Racism Gone Wild!

S.F. gadfly stung for conduct
Affirmative action officer is fired at rights agency

Lance Williams, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, January 14, 2004


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A San Francisco affirmative action officer who claims the city harassed him because he cooperated in an FBI probe of municipal corruption was fired Thursday as Mayor Willie Brown left office.

Kevin Williams, 50, who said he had repeatedly sought to blow the whistle on suspected contracting fraud at the city's $1.8 billion airport expansion project, said he was fired from his $99,000-per-year post at the city's Human Rights Commission shortly after Mayor Gavin Newsom's inaugural.

In a letter, his boss, commission director Virginia Harmon, said Williams was being fired for "egregious" misconduct, including allegedly spending his workday preparing two different lawsuits he has filed against the city.

One suit, which goes to trial next week, claims Williams was demoted after a city executive blamed him for turning state's evidence and getting her indicted in 2000. The other suit claims the city had failed to root out widespread fraud and overbilling on the airport project.

David Tirapelle, a civil service hearing officer who reviewed the case found no credible evidence that Williams was being punished for his testimony or lawsuits and said he deserved to be fired.

"All actions taken against Mr Williams were based on his work performance, " said Linda Ross, chief labor lawyer for the city attorney's office. But in interviews, his lawyers, Eric Safire and John Scott, contended the firing was the city's latest attempt to punish Williams for blowing the whistle on corruption at Brown's City Hall. The city rushed to complete the firing "before Mayor Newsom had a chance to put a kibosh on it," Scott contended.

The timing was significant, said Williams.

"It's a message from Willie Brown -- I go out, you go out," he said. "It was important to Willie Brown, because he must feel that he always vanquishes an enemy."

Brown was unavailable for comment.

For much of his 18-year city career Williams worked at the airport, scrutinizing multi-million dollar public works contracts to make sure that firms owned by minorities and women got their fair share of the work under terms of affirmative action laws.

According to his lawsuits, he ran afoul of the Brown administration after the FBI launched a wide-ranging probe of suspected contracting fraud in 1999.

Williams said he was repeatedly interviewed by FBI agents, and testified three times before a grand jury. In 2000, the grand jury indicted Zula Jones, the top aide to Human Rights Commission director Harmon, for allegedly aiding a white-owned company in an illegal scheme to obtain millions of dollars of contracts that were supposed to go to minority firms.

The charges against Jones were eventually dropped. But while the investigation was under way, Williams claimed Jones pressed him to reveal what he had told the FBI and the grand jury. After she was indicted, Jones accused Williams of turning state's evidence against her, he claimed.

Williams contended Harmon stripped him of his management job and reassigned to him to the commission's downtown office, where he said he was given projects with impossibly tight deadlines and threatened with firing when he failed to complete them.

In filings connected to the civil service hearing, Harmon contended that Williams had done "virtually no work for a year." Although he had been told to stop, he spent many hours of city time on the lawsuits, she claimed.

Williams countered that most commission staffers used their computers for personal matters, and he said he had worked unpaid overtime to make up for doing personal business at work. The city disputed that, and in a decision reached on Mayor Brown's last day in office, the hearing officer affirmed that the city should fire Williams.

Safire, Williams' lawyer, said the firing would go into evidence in the wrongful-demotion case in federal court.

Williams also has filed a taxpayers' lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the giant Tutor Saliba Co., lead contractor on the airport reconstruction project, had defrauded the city of millions of dollars by overbilling. Williams' taxpayers suit parallels a lawsuit filed in federal court by city Attorney Dennis Herrera, who also has accused Tutor Saliba of fraud in connection with alleged overbillings on the airport project. Tutor Saliba has denied wrongdoing. Neither of those cases is set for trial.

After the past eight years Environmental Justice/racism has gotten worst, the independent reports show that things have in fact not improved for the residents and the community of Hunters Point.

Let's stop Racism now!

Has Bayview Hunters Point conditions or gotten worst over the past 8 years for its Residents? Well according to the Original Human Rights Commission Report "The Unfinished Agenda", the Grand Jury Report, the report on "Environmental Justice" by the San Francisco State University Journalism Department, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and the New Human Rights Commission Report on "Environmental Racism". Basically that community is living under the worst kind of Racism of a modern progressive city in the United States.
Will the new Mayoral Administration address these important reports or will their be a continuing rip off of Hunters Point residents of their rights, their environment, their opportunity and a suppression of the community?
This is something the rest of the liberal City of San Francisco should focus on now, it makes no sense to suppress a multi cultural community of color with over 35,000 residents. When you read the reports make a judgment from your heart is this acceptable behavior in modern times? Look at the historic information, you be the judge. Why should fellow San Franciscans have to endure this kind of sub third world treatment in the year 2003 soon to be 2004.
We suggest you call or write the Board of Supervisors, the Mayors Office, the state and federal officials and let them know that this is not acceptable behavior for the Community residents of San Francisco to endure this type of Environmental injustice and racism today. That community has had the largest home ownership which means that they pay more than their fair share of taxes, read the reports and you determine if they have had the benefit of their taxes or have they been abused. Would you accept those conditions for yourself or your family?
Lets get active the San Francisco Resident of Hunters Point need your help to stop the racial injustice, the environmental injustice, the racism of the past and help their community to become equal partners in San Francisco. Say no to Environmental Injustice, Environmental Racism and say yes to Environmental Justice.
All of these independent report are available on http://mecresources.com/environment.htm or go to http://mecresources.com and then click on environment. Their you will see more than enough confirmation of facts by city agencies, university journalism departments etc.
Get active, the Children of Hunters Point Community need your help.

