What did the mayor know?

12.05.12 - 5:19 pm | Tim Redmond |

(33)

So let's get this straight:

Three lawsuits have been filed against the head of the Housing Authority. Some 30 staffers have complained about Alvarez to senior mayoral staffers. The HA even hired former City Attorney Louise Renne to investigate problems with Alvarez.

And Mayor Lee says he wasn't aware of the problems?

This is the kind of thing that used to happen under Willie Brown -- the mayor would hire cronies for top dollar, and defend them and brush aside charges of misbehavior. And I hate to see the same style happening under Lee.

Clearly, the two are pals, and I understand the urge to stand by your friends in public life, and at this point, we just have allegations -- maybe none of it is true, and maybe Renne will find that everything is just grand over at the Housing Authority. But the mayor ought to at least express concern.

And if this was all really happening without his knowledge, then his staff isn't doing a very good job of keeping him informed.

Either way, not a good scene in Room 200.

Comments

True to form, Tim, you file a piece with zero evidence and just

the kind of speculative conjecture that no honest journalist would ever give the time of day for.

Shame on you.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 05, 2012 @ 6:02 pm

Come back to earth sometime

"You file a piece with zero evidence."

Hey Einstein, please tell me exactly what sentence(s) Tim wrote that was not backed up by the Chronicle articles. The only one that should feel shame is YOU for attacking someone who has spoken the truth if the Chronicle articles are accurate.

If you can't answer my question by listing the sentence(s) Tim wrote that wasn't backed up by the Chronicle articles, then SHAME ON YOU!

So who are you - Henry Alvarez, his wife, or Mayor Lee??? Which is it you lying and dishonest POS???

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 12:31 am

Tim is like Wile E. Coyote and Mayor Lee is Road Runner

Every time there is a hint of something going wrong at City Hall you can count on Wile E. Redmond grabbing his box of Acme Dynamite and setting out to catch that rascal Road Runner, Mayor Lee. He never does, of course.

Like this instance which might indeed be serious but all we know right now is that a few of the staff at Housing don't like their boss, Which might just mean that he is a miserable people person.

Maybe it is more serious, who knows? Makes no difference to Wile E. Redmond, he just sees another chance to catch that varmint Road Runner.

BTW, you won't read this from Redmond because it doesn't fit his lame propaganda agenda but according to the Chronicle it was the Mayor's senior staff that suggested an outside investigator, the role eventually taken by Renne.

If it doesn't fit Redmond's message he doesn't write about it. I still think the is worth reading for yucks, however.

Posted by Troll on Dec. 05, 2012 @ 7:15 pm

So not true

That all we know is that some folks are unhappy. We know that a federal agency -- HUD -- has lowered SFHA's score on management to now be substandard. That alone should have been cause for concern, particularly since we are continuing to push for federal funds to help on SFHOPE build-outs. If our management is substandard, not exactly a confidence builder for those writing checks to us.

We also know that conditions in public housing are far from what they ought to be, and that Alvarez engaged in a vendetta against the Housing Rights Committee for seeking information on the scores required by HUD that evaluate housing quality standards -- even trying to get that nonprofit defunded by the city.

This goes far beyond a few unhappy people (or the fact that our local agency will have to come up with money to pay any lawsuits; last time, SFHA actually had to sell off property to pay a lawsuit it ignored for years on end until courts ordered them into receivership).

So dust yourself off, commentator, and face the facts. If the Mayor won't face the facts, then the public better understand them or there will be no accountability.

Posted by CitiReport on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 9:07 am

I'd have thought Tim would be DEFENDING Alvarez

After all - all he's done is tell a few privileged whiteys what time it is.

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Both Anus Brown and Asha

Both Anus Brown and Asha Safai are failed candidates for D11 supervisor, yet both get slots on the SFHA Commission. The SFHA has been a cesspool of criminality and corruption for decades. The Feds took the SFHA over and only recently returned it to City control.

The working arrangement under Willie Brown has been that segments of the SFHA and MTA are reserved for the trophy blacks who have been able to remain in the City or have left for the suburbs. Seriously, the black population has dwindled so low due to gentrification that a measurable percentage is part of the corrupt bucket brigade, on the SFHA or City dole. Most of the rest would probably leave but can't.

