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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s ever-unfolding corruption scandal has toppled the careers of four sitting city officials. After the investigation was first announced early last year, like dominoes, they fell from grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, Mohammed Nuru, former director of San Francisco Public Works, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">arrested on corruption charges\u003c/a> in January 2020, and lost his job. Less than two months later, Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed. And in November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.[aside postID=\"news_11826653\" label=\"A look at policies that paved the way for the scandal\"]And the case continues to unfold. Just this week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2021/03/01/herrera-suspends-five-nuru-linked-executives-and-their-companies-from-receiving-sf-funds/\">issued first-of-its-kind orders to suspend city contracts\u003c/a> with companies and their executives who were found connected to the bribery and corruption scandal, pausing their business with San Francisco while justice takes its course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those corruption charges stemmed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\"> from a case\u003c/a> spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, led by former U.S. Attorney David Anderson — appointed by the Trump administration — whose last day on the job was Friday, Feb. 26. President Biden has yet to appoint his successor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his way out the door, Anderson, who hails from San Jose, took time to speak with KQED reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez about his perspective leading public corruption investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson was quick to firmly address what is perhaps the top-of-mind question for many San Franciscans: He does not believe any incoming replacement for his job will in any way divert resources from the ongoing corruption case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At any one time, about six assistant U.S. attorneys have been working on the corruption investigation, when some cases may only have one or two attorneys, he said, a commitment of resources that demonstrates the importance of the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe,” he said.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"David Anderson, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California\"]‘I do think that a city like San Francisco is best served not just by honest leaders, but also by an active citizenry. And I do wonder about the level of engagement that I see in San Francisco.’[/pullquote]One important caveat hung over the conversation — as an attorney, Anderson cannot comment \u003cem>directly \u003c/em>on any active case. In lieu of specifics, we asked Anderson to engage in a more philosophical conversation about corruption in general, and how his views have evolved over the course of this investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: A lot of our readers and listeners, when they first heard the news and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11838356/bribery-and-fraud-two-contractors-plead-guilty-in-sf-corruption-case\">then watched it unfold with every other official\u003c/a> over the last year, they felt it in almost all the different classic stages — anguish, anger, disappointment. When you first understood the totality of this, how did you emotionally react to that knowledge? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>U.S. Attorney David Anderson:\u003c/strong> One of the things they try to do to you in law school is to drub the emotion out of you. You just spend so much time right from the very beginning of your training as a lawyer thinking about things with your head more than your heart. So that’s one piece of context. And the other piece of context is that I’ve been doing this job in one form or other for more than 30 years. I’ve seen a few things in every different kind of case that we do in federal court that could be held up as the source of, to use your words, anguish, anger, disappointment. And you could add a long list of adjectives to it — fear and frustration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thing that’s unique and powerful about the public corruption cases is the breach of public trust. And the idea that we are a sovereign people and the people who lead us are our public servants. And so it’s outrageous when you come to the conclusion that those who have been hired to serve the public are instead serving themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11849113\" label=\"more on the expansion of the corruption scandal\"]Now, I’m talking and going with you along this philosophical line. Obviously, in the context of any particular case, defendants who’ve been charged but have not been adjudicated are presumed innocent. And I have a profound respect for that presumption of innocence. So I want to just close by emphasizing that I am reacting to general questions and not talking about any particular case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And that’s totally fair. You make the point that you’ve seen a lot in your years of service. So for people who are like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe my government is doing this,’ where would you put this in the context of corruption in other cities? Where would you put it on the scale?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not able to compare what is happening in San Francisco to other cities. I just don’t have the competency to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing that I would say that I think connects fairly to your question is that early on when I returned to the office as a U.S. attorney, I identified 25 people in my office and put each one of them in charge of one particular aspect of the myriad of different kinds of cases that we handle. And one of those 25 is an assistant U.S. attorney who I put in charge of public corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, ‘OK, what I want you to do is I want you to find the people in Chicago and in New York and in the other offices that you identify that have greater experience with public corruption cases than historically this office in San Francisco has had. Find them, talk to them, come back and tell me what it is that we should be thinking about when we do these cases. And he did that. And I think that that has been a contributor to the work that we’ve done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What would you say to the people who ask, ‘Should this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821145/months-after-sf-public-works-boss-nurus-arrest-staff-push-for-corruption-cleanup\">shake my faith\u003c/a> in my local government?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think that a city like San Francisco is best served not just by honest leaders, but also by an active citizenry. And I do wonder about the level of engagement that I see in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just generally speaking, with our political process, what I see is a small number of people who are highly actively engaged. And I see a larger number of people who are enjoying all the other things that San Francisco has to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, to the extent that looking at the cases that we have charged serves as a wake-up call for someone who is in San Francisco — maybe I should be paying more attention to this — I welcome that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>At this point, several people connected to the scandal have pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators, including restaurateur Nick Bovis and Walter Wong, a permit expediter. What’s their motivation for doing so? Did they go, ‘I can’t do this anymore!’ Or was it something where, in a practical matter, fancy lawyering and whatnot, they didn’t really have much of an option in front of them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m trying to have the conversation that you want to have and certainly can talk generally about the process by which defendants come to cooperate. That’s something that I’ve seen on both sides of the courtroom going back for four decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think probably the easiest way to look at that is from the perspective of the client-counsel interaction and again, not talking about any particular case and certainly not intruding on any particular attorney-client privilege, but just positing sort of the hypothetical conversation. It usually goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’re confronting these charges. You’re confronting this evidence. What’s going to be your answer? And oftentimes there’s sort of a moment where the client is saying, ‘Well, you know, how come I got to answer? You’re the lawyer.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, of course, the lawyer doesn’t know the facts. The lawyer can only learn those from the client, maybe from the discovery that’s provided by the prosecutor. So eventually the conversation will move in the direction of, ‘Do we have an answer to this or don’t we?’ And if we do, then let’s get out there and provide that answer, and if we don’t, well, then let’s start planning for our day of reckoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11849988\" label=\"Willie Brown gives his opinion on the scandal\"]And again, looking at this from that defense perspective, looking at it from the perspective of client and counsel, you can mount a variety of non-factual defenses. If a defendant’s profound constitutional rights have been violated, you may have defenses to the charges even if the charges are true. So there’s a lot of different directions from the defense perspective that you can go. One of the things you can do is, you can cooperate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And each client has to decide, is this the right move for me? And clients will do that for a variety of reasons. They’ll do it because they want to mitigate exposure. They’ll do it because they feel remorse. They want to try and make things better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does happen that you have cooperators that come to you, they come to you either in public or they come to you in secret. And then those cooperators can become an important part of taking the next step or the next half step in an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You touched on this a bit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101882168/u-s-attorney-david-anderson-leaves-office\">on KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>, but I’m interested in the rationale. Is there a possibility your successor might decide to shift resources and say, ‘I want fewer eyes on this case and more eyes on another case?’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The names I’ve heard in the public sphere of candidates to take over the U.S. attorney’s job are experienced, capable. All of them are alums of the U.S. attorney’s office. I’m thinking about this now. All of them are people with whom I’ve served previously. And so this is a strong field of candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some hypothetical sense, could a new U.S. attorney redirect resources? Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"David Anderson\"]‘It’s outrageous when you come to the conclusion that those who have been hired to serve the public are instead serving themselves.’[/pullquote]\u003cstrong>In looking back at this major corruption case that has shaken the city, how do you feel about what you and your officers were able to accomplish? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, the business of a prosecutor is always unfinished. There’s never a point where you wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh, good news, no crime today!’ So every day you drive your docket is a day that you’re pushing back on the evils of our community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so whether I served for two weeks or two years or two decades, that idea of unfinished business would still be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what will you do now? Is this a John Elway, ‘I’m going to Disneyland,’ moment for you?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll take some time and then head back to private practice. I’ve done basically three things in my professional life: I’ve clerked, I’ve prosecuted and I’ve defended. So I’ll head back to private practice — I’ve enjoyed that as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has been interesting to take part in the public life of San Francisco as I’ve been able to do as U.S. attorney, and I would say that I’m describing that as an interesting experience, sort of in the same way that my dad might say, ‘This was an interesting new dish that we got for dinner tonight.’ It’s pluses and minuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being U.S. attorney is a great job. You are not tethered in your work to the demands of your clients. Instead, you’re given a broad mandate directly from the president, from the Senate, from the attorney general, to effectuate justice as effectively as you possibly can in your district. You’re given incredible talent to act upon that in the sense of 135 [assistant attorneys], hundreds of staff, and then the partnership of all of the law enforcement agencies with which we team. So it’s an amazing position in all those ways. And then also, you know, you get an opportunity like I’m talking to you, to speak in a public way. So all those things are fabulous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the same time, in private practice, you’re just obsessing over your clients, over their problems. And then that can be pretty great, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco’s ever-unfolding corruption scandal has toppled the careers of four sitting city officials. After the investigation was first announced early last year, like dominoes, they fell from grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, Mohammed Nuru, former director of San Francisco Public Works, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">arrested on corruption charges\u003c/a> in January 2020, and lost his job. Less than two months later, Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed. And in November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And the case continues to unfold. Just this week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2021/03/01/herrera-suspends-five-nuru-linked-executives-and-their-companies-from-receiving-sf-funds/\">issued first-of-its-kind orders to suspend city contracts\u003c/a> with companies and their executives who were found connected to the bribery and corruption scandal, pausing their business with San Francisco while justice takes its course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those corruption charges stemmed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\"> from a case\u003c/a> spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, led by former U.S. Attorney David Anderson — appointed by the Trump administration — whose last day on the job was Friday, Feb. 26. President Biden has yet to appoint his successor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his way out the door, Anderson, who hails from San Jose, took time to speak with KQED reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez about his perspective leading public corruption investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson was quick to firmly address what is perhaps the top-of-mind question for many San Franciscans: He does not believe any incoming replacement for his job will in any way divert resources from the ongoing corruption case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At any one time, about six assistant U.S. attorneys have been working on the corruption investigation, when some cases may only have one or two attorneys, he said, a commitment of resources that demonstrates the importance of the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One important caveat hung over the conversation — as an attorney, Anderson cannot comment \u003cem>directly \u003c/em>on any active case. In lieu of specifics, we asked Anderson to engage in a more philosophical conversation about corruption in general, and how his views have evolved over the course of this investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: A lot of our readers and listeners, when they first heard the news and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11838356/bribery-and-fraud-two-contractors-plead-guilty-in-sf-corruption-case\">then watched it unfold with every other official\u003c/a> over the last year, they felt it in almost all the different classic stages — anguish, anger, disappointment. When you first understood the totality of this, how did you emotionally react to that knowledge? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>U.S. Attorney David Anderson:\u003c/strong> One of the things they try to do to you in law school is to drub the emotion out of you. You just spend so much time right from the very beginning of your training as a lawyer thinking about things with your head more than your heart. So that’s one piece of context. And the other piece of context is that I’ve been doing this job in one form or other for more than 30 years. I’ve seen a few things in every different kind of case that we do in federal court that could be held up as the source of, to use your words, anguish, anger, disappointment. And you could add a long list of adjectives to it — fear and frustration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thing that’s unique and powerful about the public corruption cases is the breach of public trust. And the idea that we are a sovereign people and the people who lead us are our public servants. And so it’s outrageous when you come to the conclusion that those who have been hired to serve the public are instead serving themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Now, I’m talking and going with you along this philosophical line. Obviously, in the context of any particular case, defendants who’ve been charged but have not been adjudicated are presumed innocent. And I have a profound respect for that presumption of innocence. So I want to just close by emphasizing that I am reacting to general questions and not talking about any particular case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And that’s totally fair. You make the point that you’ve seen a lot in your years of service. So for people who are like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe my government is doing this,’ where would you put this in the context of corruption in other cities? Where would you put it on the scale?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not able to compare what is happening in San Francisco to other cities. I just don’t have the competency to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing that I would say that I think connects fairly to your question is that early on when I returned to the office as a U.S. attorney, I identified 25 people in my office and put each one of them in charge of one particular aspect of the myriad of different kinds of cases that we handle. And one of those 25 is an assistant U.S. attorney who I put in charge of public corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, ‘OK, what I want you to do is I want you to find the people in Chicago and in New York and in the other offices that you identify that have greater experience with public corruption cases than historically this office in San Francisco has had. Find them, talk to them, come back and tell me what it is that we should be thinking about when we do these cases. And he did that. And I think that that has been a contributor to the work that we’ve done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What would you say to the people who ask, ‘Should this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821145/months-after-sf-public-works-boss-nurus-arrest-staff-push-for-corruption-cleanup\">shake my faith\u003c/a> in my local government?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think that a city like San Francisco is best served not just by honest leaders, but also by an active citizenry. And I do wonder about the level of engagement that I see in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just generally speaking, with our political process, what I see is a small number of people who are highly actively engaged. And I see a larger number of people who are enjoying all the other things that San Francisco has to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, to the extent that looking at the cases that we have charged serves as a wake-up call for someone who is in San Francisco — maybe I should be paying more attention to this — I welcome that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>At this point, several people connected to the scandal have pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators, including restaurateur Nick Bovis and Walter Wong, a permit expediter. What’s their motivation for doing so? Did they go, ‘I can’t do this anymore!’ Or was it something where, in a practical matter, fancy lawyering and whatnot, they didn’t really have much of an option in front of them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m trying to have the conversation that you want to have and certainly can talk generally about the process by which defendants come to cooperate. That’s something that I’ve seen on both sides of the courtroom going back for four decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think probably the easiest way to look at that is from the perspective of the client-counsel interaction and again, not talking about any particular case and certainly not intruding on any particular attorney-client privilege, but just positing sort of the hypothetical conversation. It usually goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’re confronting these charges. You’re confronting this evidence. What’s going to be your answer? And oftentimes there’s sort of a moment where the client is saying, ‘Well, you know, how come I got to answer? You’re the lawyer.