If you have read the attached comments you know part of the Nigerian Mafia story, Mohammed Nuru, DPW Deputy Director & Jonathan Gomwalk Executive Director of SLUG (San Francisco league of Urban Gardners), manipulating the poor, if you also remember the Decembeb 2nd Redevelopment meeting Toye Moses who sits on the Democratic Committee, his wife Alma Robinson speaking on behalf of Scott Madison CAC Chair and misrepresenting the position of the Citizens Advisory Committee or Scott Madison’s letter. Follow the path of Linda Richardson receiving money from Lennar, and she is also on Newsome’s transition team.
Where are the Feds? Where is the media? Where is the investigative reporting?

City workers: We were told to vote, work for Newsom
S.F. city attorney probes campaign charge by 9 street cleaners

Anastasia Hendrix, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, January 15, 2004


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chart attached

Nine members of a city street-cleaning crew say a top official of the San Francisco Department of Public Works and supervisors of a nonprofit organization funded by the city agency pressured them into voting for Gavin Newsom for mayor and walking precincts for his campaign on election day.

The street cleaners told The Chronicle that Mohammed Nuru, the city's deputy director of public works, and Jonathan Gomwalk, executive director of the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, or SLUG, had applied pressure to vote and electioneer for Newsom by saying their jobs would be in jeopardy unless Newsom won the mayor's race.

The street cleaners -- part of a 45-member crew employed by SLUG who work under contract with the Public Works Department -- said they had been pulled off the job during the Nov. 4 general election and Dec. 9 runoff and driven to a Newsom campaign office where Nuru assigned them to walk precincts, knock on doors and distribute campaign literature.

In the week before the runoff, during their work shifts, street cleaners were told to appear at, or were given rides to, the Department of Elections at City Hall and were instructed by SLUG crew chiefs to cast absentee ballots for Newsom, according to the nine street cleaners.

"I felt like I was in another country, like it was some kind of dictatorship taking place," said Oscar Hollin, 47, one of the street cleaners. "I read about this kind of thing all the time, but I never thought it would happen to me."

After casting their votes, street cleaners were asked to turn over their voter receipt stubs to their SLUG crew chiefs, Hollin and three of his colleagues said. One of those three, Antonia Perkins, said a crew boss had peered over her shoulder as she marked her ballot.

"It made me really uncomfortable, because I was going to vote for the other guy," Perkins said, referring to Newsom's runoff opponent, Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez.

Nuru and Gomwalk denied any wrongdoing.

Nuru said that he never pressured anybody do anything against his or her will and that he assumed that the SLUG workers who showed up at the campaign office had done so voluntarily.

Gomwalk acknowledged that SLUG had taken employees to vote but said it was part of a legitimate effort to teach political involvement to the street cleaners -- members of a welfare-to-work program.

Repeated attempts to reach the SLUG crew supervisors -- individually and through Gomwalk -- were unsuccessful.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera opened an investigation into the allegations after street cleaners complained to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission last week, according to street cleaners interviewed by investigators and other sources familiar with the investigation.

A city attorney's spokesman declined to comment. But the sources said one area of inquiry is whether the Public Works Department and SLUG violated laws that forbid spending taxpayer dollars on political activity.

Another focus, the sources said, is that Hollin, Perkins and two other street cleaners were laid off on Dec. 31 and whether that was done in retaliation for talking to The Chronicle. The street cleaners contacted the newspaper two days after Newsom's Dec. 9 victory and filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on Jan 6.

A spokesman for Newsom, who was sworn into office last Thursday, said that Nuru had served as a campaign volunteer but that the new mayor had no knowledge of the allegations or the investigation until being contacted by The Chronicle.

'Zero tolerance'

"There's zero tolerance for anything like that -- there was zero tolerance for that on the campaign, and it will be the same while he is mayor, " said Peter Ragone, Newsom's spokesman. "If there is due cause, there should be a fast and fair investigation."

SLUG's street-cleaning program employs welfare recipients, poor and homeless people, and convicts released on probation or parole to sweep the city's streets. It is funded almost entirely by the city.

According to interviews with Hollin and eight other former and current SLUG street cleaners, Nuru, Gomwalk and SLUG crew chiefs repeatedly told them their jobs and the future of the SLUG organization depended upon Newsom's being elected as Mayor Willie Brown's successor.

Five other members of the SLUG street-cleaning crew interviewed by The Chronicle - none of whom would be quoted by name -- said they hadn't felt pressured and weren't offended by the election-related activities.

Nuru said he did campaign for Newsom as well as for Kamala Harris, who unseated former District Attorney Terence Hallinan on Dec. 9. But he insisted that he had always worked on his own time and had not pressured anyone.

"If anyone felt like that, it needs to be addressed,'' Nuru said. However, he said, "I don't think these men can be forced to do anything -- we can barely get them to get to work and do the things we want them to do.''

Nuru, who was SLUG's executive director from 1991 until 2000 when he was hired by then-Mayor Brown as public works deputy director, added that "there's not a high level of education with SLUG people." He said "it's very possible" remarks he made had been misinterpreted by some of the street cleaners.

Gomwalk, the current SLUG executive director, said the group had urged street cleaners to participate in a Dec. 2 get-out-the-vote event, which Nuru said had been organized by the Harris for district attorney campaign. Gomwalk said SLUG's encouragement to cast votes had been part of a "civics course" to teach important life skills.

"We always try to encourage our people to be aware of the issues -- that is part of what we do, especially if they affect us, you know, like employment,'' he said, though adding that such lessons have never before involved going to vote at City Hall. "It's just part of the general civic awareness.''

