Is the idea of restoring Hetch Hetchy (you know, at some point) “insane?” No, not at all.
But it sure would be inconvenient, I’ll grant you that.
Anyway, here’s the latest:
“City Contractors & City Bureaucracy Team-Up Against Prop F - Pay-to-play politics used to oppose the Yosemite Restoration Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18, 2012 — San Francisco city contractors and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) have ganged up to defeat Proposition F, the Water Conservation & Yosemite Restoration Initiative, the most recently released campaign finance reports disclosed. According to the reports(1), 47% of funding for the ‘No on F’ campaign has come from companies currently doing business with San Francisco; companies with past contracts with the City, and labor unions representing contracted workers with the City. In addition, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has spent an undisclosed amount of money entertaining San Francisco community leaders at the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, as well as more than $197,000 in federal funds promoting the “Hetch Hetchy Brand” to San Francisco voters.
“These public records demonstrate that San Francisco City Hall and its employees have arm-twisted city contractors to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars to oppose reform. It’s typical ‘pay-to-play’ politics to defend the status quo and fight water conservation,” said Mike Marshall, Campaign Director for the Yosemite Restoration Campaign. “It’s made that much worse by the improper use of rate-payer and federal funds by the staff of the SFPUC in the run-up to, and during, the campaign.”
Proposition F is the “Water Conservation & Yosemite Restoration Initiative.” It requires the City to develop a two-part plan to build San Francisco’s local water resources and reverse the damage done to the environment by the current water system over the last 100 years. The plan would need to be approved by voters in 2016 in order to be implemented.
ABOUT THE YOSEMITE RESTORATION CAMPAIGN: The mission of the Yosemite Restoration Campaign is to reform San Francisco’s 19th century water system to allow for the restoration of Hetch HetchyValley and the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. It is a non-profit, 501(c)(4) organization. www.YosemiteRestoration.org
‘No on F’ Campaign Finance Fact Sheet
According to campaign finance reports filed on Friday, October 5 the ‘No on F’ campaign received:
– $131,122 from companies currently doing business with the City and County of San Francisco.
– $69,729 from companies with past contracts with the City and County of San Francisco.
– $43,500 from labor unions representing individuals working on projects for the City and County of San Francisco.
According to public record requests the SFPUC staff has spent:
– $197,000 in federal EPA funds promoting the Hetch Hetchy water brand. The funds were intended to encourage San Francisco residents to call 311 to report water quality problems. (2)
— An undisclosed amount of money organizing eight junkets to Yosemite National Park for local Democratic Club leaders, ‘No on F’” funders, neighborhood association leaders and gay rights activists. Despite multiple Sunshine Ordinance requests, SFPUC staff have ignored requests asking for a detailed financial accounting of staff time spent organizing these political junkets.
– An undisclosed amount of staff costs collaborating with ‘No on F’ attorneys to lobby the Ballot Simplification Committee.
OMG, it’s so-called Progressive Supervisor Christina Olague collecting a ton of cash in Chinatown!
Accidental Mayor Ed Lee on Christina: “She knows who her friends are.”
And then she thanks corrupt Chinatown Power Broker Rose Pak, you know, for the $46k.
Here you go, from Table 22, you know, upstairs at that place you’ve spent* far, far, too many hours in, watching the room-temperature plastic bottles of Canada Dry ginger ale spinning on the lazy susans:
The City Family wanted a compliant, so-called Progressive to represent District 5.
But what’s this? Some “brother” from Oakland, “Les. L,” is not happy, not one bit! He’s the only Yelper giving a less than positive review.
I’ll allege that Les is not some youngish dude from Oakland, but rather a wealthy, white, preservationist-minded, NIMBY-mentalitied, real-estate-obsessed, highly-opinionated woman of a certain age who lives in the West Bay.
Let’s check it out her one-star report:
“What happened to the cool local people that worked there?”
Um, this is an improbable start to a Yelp review. Gee, maybe they busy themselves with sock puppetry on Yelp these days, just like you, “Les L?”
“Everyone we saw was white, which is weird for SF. We drove over from the East Bay to rent boats with my 2 kids and my mom.”
Oh what’s that, Les? There’s not enough flava for you over here in the West Bay? That’s funny? Did you know that all the people behind the old boat house and the Save the Boat House Coalition are white, or pretty much? What were you expecting?
“The kids couldn’t reach the pedals in the boat we rented. How’s that? It’s for kids, right?”
The old boats, the ones sold off for $500, maybe they were inappropriate for adults? Maybe the kids can just come along for the ride? A paddleboat is a paddleboat, pretty much.