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, of course, the lawyer doesn’t know the facts. The lawyer can only learn those from the client, maybe from the discovery that’s provided by the prosecutor. So eventually the conversation will move in the direction of, ‘Do we have an answer to this or don’t we?’ And if we do, then let’s get out there and provide that answer, and if we don’t, well, then let’s start planning for our day of reckoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And again, looking at this from that defense perspective, looking at it from the perspective of client and counsel, you can mount a variety of non-factual defenses. If a defendant’s profound constitutional rights have been violated, you may have defenses to the charges even if the charges are true. So there’s a lot of different directions from the defense perspective that you can go. One of the things you can do is, you can cooperate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And each client has to decide, is this the right move for me? And clients will do that for a variety of reasons. They’ll do it because they want to mitigate exposure. They’ll do it because they feel remorse. They want to try and make things better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does happen that you have cooperators that come to you, they come to you either in public or they come to you in secret. And then those cooperators can become an important part of taking the next step or the next half step in an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You touched on this a bit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101882168/u-s-attorney-david-anderson-leaves-office\">on KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>, but I’m interested in the rationale. Is there a possibility your successor might decide to shift resources and say, ‘I want fewer eyes on this case and more eyes on another case?’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The names I’ve heard in the public sphere of candidates to take over the U.S. attorney’s job are experienced, capable. All of them are alums of the U.S. attorney’s office. I’m thinking about this now. All of them are people with whom I’ve served previously. And so this is a strong field of candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some hypothetical sense, could a new U.S. attorney redirect resources? Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In looking back at this major corruption case that has shaken the city, how do you feel about what you and your officers were able to accomplish? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, the business of a prosecutor is always unfinished. There’s never a point where you wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh, good news, no crime today!’ So every day you drive your docket is a day that you’re pushing back on the evils of our community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so whether I served for two weeks or two years or two decades, that idea of unfinished business would still be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what will you do now? Is this a John Elway, ‘I’m going to Disneyland,’ moment for you?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll take some time and then head back to private practice. I’ve done basically three things in my professional life: I’ve clerked, I’ve prosecuted and I’ve defended. So I’ll head back to private practice — I’ve enjoyed that as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has been interesting to take part in the public life of San Francisco as I’ve been able to do as U.S. attorney, and I would say that I’m describing that as an interesting experience, sort of in the same way that my dad might say, ‘This was an interesting new dish that we got for dinner tonight.’ It’s pluses and minuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being U.S. attorney is a great job. You are not tethered in your work to the demands of your clients. Instead, you’re given a broad mandate directly from the president, from the Senate, from the attorney general, to effectuate justice as effectively as you possibly can in your district. You’re given incredible talent to act upon that in the sense of 135 [assistant attorneys], hundreds of staff, and then the partnership of all of the law enforcement agencies with which we team. So it’s an amazing position in all those ways. And then also, you know, you get an opportunity like I’m talking to you, to speak in a public way. So all those things are fabulous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the same time, in private practice, you’re just obsessing over your clients, over their problems. And then that can be pretty great, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Nuru Scandal: Former Mayor Willie Brown Reflects on Long-Time Allies Charged by FBI",
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"content": "\u003cp>The news hit last week — the U.S. attorney's office charged yet another San Francisco official in connection to a bribery scheme. Yes, again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corruption probe in San Francisco, it seems, is ever-expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Harlan Kelly resigned\u003c/a> as the San Francisco Public Utility Commission's general manager just last week after denying charges made by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office. He is the third San Francisco department head to resign or otherwise lose his office in the wake of this corruption scandal: First was former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, in late January, who was charged in connection with a bribery scheme, and then the Department of Building Inspection's former director, Tom Hui, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">who resigned after it was revealed\u003c/a> he breached ethics laws by dining with billionaire developers seeking to curry his favor in a project's approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly's wife, City Administrator Naomi Kelly, is also implicated in this affair, having taken trips to China and allegedly taking cash to community figure Rose Pak, according to the FBI. Naomi Kelly is now on a leave of absence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scandal has even ensnared Mayor London Breed, at least tangentially, after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801734/sf-mayor-breed-reveals-she-once-dated-mohammed-nuru-received-gift-from-him\">publicly admitted \u003c/a>she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Nuru in 2019, a gift she did not initially report despite a legal requirement to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these figures saw their careers in city service begin under Mayor Willie Brown. He appointed Harlan Kelly city engineer in 1996, Naomi Kelly was executive \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/team/naomi-kelly\">director of the Taxicab Commission under Brown\u003c/a> and Nuru \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Cleanup-wizard-in-a-messy-scandal-DPW-aide-has-2795062.php\">was first brought into City Hall by Brown in various roles. \u003c/a>Even Breed served at the Treasure Island Development Authority after working on Brown's mayoral campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, now a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, is funding Nuru's defense, according to \u003ca href=\"https://nobhillgazette.com/the-interview-willie-brown-uncensored/\">an interview he gave to the Nob Hill Gazette\u003c/a>. He spoke with KQED the day allegations against Harlan Kelly were released to reflect on the ever-expanding scandal around his many former staffers.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis interview has been edited for space and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: You've known these people — Nuru, Harlan, and Naomi, in particular — for years. Are these allegations a surprise to you? Are the reactions from the public a surprise to you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Willie Brown: \u003c/strong>I don't understand what the object (of people's ire) happens to be, frankly, because the kind of thing they're talking about, and the kind of thing they're doing, doesn't seem to have a whole lot of implications for the operation of city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's not like someone built a bridge and used inferior products to build the bridge, and therefore risked the lives of lots of people. Or built a rail line and built equipment that risked the lives of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sounds like these people have been entertained and have been more tolerant of those entertaining them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Well isn't this something where people are angry that people may have been given an upper hand in winning contracts after wining and dining public officials?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the law, it says the lowest eligible qualified bidder is what we (approve), and I think we potentially get the worst (contractors) and ignore the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have always thought the quality of the structure should be what determines it, not the price (of the bid).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How this affects the public is one thing, but how have you reacted to these allegations personally? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It affects people personally because it's always sad when any friend or relative has a serious illness or problem of any sort, and that includes a serious problem with law enforcement people. Yes, you're always concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I'm always sorry to see that any of my friends, my supporters, become the object of any actions that would disrupt their career paths, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I would hope that it would never happen to any of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>These aren't just your friends, though, right? People have described Nuru and the Kellys as your proteges. Didn't they learn from you? Did you not have a mentor/mentee relationship with these public officials, and take them under your wing, so to speak?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organization writes down that everyone is a protege of mine, period. They never say they're a protege of everyone else that might exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I must have the most awesome influence of anyone alive. The story doesn't work unless they're a \"protege of Willie Brown.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are they someone who supported my candidacy for mayor? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they in many cases have some promotions? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they earn them? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think anyone goes under anybody's \"wing.\" I think people observe how you operate. They will ask you questions or learn from you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unless you learn from them every day, or talk to them like I'm talking to you — is that a protege?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't recall ever doing anything except trying to convince people to do good work in public service, at all levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that translates to people being proteges, then I accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You've seen city and state government from almost every angle. How rampant are schemes like the ones the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have alleged here?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are very few people I know who would seek that kind of help, that might create that kind of problem for them on the integrity side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the people I've dealt with in 40 or more years, and when I served as speaker of the Assembly, I had 79 members of the Legislature, and all of them spent six or more years in the halls of the Legislature. They would develop friendships and et cetera. They'd develop informational sources. They voted for bills or against bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The counsel has always been: \"Make sure the result is in the best interest of the public.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I'm trying to understand what you said earlier, that this scandal has had no impact on services rendered by city government. That structures weren't necessarily falling apart. Do you mean to say, as long as the city doesn't collapse on itself, and services are delivered, the occasional bout of alleged graft is OK?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think people even think that way, frankly. If people viewed it as something that would embarrass them, people wouldn't do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people who are thieves. And there are people who seek money benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But people do not think, I don't think, in terms of someone buying you a drink, or buying you dinner, or anything of that nature, that there's anything that caused them to influence or give up their responsibility to public service for the benefit of the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If this isn't a failure of government, then, how should the public look at these accusations?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think transparency is really important. I think they should know everything. And be entitled to have one explain everything if this calls to a person's attention their belief is that they've done something inconsistent with the best interest (of the people).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People should be able to prove they know what the relationships were, that everything done was in the best interest, the highest quality of the public service, and let the world know that you did that — let that be the judge of your conduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You're one of the few folks who would have real insight into how Mayor London Breed's administration must be reacting to this unfolding scandal. That's three department heads stepping down in a single year related to corruption allegations. What's going on in the mayor's office right now, would you say?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I served as mayor of San Francisco, every time any department ran afoul in any fashion, on the conduct side, it was always attributed in some fashion to my inability to spot that person as a potential problem, and therefore it was my responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, you have the responsibility for all things, ultimately. You don't have the blame, but you do have to exercise good judgment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as I thought (former mayors) Ed Lee did, and Art Agnos did, and Frank Jordan did, even though I defeated Frank Jordan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It was so many department heads, though. Does that mean there might be a broader problem? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please don't draw any conclusion based on raw numbers. Jesus. You do that and you really impose on the head person an enormous burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, (during my administration) the (district attorney) \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/07/14/after-fajitagate\">indicted my whole command structure\u003c/a> of the police department. He indicted everybody, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had to literally tolerate that. Ultimately, the courts ruled he never should have done that, and the courts gave them all back their lives for career purposes, without them having to ever answer that they were indicted. They all walked into my office and placed down their guns and badges. Except for the chief, he came in by himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what does that say about what Mayor London Breed is going through?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have no idea, I'm not that connected to the current mayor's operation, I can tell you about \u003cem>my\u003c/em> operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think I could speculate, frankly, how my operation would be. But I know any time a department head was confronted, or a member of law enforcement, we moved as quickly as we could to protect the public interest, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I think the big question here, given the wide reach of the scandal, for people who live and work in the city, is probably pretty simple — should people still have confidence in San Francisco government?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think people should never lose confidence in government, period. I don't think government rises or falls based on the conduct of a few. Trump proves that today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Dec. 8: This story has been updated to clarify that Mayor London Breed did not report she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Mohammed Nuru in 2019, \"initially.\" She has since reported it. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The news hit last week — the U.S. attorney's office charged yet another San Francisco official in connection to a bribery scheme. Yes, again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corruption probe in San Francisco, it seems, is ever-expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Harlan Kelly resigned\u003c/a> as the San Francisco Public Utility Commission's general manager just last week after denying charges made by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office. He is the third San Francisco department head to resign or otherwise lose his office in the wake of this corruption scandal: First was former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, in late January, who was charged in connection with a bribery scheme, and then the Department of Building Inspection's former director, Tom Hui, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">who resigned after it was revealed\u003c/a> he breached ethics laws by dining with billionaire developers seeking to curry his favor in a project's approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly's wife, City Administrator Naomi Kelly, is also implicated in this affair, having taken trips to China and allegedly taking cash to community figure Rose Pak, according to the FBI. Naomi Kelly is now on a leave of absence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scandal has even ensnared Mayor London Breed, at least tangentially, after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801734/sf-mayor-breed-reveals-she-once-dated-mohammed-nuru-received-gift-from-him\">publicly admitted \u003c/a>she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Nuru in 2019, a gift she did not initially report despite a legal requirement to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these figures saw their careers in city service begin under Mayor Willie Brown. He appointed Harlan Kelly city engineer in 1996, Naomi Kelly was executive \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/team/naomi-kelly\">director of the Taxicab Commission under Brown\u003c/a> and Nuru \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Cleanup-wizard-in-a-messy-scandal-DPW-aide-has-2795062.php\">was first brought into City Hall by Brown in various roles. \u003c/a>Even Breed served at the Treasure Island Development Authority after working on Brown's mayoral campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, now a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, is funding Nuru's defense, according to \u003ca href=\"https://nobhillgazette.com/the-interview-willie-brown-uncensored/\">an interview he gave to the Nob Hill Gazette\u003c/a>. He spoke with KQED the day allegations against Harlan Kelly were released to reflect on the ever-expanding scandal around his many former staffers.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis interview has been edited for space and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: You've known these people — Nuru, Harlan, and Naomi, in particular — for years. Are these allegations a surprise to you? Are the reactions from the public a surprise to you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Willie Brown: \u003c/strong>I don't understand what the object (of people's ire) happens to be, frankly, because the kind of thing they're talking about, and the kind of thing they're doing, doesn't seem to have a whole lot of implications for the operation of city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's not like someone built a bridge and used inferior products to build the bridge, and therefore risked the lives of lots of people. Or built a rail line and built equipment that risked the lives of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sounds like these people have been entertained and have been more tolerant of those entertaining them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Well isn't this something where people are angry that people may have been given an upper hand in winning contracts after wining and dining public officials?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the law, it says the lowest eligible qualified bidder is what we (approve), and I think we potentially get the worst (contractors) and ignore the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have always thought the quality of the structure should be what determines it, not the price (of the bid).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How this affects the public is one thing, but how have you reacted to these allegations personally? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It affects people personally because it's always sad when any friend or relative has a serious illness or problem of any sort, and that includes a serious problem with law enforcement people. Yes, you're always concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I'm always sorry to see that any of my friends, my supporters, become the object of any actions that would disrupt their career paths, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I would hope that it would never happen to any of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>These aren't just your friends, though, right? People have described Nuru and the Kellys as your proteges. Didn't they learn from you? Did you not have a mentor/mentee relationship with these public officials, and take them under your wing, so to speak?