A spokeswoman for Harris declined to comment. A campaign aide who the spokeswoman, Debbie Mesloh, said would contact The Chronicle to address the matter did not respond.

SLUG's Gomwalk said his organization didn't pressure employees to vote for any particular candidate but added that because of budget cuts, "we're not able to provide the level of supervision we'd like to."

He also said he didn't know anything about SLUG crew chiefs' requesting voter stub receipts from street cleaners after votes had been cast.

Stories don't jibe

But accounts given by the nine street cleaners interviewed by The Chronicle contradict the statements by Nuru and Gomwalk.

On Nov. 4, the day that Newsom would end up first among nine mayoral candidates, former SLUG street cleaner Freddie Cavitt said Nuru had approached him and two other co-workers and told them to leave their jobs, remove their work vests and go with him to a nearby polling place.

"Mohammed (Nuru) picked me and two other workers up in his van and told us to go to people's doors and ask them if they voted, and if not, to hurry up and vote,'' said Cavitt, who said he had been fired a few weeks later over a nonelection-related disagreement with his supervisor. "I really didn't like the way that went down.''

Nuru said he recalled only driving Newsom campaign volunteers from a Newsom campaign office to a polling place.

Shortly after the general election, Nuru approached a group of street cleaners while they were sitting in a van eating lunch and delivered what amounted to stump speech for Newsom, said crew member Ricky Anderson.

"He (Nuru) told us it was important for us to go vote because if Newsom doesn't win this, I (Nuru) won't have a job, and you guys probably won't have a job, either,'' Anderson said.

On Nov. 28, according to Ali Nasser, another former SLUG worker, Gomwalk called a special meeting at the SLUG headquarters on Oakdale Avenue in the Bayview district to encourage everyone to participate in the vote drive organized by the Harris for district attorney campaign. Nasser said he had told Gomwalk he shouldn't tell people how to vote, but "he just ignored me.''

The next day, Nuru gave another speech instructing a group of SLUG workers to vote for Newsom before they began a Saturday morning clean-up session at a park, said Barie Williams, a former SLUG street cleaner who says he quit the program the next week largely in disgust over the directive.

On Dec. 2, one week before election, Hollin said he had been told by his SLUG crew supervisor to report to City Hall for a "special project.''

Once there, Hollin said he saw about two dozen other SLUG co-workers from across the city who had come in vans provided by the Harris campaign. "He (my supervisor) told me to grab a pen and one of those absentee ballots," Hollin said. "He told me, 'We want you to vote for Newsom, and if you vote for Newsom, we'll keep our jobs.' "

After initially hesitating, Hollin said, another SLUG crew supervisor came over to him and told him that, "We really need to get this vote in.'' Hollin said he resigned himself, grabbed the form and voted for Newsom, fearing his job was suddenly on the line, even though he had planned to vote for Gonzalez.

Perkins and another co-worker, Regina Lewis, said that they had received the same instructions and that afterward a crew supervisor had told them to hand over their voting receipts as they were leaving the voting area. "It was put to us like, nobody's going to get paid if we don't get these stubs,'' Perkins said.

After their votes had been cast, Perkins, Lewis, Hollin and the other SLUG workers were ushered to three chartered vans waiting outside City Hall, Hollin said. The vans drove to Harris' campaign headquarters, where they waited several minutes before they were told to get into SLUG vans that would drive them back downtown so they could "get back to work,'' Hollin said.

Hollin's co-worker Anderson, who wasn't scheduled to work on Dec. 2, said his supervisor had picked him up four days later during his shift and driven him to City Hall in a SLUG van so he could vote, reminding him on the way that a Newsom win was best to safeguard the program and his position.

Anderson said he had planned to vote for Gonzalez and was even wearing his yellow-and-black "Matt Gonzalez for Mayor" button on his vest when he cast his vote for Newsom.

"I felt that I was forced to vote for a candidate I was apprehensive about based on the issues,'' said Anderson, 43. As he left the voting booth, he said, his crew supervisor extended his hand and asked for the stub that had been taken from the ballot.

"He wanted that stub,'' he said. "Why it was so important I don't know, but he told me he was making sure everyone submitted their stub.''

What records say

Elections Department records confirm that Hollin, Perkins and Lewis voted by absentee ballot at City Hall on Dec. 2, as did Anderson on Dec. 6.

A week later, on the rainy Tuesday when thousands of San Franciscans headed to their polling places to cast votes, SLUG workers said they had been told to carry Newsom campaign posters while they walked up and down streets near the SLUG headquarters in the Bayview, when they would have otherwise been tidying up city streets.

Across town, Hollin said his supervisor had picked him and two of his co- workers up from their post in the Tenderloin and driven them in a SLUG van to Newsom's campaign office in the Mission District.

Nuru arrived shortly afterward, Hollin said, and told the SLUG workers to remove their vests with the city's Department of Public Works logo emblazoned on it. Nuru handed them Newsom political advertisements, Hollin said, and told them to go knock on doors in a nearby neighborhood to encourage people to vote for Newsom and hang the advertisements on doorknobs. City payroll records show that Nuru had taken off work on the day of the runoff and was not working on city time.

Nuru, who many at SLUG said they regarded as a de facto boss because of his former ties to the organization and his current role in the city's decision to keep funding the program, said he did not know the affiliations of those who had come in to the Newsom office that day, and assumed they were all volunteering on their own.

"I think I may have seen some of them around, but I don't know what their status at SLUG was -- my job that day was to help get precinct work done,'' he said.