“After a unhappy boatride, my mom tripped on the crappy stairs in front of the boathouse. She was bleeding, the kids were crying, and no one bothered to help us.”
What were you unhappy about, Les? That Bruce lost his lease? It happens. Or you were unhappy because there were too many Whities about?
“An old man sitting on a bench helped us and said the boathouse was just taken over by a New Mexico chain. We won’t be back.”
More improbability. Oh well.
Oddly, Les L., straight outta Oak-Town, also has a big beef with Chicago Title Co. in lily-white Campbell, CA, the wealthiest(?) part of the South Bay.
And, oddly, “his” dentist, with whom “he” also has a big beef, is clear all the way in the burbs of the West Bay.
On It Goes…
*Perhaps too positive. “Ashley c.” is a another one of those Yelp fraudsters, it would appear.
Here’s the 411 from Luke Thomas from a few days back (in an article that also features Kat Anderson’s report from OccupyOAK):
“In San Francisco, Department of Public Works interim Director Mohammed Nuru revealed today City officials have offered OccupySF protesters an alternative location to setup camp. Though Nuru would not reveal the exact location, we understand the location to be a lot on the west side of Mission Street between 15th and 16th streets. A former school, the site has running water and bathrooms as well as classroom-type structures that could be used for organizational purposes. No word yet on whether OccupySF will take up the City’s offer but, we’re told, the offer has been accepted in good faith.”
Apparently, there aren’t enough printing presses available in the Bay Area to keep up with the enormous demand the public has for “The Real Ed Lee – The Untold, Untold, Story.”
“The book goes through the details of how Lee rose through the ranks at City Hall, along the way approving a couple of fraudulent vendors and getting caught up in Willie Brown’s sleaze. It discusses how his campaign is taking credit for other people’s work and ideas. It describes how he promised over an over not to run, then went ahead and did it anyway. It’s got a great picture of him steering a 139-foot yacht with the caption “I’m on a boat.”
(Nice link there, Tim Redmond – I hadn’t made the connection.)
All the deets:
“The Untold, Untold Story” Goes Online - Leland Yee campaign can’t print “The Real Ed Lee” book fast enough for demand
SAN FRANCISCO – The reviews are in and the “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” is a smash hit!
Has a serious political point, but it’s actually funny, sometimes really funny, and it’s much easier to read than the plodding “Ed-Is-Greater-Than-God” prose of the original…. For once, we have a campaign piece that made me laugh instead of crying. - San Francisco Bay Guardian
OMG, A new best seller to be! – Some guy on the internet
Everyone is talking about it! – SFist
The 55-page parody shows Lee on the cover as downcast, grumpy and triple-chinned. The book recounts dozens of previously published stories detailing everything from the two district attorney investigations into alleged ethics violations by his supporters and alleged cronyism. – San Francisco Chronicle
The 56-page booklet is heavily footnoted with URLs – The Bay Citizen
I totally LOL’ed – The San Francisco Citizen
((*sound of crickets*)) – Interim Mayor Ed Lee
The slim volume oozes sarcasm as it covers the history of Ed Lee’s tenure as mayor, including his promise to not run for a full term and charges of inappropriate campaign donations from contractors. - San Francisco Examiner
This is the first “hit” recipe in political history. - Eric Jaye
Less than three-months hence, Lee’s campaign is beset by multiple criminal investigations into alleged campaign money laundering, ballot tampering and other campaign election violations. – Fog City Journal
[Ed Lee staff] were pretty disgusted by it. – Tony Winnicker
Painstakingly put together to resemble the original propaganda mailer to the smallest detail. The type fonts are identical. The jaunty writing style is mocked all too well. – SF Weekly
The Leland Yee for Mayor campaign has already distributed thousands of “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” to voters throughout San Francisco, however, the demand for the book has been so great that today Yee’s campaign launched the book online at http://www.lelandyee.com/the-untold-untold-story.
“We can’t print the books fast enough,” said Jim Stearns, Yee’s campaign manager. “Now that it is online every San Franciscan will have the opportunity to read this accurate account of our interim mayor and be able to compare his tarnished and corruption-filled record to Leland Yee’s 23 years of leadership and experience fighting for our community, especially seniors, students, and the most vulnerable.”
