Whistle-blower fired
Kevin Williams, whose lawsuit against the city is just getting under way, gets canned on Mayor Brown's last day in office

By A.C. Thompson

Expect fireworks when Kevin Williams's suit against the city of San Francisco goes to trial Jan. 20 in federal court. A former senior staffer at the Human Rights Commission, Williams played prominent roles in several probes of alleged corruption in the administration of ex-mayor Willie Brown (see "A Tale of Two Lawsuits," 12/24/03). Williams was fired on Brown's final day in office, ending an 18-year career with the city.

"We're extremely excited about the opportunity to get the facts in front of a fair and impartial jury," said Eric Safire, one of the lawyers representing Williams. "We're certain that we'll be able to prove Kevin acted in the community's best interest and the city punished him for it."

In his suit Williams claims he was demoted and retaliated against for testifying in federal court against fellow HRC staffer Zula Jones in 1999.

The U.S. Attorney's Office filed – and later dropped – criminal corruption charges against Jones, who was accused of helping a white-owned plumbing firm defraud the city's affirmative action program. The program is run by the HRC.

In court documents the City Attorney's Office, which has compiled a thick dossier of Williams's alleged on-the-job misconduct, says he was canned for a bunch of good reasons – including mistreating subordinates, unprofessional conduct, falsifying time sheets, and working on lawsuits against the city while on the clock.

The office is keeping tight-lipped as the case heads to trial. "I don't want to litigate this in the press on the eve of trial," city attorney spokesperson Matt Dorsey said.

Williams also blew the whistle on construction giant Tutor-Saliba, accusing the Los Angeles-area firm of scamming the HRC's affirmative action program while trying to score a piece of the $2.9 billion expansion of San Francisco International Airport in 1999 and 2000. When public officials didn't move on his information, he filed suit on behalf of taxpayers claiming airport director John Martin – a Brown ally – and five other city staffers "failed to investigate or stop" Tutor-Saliba's scamming.

That case is pending; both Tutor-Saliba and the city workers deny the charges.

But last year City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a surprisingly similar lawsuit, charging Tutor-Saliba with ripping off the affirmative action program and overbilling San Francisco to the tune of $30 million for work at the airport.

Williams has also made a complaint to the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, claiming the City Attorney's Office deprived him of the information he needed to defend himself against the termination proceedings.

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