He also said he could not recall telling anyone to remove their SLUG vest that day, but that if he had seen someone wearing such a garment when they arrived to volunteer at the office, Nuru said he would tell them, "Do you realize you have a city seal and nonprofit logo on? We don't want to act like we're stupid.''

Anderson and Hollin, who joined the program within the last year as they struggle to rebuild lives sidetracked by felony convictions, said they were convinced of just the opposite. Anderson served time for a 1994 armed robbery conviction. Hollin is on probation after being jailed for a domestic assault.

They said Nuru is savvy enough to know that most would be uncomfortable declining to do something that they had been directly ordered to do by a high- ranking city official -- even one who was working as a personal volunteer on that particular day.

Hollin said he had taken off his vest and put on a blue rain poncho and climbed into a truck with a supervisor who drove him to various homes. He had walked up to several doors along Geneva Avenue but, he said, he did not actually ring the doorbells or knock as instructed, though he did hang up the flyers.

At 8 p.m., the usual end of their shift, Hollin said, he and the others were driven back downtown and then headed home.

When he saw news reports of Newsom's surprisingly close victory, Hollin said his stomach churned. He started thinking about whether and how to contact a lawyer.

On Dec. 31, Hollin, Anderson, Perkins and Lewis said they had been called to the SLUG headquarters and laid off.

Gromwalk said the job cuts resulted from special Neighborhood Beautification Fund grant money running out. He said those laid-off had been aware of the pending cuts in advance and suggested they had made their allegations against Nuru and SLUG because they are disgruntled.

He said two other workers on the crew had been relocated to other assignments because "some workers are better than others,'' he said.

Wendy Nelder, the director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Beautification, said SLUG had applied for funds to clean Polk Street for the last two years, but that the request had been denied and no grant had been given to the organization.

Hollin and the others said they believed they had been laid off in retaliation for talking to The Chronicle.

The whole experience has left him disgusted and disillusioned with the democratic process, he said.

"I believe that the people who died for this country, for this privilege (of voting freely), to have it snatched it away is a slap in the face to them, '' said Hollin, whose father is a World War II veteran.

"I may not be the most educated man,'' he said, "but I know about my civil rights, and I know that people aren't supposed to do this."
ABSENTEE VOTING CONTROVERSY
Gavin Newsom received about 25,600 more absentee ballot votes than did
challenger MattGonzalez, results from the Elections Department show. Nine street cleaners
have allegedthat they were coerced to fill out absentee ballots for Newsom in the days
leading up to the Dec. 9 runoff election.
ABSENTEE VOTE RESULTS
A total of 115,711 ballots were sent out; here is the breakdown of the 93,
164 that were returned:
Newsom: 58,172
Gonzalez: 32,494
Neither candidate*: 2,498
* This is the number of returned ballots that were challenged or that
contained votes cast only for the district attorney's race and not the mayoral
race.
Source: S.F. Dept. of Elections

While the US and the world suffer from the horrors of a Republican election fraud US president, San Francisco is also suffering from the horrors of a Democrat election fraud mayor, Willie Brown, who sits in office with 40% of the vote plus election fraud. The latest revelations come from the May 29, 2002 African-American newspaper, San Francisco Bayview, in Part 1 of its series on election fraud in the San Francisco African-American community, perpetrated by Willie Brown and his thugs.

While the US and the world suffer from the horrors of a Republican election fraud US president, San Francisco is also suffering from the horrors of a Democrat election fraud mayor, Willie Brown, who sits in office with 40% of the vote plus election fraud. The latest revelations come from the May 29, 2002 African-American newspaper, San Francisco Bayview, in Part 1 of its series on election fraud in the San Francisco African-American community, perpetrated by Willie Brown and his thugs.

See "District 10 Needs a Free and Fair Election" by Gretchen Hildebran, Poor News Network, San Francisco Bayview Newspaper

(08) Mayor's Office to Recommend Minor Fixes to Racial Set-Aside Program (09/12/00)

Following a year-long investigation by the FBI into corruption of San Francisco's racial set-aside program, black Mayor Willie Brown is attempting to save a little face by proposing some cosmetic changes to the program.

Mayor Brown has determined that San Francisco's minority set-aside program has been suffering from a perception of inappropriate influence, i.e., he's saying it only looks like the program is a corrupt system of political and racial favoritism. Therefore, in the manner of all good politicians, Brown has appointed a task force in the hope that this palliative will insulate him from voter backlash over his blatant use of the racial set-aside program as his own personal political payoff program.

Brown's panel is supposed to come up with recommendations to "insulate" his racial quota program from political influence.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, "The panel, called the San Francisco Independent Task Force on Affirmative Action, issued a report Monday calling for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission to be stripped of responsibility for running the minority contracting program." Mayor Brown's spokesperson, P.J. Johnston, said "First of all, he will have to get the findings and recommendations himself before responding. He will be happy to take that report in hand and see what the task force has to say."

"The task force said crucial decisions for certifying which companies were eligible to participate in the minority contracting program should shift to the controller's office, a relatively autonomous branch of municipal government that already tracks contracting dollars.

"Several cities with affirmative action in contracting programs have faced allegations of manipulation of the contract awards process," the report added. "The value of insulation of the everyday operation of a program concerning high dollar amounts cannot reasonably be disputed."

"San Francisco's Human Rights Commission is run by a director and overseen by commissioners who are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the mayor. The controller, though appointed by the mayor, serves a fixed, 10-year term, and can be removed only for cause.

"San Francisco's minority contracting program came under intense scrutiny early last year in an FBI-led public corruption investigation.