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organization writes down that everyone is a protege of mine, period. They never say they're a protege of everyone else that might exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I must have the most awesome influence of anyone alive. The story doesn't work unless they're a \"protege of Willie Brown.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are they someone who supported my candidacy for mayor? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they in many cases have some promotions? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they earn them? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think anyone goes under anybody's \"wing.\" I think people observe how you operate. They will ask you questions or learn from you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unless you learn from them every day, or talk to them like I'm talking to you — is that a protege?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't recall ever doing anything except trying to convince people to do good work in public service, at all levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that translates to people being proteges, then I accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You've seen city and state government from almost every angle. How rampant are schemes like the ones the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have alleged here?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are very few people I know who would seek that kind of help, that might create that kind of problem for them on the integrity side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the people I've dealt with in 40 or more years, and when I served as speaker of the Assembly, I had 79 members of the Legislature, and all of them spent six or more years in the halls of the Legislature. They would develop friendships and et cetera. They'd develop informational sources. They voted for bills or against bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The counsel has always been: \"Make sure the result is in the best interest of the public.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I'm trying to understand what you said earlier, that this scandal has had no impact on services rendered by city government. That structures weren't necessarily falling apart. Do you mean to say, as long as the city doesn't collapse on itself, and services are delivered, the occasional bout of alleged graft is OK?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think people even think that way, frankly. If people viewed it as something that would embarrass them, people wouldn't do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people who are thieves. And there are people who seek money benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But people do not think, I don't think, in terms of someone buying you a drink, or buying you dinner, or anything of that nature, that there's anything that caused them to influence or give up their responsibility to public service for the benefit of the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If this isn't a failure of government, then, how should the public look at these accusations?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think transparency is really important. I think they should know everything. And be entitled to have one explain everything if this calls to a person's attention their belief is that they've done something inconsistent with the best interest (of the people).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People should be able to prove they know what the relationships were, that everything done was in the best interest, the highest quality of the public service, and let the world know that you did that — let that be the judge of your conduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You're one of the few folks who would have real insight into how Mayor London Breed's administration must be reacting to this unfolding scandal. That's three department heads stepping down in a single year related to corruption allegations. What's going on in the mayor's office right now, would you say?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I served as mayor of San Francisco, every time any department ran afoul in any fashion, on the conduct side, it was always attributed in some fashion to my inability to spot that person as a potential problem, and therefore it was my responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, you have the responsibility for all things, ultimately. You don't have the blame, but you do have to exercise good judgment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as I thought (former mayors) Ed Lee did, and Art Agnos did, and Frank Jordan did, even though I defeated Frank Jordan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It was so many department heads, though. Does that mean there might be a broader problem? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please don't draw any conclusion based on raw numbers. Jesus. You do that and you really impose on the head person an enormous burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, (during my administration) the (district attorney) \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/07/14/after-fajitagate\">indicted my whole command structure\u003c/a> of the police department. He indicted everybody, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had to literally tolerate that. Ultimately, the courts ruled he never should have done that, and the courts gave them all back their lives for career purposes, without them having to ever answer that they were indicted. They all walked into my office and placed down their guns and badges. Except for the chief, he came in by himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what does that say about what Mayor London Breed is going through?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have no idea, I'm not that connected to the current mayor's operation, I can tell you about \u003cem>my\u003c/em> operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think I could speculate, frankly, how my operation would be. But I know any time a department head was confronted, or a member of law enforcement, we moved as quickly as we could to protect the public interest, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I think the big question here, given the wide reach of the scandal, for people who live and work in the city, is probably pretty simple — should people still have confidence in San Francisco government?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think people should never lose confidence in government, period. I don't think government rises or falls based on the conduct of a few. Trump proves that today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Dec. 8: This story has been updated to clarify that Mayor London Breed did not report she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Mohammed Nuru in 2019, \"initially.\" She has since reported it. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Another San Francisco official has been charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in connection to a bribery scheme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly, 58, was charged with honest services wire fraud, the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI announced Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Public officials owe their honest services to the people of San Francisco,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a statement. “Bribery scams undermine our faith in City government. Our investigation into City Hall corruption will continue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly resigned from the SFPUC Monday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The allegations detailed in the Federal Investigation conducted by the US Attorney’s Office are disturbing and unacceptable for anyone serving in our government, let alone the leader of one of our largest departments,” Breed said. “As public officials, we have to hold ourselves to the highest standard and put the public good before all else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly denied the charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am not guilty of these allegations,” he said in a press statement on Monday.[aside postID=\"news_11799166\" label=\"More on Nuru\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly continued, “I had intended to retire in the next 18 months. Unfortunately, I need to leave my position now in order to defend myself, my legacy and my family. It is painful for me to end a 35-year career as a result of false allegations, but it is simply not possible for me to do my job to the best of my ability while also defending myself. I know that stepping aside now is in the best interests of the City, the SFPUC, and my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news follows the indictment of former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru in January, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/lefty-odouls-charity-used-city-contractor-donations-to-pay-for-public-works-party/\">who was also charged in relation to a bribery scheme\u003c/a>. Another department head, Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">resigned this year\u003c/a> after his own violation of city ethics laws were revealed in connection to a city attorney’s office investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s three San Francisco department heads, with three alleged schemes, all revealed just this year. The thread that binds them all is Walter Wong, a permit expediting consultant and construction company executive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1333516775627976704\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its statement, the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI characterized Kelly’s relationship with Wong as a “long-running bribery scheme and corrupt partnership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint alleges that Kelly took international trips paid for, or subsidized by, Wong, made cash exchanges with Wong and accepted free meals from him, all detailed in coded text messages on an encrypted text messaging app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Harlan Kelly, former manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission\"]“It is painful for me to end a 35-year career as a result of false allegations.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the trips in question was a March 2016 Hong Kong trip to visit the late Rose Pak, a San Francisco community activist. The complaint says investigators reviewed bank records and found Kelly and his wife, City Administrator Naomi Kelly, “incurred almost no significant expenses” on their known debit or credit cards on that trip, which “corroborates WONG’s statements” to the FBI that he paid of thousands of dollars in incidental expenses for the Kellys during their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of those exchanges took place while Wong sought a multimillion-dollar contract from the SFPUC, which Kelly oversaw as general manager, for a citywide LED lighting contract. Wong’s son ran Green Source Trading, LLC, which was bidding to convert thousands of San Francisco streetlights to smart LED technology.[aside postID=\"news_11821145\" label=\"A pushback on SF corruption\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly “used his official position to assist WONG’s efforts,” the complaint alleges, including postponing the deadline on the LED contract to benefit Wong, while he readied his bid contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point Kelly texted to Wong, “You told me [t]hat you had everything? I don’t know what to do? I don’t know how to stop the process anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong eventually gave up on the LED light contract, after a number of changes were made to the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the complaint, “according to WONG, after expressing frustration to Nuru about the changes, Nuru told him to forget about the project because someone else had bribed KELLY with a much larger sum and WONG was not going to win the (request for proposals).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/MattHaneySF/status/1333523111237488645\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two would frequently text about a San Francisco mayor using the code “35,” referencing the mayor’s initials on a phone keypad. Those numbers correspond with the letters “E” and “L,” perhaps in reference to the late Mayor Ed Lee, who died in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those communications includes this one from 2014, referencing the idea that the mayor in question was aware of a permit Wong wanted to push through the SFPUC with Kelly’s help:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: “Just finished mayor breakfast\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>p’s call me, lots of delevoper [sic] complaint your department.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: “1111 California, p/a # 201008199171. This\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>is a good example is a revised plan. PUC approved before but not willing to review and resign.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Kelly did not respond to Wong for four hours, Wong continued, invoking the code for the mayor:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: did u request help to this permit 1111 California, p/a # 201008199171. this one is in 35 radar\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kelly\u003c/strong>: Yes have people working on ot.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: tks\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In text messages sent during 2013, Wong asked Kelly to confirm they would have lunch on a Sunday. Kelly responded, “yes with 35.” Wong said, “35 may play golf tomorrow, he said for me to meet w u first, what time tomorrow is good for u.”[aside postID=\"news_11839531\" label=\"sf nonprofits linked to pay-to-play scheme\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Lee was known to be a frequent golf player, particularly on Sundays, as a way to wind down from his hectic schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is by no means the end of the investigation, as both the U.S. attorney’s office and City Attorney Dennis Herrera have indicated there is more to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our internal investigation into Mr. Kelly and others continues, including those not charged criminally,” Herrera said in a statement. “We continue to follow the facts wherever they lead and root out those who abuse the public trust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED reporter Alice Woelfle contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Another San Francisco official has been charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in connection to a bribery scheme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly, 58, was charged with honest services wire fraud, the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI announced Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Public officials owe their honest services to the people of San Francisco,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a statement. “Bribery scams undermine our faith in City government. Our investigation into City Hall corruption will continue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly resigned from the SFPUC Monday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The allegations detailed in the Federal Investigation conducted by the US Attorney’s Office are disturbing and unacceptable for anyone serving in our government, let alone the leader of one of our largest departments,” Breed said. “As public officials, we have to hold ourselves to the highest standard and put the public good before all else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly continued, “I had intended to retire in the next 18 months. Unfortunately, I need to leave my position now in order to defend myself, my legacy and my family. It is painful for me to end a 35-year career as a result of false allegations, but it is simply not possible for me to do my job to the best of my ability while also defending myself. I know that stepping aside now is in the best interests of the City, the SFPUC, and my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news follows the indictment of former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru in January, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/lefty-odouls-charity-used-city-contractor-donations-to-pay-for-public-works-party/\">who was also charged in relation to a bribery scheme\u003c/a>. Another department head, Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">resigned this year\u003c/a> after his own violation of city ethics laws were revealed in connection to a city attorney’s office investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s three San Francisco department heads, with three alleged schemes, all revealed just this year. The thread that binds them all is Walter Wong, a permit expediting consultant and construction company executive.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the trips in question was a March 2016 Hong Kong trip to visit the late Rose Pak, a San Francisco community activist. The complaint says investigators reviewed bank records and found Kelly and his wife, City Administrator Naomi Kelly, “incurred almost no significant expenses” on their known debit or credit cards on that trip, which “corroborates WONG’s statements” to the FBI that he paid of thousands of dollars in incidental expenses for the Kellys during their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of those exchanges took place while Wong sought a multimillion-dollar contract from the SFPUC, which Kelly oversaw as general manager, for a citywide LED lighting contract. Wong’s son ran Green Source Trading, LLC, which was bidding to convert thousands of San Francisco streetlights to smart LED technology.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The two would frequently text about a San Francisco mayor using the code “35,” referencing the mayor’s initials on a phone keypad. Those numbers correspond with the letters “E” and “L,” perhaps in reference to the late Mayor Ed Lee, who died in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those communications includes this one from 2014, referencing the idea that the mayor in question was aware of a permit Wong wanted to push through the SFPUC with Kelly’s help:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: “Just finished mayor breakfast\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>p’s call me, lots of delevoper [sic] complaint your department.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: “1111 California, p/a # 201008199171. This\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>is a good example is a revised plan. PUC approved before but not willing to review and resign.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Kelly did not respond to Wong for four hours, Wong continued, invoking the code for the mayor:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: did u request help to this permit 1111 California, p/a # 201008199171. this one is in 35 radar\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kelly\u003c/strong>: Yes have people working on ot.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Wong\u003c/strong>: tks\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In text messages sent during 2013, Wong asked Kelly to confirm they would have lunch on a Sunday. Kelly responded, “yes with 35.” Wong said, “35 may play golf tomorrow, he said for me to meet w u first, what time tomorrow is good for u.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It often pays to have friends in high places. In San Francisco, that goes double for nonprofits that call themselves \"friends.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new \u003ca href=\"https://sfcontroller.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Auditing/Public%20Integrity%20Review%20-%20Non-City%20Organizations%2009.24.20.pdf\">report\u003c/a> from the San Francisco City Controller's Office, in conjunction with the City Attorney's Office, skewers a system where city departments — like Public Works — form relationships with nonprofit organizations that raise philanthropic dollars for issues related to that department, saying it's rife with opportunity for corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often these organizations are called \"friends\" organizations, like Friends of the Library, or Friends of City Planning. All told, the report found that 33 out of 56 San Francisco city departments benefit from these kinds of nonprofit organizations, which between them have 588 accounts spent on city activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dennis Herrera, San Francisco city attorney\"]'This report makes it clear that pay-to-play has been happening in our city.