“The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” is a response to a book produced by one Ed Lee’s billionaire IE committees, which falsely glorified the interim mayor and ignored the multiple scandals and ethics violations of his campaign. The highlights of “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” include Lee becoming interim mayor on false pretenses, his approval of fraudulent contracts, giving “golden parachutes, embracing cronyism, failure to follow ethics laws, illegal campaign contributions, money laundering (well, the first time), voter fraud, and the city’s future if Ed Lee were elected. The book also includes “Willie [Brown] & Rose’s [Pak] ‘No Longer Secret’ Make-A-Mayor Recipe.”
By comparison, Leland Yee has released several detailed plans on job creation, environmental protection, transportation, and schools. Maybe the most important of his plans – “An Independent City Hall” – would clean up City Hall, bring real transparency and accountability, kick out the powerbrokers, and return our local government to the people. To read Yee’s plan, visit http://www.lelandyee.com/issues/plan-for-an-independent-city-hall/.
(Remember that one from former Mayor Gavin Newsom? “You’re not just changing your mind. You’re breaking a promise to these people.” That was just 2.5 months ago. Oh well.)
“…& Call for Positive Campaigns in Last 8 Days Before Election Day.”
Whew! That was the title of yesterday’s Ed Lee Campaign presser in Chinatown yesterday.
So basically, Senator Leland Yee sucks because his campaign released this yesterday.* Oh, and there was something about the City College campus, but I’m not sure exactly what the beef against Leland is about that.
And there was this – a call for mayoral candidates to “put out facts and not opinion,” but I’ll tell you, that book was chock-a-block full of facts, actually. And it had 107 endnotes to boot.
And let’s see here, oh, suggesting that City Family member Mohammed Nuru has issues, well, thems is fighting words, partner. Even though, well, you know.**
It looked like this:
Click to expand
Apparently, if you find anything at all wrong with San Francisco since the current administration began in 1996, if you think that there’s anything that could be improved, you’re a “hater.” Quoth mayoral spokesmodel Tony Winnicker:
But argumentum ad hominem coming from Tony hisself doesn’t make Tony a hater, no, not at all. (Somehow this makes sense.)
OK fine.
*There was a big fuss about the distribution of the Untold, Untold Story book on Sunday, but it had pretty much died down by the time this news conference was beginning.
“Herrera’s office conducted an investigation in 2004 into the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, or “SLUG,” the city-funded nonprofit Nuru headed from 1994 to 2000, in the midst of a series of San Francisco Chronicle news reports about potentially illegal electioneering activities. Nuru maintained close working ties to SLUG after going to work for Lee in 2001, according to witnesses, and also oversaw SLUG’s $1 million-per-year street-cleaning contract with DPW. The City Attorney investigation found that while at DPW, Nuru directed SLUG employees who were paid with city funds to conduct campaign activities in the 2003 municipal and runoff elections for Mayor and District Attorney—in clear violation of local law prohibiting city-funded nonprofits from using those funds to campaign for candidates or ballot measures. Witnesses also testified that Nuru had instructed city-funded SLUG workers to engage in similar campaign activities while he served as SLUG’s executive director, for a 1997 ballot measure backed by then-Mayor Willie Brown, and for his 1999 re-election campaign.
Following the 2004 City Attorney investigation, an audit by then-San Francisco City Controller Ed Harrington found a raft of financial improprieties involving SLUG and DPW. The Controller’s review revealed that SLUG mismanaged city grants and contracts, and was overpaid by city departments, including DPW, an amount totaling nearly $72,000. The audit additionally found that SLUG failed to pay more than $643,003 in payroll taxes, and that DPW improperly used SLUG’s contract with Public Works to purchase a $62,508 portable building for DPW’s use. Though Lee reportedly instructed Nuru to conduct no further business with SLUG, neither the 2004 City Attorney’s investigation report nor the similarly damning City Controller audit appears to have resulted in disciplinary action against Nuru at DPW. SLUG was formally debarred from city contracts for two years for violating Section 12G.1 of the San Francisco Administrative Code, which prohibits city funded organizations from using any of those funds to participate in, support, or attempt to influence a political campaign. The organization is now defunct.
Conspicuously absent from last week’s announcement that Mohammed Nuru would take over as DPW’s acting director effective Aug. 15 was interim Mayor Ed Lee. Though the appointment was announced in a written statement from the acting City Administrator, such appointments require “the concurrence of the Mayor,” according to San Francisco City Charter, § 3.104. A report noted that while Nuru’s salary was not finalized, his predecessor’s annual salary was $204,750. Nuru’s most recent previous annual salary as DPW’s Deputy Director of Operations was $193,000.”