"Brown, who was running for re-election, formed the task force in August 1999 after The Examiner revealed that a company with more than $50 million in airport construction jobs meant for minority firms was managed and controlled by a large, white-owned firm from Alameda County.

"In April, the construction company, Scott-Norman Mechanical Inc., the firm that controls it, the Scott Co. of San Leandro, four executives connected to the two companies, and a top Human Rights Commission official were all indicted by a U.S. grand jury on multiple felony charges for allegedly defrauding the minority contracting program.

"All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty and face trial in U.S. District Court.

"One of the companies scrutinized, copies of the subpoenas show, is Krystal Trucking, which had been repeatedly denied certification as a minority contractor until after Brown was elected and intervened on its behalf.

"At the time, Krystal was leasing office space from a friend of the mayor, Charlie Walker, a Hunters Point trucker and activist, and had donated to Brown's 1995 mayoral campaign.

"The task force that issued the report Monday is made up of Hernandez, the minority business advocate; Roberta Achtenberg, a San Francisco Chamber of Commerce vice president and former San Francisco Supervisor, and retired Judge Harry Low, the former Human Rights Commission president who was recently appointed state insurance commissioner.

"Among some 50 recommendations also made in its report: Companies should receive a site visit by city certification workers before being admitted to the program. [Another recommendation is that] A formal certification appeals process making use of administrative law judges should be established to hear challenges to certification decisions." (San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 12, 2000, by Chuck Finnie)
[link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/12/hrc.dtl ]



(07) S.F. Mayor Willie Brown Attacked for Racial Quotas and Corruption (09/01/99)

"Pointed, often angry charges flew last night as San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and his two main challengers, former Mayor Frank Jordan and ex-political consultant Clint Reilly, met in their first debate. .... The main attack from Jordan and Reilly came over the FBI's probe of possible favoritism and fraud in the city's minority contracting program.

"The two challengers assailed Brown for dragging his feet on reacting to the probe and in blaming the media for his administration's problems. ``If you really wanted to see an investigation in San Francisco, the time was in April,'' said Jordan, reacting to Brown's appointment this week of a three-person panel to recommend possible changes in the city's affirmative action programs. ``It's too little, too late. He might as well be taking the Fifth Amendment himself,'' he said. ``There is more corruption in City Hall under this mayor than at any time in my adult life,'' Reilly said.

"[S.F. Mayor Willie] Brown said he has ordered complete cooperation with federal investigators. ``The FBI should investigate and prosecute to the full extent of the law,'' he said. ``These are serious allegations. . . . I have instructed everyone to be completely cooperative, period.'' .... The whole contracting issue is big trouble for the mayor, and both his opponents leaped to take advantage of it.

"While Brown kept his cool, he didn't really say anything about the dispute other than that he was cooperating. Both Reilly and Jordan took their strongest whacks at the mayor on this issue and probably will continue to do so." (San Francisco Chronicle 09/01/99)
[link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/09/01/MN23005.DTL ]



(06) Top [minority] contractor in SF is financed by [white] East Bay company (08/22/99)

"A Hunters Point construction firm that has won $64 million in city contracts while claiming to be a minority business is actually financed and managed by a white-owned company from the East Bay, The Examiner has learned." [Evil, evil! A white-owned firm tried to get business under San Francisco’s unconstitutional minority set-aside provisions! My, my. Why didn’t I think of that? Editor.]

"Public records show that Scott-Norman Mechanical Inc., a tiny firm whose president is a Hunters Point plumber with a serious criminal record, has emerged since 1997 as one of San Francisco's top minority contractors, winning $56.4 million in contracts on The City's massive airport expansion project and millions more on other public works projects.

"Federal agents probing possible corruption in San Francisco's affirmative action program for public works contractors have ordered the San Francisco Human Rights Commission to turn over all documents related to Scott-Norman Mechanical.

"An Examiner investigation has found links between the federal focus on Scott-Norman's contracts today and a public contracting scandal 16 years ago that ended with a three-year prison term for Hunters Point trucking contractor Charlie Walker.

"Almost all of Scott-Norman Mechanical's airport contracts were written under a program that requires a percentage of public works jobs in San Francisco go to economically disadvantaged local businesses that are owned and run by minorities or women. [Editor’s Note: The "disadvantaged" business owners must have less than $750,000 net worth, exclusive of home ownership or business interest. How disadvantaged is THAT?]

"But, according to documents filed in a San Francisco lawsuit, virtually all of Scott-Norman Mechanical's business affairs - hiring and firing workers, supervising construction projects and financing the entire enterprise - are controlled by Scott Co. of San Leandro, a $199 million mechanical contracting firm owned by whites." [Oh, gosh, whites should not be allowed to bid on San Francisco contracts!] (Based on San Francisco Examiner, 08/22/99, by Lance Williams and Chuck Finnie.)
[link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/22/probe.dtl ]



(05) S.F. People-Mover Documents Subpoenaed (08/11/99)

"Federal agents have subpoenaed all documents relating to a bitterly fought battle over the lucrative [minority set-aside quota guarantee] ``people mover'' contract at San Francisco International Airport as part of their investigation into possible City Hall corruption.

"The subpoena, obtained by The Chronicle yesterday, also shows that federal agents' interest in Mayor Willie Brown's old friend Charlie Walker -- whose dealings with myriad city agencies are being investigated -- extends to a candy factory founded by the self-styled ``mayor of Hunters Point.''

"The U.S. attorney's office ordered the commission to turn over any document, record, payment or memorandum connected to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of America and ABB Daimler-Benz, better known as ADtranz, the subpoena shows.