The racism here is in governmental policies that ethnically cleanse neighborhoods, in the criminal regime that is allowed to run the SFHA. Anus Brown's complicity in gentrification policies makes his statements inherently self serving and appalling given the consequences of those policies and statements to black San Franciscans.

Then there is the towering black leader phenomenon who runs an agency into the ground. Arlene Ackerman, Ronnie Davis, Nat Ford, and simply move onto the next gig unscathed and with a massive golden parachute. They slide in on a thick layer of liberal white guilt and then their egos proceed to fill all available space and antagonize everyone around them until their golden parachute is triggered.

It is remarkable that these three black individuals have followed this path and that it does not seem that the tenure of other city executives of other ethnicities have turned out that way. That's how Willie rolls, directing your attention to race while fleecing the agencies for all they've got.

Posted by marcos on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 7:44 am

Peets coffee in my nose

over that one. Wasn't that Frank Jordan who promoted Anus? Did they ever shower together?

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 8:14 am

A big problem for Lee is how this compares to his stridency in

regard to trying to hound Ross Mirkarimi out of office under charges of "official misconduct."

Lee's "case-by-case" analysis of official wrongdoing is missing only one thing: a person of the highest and incorruptible integrity to engage in it.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 7:46 am

Wow, the housing chief committed an "act of violence"?

Gee, I didn't know that.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 8:37 am

The distinction is the Ross *never* committed an act of official

misconduct though Lee and his cohort pulled out all the stops to skewer him under a completely bogus interpretation of the city's charter, while here we have multiple allegations of official misconduct -- or at least neglect of official duties under color of racism -- and yet we have a mayor who is manifestly uninterested.

Let's review: an abortive arm grabbing during a domestic spat, vs. official malfeasance. Hmmm, sounds like we need to ignore the official malfeasance and spend a million and a half dollars on the arm grab.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 8:55 am

Seven Supes disagree with you about that categorization.

Which for any other kind of vote would have been more than sufficient.

Plus the ethics committee found the same.

It was only the oddly high watermark that was required thats aved Ross's skin.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 9:47 am

Point taken. A majority of supes voted to expose the city to

additional millions of dollars in waste over the matter. This means we either need a better crop of supervisors or more "oddly high" hurdles to restrain the behavior of the flawed supervisor that we get under our current election and campaign finance system and nakedly biased mainstream media.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 10:06 am

LOL, well if a liberal like you doesn't like the results of

elections that are already skewed towards liberals thru district elections and RCV, then you really are going to be unhappy no matter what.

The simple fact is that the Supes you'd like to see elected do not have broad support.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 11:06 am

Here's how it compares --

Here's how it compares -- Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to a crime and was sentenced, Alvarez has been accused of being an oafish boss.

So I guess that there is more than one thing missing. A guilty plea.

Before the guilty plea there was no 'hounding' of Mirkarimi.

Sorry. Grow up.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 8:28 am

"There was no hounding of Mirkarimi?" -- You've *got* to be

kidding. Four investigators sent out to interview every available neighbor over and arm grabbing incident? I won't ask to be given a break because I know better.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 8:49 am

Domestic violence is a very serious offence.

So, yes, should be investigated thoroughly.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 9:45 am

Thousands of far more serious DV cases languished while Lee

and his cabal went on their anti-Mirkarimi escapade.

This story is another example of how their imbalanced behavior will come back to bite them in the backside.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 9:57 am

lilli justice - let Progressive Hero's have their way

Look, in lilli's twisted mind a video of a tearful wife displaying injuries caused by her husband should be ignored IF the husband is a Progressive Hero. Police should look the other way based on the accused abuser's politics.

Can't explain it in rationale terms, just another symptom I guess. But sometimes I wonder WTF they are doing with his meds over there.

Posted by Troll on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 10:28 am

No. In my mind, such a video would merit questioning the wife

and following her wishes.

The arm grab was not an injury which demonstrated an intent on Ross Mirkarimi's part to cause injury, and the arm bruise was not the sort of injury which would justify ignoring the wife/spouse's wishes -- unlike, perhaps two-knots on the back of Fire Chief Haynes-White's husband's head, for instance.

DV is a serious problem which is why the misallocated resources to acheive the political aim of the corporate-friendly machine is so galling.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 10:54 am

But wives don'r prosecute DV criems; the DA does.

and in fact SF has a zero-tolerance policy towards DV - you know what that means, right?

