By Connie Chan : sfrichmondreview – excerpt
Good and Clean Government
In early 2020, the former director of the Department of Public Works, Mohammed Nuru, was arrested with corruption allegations by the U.S. Attorney. That set off a chain reaction of contractors, department heads, and city officials also being indicted or resigning from their posts.
That’s why I have introduced anti-corruption legislation: the “Good and Clean Government” charter amendment will ensure greater accountability and transparency in all areas of city government in two key ways: by creating an independent City Administrator who can focus on delivering city services free from political cronyism, and by sharing appointments to chartered commissions between the executive and legislative branches…
Currently, commissioners are largely appointed by the mayor with little public process and are often limited to a small group of well-connected political insiders. Many of these commissioners serve the City with dedication and commitment, but the lack of checks and balances opens the door to corruption. Sharing the appointing authority of these commissions between the executive and legislative branches helps assure a balance of power on these important policy-making bodies. Lastly, this measure would also ensure all appointments are subject to a public process.
This is a critical time for our City as we recover from the pandemic, and we need to ensure our departments are focused on serving the needs of the City and its communities. A working system of checks and balances and functioning day-to-day city operations is the foundation of good and clean government. I look forward to bringing this to the voters in June 2022.
Connie Chan represents District 1 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She can be reached at (415) 554-7410 or chanstaff. Find an archive of her columns online at RichmondSunsetNews.com…(more)