From “Willie & Rose’s ‘No Longer Secret’ Make-a-Mayor Recipe”: “VERY IMPORTANT: Mix all contents together in back room; if any part of the mixture is exposed to sunshine, it will be ruined. … Pour mixture into an empty vessel — any loyal bureaucrat will do.”
From “Section 1: The Making of a Mayor,” about the deal to make Ed Lee interim mayor: “[Then-Supervisor] Chris Daly said: ‘This is the biggest fumble in the history of San Francisco politics.’ You know your city is in trouble when Chris Daly is the only politician who got it right.”
“Fun facts” about Lee: “Ed Lee didn’t just bring America’s Cup to San Francisco, he also brought Jim Harbaugh to the 49ers. The real reason Twitter isn’t leaving is because Ed Lee won an arm-wrestling match against Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone. … These may not actually be true, but Ed Lee is quite skilled at taking credit for the work of others. …”
Surprised that MayorLee.com is still up and running.
This one-page website gives me a headache, so I don’t have the patience to watch it to see if it loops its catchphrases in order or if it makes them appear randomly.
Anyway, take a look for yourself, below – you’ll get the idea of the attitude of the person(s) what put it up.
Here are some of the standouts:
Ed Lee is unrelated to Ex-Supervisor Ed Jew (now in federal prison)
Ed Lee is best buds with Willie Brown and Rose Pak
Ed Lee never hesitates to embarrass his daughters in public: Tania and Brianna, Daddy loves you XOXO
O.K. fine.
Click to expand
All the text, it goes on and on. It’s like living February 2011 all over again. Enjoy:
Ed Lee was progressive before progressive was cool Ed Lee once administered all of San Francisco for 5 years Ed Lee led the first ever rent strike against the SF Housing Authority Ed Lee helps little old ladies cross the street Ed Lee loves serving San Francisco so much he’s willing to be mayor Ed Lee is a liberal Democrat Ed Lee puts the American in Asian-American Ed Lee won’t go Donkey Kong on San Francisco Ed Lee is liked by everyone at City Hall Ed Lee puts his kids through college Ed Lee is not a drama queen Ed Lee can cook Ed Lee rocks a hella clean, next level mustache Ed Lee totally ran the Olympic Torch Ed Lee is Totally Progressive Ed Lee wants to be your friend Ed Lee is an old school activist Ed Lee is a patron of the art of Chinese cuisine Ed Lee was born with a full mustache Ed Lee likes the Banh Mi around Tenderloin the best Ed Lee thinks that the squiggly part of Lombard street is kind of strange Ed Lee once wrestled a Cable Car with his mustache Ed Lee only drinks milk tea with boba Ed Lee voted Obama Ed Lee is a good guy Ed Lee doesn’t throw mud on other people’s faces Ed Lee is a regular on the front of Chinese newspapers Ed Lee say city works for you Ed Lee knows how to pack a lot of work into a short interim term Ed Lee owns the Free Parking spot in Monopoly Ed Lee shook the earth when he became mayor Ed Lee got 90.9% of the votes when he became mayor When the city’s in trouble, they put on the Ed-Signal Ed Lee: first asian mayor of SF with a truly awesome mustache Ed Lee: Asian Mayor Ed Lee has the sweetest ‘stache Ed Lee brings double happiness to grateful San Francisco Ed Lee makes San Franciscans pay attention to local politics Whispering “Ed Lee” brings good luck Ed Lee bridges East and West Ed Lee, international globetrotter Ed Lee knows how to get hyphy Ed Lee ties his tie using his mustache Ed Lee uses the phone book Ed Lee is not a demagogue Ed Lee is huge in Japan When the Board of Supervisors gets in a fight, Ed Lee plays the grown up When Ed Lee was sworn in as mayor, tears of joy fell from the sky Ed Lee rolls his sleeves up when he walks into City Hall Ed Lee is a karaoke god Ed Lee’s mustache will answer questions at Question Time Ed Lee is loved in San Jose Ed Lee can shoot lasers from his mustache Cats prefer Ed Lee’s mustache over catnip Ed Lee cannot resist glazed donuts Ed Lee is secretly Jack Bauer Chinese Fathers Are Superior only when