"Initially, Mitsubishi won the deal in December 1996 when the Airport Commission approved its low bid of under $137 million.

"In the subpoena, federal agents told Bamba's commission to turn over documents on at least one of those subcontractors, Aladdin Builders of San Francisco.

"Airport commissioners awarded the contract to Mitsubishi despite Bamba's report, believing that the Human Rights Commission had only advisory power.

"ADtranz sued, and a judge told the city to start over. When ADtranz then won the contract for $116 million, some Mitsubishi supporters alleged that ADtranz had enlisted the help of unqualified minority contractors.

"One of those who benefited from the award to ADtranz was Jim Jefferson, whose Jefferson Co. won a $15 million subcontract on the people mover. The FBI has been looking into allegations by a former Human Rights Commission secretary, Donna Rice Mason, that her boss, Zula Jones, ordered her to change dates on documents certifying Jefferson as a minority contractor." (San Francisco Chronicle page A15 Wednesday, August 11, 1999 by Yumi Wilson)
[link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/08/11/MN82959.DTL ]



(04) Minority Contracts for SFO a focus of FBI probe (08/07/99)

"An FBI probe of suspected [minority] contracting abuses in The City has zeroed in on a giant construction firm that is directing the $2.4 billion San Francisco International Airport expansion and on firms that have obtained millions in minority set-aside contracts there, The Examiner has learned.

"In the past week, according to the information, the agents demanded extensive city records regarding:

"The giant Tutor-Saliba Corp. The Sylmar-based firm is lead contractor on the SFO expansion and also is directing BART's $1.5 billion extension from Colma to SFO.

"In 1985, a state appeals court decision said that Ron Tutor, the firm's CEO, participated in a scheme to subvert The City's minority-contracting program by steering business to a phony "front" corporation. Tutor was not charged with a crime in the affair, which involved construction of a post office in India Basin.

Two companies run by Charlie Walker, controversial trucking contractor.

"In the 1980s, Walker served three years in state prison on a conviction for abusing city minority-contracting programs in a scheme that in part involved Tutor and the post office project, court records show.

"Walker's firm has obtained an $825,000 trucking subcontract on the airport reconstruction, and a $10 million trucking subcontract on the BART airport extension. Both subcontracts were allocated under programs to benefit minority-owned businesses, public records show.

"The Jefferson Co., owned by San Francisco businessman and affirmative-action consultant James Jefferson.

"The Jefferson Co. holds a $10 million management subcontract on a $116 million automated people-mover system now being built at the airport.

"Agents also sought extensive city documents regarding the lead contractor, ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation, also known as Adtranz, The Examiner learned.

Relationships with Mayor Brown.

"The information, provided to The Examiner by a confidential news source, gives new detail about the scope and focus of the FBI probe, which involves alleged abuses in awarding public contracts, particularly in the area of minority set-asides.

Walker, Tutor and Jefferson all are political supporters of Mayor Willie Brown.

"Walker has testified he has been friends with Brown for more than 25 years and was formerly the mayor's law client. He heads the Third Street Economic Development Corp., which has hosted lavish parties honoring Brown.

"Tutor has made political donations to Brown. Earlier this year, amid reports that the proposed stadium-mall project for the 49ers football team was facing cost overruns, Brown at a City Hall news conference declared that Tutor had offered to do the job $75 million under budget.

"Jefferson, a contractor and political figure in The City for 20 years, has raised campaign contributions for Brown. In 1996, Brown offered to reappoint Jefferson to The City's Public Transportation Commission, where he had originally been appointed by Mayor Frank Jordan, but Jefferson declined." (San Francisco Examiner 08/07/99 by Chuck Finnie and Lance Williams)
[link http://examiner.com/990808/0808probe.html ]



(03) Rights agency's critics sound off (08/06/99)

"Some minority business owners and a city official say the Human Rights Commission, the agency responsible for carrying out San Francisco's affirmative action program, has been a disaster and embarrassment since long before the FBI started its current probe.

"Not only is the commission poorly managed and ill-equipped to deal with the task of monitoring contract compliance, they say, the City's commitment to affirmative action is superficial at best.

"The FBI has been looking into possible improprieties at the commission in the awarding of city contracts. It sealed off the office over the weekend and questioned staff members Monday.

"The commission's responsibilities in the affirmative action program include certifying businesses as minority- or women-owned, setting hiring and contracting goals, and monitoring how city departments spend their contracting dollars.

"Supervisor Michael Yaki worries about what impact the allegations of improprieties at the agency will have on legal challenges to San Francisco's affirmative action efforts. 'We have to have confidence in the integrity of the process, that it is working in a way that does not run afoul of constitutional due process,' he said. 'I'm very concerned ... that it would taint what we've asserted in court, (that we're using) neutral, fact-based criteria (in awarding contracts).'" (San Francisco Examiner 08/06/99 by Julie Chao)
[link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/06/commission.dtl ]



(02) FBI probes human rights panel in set-aside contracting controversy (08/01/99)

"FBI agents probing San Francisco [minority set-aside] contracting practices had the City's affirmative action agency sealed off Saturday [July 31, 1999] after it was ordered in a subpoena to turn over documents to investigators.

"Several FBI agents appeared unannounced at the Van Ness Avenue offices of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission at about 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to a commission staffer and a security guard on duty at the time.

"The extraordinary developments follow revelations over the past several weeks that the FBI was looking into the award of a hotly contested train contract at San Francisco International Airport and into the role played by the affirmative action agency in city contracting decisions.

"The Examiner reported June 27 that one person under investigation is Charlie Walker, a friend and former law client of Mayor Willie Brown who once served three years in prison for fraud in programs to aid minority contractors.