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those nonprofits have looser transparency requirements, creating a \"pay-to-play\" environment where city department heads could potentially ask city contractors they oversee to donate to the nonprofit, creating a risk that department head would be influenced by that spending when deciding to award multi-million-dollar city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit could then disburse those funds to be used for city staff appreciation parties in ways that would have otherwise violated city law — if done transparently — or on pet projects of that department head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may have already happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Controller's Office found at least one of these organizations, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, took roughly $1 million in donations from a number of city contractors which were under investigation by the City Attorney's Office for funneling money to the Public Works department for lavish parties, at the behest of former Public Works Director \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/mohammed-nuru/\">Mohammed Nuru\u003c/a>, who was arrested by the FBI in January on corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those city contractors include the SF Clean City Coalition, Recology, PG&E, Clark Construction, Webcor Construction and Pankow Construction. They collectively donated $966,000 to the Parks Alliance into a Public Works-specific account — funds Nuru was able to freely direct, and sometimes himself was paid from — according to the report. Those same contractors were awarded more than $570 million in city contracts by the Public Works Department, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Attorney Dennis Herrera \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2020/02/12/city-attorney-subpoenas-8-organizations-in-widening-public-corruption-investigation/\">issued subpoenas\u003c/a> investigating those same city contractors in February, in connection with the ongoing corruption scandal that first ensnared Nuru, but has only grown in the following months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru and others would direct staff to pay for goods and services for staff appreciation, volunteer programs, merchandise, community support and events from specific vendors, \"circumventing city purchasing controls,\" the report found. These purchases would then be reimbursed through Public Works accounts held by the Parks Alliance \"outside of city purchasing rules.\" Nuru would solicit those funds from contractors whose city contracts Nuru oversaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This report makes it clear that pay-to-play has been happening in our city. We are putting a stop to it,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, in a statement. “City officials cannot work behind the scenes with City contractors to benefit their departments and use other entities to cloak those efforts.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drew Becher, CEO of the San Francisco Parks Alliance, expressed shock at the city's findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Like everyone, we were outraged to learn of the public corruption in our local government,” Becher said, in a statement. “We did not benefit in any way nor had any control over the donations that Nuru and Public Works solicited and directed to the sub-account, as the report states. We are a trusted partner to many community groups and city departments and welcome any and all actions that bring more transparency and oversight to ensure the public’s trust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was arrested by the FBI in January and accused of attempting to bribe an airport official. Just last week, two city contractors pleaded guilty to bribing Nuru with the construction of his vacation home and a $36,000 gold Rolex watch in exchange for help in obtaining city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='mohammed-nuru']At the behest of Nuru, the Parks Alliance also directed $66,000 to entities whose figureheads were also arrested by the FBI in connection with Nuru's corruption scandal, permit expediter Walter Wong and Nick Bovis, the owner of Lefty O'Doul's.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they're working as they're supposed to, these \"friends of\" organizations may help put on an outdoor movie night for the public or help build park trails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they're also rife with opportunity for abuse, the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While philanthropic organizations provide tangible benefits to all of our residents, abuses in these relationships undermine the important role they play,\" said Controller Ben Rosenfield, in a statement. \"When gifts are solicited from those that do business with the City, it creates a risk to fair and transparent public processes. We have put forward actionable recommendations to correct loopholes that seemingly normalize unethical practices that undermine faith in public actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the release of the report, Mayor London Breed announced an executive order to address the recommendations in the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City department heads will now be required to reveal when they solicit donations to nonprofits — like the \"friends of\" organizations — and for city departments to formalize their relationships with these nonprofits, which would legally require those groups to boast greater transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed's order also requires more transparency from city officers in accepting gifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Haney also plans to introduce legislation next week that will go further than the mayor's order, explicitly banning department heads from asking any person or party doing business with their department for donations, among other changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney called Public Works actions \"inappropriate behavior\" and said the department \"is clearly out of control.\" Haney argued this also showed a clear need for his ballot measure Proposition B in San Francisco, which would create an oversight body for Public Works, and place some of its street maintenance duties with a new Department of Sanitation and Streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city's corruption scandal investigation is ongoing. The City Controller's Office and City Attorney's Office report into city ethics \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">is the second to be released this year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated to include a statement provided by the San Francisco Parks Alliance on Sept. 25.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It often pays to have friends in high places. In San Francisco, that goes double for nonprofits that call themselves \"friends.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new \u003ca href=\"https://sfcontroller.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Auditing/Public%20Integrity%20Review%20-%20Non-City%20Organizations%2009.24.20.pdf\">report\u003c/a> from the San Francisco City Controller's Office, in conjunction with the City Attorney's Office, skewers a system where city departments — like Public Works — form relationships with nonprofit organizations that raise philanthropic dollars for issues related to that department, saying it's rife with opportunity for corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often these organizations are called \"friends\" organizations, like Friends of the Library, or Friends of City Planning. All told, the report found that 33 out of 56 San Francisco city departments benefit from these kinds of nonprofit organizations, which between them have 588 accounts spent on city activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those nonprofits have looser transparency requirements, creating a \"pay-to-play\" environment where city department heads could potentially ask city contractors they oversee to donate to the nonprofit, creating a risk that department head would be influenced by that spending when deciding to award multi-million-dollar city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit could then disburse those funds to be used for city staff appreciation parties in ways that would have otherwise violated city law — if done transparently — or on pet projects of that department head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may have already happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Controller's Office found at least one of these organizations, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, took roughly $1 million in donations from a number of city contractors which were under investigation by the City Attorney's Office for funneling money to the Public Works department for lavish parties, at the behest of former Public Works Director \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/mohammed-nuru/\">Mohammed Nuru\u003c/a>, who was arrested by the FBI in January on corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those city contractors include the SF Clean City Coalition, Recology, PG&E, Clark Construction, Webcor Construction and Pankow Construction. They collectively donated $966,000 to the Parks Alliance into a Public Works-specific account — funds Nuru was able to freely direct, and sometimes himself was paid from — according to the report. Those same contractors were awarded more than $570 million in city contracts by the Public Works Department, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Attorney Dennis Herrera \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2020/02/12/city-attorney-subpoenas-8-organizations-in-widening-public-corruption-investigation/\">issued subpoenas\u003c/a> investigating those same city contractors in February, in connection with the ongoing corruption scandal that first ensnared Nuru, but has only grown in the following months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru and others would direct staff to pay for goods and services for staff appreciation, volunteer programs, merchandise, community support and events from specific vendors, \"circumventing city purchasing controls,\" the report found. These purchases would then be reimbursed through Public Works accounts held by the Parks Alliance \"outside of city purchasing rules.\" Nuru would solicit those funds from contractors whose city contracts Nuru oversaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This report makes it clear that pay-to-play has been happening in our city. We are putting a stop to it,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, in a statement. “City officials cannot work behind the scenes with City contractors to benefit their departments and use other entities to cloak those efforts.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drew Becher, CEO of the San Francisco Parks Alliance, expressed shock at the city's findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Like everyone, we were outraged to learn of the public corruption in our local government,” Becher said, in a statement. “We did not benefit in any way nor had any control over the donations that Nuru and Public Works solicited and directed to the sub-account, as the report states. We are a trusted partner to many community groups and city departments and welcome any and all actions that bring more transparency and oversight to ensure the public’s trust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was arrested by the FBI in January and accused of attempting to bribe an airport official. Just last week, two city contractors pleaded guilty to bribing Nuru with the construction of his vacation home and a $36,000 gold Rolex watch in exchange for help in obtaining city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the behest of Nuru, the Parks Alliance also directed $66,000 to entities whose figureheads were also arrested by the FBI in connection with Nuru's corruption scandal, permit expediter Walter Wong and Nick Bovis, the owner of Lefty O'Doul's.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they're working as they're supposed to, these \"friends of\" organizations may help put on an outdoor movie night for the public or help build park trails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they're also rife with opportunity for abuse, the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While philanthropic organizations provide tangible benefits to all of our residents, abuses in these relationships undermine the important role they play,\" said Controller Ben Rosenfield, in a statement. \"When gifts are solicited from those that do business with the City, it creates a risk to fair and transparent public processes. We have put forward actionable recommendations to correct loopholes that seemingly normalize unethical practices that undermine faith in public actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the release of the report, Mayor London Breed announced an executive order to address the recommendations in the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City department heads will now be required to reveal when they solicit donations to nonprofits — like the \"friends of\" organizations — and for city departments to formalize their relationships with these nonprofits, which would legally require those groups to boast greater transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed's order also requires more transparency from city officers in accepting gifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Haney also plans to introduce legislation next week that will go further than the mayor's order, explicitly banning department heads from asking any person or party doing business with their department for donations, among other changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney called Public Works actions \"inappropriate behavior\" and said the department \"is clearly out of control.\" Haney argued this also showed a clear need for his ballot measure Proposition B in San Francisco, which would create an oversight body for Public Works, and place some of its street maintenance duties with a new Department of Sanitation and Streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city's corruption scandal investigation is ongoing. The City Controller's Office and City Attorney's Office report into city ethics \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">is the second to be released this year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated to include a statement provided by the San Francisco Parks Alliance on Sept. 25.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Two city contractors have pleaded guilty in an ongoing San Francisco government corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Balmore Hernandez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit fraud, and Florence Kong pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of making false statements for lying to the FBI, according to plea agreements filed in federal court Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both contractors committed those acts in connection with former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who was arrested by the FBI in January on corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two additional contractors, Alan Varela and William Gilmartin III have also been indicted by the FBI, alleging they also conspired with Hernandez to bribe Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez, CEO of contracting company AzulWorks, Inc., allegedly also performed more than $250,000 worth of work, labor and materials to build a vacation home on the then-Public Works director’s ranch in Colusa County. The gifts allegedly helped secure a multimillion-dollar contract for Hernandez to operate an asphalt plant, according to the federal \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-public-official-and-contractors-charged-crimes-related-public-corruption\">charging documents released in June\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the specifics of the crimes Hernandez admitted under seal. Hernandez faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. However, should he cooperate “fully and truthfully” with the ongoing corruption investigation, U.S. attorneys may seek a lesser sentence for Hernandez, they wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong bribed Nuru with a Rolex watch worth roughly $36,000 that she bought in Hong Kong, and also helped install a gate on his vacation home, according to charging documents, which also detail intercepted phone calls demonstrating Nuru helped her obtain construction contracts for city facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[documentcloud url=\"http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7212861-USA-v-Florence-Kong-Plea-Agreement-9-17-2020.html\" responsive=true sidebar=false]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong gave Nuru the watch “as a reward for Nuru’s influence” directing contracts from Public Works to dispose of construction debris at her recycling business, SFR Recovery, Inc., according to the plea agreement filed Thursday. Unlike Hernandez, Kong’s plea agreement includes details of the crimes she admitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bribery charge against Kong carries a maximum 10-year sentence and a $250,000 fine. A separate charge for lying to the FBI — she told them she had no communications with Nuru about her city contract — carries a maximum sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong will face a sentence of “no more than” 18 months if she takes full responsibility for her crimes, cooperates with the investigation, pays full restitution for her ill-gotten gains, and agrees to not contact or intimidate victims or witnesses in the case, according to the plea agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filing also raises the possibility of deportation from the United States for Kong’s crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1EJRrM0k3g&feature=youtu.be\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Above, U.S. Attorney David Anderson discusses the new charges and Thursday’s guilty pleas.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In pleading guilty, Kong signed the following statement: “I believed Nuru to be one of the most powerful public officials in the city, and I believed that he wielded tremendous power and influence over city business, permitting and other city government approvals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong initially lied to the FBI, according to court filings, telling them he did not help her with contracts, did not extend any contract application deadlines on her behalf, that she never gave him money or goods, and that she and Nuru did not talk about the debris contracts.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Florence Kong, city contractor charged with bribery\"]‘I believed Nuru to be one of the most powerful public officials in the city, and I believed that he wielded tremendous power and influence over city business, permitting and other city government approvals.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Nuru was first arrested, the unfolding San Francisco corruption scandal has expanded, touching on multiple departments throughout city government, including the Department of Building Inspection and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal investigation into City Hall corruption has not been sidetracked by Covid-19 or other recent traumatic events,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a June statement announcing charges against Hernandez and Kong. “Today’s criminal complaints will not be the last. To everyone with a piece of this corruption, again I urge you to help make things right for San Francisco. Run, don’t walk to the FBI, before it is too late for you to cooperate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was arrested by the FBI in January on public fraud charges. Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant owner Nick Bovis was also arrested in January on related charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New indictments also revealed Thursday accuse Varela, founder of construction firm ProVen Management, and Gilmartin, the firm’s vice president, of working with Hernandez to obtain a contract through Public Works to operate an asphalt plant on land owned by the Port of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contractors allegedly bribed Nuru with a tractor worth $40,000 for preferential treatment in obtaining city contracts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Mission Local \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2020/09/tractor-mohammed-nuru-fbi-doj/\">first reported the alleged bribery\u003c/a>. Hernandez also participated in the delivery of the tractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"corruption\" label=\"More corruption coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilmartin allegedly paid for “extravagant dinners” in excess of $20,000 for Nuru and Hernandez, according to court filings. Hernandez was the “primary contact” between Valera, Gilmartin and Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilmartin even expressed appreciation to Hernandez for his efforts to make a deal with Nuru — in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have used you to help negotiate this deal because of your ability to understand and present our proposal without making the other side nervous. For this you are entitled to ownership,” Gilmartin wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez told the FBI agent he’s known Nuru for 20 years, and that they talk several times a month. The scheme dates back to 2013, according to court filings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Nuru’s arrest, a cascade of subpoenas have been filed by City Attorney Dennis Herrera and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a widening investigation of corruption in San Francisco government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Building Inspection’s former director, Tom Hui, stepped down from his position in March after it was revealed he accepted gifts from a housing developer, among other accusations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials have tried to make forward-facing changes to prevent further corruption, including the City Controller’s Office, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Matt Haney, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821145/months-after-sf-public-works-boss-nurus-arrest-staff-push-for-corruption-cleanup\">who are reworking city ethics laws to prevent city officials and contractors from gaming the system\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Two city contractors have pleaded guilty in an ongoing San Francisco government corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Balmore Hernandez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit fraud, and Florence Kong pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of making false statements for lying to the FBI, according to plea agreements filed in federal court Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both contractors committed those acts in connection with former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who was arrested by the FBI in January on corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two additional contractors, Alan Varela and William Gilmartin III have also been indicted by the FBI, alleging they also conspired with Hernandez to bribe Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez, CEO of contracting company AzulWorks, Inc., allegedly also performed more than $250,000 worth of work, labor and materials to build a vacation home on the then-Public Works director’s ranch in Colusa County. The gifts allegedly helped secure a multimillion-dollar contract for Hernandez to operate an asphalt plant, according to the federal \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-public-official-and-contractors-charged-crimes-related-public-corruption\">charging documents released in June\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the specifics of the crimes Hernandez admitted under seal. Hernandez faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. However, should he cooperate “fully and truthfully” with the ongoing corruption investigation, U.S. attorneys may seek a lesser sentence for Hernandez, they wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong bribed Nuru with a Rolex watch worth roughly $36,000 that she bought in Hong Kong, and also helped install a gate on his vacation home, according to charging documents, which also detail intercepted phone calls demonstrating Nuru helped her obtain construction contracts for city facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong gave Nuru the watch “as a reward for Nuru’s influence” directing contracts from Public Works to dispose of construction debris at her recycling business, SFR Recovery, Inc., according to the plea agreement filed Thursday. Unlike Hernandez, Kong’s plea agreement includes details of the crimes she admitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bribery charge against Kong carries a maximum 10-year sentence and a $250,000 fine. A separate charge for lying to the FBI — she told them she had no communications with Nuru about her city contract — carries a maximum sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong will face a sentence of “no more than” 18 months if she takes full responsibility for her crimes, cooperates with the investigation, pays full restitution for her ill-gotten gains, and agrees to not contact or intimidate victims or witnesses in the case, according to the plea agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filing also raises the possibility of deportation from the United States for Kong’s crimes.