The reorganization of the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Victims Unit has become an issue in the November vote for district attorney — at least for one contender in the race: Sharmin Bock, an Alameda County prosecutor. But in doing so, she clashed with police officials who said they need to rely more on federal investigators’ expertise. She said she has placed most of her emphasis on sex tafficking, but has little experience with labor trafficking.
Category: City Hall
Posted inCalifornia, City Hall, Law & Justice, News
San Francisco works to prevent ex-convicts from re-offending in city
San Francisco is preparing for the October release of state prisoners to the custody of local governments by forming a commission to prevent them from re-offending. Currently about three-quarters of ex-convicts in the city commit new crimes.
Supervisors Scott Wiener and Malia Cohen Tuesday introduced an ordinance to establish a sentencing commission in hopes of reducing recidivism. The commission would be led by District Attorney George Gascón and would include representatives from the police and sheriff’s departments, public defender’s office, nonprofits serving victims and ex-prisoners, among others.
Posted inCity Hall, Transportation
Muni looking to quicker system for boarding buses
Since installing Clipper Card readers on the front and back doors of Muni buses, riders have wondered if Muni would ever go to an official all-door boarding system. At Tuesday’s San Francisco Municipal Board of Transportation meeting, Muni chief Ed Reiskin said it could happen in 2012.
A systemwide all-door boarding would speed up boarding on Muni buses and reduce travel time for riders, according to Muni officials.
Posted inCity Hall, Transportation
Muni’s on-time performance still not meeting city goal
It’s that time of month again — when the city’s transit agency releases its quarterly performance report card. And it looks like not much has changed from previous reports, which is not good news for Muni officials. For the last three months of the 2010-2011 fiscal year (April through June 2011), on-time performance measured at 72.9 percent, far below the 1999 voter-mandated goal of 85 percent. During the previous quarter for the first three months of 2011, on-time performance was at 74.7 percent.
Posted inBetter Budget, City Hall, Labor
Pensions, infrastructure and public health trimmed in 3rd year of San Francisco deficits
City estimates that costs are rising three times faster than tax revenues
Police and firefighter unions will pay more out of pocket toward their pensions. Disease prevention programs and street beautification will be scaled back. At least $37 million in capital projects will be added to a growing deferred maintenance backlog. Hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts approved in July forestalled a fiscal day of reckoning for San Francisco, a city that for three years has, like hundreds of local governments across the country, struggled to stay solvent in response to a fluctuating tax base and rising labor costs. City staff estimate that costs are rising three times faster than tax revenues.
Posted inCity Hall, Community, Elections, Housing, Neighborhoods, News, Social Justice
An appreciation: Eric Quezada, 1965-2011, a champion for social and economic justice
When Eric Quezada — for decades a community organizer and widely respected leader on housing and economic justice and immigrants’ rights — died Wednesday after a seven-year struggle with cancer, there was an immediate outpouring of grief, love and appreciation from progressive friends and allies across San Francisco and the nation. The lonlongtime executive director of Dolores Street Community Services was a leading candidate for District 9 supervisor in 2008 and an accomplished grassroots community organizer.
Posted inAging, Better Budget, City Hall, Housing
Facing cuts, nonprofits forced to lobby City Hall to save immigration program
Year after year, private organizations strategize and line up clients to push for last-minute ‘add-backs’
For clients at Self-Help for the Elderly, the citizenship classes taught by volunteer instructor Joanne Lee are a perfect fit: Classes are held at a convenient Chinatown location, senior clientele are easily accommodated and the material is taught in both English and Chinese. It has worked out well for students Sammie Xu, 69, and Nancy Zhang, 64, Chinese immigrants who are studying for their naturalization exam. Before enrolling in classes at the social services agency, the married couple tried others in which teachers only provided instruction books without guidance or taught classes only in English.
Posted inBetter Budget, City Hall, Government & Politics, Public Safety, Transportation
Millions in savings unclaimed; after audits, Muni revealed $20 million excess overtime
UPDATE 8/19/11: Hear reporter Angela Hart discuss her story with KQED News, a Public Press reporting partner (fast-forward to second item)
San Francisco could have saved at least $33.5 million over the last two years’ budgets if departments, commissions and contractors had acted on advice from regular audits pointing out government waste and inefficiencies. The savings, much of it coming out of transit and police employee overtime, could have reduced the need to cut some vital services this summer as local government agencies faced $380 million in projected deficits over the next year.
Some of the audits produced by a unit of the controller’s office have been implemented swiftly. Yet as many as 40 audit reports out of 70 performed since 2009 linger officially unresolved. The problem is, there’s no recourse if departments choose to ignore auditors. And after two years, the office is not required to follow up on the reports, which could explain why 14 additional audits highlighting potential savings of $700,000 were not indicated on a list produced by the controller’s office.
Posted inBetter Budget, City Hall
San Francisco ponders participatory budgeting
Can process designed to engage community result in smarter spending?
This story appeared in the fall print edition and was part of the Building a Better Budget package of stories.
When Mayor Ed Lee ventured across San Francisco’s 11 districts this spring talking with residents about what to cut and what to save from the budget, he won praise for opening what some called a new era in fiscal discourse: giving people a more direct say about where their money is spent. But what if, rather than the mayor in the driver’s seat, it was the community itself that presented, weighed and voted on district budgets?
Posted inCity Hall, Muni, Transportation
Challenges await new Muni chief Ed Reiskin
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors announced Thursday that the Department of Public Works Director Ed Reiskin will become the next agency’s executive director. Reiskin arrives at a crucial time in the agency where Muni’s on-time performance fell slightly to 71 percent and the relationship between the agency and its drivers is increasingly strained.