"People interviewed by the FBI told The Examiner that agents asked about Walker's relationship to the mayor, and about Brown's role in a contracting-related decision by the commission involving a trucking company represented by Walker.

"The San Francisco investigation comes at an inopportune time, as Brown seeks re-election to a second term on Nov. 2 amid voter frustration over homelessness and the condition of the Muni. "They [the FBI] should do their duties," the mayor said during a visit Saturday at the Polk Street fair.

"The affirmative action agency apparently is not the only focus of the probe. Late last week, when The Examiner made a request under the California Public Records Act to San Francisco airport Director John Martin for a copy of a subpoena from the FBI, the airport notified the newspaper it would have no response.

"The Examiner first reported on April 13 that FBI agents were questioning city contractors and past and current officials [regarding San Francisco’s racial quota and set-aside programs]. They included employees at the affirmative action agency and at the airport.

"The questioning, according to people interviewed, touched on the 1998 award of a $116.6 million contract for an automated light-rail system at SFO and their role in that process.

"Under the City's affirmative action program, the commission enforces rules that require lead contractors on big public projects to give a certain percentage of the work to businesses owned by economically disadvantaged minorities and women.

"The commission certifies which minority companies qualify for the program and whether lead contractors are meeting goals for sharing the work with minority businesses.

"Gail Roberts, a former commission staffer, testified about a 1996 meeting in the mayor's office during which Brown questioned the then director of the agency, Edwin Lee, about a decision he made to rule Krystal Trucking ineligible for the affirmative action program.

"Though Brown never explicitly told Lee to reverse himself, Roberts told The Examiner, Krystal Trucking was later admitted to the program.

"Since 1996, Krystal has been awarded subcontracts worth $684,000 for work on the airport's massive expansion project, city records show." (The San Francisco Examiner 08/01/99, page A1, by Chuck Finnie)
[link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/08/01/NEWS12046.dtl ]



(01) FBI probing S.F. agency, paper reports (08/02/99 - dead link)

"SAN FRANCISCO -- The Human Rights Commission was sealed off to employees over the weekend by FBI agents investigating the city's contracting practices, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

"The agents arrived about 4:30 p.m. Friday and staffers for the affirmative action agency were told not to report for work until 9 a.m. today, the newspaper reported yesterday.

"Under the city's affirmative action program, the Human Rights Commission oversees requirements that major contractors on public projects give a certain percentage of work to minorities and women. The commission approves companies for the program.

"The FBI probe apparently includes a high-speed rail contract at San Francisco International Airport, as well as the commission's role in contracting decisions, the newspaper reported.

"Gail Roberts, a former employee, testified [before a grand jury investigating the matter] about a 1996 meeting during which Mayor Brown questioned the then-commission director Edwin Lee about ruling Krystal Trucking ineligible for the affirmative action program.

"Although Brown never asked for the decision to be changed, Krystal Trucking was later admitted. At the time, the trucking company was represented by Charlie Walker, a close friend and former law client of the mayor's.

"Since 1996, Krystal Trucking has been awarded subcontracts worth $684,000 for work on the airport expansion project.

"According to people questioned in connection with the probe, agents were interested in the $116.6 million contract for an automated light-rail system at the airport, the newspaper reported. (Associated Press via the Union Tribune 08/02/99)
[former link *http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/mon/news/news_1n2rights.html ]


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Like Willie, Like Gavin - Corruption still abounds

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Reply to: anon-22011867 [at] craigslist.org
Date: 2004-01-07, 2:14PM PST


Take a look at the upper righthand portion of page A16 (Bay Area Section) of yesterday's Chronicle..."City Contractor settles for $400,000"!

Does anyone need more proof of a failed and wastefull program? The facts clear that a contractor certified by the City as an MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) in SF's illegal race and gender based preference program for public contracting awards has failed for years to properly pay dozens of employees prevailing wages (basically union rates) on city contracts. This illegal ordinance violates the voter mandate of Prop 209 and the law of the land.

Mayor-elect Newsom has said he plans to contnue this illegal ordinance (Charter 12D.A. of the Administrative Code) as it gives "those who have traditially been excluded" from city contracts and/or fair employment a chance to participate and benifit. That is a bold faced lie.

This program benifits OWNERS of certified companies. Not those who need help the most and certainly not those who have been "traditionally excluded" from city contracts and fair wages. In fact, certified companies already have a 10% advantage when bidding against non-certified companies (i.e.: they can have a bid 10% higher than a non-certified company and still get the work. While the City taxpayers incyurr the added/inflated cost of construction. Outrageous!

Those Korean immigrants who where paid $8.50 an hour instead of $52 an hour have been "traditionally" excluded from city contracts and fair employment as have the African-Americans who live in Hunters Point and are unable to secure work on the Third Street Light Rail Project. But these people are not benifiting from the program. Instead they are being taken advantage of and our tax dollars are being wasted!

And lets not forget this wastefull, unfair and illegal program continues while the City mucks through budget deficit after budget deficit detracting from all types of city services programs except those that benifit the "Friends of Wille and Gavin.

So which is it, continued cuts in services and Muni fares that continue to rise 25¢ every year, or a City Public Contracting award program which takes advantage of the lowest responsible bidder regardless of race and gender.

Call your district suporvisor and call the Mayor-elect.
Tell them this program is unfair, corrupt and benifits few at the expense of many.
Tell them you want our tax dollars spent wisely and fairly.
Tell them we insist on an elimination of all fraud, waste and abuse.

If you're not outraged you're not paying attention or you're on the take also!