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/J1EJRrM0k3g'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/J1EJRrM0k3g'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Above, U.S. Attorney David Anderson discusses the new charges and Thursday’s guilty pleas.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In pleading guilty, Kong signed the following statement: “I believed Nuru to be one of the most powerful public officials in the city, and I believed that he wielded tremendous power and influence over city business, permitting and other city government approvals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kong initially lied to the FBI, according to court filings, telling them he did not help her with contracts, did not extend any contract application deadlines on her behalf, that she never gave him money or goods, and that she and Nuru did not talk about the debris contracts.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Nuru was first arrested, the unfolding San Francisco corruption scandal has expanded, touching on multiple departments throughout city government, including the Department of Building Inspection and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal investigation into City Hall corruption has not been sidetracked by Covid-19 or other recent traumatic events,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a June statement announcing charges against Hernandez and Kong. “Today’s criminal complaints will not be the last. To everyone with a piece of this corruption, again I urge you to help make things right for San Francisco. Run, don’t walk to the FBI, before it is too late for you to cooperate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was arrested by the FBI in January on public fraud charges. Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant owner Nick Bovis was also arrested in January on related charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New indictments also revealed Thursday accuse Varela, founder of construction firm ProVen Management, and Gilmartin, the firm’s vice president, of working with Hernandez to obtain a contract through Public Works to operate an asphalt plant on land owned by the Port of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contractors allegedly bribed Nuru with a tractor worth $40,000 for preferential treatment in obtaining city contracts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Mission Local \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2020/09/tractor-mohammed-nuru-fbi-doj/\">first reported the alleged bribery\u003c/a>. Hernandez also participated in the delivery of the tractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilmartin allegedly paid for “extravagant dinners” in excess of $20,000 for Nuru and Hernandez, according to court filings. Hernandez was the “primary contact” between Valera, Gilmartin and Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilmartin even expressed appreciation to Hernandez for his efforts to make a deal with Nuru — in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have used you to help negotiate this deal because of your ability to understand and present our proposal without making the other side nervous. For this you are entitled to ownership,” Gilmartin wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez told the FBI agent he’s known Nuru for 20 years, and that they talk several times a month. The scheme dates back to 2013, according to court filings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Nuru’s arrest, a cascade of subpoenas have been filed by City Attorney Dennis Herrera and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a widening investigation of corruption in San Francisco government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Building Inspection’s former director, Tom Hui, stepped down from his position in March after it was revealed he accepted gifts from a housing developer, among other accusations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials have tried to make forward-facing changes to prevent further corruption, including the City Controller’s Office, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Matt Haney, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821145/months-after-sf-public-works-boss-nurus-arrest-staff-push-for-corruption-cleanup\">who are reworking city ethics laws to prevent city officials and contractors from gaming the system\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it didn’t quite work out that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">arrested by the FBI\u003c/a> in January on public fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the name of streamlining and expediting services to the city’s unhoused, the Board of Supervisors ceded our authority and checks and balances,” Peskin said last Thursday. “Mr. Nuru drove a truck through it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"mohammed-nuru\"]The findings come from the City Controller’s Office, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">issued a report\u003c/a> early last week detailing rules that it urged city leaders to tighten in order to better prevent government corruption, including the one pushed by Breed to streamline homeless service construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that ordinance, Public Works no longer had to set up a normal bidding process for contracts for the construction of homeless shelters, nor did they need ultimate authorization from the Board of Supervisors to award those contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move had broad support, even from pro-business organizations and homeless nonprofits that often stand opposed. A broad range of groups, including the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Larkin Street Youth Services and the Mission Housing Development Corporation, all spoke publicly in support of the measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the proof is really in the pudding. You have service provider after service provider” who supports the measure, Sam Moss, executive director of Mission Housing Development Corporation, said to the Board of Supervisors last year, before the legislation's continuation from a board committee to the full board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Board of Supervisors approved the measure within 20 seconds after it was introduced, granting the Public Works director — at the time, Nuru — the broad authority to just say “yes” to contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its report, the controller’s office revealed Nuru said “yes” to roughly $24.6 million in homeless shelter contracts, about $10.5 million of which were “directly awarded” with no solicitation of any kind. Some $3.5 million in contracts were also awarded through “unclear” methods because “no outreach or solicitation documentation exists,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru also awarded three contracts — including the construction of a Bayview navigation center — totaling more than $2.5 million to Charles Pankow Builders, according to the City Controller’s Office, which released more detailed data in the wake of the report. The firm was subpoenaed by the City Attorney’s Office in February in connection to the corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Wong, the permit expediter arrested by the FBI, was awarded a $907,000 contract to renovate Jelani House, a substance abuse rehab center, and a $110,595 contract to construct a building attached to a navigation center on Fifth and Bryant streets, according to the controller's office findings. Nuru also awarded a $171,000 portable toilet contract to restaurateur Nick Bovis, who was also arrested by the FBI in connection with the corruption schemes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ron Alameida, a Public Works deputy director, was among officials who publicly supported the fast-tracking measure last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'll vouch my support for the ordinance,\" he told supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But emails of his that have since been made public, show that he solicited a donation from a city contractor Public Works oversaw to a charity run by Nick Bovis, one that allegedly used such contributions to throw lavish parties for city officials, in violation of ethics laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contractor, Webcor Builders, was later subpoenaed in the City Attorney’s Office corruption investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The findings come from the City Controller’s Office, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">issued a report\u003c/a> early last week detailing rules that it urged city leaders to tighten in order to better prevent government corruption, including the one pushed by Breed to streamline homeless service construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that ordinance, Public Works no longer had to set up a normal bidding process for contracts for the construction of homeless shelters, nor did they need ultimate authorization from the Board of Supervisors to award those contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move had broad support, even from pro-business organizations and homeless nonprofits that often stand opposed. A broad range of groups, including the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Larkin Street Youth Services and the Mission Housing Development Corporation, all spoke publicly in support of the measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the proof is really in the pudding. You have service provider after service provider” who supports the measure, Sam Moss, executive director of Mission Housing Development Corporation, said to the Board of Supervisors last year, before the legislation's continuation from a board committee to the full board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Board of Supervisors approved the measure within 20 seconds after it was introduced, granting the Public Works director — at the time, Nuru — the broad authority to just say “yes” to contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its report, the controller’s office revealed Nuru said “yes” to roughly $24.6 million in homeless shelter contracts, about $10.5 million of which were “directly awarded” with no solicitation of any kind. Some $3.5 million in contracts were also awarded through “unclear” methods because “no outreach or solicitation documentation exists,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru also awarded three contracts — including the construction of a Bayview navigation center — totaling more than $2.5 million to Charles Pankow Builders, according to the City Controller’s Office, which released more detailed data in the wake of the report. The firm was subpoenaed by the City Attorney’s Office in February in connection to the corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Wong, the permit expediter arrested by the FBI, was awarded a $907,000 contract to renovate Jelani House, a substance abuse rehab center, and a $110,595 contract to construct a building attached to a navigation center on Fifth and Bryant streets, according to the controller's office findings. Nuru also awarded a $171,000 portable toilet contract to restaurateur Nick Bovis, who was also arrested by the FBI in connection with the corruption schemes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ron Alameida, a Public Works deputy director, was among officials who publicly supported the fast-tracking measure last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'll vouch my support for the ordinance,\" he told supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But emails of his that have since been made public, show that he solicited a donation from a city contractor Public Works oversaw to a charity run by Nick Bovis, one that allegedly used such contributions to throw lavish parties for city officials, in violation of ethics laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contractor, Webcor Builders, was later subpoenaed in the City Attorney’s Office corruption investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The possibility for corruption is rife in San Francisco’s Public Works and homelessness contract approval processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, there’s a fix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according \u003ca href=\"http://openbook.sfgov.org/webreports/details3.aspx?id=2843\">to a new report released Monday\u003c/a> by the San Francisco City Controller’s Office, which analyzed city laws and processes following the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">FBI’s January arrest \u003c/a>of former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru on public corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was charged in connection with a series of alleged schemes involving public agency contracts, including an attempt to bribe a San Francisco International Airport commissioner to obtain a favorable contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI investigation has also widened, encompassing former director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services Sandra Zuniga and Balmore Hernandez, CEO of engineering firm Azul Works, Inc which holds large contracts with the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The controller’s report offers suggestions for closing the legal loopholes that allowed Nuru, and others, to allegedly award city contracts to close allies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our job is to ensure the transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior that San Franciscans are owed when it comes to the delivery of city services and the use of their tax dollars,” City Controller Ben Rosenfield said in a statement. “In simple terms, the Controller’s Office is seeking to rectify bad policies and practices that undermine those goals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"mohammed-nuru\"]The report reveals sweeping vulnerabilities in city accountability provisions, and recommends a spate of changes, including stricter reporting requirements for financial gifts, greater transparency in how city contractors are hired and more competitive bidding processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most glaring among the report’s findings is that Nuru essentially had no direct oversight for spending millions of dollars in city money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many city departments have an oversight board, usually appointed by the mayor or board of supervisors, responsible for scrutinizing and approving often lucrative contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Public Works, the department Nuru led, which was once overseen by the mayor’s office, has for years monitored itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mayor should reverse” that delegation, the report recommends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using that power, Nuru awarded roughly $25 million in homelessness contracts. Of those, the report found roughly $10 million were awarded “through no discernable selection process and are at the greatest risk of fraud or abuse in the award process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of the contracts in that $10 million pool, the controller’s office noted, were awarded by Nuru to Walter Wong, a permit-expediter who was arrested by the FBI just last week and charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to engage in money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Wong allegedly arranged for Nuru to be flown to China to be wined/dined by Zhang Li, the 555 Fulton developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new City Attorney investigative report today alleges Wong did the same for DBI director Tom Hui.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the full investigative report:\u003ca href=\"https://t.co/V81IOrnnG6\">https://t.co/V81IOrnnG6\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1237514322638594050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 10, 2020\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>A $171,000 portable toilet contract also went to Nick Bovis, the Lefty O’Doul’s restauranteur who was indicted alongside Nuru in January. The city canceled that contract, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also recommends greater transparency for behest payments, in which contractors donate to nonprofits at the behest of a city official. Currently, only the board of supervisors and particular city officials are required to reveal such payments. But the report shows department heads and other staffers should reveal all donations they request from contractors, even if those donations are directed to third-party charities, as those payments can be used as workarounds for bribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, in response to the controller’s report, Mayor London Breed announced a set of immediate fixes and legislation to address some of the many shortcomings identified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among those changes, Breed pledged to rescind the unusual authority of the Public Works director to award contracts with little oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know these are the first in a series of recommendations, and we need to continue to identify problematic issues that erode public trust across our city,” Breed said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor has made an effort to clean house in the wake of the Nuru scandal, one she became tied to in February after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801734/sf-mayor-breed-reveals-she-once-dated-mohammed-nuru-received-gift-from-him\">publicly admitting\u003c/a> she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Nuru in 2019, a gift she did not report despite a legal requirement to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Haney is also seeking fixes based on the controller’s report, including limiting “insider contracting” — in which pre-qualified contractors do not have to competitively bid for new contracts — and revisiting the city’s ethics code rule that bars officials from accepting gifts from contractors, but includes an exemption for friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/MattHaneySF/status/1277711045306417152\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The controller’s analysis makes it clear that we need sweeping structural reform in City Hall,” Haney said in a statement. “We’ve let years of corruption waste taxpayer dollars, as city hall bureaucrats have awarded millions of dollars in contracts to their friends with no oversight. And in too many cases, they’ve gotten kickbacks for themselves or their friends under the table.