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 11:07 am

I guess it means the DA Gascon is completely incompetent.

How else to interpet that? Oh, yes. There is another way: the idea of "zero tolerance" is asinine in most cases -- and when it means dividing a family over an arm grabbing incident and spending a million and a half dollars over it, definitely so.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 11:31 am

Eliana's back in South America, again, right?

She has nothing to fear any more from Ross, but only because he was brought down to size and made accountible.

Other than temporarily losing his paycheck - something she had not planned for - her plan went near perfectly.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 12:15 pm

DV Perps Joanne Hayes-White and Turman evade prosecution

DV Perps Joanne Hayes-White and Turman evaded prosecution and still serve.

Posted by marcos on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 10:46 am

Yes, but it wasn't their jobs to oversee convicted DV perps.

The conflict of interest is far higher with Ross, as the City Attorney has already warned him.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 11:08 am

I'll be eagerly awaiting news of a challenger to CA Hererra

in the next election over his bizarre complicity with Lee in the Mirkarimi matter.

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 11:33 am

The scuttlebutt is that

The scuttlebutt is that Willie threatened to run someone against Herrera unless Dennis played ball on Mirk. We need to run someone against Herrera, he's proven himself as clueless at playing politics in his shit sandwich run for mayor after dutifully carrying water for this corrupt regime at great cost to San Franciscans and then getting kicked to the curb by the elites in favor of someone more trustworthy.

Posted by marcos on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 11:48 am

But Herrera shouldn't be "playing politics"

He should be giving legal advice even if, like Ross, it falls on deaf ears.

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 12:16 pm

Hererra did play politics when he reversed established protocol

with respect to charges of official misconduct in order to please Mayor Lee.

This former policy was established under both Hererra and previous CA Louise Renne as revealed and explained by former ethics commissioner Paul Melbostad on more than one occasion.

That interpretation of the city charter would have prevented the EC from addressing a momentary arm grab occuring prior to Ross' swearing in as sheriff as official misconduct, because it was *not* directly related to his duties of office and did *not* contravene city law with respect to the duties of of his office.

http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=10&clip_id=16097

President Chiu: "thank you. next speaker."

Paul Melbostad: "President Chiu and supervisors, my name is Paul Melbostad, and I served for eight years on the san francisco ethics commission. And including a year as president and as vice chair.

And I served the first eight years that the current charter was in effect, starting in 1996.

There hasn't been -- the law has not changed one iota since I served on the commission.

And during those years, we heard many cases of alleged official misconduct.

But the reason you haven't heard about most of them is because we were instructed as follows, by both city attorney louise rene and herrera which is diametrically opposed to what the city attorney is claiming was the law in this case.

We were instructed, unless the commission has found probable cause to believe that a provision of the charter or city ordinances relating to campaign finance, lobbying, conflicts of interest, or governmental ethics has been violated, the regulations are clear that no further action may be taken by the commission.

He goes on to state, the charter does not authorize the commission to impose any type of public censure upon individuals who have not committed a violation within the jurisdiction of the ethics commission.

The ethics commission only has jurisdiction over the local campaign and governmental conduct code. It does not have jurisdiction over state law, including the political reform act and definitely including the domestic violence laws and misdemeanor false imprisonment.

And we did in fact consider a case that involved a high-ranking official of the sheriff's department that was the legal counsel for the sheriff's department, who had responded to a sunshine request of an inmate for his records, by sending him a letter signed "Nurse Ratchet." Mocking him based on..."

(Mic cut off due to time limit, but if I understood correctly, Melbostad's point was that the case did represent a case of official misconduct because the official used official letterhead to convey a cruel insult.)

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 1:03 pm

Given the broad support for Lee's actions, Herrera's counsel

was appropriate. Ross would be unwise to disregard him now in case Ross ever puts a foot wrong.

Or a hand, I suppose ;-)

Posted by Guest on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 1:29 pm

And here's a short video reflecting on Hererra's political play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQRvdY_NPjA

Posted by lillipublicans on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 1:18 pm

Members of the City Family in

Members of the City Family in good standing have free reign irrespective of their criminal conduct while in the case of any transgression from an outsider, nothing will be spared to ensure that political purity is preserved.

Posted by marcos on Dec. 06, 2012 @ 9:20 am