter)

Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped by San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood unannounced on Wednesday for a “private meeting” with members of his cabinet, followed by a walk around the neighborhood, according to his press office.

“They discussed the state’s ongoing efforts to tackle the fentanyl crisis, homelessness, and other critical issues,” said a spokesperson for Newsom. “Following the meeting, the Governor went for a walk and spoke with community members in the area.”…

(twitter video)

The activist, who goes by JJ Smith, said he ran into Newsom during his walk around the neighborhood and he questioned the governor on his plan to address fentanyl.

“It was awkward,” said Smith, who later posted a selfie with Newsom. “He just said he’s here to work on the fentanyl and homeless situation. He didn’t give me any concrete answers or solutions.”…(more)

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San Francisco Supervisor Asks for State, Federal Help in Fentanyl Crisis

by Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin has called for a regional task force including federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to target what he describes as a “fentanyl dealing and human trafficking crisis in San Francisco.”

Peskin issued the appeal in a press release April 13. He has sent letters to House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as regional agencies such as the BART Board of Directors and the University of California Board of Regents, urging them to work with the San Francisco Police Department…

Peskin made the appeal after asking Mayor London Breed to reschedule her policy discussions appearance before the Board of Supervisors meant for April 11 to a future meeting to be held at United Nations Plaza, considered to be the epicenter of the city’s fentanyl scourge…(more)

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Housemate From Hell Forces Elderly SF Artist To Move Across the Country

by Kevin Truong : sfstandard – excerpt

 

Why would anybody want to be a landlord in a city where landlords and master tenants have no right to remove a tenant, subtenant or guest who is not living up to their obligations and/or exhibiting abusive behavior? 

The city could open more rentable units by writing some new rules that tenants must adhere to. We believe that San Francisco could open up more rentable spaces in the city by changing some of the most oppressive rules and regulations that pin people into bad deals with people like the “tenant from hell” so aptly described in the above article. Everyone knows someone who has had a difficult tenant or roommate. Both landlords and tenants need protection from bad actors.

Continuing the eviction moratorium will keep more places off the market unless some protections are built into the rental system. Fear of loss of control of one’s property to a recalcitrant tenant is keeping a lot of rentable units off the market. 

Where is the support for small property owners who rely on rents to cover mortgage, maintenance and utility bills? The continued eviction moratorium is creating hardship for landlords and tenants who cannot afford to pay their bills to hold onto their own property. Increasing utility bills that cannot be collected from the tenants and subtenants add to the risks. 

When the master tenant leaves the landlord is left dealing with the recalcitrant subtenants. In some cases, the master tenant leaves rather than put up with a difficult roommate, leaving the landlord to handle the problem.

Foreclosures result in the evictions of landlord and tenants. The current conditions will result in more foreclosures and removal of more rental properties as the rental units are taken over by lenders who may take them off the market. 

If the eviction moratorium is continued there must be some way to protect property owners and master tenants from the abuses or subtenants.

Possible Solutions:

We could start with a good Samaritan Law. We could create a Good Samaritan agreement to be signed by host and guests for people willing to accept visitors on a temporary basis as a guest. The host should be able to end the arrangement with the guest at any time for any reason without question and without any obligation to finance the removal of the guest. 

We request a fair Landlord/Tenant Rights Bill. This could be included as part of the master lease. We need to describe a procedure by which landlords, tenants, and neighbors may hold “bad actors” responsible for their actions by setting up a means of reimbursement or evictions where they are warranted. If people know they will face consequences for abusive behavior, including loss of the right to remain, most of the abuses will end. We need to acknowledge a chain of ownership, maintenance and control of the property that is signed by owner, master tenant, sub-tenant, roommate, and guest.

We request that our city authorities come up with legislation or establish a process to review grievances. We need a neutral board to hear requests for evictions or removal of people who are creating a nuisance for owner, master tenant, sub-tenant, roommate, guest and neighbors.