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The possibility for corruption is rife in San Francisco’s Public Works and homelessness contract approval processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, there’s a fix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according \u003ca href=\"http://openbook.sfgov.org/webreports/details3.aspx?id=2843\">to a new report released Monday\u003c/a> by the San Francisco City Controller’s Office, which analyzed city laws and processes following the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">FBI’s January arrest \u003c/a>of former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru on public corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was charged in connection with a series of alleged schemes involving public agency contracts, including an attempt to bribe a San Francisco International Airport commissioner to obtain a favorable contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI investigation has also widened, encompassing former director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services Sandra Zuniga and Balmore Hernandez, CEO of engineering firm Azul Works, Inc which holds large contracts with the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The controller’s report offers suggestions for closing the legal loopholes that allowed Nuru, and others, to allegedly award city contracts to close allies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our job is to ensure the transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior that San Franciscans are owed when it comes to the delivery of city services and the use of their tax dollars,” City Controller Ben Rosenfield said in a statement. “In simple terms, the Controller’s Office is seeking to rectify bad policies and practices that undermine those goals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The report reveals sweeping vulnerabilities in city accountability provisions, and recommends a spate of changes, including stricter reporting requirements for financial gifts, greater transparency in how city contractors are hired and more competitive bidding processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most glaring among the report’s findings is that Nuru essentially had no direct oversight for spending millions of dollars in city money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many city departments have an oversight board, usually appointed by the mayor or board of supervisors, responsible for scrutinizing and approving often lucrative contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Public Works, the department Nuru led, which was once overseen by the mayor’s office, has for years monitored itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mayor should reverse” that delegation, the report recommends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using that power, Nuru awarded roughly $25 million in homelessness contracts. Of those, the report found roughly $10 million were awarded “through no discernable selection process and are at the greatest risk of fraud or abuse in the award process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of the contracts in that $10 million pool, the controller’s office noted, were awarded by Nuru to Walter Wong, a permit-expediter who was arrested by the FBI just last week and charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to engage in money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Wong allegedly arranged for Nuru to be flown to China to be wined/dined by Zhang Li, the 555 Fulton developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new City Attorney investigative report today alleges Wong did the same for DBI director Tom Hui.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the full investigative report:\u003ca href=\"https://t.co/V81IOrnnG6\">https://t.co/V81IOrnnG6\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1237514322638594050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 10, 2020\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>A $171,000 portable toilet contract also went to Nick Bovis, the Lefty O’Doul’s restauranteur who was indicted alongside Nuru in January. The city canceled that contract, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also recommends greater transparency for behest payments, in which contractors donate to nonprofits at the behest of a city official. Currently, only the board of supervisors and particular city officials are required to reveal such payments. But the report shows department heads and other staffers should reveal all donations they request from contractors, even if those donations are directed to third-party charities, as those payments can be used as workarounds for bribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, in response to the controller’s report, Mayor London Breed announced a set of immediate fixes and legislation to address some of the many shortcomings identified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among those changes, Breed pledged to rescind the unusual authority of the Public Works director to award contracts with little oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know these are the first in a series of recommendations, and we need to continue to identify problematic issues that erode public trust across our city,” Breed said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor has made an effort to clean house in the wake of the Nuru scandal, one she became tied to in February after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801734/sf-mayor-breed-reveals-she-once-dated-mohammed-nuru-received-gift-from-him\">publicly admitting\u003c/a> she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Nuru in 2019, a gift she did not report despite a legal requirement to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Haney is also seeking fixes based on the controller’s report, including limiting “insider contracting” — in which pre-qualified contractors do not have to competitively bid for new contracts — and revisiting the city’s ethics code rule that bars officials from accepting gifts from contractors, but includes an exemption for friends.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The controller’s analysis makes it clear that we need sweeping structural reform in City Hall,” Haney said in a statement. “We’ve let years of corruption waste taxpayer dollars, as city hall bureaucrats have awarded millions of dollars in contracts to their friends with no oversight. And in too many cases, they’ve gotten kickbacks for themselves or their friends under the table.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Mohammed Nuru, the disgraced former San Francisco Public Works director, was so proud of his charge to powerwash city sidewalks he called himself “Mr. Clean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">arrested by the FBI in late January\u003c/a> on public corruption charges, however, “Mr. Clean” was suddenly seen as an almost stereotypically dirty bureaucrat. His fall from grace cast a pall over his department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They felt dirty, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, those Public Works employees, from street cleaners and sewer workers to arborists and pavement layers, want to scrub their reputations free from “Mr. Clean’s” influence, and they’re looking to San Francisco Supervisors Matt Haney and Gordon Mar to help them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 261, representing a majority of San Francisco Public Works maintenance and trades workers, voted unanimously Wednesday to support Haney and Mar’s forthcoming November 2020 ballot measures to reform Public Works and increase city oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The corruption had a huge impact on membership,” said Theresa Foglio-Ramirez, a city representative and business agent of LiUNA Local 261, which represents Public Works’ front-line workers, who do hands-on work outdoors cleaning streets, urban forestry, pothole repair and performing sewer work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The morale is now terrible,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/MrCleanSF/status/1150827337572741120\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s professional workers, including architects and engineers, are represented by the International Federation of Technical Engineers Local 21, which have yet to vote on supporting the ballot measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sources familiar with the matter say department employees represented by Local 21 have long-held concerns about department management and its contracts, which were a focus of the federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s measure, announced in February, would create an oversight committee for Public Works, whereas Mar’s would create an Office of the Public Advocate as an independent city watchdog, replete with subpoena powers, to root out future would-be Nurus. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Theresa Foglio-Ramirez\"]“The morale is now terrible.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the measures have detractors. The mayor’s office noted San Francisco is facing a budget deficit, a difficult time to create new oversight bodies that would balloon government costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Considering we have a $1.5 billion deficit, we shouldn’t be adding more spending and bureaucracy through ballot measures,” Jeff Cretan, spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, told KQED. “We have real challenges ahead to support our existing workforce and provide basic city services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to a statement from LiUNA Local 261, neither measure can come soon enough to battle “casual bureaucratic corruption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Working for ‘Mr. Clean’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Foglio-Ramirez said Public Works staff had — for two decades — lived under the spectre of corruption, which was only revealed when Nuru was arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had no problem in ruling with an iron first,” Foglio-Ramirez said. [aside tag=\"corruption,mohammed nuru\" label=\"More corruption coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foglio-Ramirez has worked at Public Works long enough to remember a time before Nuru. She started in 1997 shortly before Nuru was hired to the department. As his leadership style settled in, the cultural change was a total 180-degree turn, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers did try to resist, but to little success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they spotted public corruption — like Nuru awarding contracts to suspected friends, or people with deep-pocketed connections as detailed in the U.S. Attorney’s Office complaint — they met resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you whistle blew, you were forced out,” Foglio-Ramirez said. She could recall at least a dozen employees pushed out of Public Works after trying to sound the alarm to its now publicly known corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Nuru cut standards across the board, Foglio-Ramirez said, including winnowing some safety training for her union members, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Public Works] was a respected department. We had top-notch equipment, the best safety training, you were proud. When you said you worked for DPW, people said, ‘Oh, that’s a nice place to work!’ ” Foglio-Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But under Nuru, she said, “Our work was so devalued they would call us the ‘poop patrol.’ That’s how it would affect your everyday life … because of years of what I call abuse.” [ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>FBI Investigation Continues\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-director-public-works-and-restauranteur-charged-public-corruption\">published a complaint\u003c/a> in late January detailing examples of Nuru allegedly abusing his position as Public Works director to help city contractors who were reportedly complicit in his bribery schemes. He also stands accused of planning to bribe an airport commissioner, though that bribe was not consummated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just this month, Nick Bovis, a San Francisco restaurant owner who was charged alongside Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11819898/owner-of-lefty-odouls-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud-charges-agrees-to-cooperate-in-case\">agreed to plead guilty\u003c/a> to two counts and cooperate with the ongoing investigation, according to federal prosecutors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to learn from the FBI investigation,” Foglio-Ramirez said. “[Public Works’] budget is huge. You need to make sure that money is spent where it’s supposed to be spent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need to have oversight,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what Haney’s proposed ballot measure is intended to provide: It would also split off Public Works’ street cleaning functions into an independent agency, leaving other functions of the behemoth department — like the construction of city properties — under the jurisdiction of the existing Public Works department. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Supervisor Matt Haney\"]“We’re a laughing stock, an international embarrassment, for how dirty our sidewalks are.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the new and old departments would net oversight commissions responsible for approving public contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public Works said it was still evaluating the measure to reform the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two amendments to San Francisco’s charter have yet to be approved for the November 2020 ballot and are still winding through Board of Supervisors committee approvals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney noted, however, that his measure is polling well above 70% approval, a strong sign it can succeed. While it is intended to stem public corruption, Haney also said a new department concentrating mainly on cleaning city streets would quell a common San Franciscan concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a laughing stock, an international embarrassment, for how dirty our sidewalks are,” he said. “This will add some accountability, focus and oversight to get this done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Mohammed Nuru, the disgraced former San Francisco Public Works director, was so proud of his charge to powerwash city sidewalks he called himself “Mr. Clean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">arrested by the FBI in late January\u003c/a> on public corruption charges, however, “Mr. Clean” was suddenly seen as an almost stereotypically dirty bureaucrat. His fall from grace cast a pall over his department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They felt dirty, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, those Public Works employees, from street cleaners and sewer workers to arborists and pavement layers, want to scrub their reputations free from “Mr. Clean’s” influence, and they’re looking to San Francisco Supervisors Matt Haney and Gordon Mar to help them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 261, representing a majority of San Francisco Public Works maintenance and trades workers, voted unanimously Wednesday to support Haney and Mar’s forthcoming November 2020 ballot measures to reform Public Works and increase city oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The corruption had a huge impact on membership,” said Theresa Foglio-Ramirez, a city representative and business agent of LiUNA Local 261, which represents Public Works’ front-line workers, who do hands-on work outdoors cleaning streets, urban forestry, pothole repair and performing sewer work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The morale is now terrible,” she said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The department’s professional workers, including architects and engineers, are represented by the International Federation of Technical Engineers Local 21, which have yet to vote on supporting the ballot measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sources familiar with the matter say department employees represented by Local 21 have long-held concerns about department management and its contracts, which were a focus of the federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s measure, announced in February, would create an oversight committee for Public Works, whereas Mar’s would create an Office of the Public Advocate as an independent city watchdog, replete with subpoena powers, to root out future would-be Nurus. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the measures have detractors. The mayor’s office noted San Francisco is facing a budget deficit, a difficult time to create new oversight bodies that would balloon government costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Considering we have a $1.5 billion deficit, we shouldn’t be adding more spending and bureaucracy through ballot measures,” Jeff Cretan, spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, told KQED. “We have real challenges ahead to support our existing workforce and provide basic city services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to a statement from LiUNA Local 261, neither measure can come soon enough to battle “casual bureaucratic corruption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Working for ‘Mr. Clean’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Foglio-Ramirez said Public Works staff had — for two decades — lived under the spectre of corruption, which was only revealed when Nuru was arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had no problem in ruling with an iron first,” Foglio-Ramirez said. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foglio-Ramirez has worked at Public Works long enough to remember a time before Nuru. She started in 1997 shortly before Nuru was hired to the department. As his leadership style settled in, the cultural change was a total 180-degree turn, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers did try to resist, but to little success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they spotted public corruption — like Nuru awarding contracts to suspected friends, or people with deep-pocketed connections as detailed in the U.S. Attorney’s Office complaint — they met resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you whistle blew, you were forced out,” Foglio-Ramirez said. She could recall at least a dozen employees pushed out of Public Works after trying to sound the alarm to its now publicly known corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Nuru cut standards across the board, Foglio-Ramirez said, including winnowing some safety training for her union members, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Public Works] was a respected department. We had top-notch equipment, the best safety training, you were proud. When you said you worked for DPW, people said, ‘Oh, that’s a nice place to work!’ ” Foglio-Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But under Nuru, she said, “Our work was so devalued they would call us the ‘poop patrol.’ That’s how it would affect your everyday life … because of years of what I call abuse.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>FBI Investigation Continues\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-director-public-works-and-restauranteur-charged-public-corruption\">published a complaint\u003c/a> in late January detailing examples of Nuru allegedly abusing his position as Public Works director to help city contractors who were reportedly complicit in his bribery schemes. He also stands accused of planning to bribe an airport commissioner, though that bribe was not consummated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just this month, Nick Bovis, a San Francisco restaurant owner who was charged alongside Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11819898/owner-of-lefty-odouls-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud-charges-agrees-to-cooperate-in-case\">agreed to plead guilty\u003c/a> to two counts and cooperate with the ongoing investigation, according to federal prosecutors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to learn from the FBI investigation,” Foglio-Ramirez said. “[Public Works’] budget is huge. You need to make sure that money is spent where it’s supposed to be spent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need to have oversight,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what Haney’s proposed ballot measure is intended to provide: It would also split off Public Works’ street cleaning functions into an independent agency, leaving other functions of the behemoth department — like the construction of city properties — under the jurisdiction of the existing Public Works department. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“We’re a laughing stock, an international embarrassment, for how dirty our sidewalks are.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the new and old departments would net oversight commissions responsible for approving public contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public Works said it was still evaluating the measure to reform the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two amendments to San Francisco’s charter have yet to be approved for the November 2020 ballot and are still winding through Board of Supervisors committee approvals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney noted, however, that his measure is polling well above 70% approval, a strong sign it can succeed. While it is intended to stem public corruption, Haney also said a new department concentrating mainly on cleaning city streets would quell a common San Franciscan concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a laughing stock, an international embarrassment, for how dirty our sidewalks are,” he said. “This will add some accountability, focus and oversight to get this done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Owner of Lefty O'Doul's Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Charges, Agrees to Cooperate in Case",