New charges of coercion in S.F. election
Workers say they had to campaign for Brown in '99

Anastasia Hendrix, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, January 23, 2004


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The city-funded San Francisco nonprofit group accused of pressuring workers to vote and campaign for Gavin Newsom for mayor also pushed its employees to work to re-elect former Mayor Willie Brown in 1999, according to interviews.

Three former employees of the nonprofit San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, or SLUG, told The Chronicle that they were ordered to walk precincts, attend rallies and debates and work a phone bank promoting Brown's candidacy.

They said they repeatedly were told by SLUG's executive director at the time, Mohammed Nuru, who is now the No. 2 official at the city Department of Public Works, and another SLUG supervisor, Jonathan Gomwalk, now the group's executive director, that their jobs and the organization's survival depended on Brown's re-election.

The SLUG workers' accounts parallel allegations made by nine others who said that in 2003, while they were employed by SLUG as city street cleaners, they were pressed into service for Newsom's mayoral campaign.

The street cleaners said they were pulled off the job during the Nov. 4 general election and the Dec. 9 runoff election and told to walk precincts by Nuru. They also were taken to or told to report to City Hall and instructed by SLUG crew chiefs to cast absentee ballots for Newsom and to hand over their voter receipt stubs. One said a SLUG crew chief peered over her shoulder as she cast her vote.

Those allegations, reported by The Chronicle last week, are being investigated by City Attorney Dennis Herrera and California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

Sources familiar with the city attorney's investigation said one focus is whether state and local laws against the use of city funds for political activities were violated.

The secretary of state's investigation is focused on possible violations of the California Election Code, which, among other things, prohibits anyone from inducing someone to vote for or against a particular candidate in exchange for money, gifts or a job.

Brown refused to comment on the matter Thursday, saying, "I am not interested in talking ... I am not in politics."

Nuru declined comment on SLUG's 1999 election-related activities. "I really can't get involved," he said. Previously, he has denied pressuring anyone to do anything against his or her will and said all of his politicking was on personal time.

Gomwalk said in a statement issued by SLUG that voting activity by SLUG employees was part of an educational exercise "to instill and encourage civic participation" by members of the group's welfare-to-work program.

Newsom's spokesman, Peter Ragone, has said Newsom had no knowledge of the alleged activities on behalf of his campaign and "has zero tolerance" for such conduct.

Maurice Campbell, the secretary for SLUG's board of directors in 1999, said board members were aware of some of the campaign activity and tried to bring it to a halt, but to no avail.

"We had a discussion about it," Campbell said, adding that a SLUG administrator "received specific instruction to cut it out."

John Farrell, a former SLUG worker, said the activity was blatant when he went to work for the organization several weeks before Brown's December 1999 runoff contest against Supervisor Tom Ammiano.

Farrell said he landed a SLUG job in 1999 on a referral from an aide in then-Mayor Brown's neighborhood services division. He said he had sought help from the mayor's office because he had volunteered as a campaign worker during Brown's 1995 race in which he unseated then-Mayor Frank Jordan.

Farrell said that, as a SLUG employee in 1999, his city-funded duties included reporting to Brown's campaign office on Third Street near SLUG's headquarters in the Bayview and being put to work contacting voters by phone and urging them to vote early for the then- mayor.

"I knew it was illegal, but I was in dire straights,'' said Farrell, 61, who went to work for SLUG after being laid off from a job at the Department of Veterans Affairs. "It hurt me. I felt like I was prostituting my principles just for some cash because I needed to make it.''

Farrell said he and several of his SLUG co-workers also were driven by SLUG supervisors in SLUG vans to the Department of Elections at City Hall and told to cast absentee ballots for Brown.

While at the Brown campaign office in the Bayview, Farrell said he reported to a City Hall aide to the then-mayor. He said the aide spent long hours directing campaign workers and shuttling between the office in the Bayview and other campaign outposts.

Vernell Bullock, who worked as a city street cleaner for SLUG in 1999, said he was repeatedly driven in SLUG vans by SLUG crew chiefs to areas of the Bayview and the Fillmore districts and told to distribute Brown's campaign literature when he would have otherwise been cleaning sidewalks in the Mission District.

"It was all of us doing it," said Bullock, 50, who lives in a residential hotel on disability income. He said there were as many as six street cleaners at a time -- all wearing their SLUG uniform vests.

"They gave us a map and would drop us off and tell us to go to a certain spot,'' Bullock said. "Then they'd pick us up and we would come back (to the campaign office) and tell them where we had left off.''

Few people complained because there were always cold sodas and snacks at the office, said Bullock, who joined the program in 1999 after bouts of homelessness and not being able to make ends meet with occasional janitorial jobs. "They liked to sugar us up before we'd go out there,'' he said.

What bothered Bullock the most at the time, he said, was that his regular cleaning routine was ignored, and he always liked to make sure the area around a Mission Street day care center was tidy.

"That was important to me because there were children and babies coming through there, and I wanted it to be clean,'' he said. He missed the friendly interaction and thanks from those who had become familiar to him, he said, but thought "it was just the way politics works.''

Added Bullock: "It was the first time I'd done anything like that, and I didn't know too much about what they were doing,'' he said. "We were just there to do whatever they said.''

Another SLUG worker from 1999, who spoke on condition of anonymity, put it this way: "I was a foot soldier.'' He said it was mandatory that he walk precincts on election day as well as attend pre-election rallies and debates, both work day and during his time off.

"A lot of people feel like they got stepped on," he said. "Unfortunately, the small people like us have to be the cogs in the wheel to make things work."