By Matthew Hirsch

THE SAN FRANCISCO Redevelopment Agency – which oversees development projects in areas covering 2,800 acres that include Mid-Market, Mission Bay, Hunters Point, and the Western Addition – will soon be more open for public scrutiny after deciding to voluntarily abide by most of the city's Sunshine Ordinance.

Jim Morales, general counsel for the Redevelopment Agency, credited Sup. Ross Mirkarimi and the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force with helping craft a version of the ordinance that best suits the agency. The agency's board approved the change Nov. 1, and it goes into effect Jan. 1.

San Francisco's voter-approved open government laws, commonly known by the umbrella term "sunshine," are some of the most stringent in the nation. They go well beyond similar state and federal laws in many areas, such as in requiring faster agency responses to records requests and providing more narrowly defined exemptions from disclosure.

As a quasi-state agency, Redevelopment is only required to uphold the state Brown Act, requiring open meetings, and the California Public Records Act. By adopting the Sunshine Ordinance, the agency makes itself more accountable in a way that could encourage other key government organizations, like the San Francisco Community College District, to follow suit.

"I believe [the Redevelopment Agency] made a good first-step effort in linking up with the rest of San Francisco," Mirkarimi told the Bay Guardian. He then called out the San Francisco Unified School District and the San Francisco Housing Authority, two agencies that were not created by San Francisco's City Charter and so are exempt from the Sunshine Ordinance.

The school board is currently considering a proposal to adopt the Sunshine Ordinance. The Housing Authority has recently come under criticism for its lack of public accountability in allowing unlivable conditions in some public housing projects (see "Biohazard," 11/16/05), but spokesperson Mike Roetzer said he's not aware of any plans to adopt the Sunshine Ordinance there.

Part of the reason the Redevelopment Agency agreed to abide by the Sunshine Ordinance was to establish consistency with other city agencies. Morales said most people who request information from the agency are San Francisco residents, and many of them have grown used to the Sunshine Ordinance. The agency gets about 10 public records requests per month, he said.

While the policy sends a positive message about public accountability, Mirkarimi said there's still work to do, considering the agency's policy is weaker than the Sunshine Ordinance. What's missing, he said, are guidelines for guaranteeing public access to agency meetings.

Another problem is if a member of the public complains about the agency's response to a Sunshine Ordinance request, the complaint would get resolved by the agency instead of an independent body like the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force. But Morales said he doesn't anticipate many public complaints.

"I tried to find out when was the last time we denied a public records request, and we were hard-pressed to find an instance in the last few years," he said.

The Redevelopment Agency's new policy on sunshine may help shed light on its work at the Bayview-Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, the largest redevelopment area in the city's history. It could also help neighbors better uncover secret plans in the Western Addition, like the partnership with Starbucks that was recently shot down by community opposition.

Peter Scheer, director of the California First Amendment Coalition, told us he hopes this voluntary decision to adopt the Sunshine Ordinance becomes a model for other organizations that are currently exempt from the ordinance.

Scheer said, "There's no particular reason why a San Francisco branch of a federal agency can't also agree to comply, or to try to comply, with the San Francisco ordinance."

E-mail Matthew Hirsh at matthew@sfbg.com.