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"content": "\u003cp>In a short hearing lasting less than 20 minutes, San Francisco restaurant owner Nick Bovis, who has agreed to cooperate in an ongoing criminal case against the city's former Public Works director, pleaded guilty to two counts in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Bovis, who owns Lefty O'Doul's restaurant, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">initially charged with corruption in January\u003c/a>, along with then-Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, in an alleged scheme to bribe a San Francisco International Airport commissioner in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scheme to obtain the commissioner's aid in obtaining a restaurant concession was never completed, according to the Jan. 15 criminal complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was also additionally charged with making false statements to the FBI, after allegedly agreeing to cooperate in the investigation. He resigned from office in February and the charge against him remains pending while he is free on a $2 million bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-based-restauranteur-agrees-cooperate-government-investigation-and-agrees\">the Department of Justice announced\u003c/a> that Bovis, 56, had promised in a plea agreement to cooperate with prosecutors and to plead guilty to revised charges of one count of honest services wire fraud plus one count of wire fraud. Appearing in a Zoom call on Thursday, Bovis followed through on that agreement and pleaded guilty to the revised charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While factual finding behind the plea agreement were not revealed during the hearing, Bovis agreed in court that the evidence materials filed under seal in \"Exhibit A\" are true and accurate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"mohammed-nuru\" label=\"related coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Joiner, Bovis has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's Office before and after the sentencing, including meeting with government officials when requested, answering all questions truthfully, be they from a grand jury or any other trial proceedings, surrendering any and all assets that he acquired or obtained directly or indirectly as a result of the illegal acts. Joiner also said that Bovis and his legal team has agreed to request continuances of his sentencing date until his cooperation with the government is complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the January criminal complaint, the honest services wire fraud charge lodged against both Nuru and Bovis is defined as using wire communications, including phone calls, text messages and emails, to arrange meetings and discuss the supposed scheme to deprive the public of the honest services of the unnamed airport commissioner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two counts to which Bovis pleaded guilty each carry a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000. However, U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who is presiding over the case, is expected to consider federal sentencing guidelines as well as any potential prosecution request for a lesser sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sentencing date has been set for Dec. 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay City News contributed to this report\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In a short hearing lasting less than 20 minutes, San Francisco restaurant owner Nick Bovis, who has agreed to cooperate in an ongoing criminal case against the city's former Public Works director, pleaded guilty to two counts in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Bovis, who owns Lefty O'Doul's restaurant, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">initially charged with corruption in January\u003c/a>, along with then-Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, in an alleged scheme to bribe a San Francisco International Airport commissioner in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scheme to obtain the commissioner's aid in obtaining a restaurant concession was never completed, according to the Jan. 15 criminal complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was also additionally charged with making false statements to the FBI, after allegedly agreeing to cooperate in the investigation. He resigned from office in February and the charge against him remains pending while he is free on a $2 million bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-based-restauranteur-agrees-cooperate-government-investigation-and-agrees\">the Department of Justice announced\u003c/a> that Bovis, 56, had promised in a plea agreement to cooperate with prosecutors and to plead guilty to revised charges of one count of honest services wire fraud plus one count of wire fraud. Appearing in a Zoom call on Thursday, Bovis followed through on that agreement and pleaded guilty to the revised charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Joiner, Bovis has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's Office before and after the sentencing, including meeting with government officials when requested, answering all questions truthfully, be they from a grand jury or any other trial proceedings, surrendering any and all assets that he acquired or obtained directly or indirectly as a result of the illegal acts. Joiner also said that Bovis and his legal team has agreed to request continuances of his sentencing date until his cooperation with the government is complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the January criminal complaint, the honest services wire fraud charge lodged against both Nuru and Bovis is defined as using wire communications, including phone calls, text messages and emails, to arrange meetings and discuss the supposed scheme to deprive the public of the honest services of the unnamed airport commissioner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two counts to which Bovis pleaded guilty each carry a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000. However, U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who is presiding over the case, is expected to consider federal sentencing guidelines as well as any potential prosecution request for a lesser sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sentencing date has been set for Dec. 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay City News contributed to this report\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "‘I Smell a Rat’: Peskin Wants Investigation Into Why Chinatown Park Project Stalled",
"title": "‘I Smell a Rat’: Peskin Wants Investigation Into Why Chinatown Park Project Stalled",
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"content": "\u003cp>Plans years in the making to renovate a park and community square in San Francisco’s Chinatown appear to have again stalled, concerning neighborhood advocates for the redesign who say that it may now never be funded after the project was dropped from a multimillion-dollar city bond package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The recent saga over redesigning the historic Portsmouth Square involves an apparent holdup between city departments and private ownership of a pedestrian bridge over the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the supervisor who represents the district has raised more startling concerns, calling for the city attorney to investigate in light of public corruption charges leveled against former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I smell a rat,” District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin said. “For almost two years, Mohammed refused to move on it, and then of course in January of this year, he was arrested by the FBI ... And now mysteriously the park is not being included in the current bond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as federal officials announced this week that restaurateur Nick Bovis, an alleged co-conspirator with Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11818263/owner-of-lefty-odouls-restaurant-to-plead-guilty-to-fraud-counts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> to felony charges and agreed to cooperate with an ongoing federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Struggle to Renovate Portsmouth Square\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>During a Tuesday meeting before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mayor London Breed presented a plan that had been months in the making: the multimillion-dollar \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/Agenda%20Item%205%20-%20November%202020%20Health%20and%20Recovery%20Bond%20Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2020 Health and Recovery bond\u003c/a> project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This money was originally slated to be a parks bond, totaling $255 million. But in November 2019, Breed asked the city's Capital Planning Committee to explore replacing it with a “mental health bond.” If the new proposal is passed by the voters later this year, this bond would provide funding for housing and homelessness, infrastructure improvements and projects to improve open-air spaces and parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one item that was absent from the bond for stakeholders and residents of Chinatown: Portsmouth Square.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Given the current city budget situation, we don’t know when the city will put another bond package together,” said Erika Gee with the Chinatown Community Development Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Given the city’s finances, it’s really important that this park is included in the bond,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818695\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11818695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1398\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x-160x117.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x-800x583.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x-1020x743.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chinatown residents look over plans for the square renovations. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chinatown Community Development Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Chinatown’s 'Living Room'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Portsmouth Square sits at the corner of Clay and Kearny streets, on the eastern edge of Chinatown. It's home to several \u003ca href=\"http://sfrecpark.org/893/Portsmouth-Square\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">notable moments in San Francisco history\u003c/a> — including the first raising of the American flag in the city in 1846. For decades, the park has served as an essential meeting place for the community and has been referred to as Chinatown’s “living room.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when plans began to coalesce around redesigning the park in 2017, the community had a lot to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were over five community design workshops, which is extraordinarily high in the park world,” said attorney Allan Low, who serves as vice president of the Recreation and Park Commission. “Over 100 people attended, which shows high community engagement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After numerous neighborhood meetings, a design plan was selected in July 2018 and brought to the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks, which then made it one of the department’s “core projects,” according to Low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, so good, Low said: The community had decided on a design, the Parks Department approved it and things were moving forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the project hit a snag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1919px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11818803\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43209_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-e1589588548641.jpg\" alt=\"Public Works officials said 'discretionary actions' — in this case keeping or revoking the adjacent Hilton Hotel's permit for its pedestrian footbridge — require an environmental analysis before they can move forward.\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public Works officials said 'discretionary actions' — in this case keeping or revoking the adjacent Hilton Hotel's permit for its pedestrian footbridge — require an environmental analysis before they can move forward. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A Bridge Too Far\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The preferred design from the community required the removal of a pedestrian walkway over part of Portsmouth Square. The bridge extends across Kearny Street, connecting the park with the Chinese Cultural Center and the towering Financial District Hilton hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the 1970s, the city Department of Public Works issued an encroachment permit to a company called Justice Investors, one of the companies that owns and manages the Hilton. This permit granted it “air rights” to the bridge, allowing the company to build and manage the walkway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2018, dozens of District 3 residents signed a petition to revoke the permit and submitted it to Public Works — and then-Director Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Allan Low, vice president of the Recreation and Park Commission\"]'The dates don’t line up to the justification given by the Department of Public Works.'[/pullquote]“The matter was fully heard, briefed, argued. Public testimony opened, public testimony closed, in October 2018,” Low said. “To date, there has been no decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public Works officials said “discretionary actions” — in this case keeping or revoking the permit — require an environmental analysis before they can move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Low said that explanation doesn’t make sense and questions why an environment review wasn’t started until a full year after the October 2018 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The dates don’t line up to the justification given by the Department of Public Works,” Low said. “If it is true that the decision wasn’t issued because of environmental review, they should have said so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There currently is an analysis underway as part of a larger environmental impact review of the site. City officials expect the review to be completed in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sarah Madland, director of policy and public affairs for the Recreation and Parks Department, said it’s impossible to know if revoking the bridge permit would have made the project move forward sooner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madland said that the timeline for Portsmouth Square, including a complex environmental review involving property not maintained by the city, is not atypical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of what happened with the permit in the past, the project is on track and all stakeholders are on board, Madland said. That includes Hilton, which Madland said has committed to the project through multiple conversations, and the hotel’s support is documented in the environmental review submission from late last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peskin said he raised concerns with the city attorney’s office about Nuru’s involvement in the Portsmouth Square project shortly after the former Public Works director’s arrest. The city attorney’s office did not confirm if an investigation involving the park project is taking place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was arrested by the FBI in late January under suspicion of fraud, including allegations that he and restaurant owner Nick Bovis attempted to bribe a San Francisco International Airport official. Since then, numerous reports have detailed the allegations against Nuru, including that he and Bovis used a series of charities to funnel funds to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/lefty-odouls-charity-used-city-contractor-donations-to-pay-for-public-works-party/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">allegedly finance\u003c/a> Public Works parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city attorney’s office currently has an investigation open into public corruption at City Hall and has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2020/02/27/city-attorney-issues-14-more-subpoenas-in-widening-public-corruption-investigation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">multiple subpoenas\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru's defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818823\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11818823\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A design plan for the renovation of Portsmouth Square was selected in July, 2018 and brought to the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks - but little tangible progress has been made since then.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A design plan for the renovation of Portsmouth Square was selected in July 2018 and brought to the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks - but little tangible progress has been made since then. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>What's Next for Portsmouth Square?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>After years of planning, an ongoing environmental review slated to end in 2021 and nearly $2 million racked up in consulting fees so far, according to both Peskin and Low, the future of Portsmouth Square feels murky — especially since the project has been left out of the 2020 bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the mayor's office said that the Board of Supervisors could theoretically add the Portsmouth Square project to the bond by either adding more money to the total bond package or changing the existing fund allocations to make space for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Portsmouth Square is essential to the quality of life for residents and visitors alike,” Peskin said. “And I am deeply committed to ensuring that the necessary funds for its redesign to bring it into the 21st century will be included.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peskin said on Friday that negotiations have begun to add the project to the bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of May 14, the Hilton's owners still hold the permit to the bridge and there has been no ruling made by the Department of Public Works to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Years of delay, and a loss of potential funding, has San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin and advocates concerned renovation won't move forward.",
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"title": "‘I Smell a Rat’: Peskin Wants Investigation Into Why Chinatown Park Project Stalled | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Plans years in the making to renovate a park and community square in San Francisco’s Chinatown appear to have again stalled, concerning neighborhood advocates for the redesign who say that it may now never be funded after the project was dropped from a multimillion-dollar city bond package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The recent saga over redesigning the historic Portsmouth Square involves an apparent holdup between city departments and private ownership of a pedestrian bridge over the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the supervisor who represents the district has raised more startling concerns, calling for the city attorney to investigate in light of public corruption charges leveled against former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I smell a rat,” District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin said. “For almost two years, Mohammed refused to move on it, and then of course in January of this year, he was arrested by the FBI ... And now mysteriously the park is not being included in the current bond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as federal officials announced this week that restaurateur Nick Bovis, an alleged co-conspirator with Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11818263/owner-of-lefty-odouls-restaurant-to-plead-guilty-to-fraud-counts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> to felony charges and agreed to cooperate with an ongoing federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Struggle to Renovate Portsmouth Square\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>During a Tuesday meeting before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mayor London Breed presented a plan that had been months in the making: the multimillion-dollar \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/Agenda%20Item%205%20-%20November%202020%20Health%20and%20Recovery%20Bond%20Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2020 Health and Recovery bond\u003c/a> project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This money was originally slated to be a parks bond, totaling $255 million. But in November 2019, Breed asked the city's Capital Planning Committee to explore replacing it with a “mental health bond.” If the new proposal is passed by the voters later this year, this bond would provide funding for housing and homelessness, infrastructure improvements and projects to improve open-air spaces and parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one item that was absent from the bond for stakeholders and residents of Chinatown: Portsmouth Square.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Given the current city budget situation, we don’t know when the city will put another bond package together,” said Erika Gee with the Chinatown Community Development Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Given the city’s finances, it’s really important that this park is included in the bond,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818695\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11818695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1398\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x-160x117.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x-800x583.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/portsmouth-2_1920x-1020x743.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chinatown residents look over plans for the square renovations. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chinatown Community Development Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Chinatown’s 'Living Room'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Portsmouth Square sits at the corner of Clay and Kearny streets, on the eastern edge of Chinatown. It's home to several \u003ca href=\"http://sfrecpark.org/893/Portsmouth-Square\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">notable moments in San Francisco history\u003c/a> — including the first raising of the American flag in the city in 1846. For decades, the park has served as an essential meeting place for the community and has been referred to as Chinatown’s “living room.