speaking of Ed Lee Ed Lee was progressive before progressive was cool Ed Lee’s so green, he can’t ride in hybrid SUVs The M is Edwin M. Lee stands for Mayor Ed Lee is not a 70′s pornstar Ed Lee’s mustache is so huge, the city got rid of its fleet of street sweepers Ed Lee is unrelated to Ex-Supervisor Ed Jew (now in federal prison) Ed Lee invented a shoe that removes gum from sidewalks Ed Lee: Short name, huge impact Ed Lee is obviously a NINJA. No one saw him coming! Ed Lee thinks the rent is too damn high Ed Lee is best buds with Willie Brown and Rose Pak 2011 – The Year of Ed Lee Ed Lee rides a bike to work Ed Lee is a man of mystery Ed Lee mustache is manlier than Chuck Norris Ed Lee has a cat named spot Ed Lee is a four time Academy Award winner Ed Lee is a longtime collaborator with Dr. Dre, Ice T, and Eminem on Grammy winners Ed Lee rocks it old school Ed Lee suggests that we be excellent to one another and party on, dudes Ed Lee was preceded by his mustache Ed Lee makes decisions Ed Lee loves his used hybrid Ford Fusion/p> Ed Lee loves Mission Chinese Food (who doesn’t!?) Ed Lee helped himself to seconds at the White House State Dinner Ed Lee is related to Spike Lee Ed Lee is taking Rose Pak to the Prom Ed Lee can never tell a lie Ed Lee can do more push-ups than Willie Brown Ed Lee’s favorite watering hole is Buck’s Tavern Ed Lee is bringing sexy back to room 200 Ed Lee’s favorite movie is “Eat, Pray, Love” Ed Lee is My Valentine Ed Lee loves Lady Gaga Ed Lee and Jean Quan are best buddies Ed Lee thinks the 49ers should have drafted Aaron Rodgers Ed Lee is Mayor of San Francisco on foursquare Ed Lee is a lame duck Ed Lee only drinks straight Everclear Mayorly Lee Ed Lee is Mayor of San Francisco, Edinburgh, and Leeds Ed Lee cares about black people Ed Lee rode motorcycles with Ponch and John Ed Lee = Totally Hot Ed Lee is a Gleek Ed Lee gets shit done! Ed Lee has a HELLA SICK STACHE Ed Lee backwards is Eel De Ed Lee is the Asian Chuck Norris Ed Lee turns into Bruce Lee if you make him angry Ed Lee is History Ed Lee Rhymes With Me Ed Lee’s so SF, his underwear is colored International Orange Ed Lee won a beauty contest against Jane Kim Ed Lee moonlights as a backup artist for Tainted Love Ed Lee won’t drop it if it’s hot. But he will drop it like it’s hot Ed Lee will teach you how to Dougie Ed Lee’s name is so short, SF will save millions in stationery costs Ed Lee is a Champion Cha Cha Dancer Ed Leeeeeeeeeee Tulibu Dibu Douchoo Ed Lee is the home room teacher you wish you had Ed Lee packs a mean left hook…in his mustache Ed Lee is Bringin’ Feng Shui Back Ed Lee wears a red tie because he’s comfortable with who he is Ed Lee for President Ed Lee = 李孟贤 Ed Lee + Jean Quan = Asian Bay Bridge Ed Lee = community attorney and activist = Barack Obama Ed Lee comes from a Galaxy Far, Far Away In the event of a water landing, Ed Lee’s mustache can be used as a flotation device Ed Lee’s mustache is structurally sound Ed Lee’s satellite-dish equipped car is officially known as the Stachemobile Ed Lee taught Sara Lee how to bake Ed Lee’s mustache keeps SF safe from tidal waves If Ed Lee sues you, you’ve already lost Ed Lee secretly likes Chop Suey Ed Lee invented Web 2.0 Ed Lee will not hesitate to service you, publicly Ed Lee receives official mayoral telecommunications through his mustache Ed Lee can do 218 clap pushups with his mustache Ed Lee waits an hour to read the Sing Tao Daily for free at the public library Ed Lee always picks the fortune cookie with winning lotto numbers Ed Lee does not need your vote Ed Lee: The San Francisco Treat Ed Lee loves Twitter so much he won’t let them out of the city Ed Lee is the founder of AAAM: Asian-Americans Attempting Mustaches Ed Lee’s Favorite Vegetable: Parse-Lee Ed Lee’s Favorite Fruit: Lee-Chee For Mayor Lee, it really is as easy as riding a bike Ed Lee’s mustache soaked up the bay oil spill Ed Lee is De-LEE-cious! Ed Lee never hesitates to embarrass his daughters in public: Tania and Brianna, Daddy loves you XOXO Run Ed Run!”