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when plans began to coalesce around redesigning the park in 2017, the community had a lot to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were over five community design workshops, which is extraordinarily high in the park world,” said attorney Allan Low, who serves as vice president of the Recreation and Park Commission. “Over 100 people attended, which shows high community engagement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After numerous neighborhood meetings, a design plan was selected in July 2018 and brought to the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks, which then made it one of the department’s “core projects,” according to Low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, so good, Low said: The community had decided on a design, the Parks Department approved it and things were moving forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the project hit a snag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1919px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11818803\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43209_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-e1589588548641.jpg\" alt=\"Public Works officials said 'discretionary actions' — in this case keeping or revoking the adjacent Hilton Hotel's permit for its pedestrian footbridge — require an environmental analysis before they can move forward.\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public Works officials said 'discretionary actions' — in this case keeping or revoking the adjacent Hilton Hotel's permit for its pedestrian footbridge — require an environmental analysis before they can move forward. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A Bridge Too Far\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The preferred design from the community required the removal of a pedestrian walkway over part of Portsmouth Square. The bridge extends across Kearny Street, connecting the park with the Chinese Cultural Center and the towering Financial District Hilton hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the 1970s, the city Department of Public Works issued an encroachment permit to a company called Justice Investors, one of the companies that owns and manages the Hilton. This permit granted it “air rights” to the bridge, allowing the company to build and manage the walkway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2018, dozens of District 3 residents signed a petition to revoke the permit and submitted it to Public Works — and then-Director Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The matter was fully heard, briefed, argued. Public testimony opened, public testimony closed, in October 2018,” Low said. “To date, there has been no decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public Works officials said “discretionary actions” — in this case keeping or revoking the permit — require an environmental analysis before they can move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Low said that explanation doesn’t make sense and questions why an environment review wasn’t started until a full year after the October 2018 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The dates don’t line up to the justification given by the Department of Public Works,” Low said. “If it is true that the decision wasn’t issued because of environmental review, they should have said so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There currently is an analysis underway as part of a larger environmental impact review of the site. City officials expect the review to be completed in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sarah Madland, director of policy and public affairs for the Recreation and Parks Department, said it’s impossible to know if revoking the bridge permit would have made the project move forward sooner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madland said that the timeline for Portsmouth Square, including a complex environmental review involving property not maintained by the city, is not atypical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of what happened with the permit in the past, the project is on track and all stakeholders are on board, Madland said. That includes Hilton, which Madland said has committed to the project through multiple conversations, and the hotel’s support is documented in the environmental review submission from late last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peskin said he raised concerns with the city attorney’s office about Nuru’s involvement in the Portsmouth Square project shortly after the former Public Works director’s arrest. The city attorney’s office did not confirm if an investigation involving the park project is taking place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru was arrested by the FBI in late January under suspicion of fraud, including allegations that he and restaurant owner Nick Bovis attempted to bribe a San Francisco International Airport official. Since then, numerous reports have detailed the allegations against Nuru, including that he and Bovis used a series of charities to funnel funds to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/lefty-odouls-charity-used-city-contractor-donations-to-pay-for-public-works-party/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">allegedly finance\u003c/a> Public Works parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city attorney’s office currently has an investigation open into public corruption at City Hall and has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2020/02/27/city-attorney-issues-14-more-subpoenas-in-widening-public-corruption-investigation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">multiple subpoenas\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru's defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818823\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11818823\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A design plan for the renovation of Portsmouth Square was selected in July, 2018 and brought to the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks - but little tangible progress has been made since then.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43202_005_KQED_SanFrancisco_PortsmouthSquare_05142020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A design plan for the renovation of Portsmouth Square was selected in July 2018 and brought to the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks - but little tangible progress has been made since then. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>What's Next for Portsmouth Square?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>After years of planning, an ongoing environmental review slated to end in 2021 and nearly $2 million racked up in consulting fees so far, according to both Peskin and Low, the future of Portsmouth Square feels murky — especially since the project has been left out of the 2020 bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the mayor's office said that the Board of Supervisors could theoretically add the Portsmouth Square project to the bond by either adding more money to the total bond package or changing the existing fund allocations to make space for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Portsmouth Square is essential to the quality of life for residents and visitors alike,” Peskin said. “And I am deeply committed to ensuring that the necessary funds for its redesign to bring it into the 21st century will be included.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peskin said on Friday that negotiations have begun to add the project to the bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of May 14, the Hilton's owners still hold the permit to the bridge and there has been no ruling made by the Department of Public Works to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A San Francisco restaurant owner who was originally charged with fraud together with the city’s former Public Works director has agreed to plead guilty to two counts and cooperate with the ongoing investigation, federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Bovis, 56, of San Mateo, the owner of Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant, promised in a plea agreement filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco to plead guilty to charges of honest services wire fraud and wire fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plea session will be held by video conference before U.S. District Judge William Orrick of San Francisco on May 21. The details of the two frauds are currently under seal. In an earlier phase of the case, Bovis and then-Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru were both charged in January with one count of honest services wire fraud, allegedly consisting of a never-completed scheme to bribe an San Francisco International Airport commissioner for aid in obtaining a restaurant\u003cbr>\nconcession in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the plea agreement, Bovis says he will plead guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud, defined as attempting to defraud the public of the honest services of a public official through a bribery scheme that used a wire communication, and a second count of using a wire communication to carry out a fraud scheme. A list of supporting facts that he admits to is under seal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bovis also agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in interviews and testimony and to provide documents in the case. The agreement says prosecutors may ask for a reduced sentence if they decide Bovis has “provided substantial assistance to law enforcement authorities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bovis’s attorneys were not immediately available for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original honest services wire fraud charge remains pending against Nuru along with a separate charge of lying to the FBI on Jan. 27 after initially having cooperated in a corruption probe for several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A criminal complaint that outlined the alleged bribery scheme in the honest services fraud was filed under seal on Jan. 15. Bovis and Nuru were arrested on Jan. 27 and the complaint was unsealed after their first court appearance the following day. [aside tag=\"mohammed nuru,corruption\" label=\"More on corruption investigations\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru resigned from his post on Feb. 10. He is free on a $2 million bond and is due to appear separately before a federal magistrate in San Francisco on May 21 for a status conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a request to Orrick for the May 21 plea date for Bovis, prosecutors wrote that “in light of the importance of the case to the public interest and the need to move forward expeditiously, there are specific reasons that the change of plea cannot be further delayed without serious harm to the interests of justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two counts to which Bovis plans to plead guilty each carry a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, but the judge is expected to consider federal sentencing guidelines as well as any potential prosecution request for a lesser sentence.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A San Francisco restaurant owner who was originally charged with fraud together with the city’s former Public Works director has agreed to plead guilty to two counts and cooperate with the ongoing investigation, federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Bovis, 56, of San Mateo, the owner of Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant, promised in a plea agreement filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco to plead guilty to charges of honest services wire fraud and wire fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plea session will be held by video conference before U.S. District Judge William Orrick of San Francisco on May 21. The details of the two frauds are currently under seal. In an earlier phase of the case, Bovis and then-Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru were both charged in January with one count of honest services wire fraud, allegedly consisting of a never-completed scheme to bribe an San Francisco International Airport commissioner for aid in obtaining a restaurant\u003cbr>\nconcession in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the plea agreement, Bovis says he will plead guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud, defined as attempting to defraud the public of the honest services of a public official through a bribery scheme that used a wire communication, and a second count of using a wire communication to carry out a fraud scheme. A list of supporting facts that he admits to is under seal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bovis also agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in interviews and testimony and to provide documents in the case. The agreement says prosecutors may ask for a reduced sentence if they decide Bovis has “provided substantial assistance to law enforcement authorities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bovis’s attorneys were not immediately available for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original honest services wire fraud charge remains pending against Nuru along with a separate charge of lying to the FBI on Jan. 27 after initially having cooperated in a corruption probe for several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A criminal complaint that outlined the alleged bribery scheme in the honest services fraud was filed under seal on Jan. 15. Bovis and Nuru were arrested on Jan. 27 and the complaint was unsealed after their first court appearance the following day. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru resigned from his post on Feb. 10. He is free on a $2 million bond and is due to appear separately before a federal magistrate in San Francisco on May 21 for a status conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a request to Orrick for the May 21 plea date for Bovis, prosecutors wrote that “in light of the importance of the case to the public interest and the need to move forward expeditiously, there are specific reasons that the change of plea cannot be further delayed without serious harm to the interests of justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two counts to which Bovis plans to plead guilty each carry a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, but the judge is expected to consider federal sentencing guidelines as well as any potential prosecution request for a lesser sentence.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office have arrested another former San Francisco official: Rodrigo Santos, who served as president of the city’s Building Inspection Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos was arrested Tuesday \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-based-building-contractor-and-former-building-commission-member-charged\">on charges of bank fraud\u003c/a> and booked into Santa Rita Jail just after 6 a.m., according to inmate logs. He later appeared before U.S Magistrate Judge Alex Tse, who ordered him released on $100,000 bond. His next court appearance is Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted, Santos faces a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which announced its investigation Tuesday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a building commissioner, Santos was in charge of approving modifications to developments across the city. But it’s his transactions as the head of a private engineering firm that are now under scrutiny by the feds. Those allegations stem from a complaint filed in January by San Francisco’s city attorney accusing Santos of committing permit fraud and writing and cashing fraudulent checks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos’ alleged method for cashing fraudulent checks was deviously simple, according to investigators — he would seize on the word “DBI” in checks he collected from his construction firm’s clients that were intended for the Department of Building Inspection and rewrite the name on the check as “RODBIGO SANTOS,” intentionally misspelling his own name with the “B” in “DBI.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/TweetBottNBC/status/1260996253040758784?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Attorney’s Office also alleged that Santos and his firm, Santos & Urrutia, ultimately \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Former-SF-building-commissioner-Rodrigo-Santos-15127770.php\">stole more than $420,000\u003c/a> from clients through check fraud between 2016 and 2019. It also accused Santos and his firm of permit fraud concerning nine properties in San Francisco, according to a civil complaint from January, which was partially unsealed on March 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco and California have building codes for a reason. They keep people safe,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a March press statement. “These defendants endangered both their workers and unsuspecting San Franciscans.”[aside tag=\"mohammed nuru,corruption\" label=\"More on corruption investigations\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera added, “The fact that Mr. Santos is the former head of the commission that oversees building safety makes it all the more disgusting. He tried to use that knowledge to cheat the permitting system, but we caught him. Justice is coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera’s investigation dates back to September 2018, after his office discovered un-permitted excavations at three properties where Santos & Urrutia Associates were the engineers of record, according to a City Attorney’s Office statement. The investigation led to further allegations of check fraud and additional permit fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos’ case has no immediately clear links to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">that of former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru\u003c/a>, who allegedly planned to bribe an airport commissioner and was charged in February with lying to the FBI. But both investigations have parallels: The City Attorney’s Office has also investigated the Department of Building Inspection recently in connection to Nuru, and city officials have alleged the department is rife with corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office have arrested another former San Francisco official: Rodrigo Santos, who served as president of the city’s Building Inspection Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos was arrested Tuesday \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-based-building-contractor-and-former-building-commission-member-charged\">on charges of bank fraud\u003c/a> and booked into Santa Rita Jail just after 6 a.m., according to inmate logs. He later appeared before U.S Magistrate Judge Alex Tse, who ordered him released on $100,000 bond. His next court appearance is Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted, Santos faces a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which announced its investigation Tuesday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a building commissioner, Santos was in charge of approving modifications to developments across the city. But it’s his transactions as the head of a private engineering firm that are now under scrutiny by the feds. Those allegations stem from a complaint filed in January by San Francisco’s city attorney accusing Santos of committing permit fraud and writing and cashing fraudulent checks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos’ alleged method for cashing fraudulent checks was deviously simple, according to investigators — he would seize on the word “DBI” in checks he collected from his construction firm’s clients that were intended for the Department of Building Inspection and rewrite the name on the check as “RODBIGO SANTOS,” intentionally misspelling his own name with the “B” in “DBI.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Attorney’s Office also alleged that Santos and his firm, Santos & Urrutia, ultimately \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Former-SF-building-commissioner-Rodrigo-Santos-15127770.php\">stole more than $420,000\u003c/a> from clients through check fraud between 2016 and 2019. It also accused Santos and his firm of permit fraud concerning nine properties in San Francisco, according to a civil complaint from January, which was partially unsealed on March 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco and California have building codes for a reason. They keep people safe,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a March press statement. “These defendants endangered both their workers and unsuspecting San Franciscans.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera added, “The fact that Mr. Santos is the former head of the commission that oversees building safety makes it all the more disgusting. He tried to use that knowledge to cheat the permitting system, but we caught him. Justice is coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera’s investigation dates back to September 2018, after his office discovered un-permitted excavations at three properties where Santos & Urrutia Associates were the engineers of record, according to a City Attorney’s Office statement. The investigation led to further allegations of check fraud and additional permit fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos’ case has no immediately clear links to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">that of former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru\u003c/a>, who allegedly planned to bribe an airport commissioner and was charged in February with lying to the FBI. But both investigations have parallels: The City Attorney’s Office has also investigated the Department of Building Inspection recently in connection to Nuru, and city officials have alleged the department is rife with corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
},
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
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},
"on-the-media": {
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
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