“New Controller’s report confirms streets survey, audit on Ed Lee’s failed record on infrastructure
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
Appointed Mayor’s decade-long mismanagement as DPW chief, City Administrator now require quarter-billion dollar streets bond to ‘finally accomplish what Ed Lee didn’t’
SAN FRANCISCO (Oct. 18, 2011) — City streets and public works continue to deteriorate under interim Mayor Ed Lee, according to a new report published today by the Controller’s Office, extending Lee’s decade-long record of mismanagement and neglect as the appointed bureaucrat in charge of San Francisco’s infrastructure. Today’s bimonthly Government Barometer[1] mirrors a highly critical survey released just two weeks ago that found San Francisco’s satisfaction rate with the current quality of its infrastructure to be the lowest among five benchmark cities to which it was compared. Lee’s history of lax oversight of streets, sidewalks and public works projects was also the subject of a devastating independent management audit of the Department of Public Works that the Board of Supervisors first commissioned in May 2005, while Lee was DPW director. That audit was released in 2007.
Today’s new Government Barometer identified negative trends in the City’s maintenance of streets and public works in terms of the percentage of street cleaning requests responded to within 48 hours, which have worsened both since the previous reporting period and as compared to the same period last year. A negative trend was also observed from the previous reporting period for the percentage of graffiti requests on public property responded to within 48 hours.
“For the last decade, Ed Lee did an abysmal job as the person in charge of San Francisco’s infrastructure,” said City Attorney Dennis Herrera. “The Budget Analyst’s audit proved it in 2007; the streets survey proved it again two weeks ago, and the new Government Barometer proves it once again. Ed Lee’s record of failure is why most city streets are dirtier than ever, and in desperate need of major repairs. Now, San Franciscans need to pass a quarter-billion dollars for a streets bond, to finally accomplish what Ed Lee didn’t.”
Lee was DPW director from 2000 to 2005, and until January of this year served as City Administrator, a role whose major duties under the City Charter include coordinating capital improvement and construction projects, and appointing and removing DPW directors. As such, Lee is more responsible for the current state of San Francisco’s infrastructure than any other city official. Lee’s decade-long record contrasts starkly with his new campaign promise to be an “infrastructure mayor” who will fix San Francisco’s “roads, schools and parks.”
On October 6, 2011, the San Francisco Controller’s Office published its final report of the biennial City Survey for 2011[2], which found that:
* San Francisco had the lowest satisfaction rate with the quality of its infrastructure among five benchmark cities to which it was compared: Boston, New York, Oakland, San Jose, and Seattle.
* Overall satisfaction with San Francisco city streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure rated a woeful 31 percent, according to the survey — far below other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s rating for infrastructure was also lower than both statewide and national averages.
* San Franciscans were least satisfied with the condition of pavement citywide, with nearly 44 percent of residents grading city performance “poor/failing,” and another 38 percent describing it as merely “average.” Only 18 percent rated infrastructure “good” or better.
The new Government Barometer and streets survey from two weeks ago come as San Franciscans begin voting on a proposed $248 million bond for road repaving and street safety.[3] The nearly one-quarter-billion-dollars in new bonded indebtedness is required, according to proponents, because half of San Francisco’s 850 miles of streets — together with public structures that include bridges, tunnels, and stairways — need major repairs and upgrades.
Both the Government Barometer and streets survey also mirror a devastating independent audit of DPW that the Board of Supervisors commissioned in May 2005, while Lee was DPW chief. Even before Budget Analyst Harvey Rose’s final 269-page DPW Management Audit[4] was published in January 9, 2007, then-DPW Chief Fred Abadi responded that he “came to DPW after your audit had begun,” and that the report’s 120 recommendations “will prove useful to me as I continue to reengineer parts of the Department.” Abadi agreed and accepted all but three of the Budget Analyst’s 120 recommendations.
Among major findings of the performance audit’s of DPW under Ed Lee:
* DPW’s overall mismanagement, inefficiency and uncollected revenue combined to waste more than $5 million in taxpayer funds.
* DPW-led projects were routinely mismanaged, over-budget, and late — and city street repair projects were late by a shocking 172 days, on average.
* DPW failed to routinely track average project labor costs or productivity to ensure that Street Resurfacing and Pothole Repair Projects were completed efficiently
* DPW could not demonstrate that tax dollars being spent for street repair and maintenance (despite an amount that increased during Lee’s tenure) were spent appropriately.
* DPW allowed more than $1 million in litter fines to go uncollected.
* None of DPW’s eight bureaus fully measured performance to ensure that the bureau achieved the best possible outcomes.
* And DPW inspectors did not conduct routine inspections of streets to identify safety hazards.”
