SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR LONDON BREED EXEMPLIFIES THE WARPED SEX-BASED
CRONYISM OF SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL
Mayor London Breed exhibited a serious lapse of judgment — and possibly violated city ethics laws — in accepting
several thousand dollars worth of car-related expenses from former Public
Works Director Mohammed Nuru.
© Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle 2019 Mayor
London Breed speaks to the Chronicle editorial board on…
The mayor attempted to rationalize the arrangement by revealing in an
online post that they were longtime friends, and had even dated briefly
two decades ago, and the gift was in the context of that friendship.
However, their personal relationship is irrelevant to the issue at hand.
The salient point is that Nuru was in charge of a large and highly visible
city operation with 1,200 employees. Breed is the mayor. It is simply
improper for a mayor to accept something of value from a department head
whose $273,000-a-year position is contingent, in part, on her approval of
his performance.
The numbers involved are not large. Breed said Nuru arranged and then
fronted the cost of repairs to her 18-year-old vehicle and a rental car
while the work was being done: a total she estimated at $5,600. She said
she intended to pay him back once she sold the apparent clunker. (Breed is
paid more than $300,000 a year.)
Still, Breed should not be taking gifts of value from any city employee,
regardless of friendship.
She declined to go into detail about why she would allow thousands of
dollars to go into car repairs for an aging vehicle — especially when, as
mayor, the city provides her with a driver. “I’m not trying to make
excuses for something I didn’t handle well,” she said.
Asked Friday why she chose to disclose the gift, Breed told us, “I did
what I thought was the right thing to do by putting it out there, and it
wasn’t easy because this is very personal. ... You know I’m in the world
of politics. And so, unfortunately, these things have to be handled
differently than if I wasn’t in politics.”
Breed was asked point blank if she had received anything else of value
from Nuru: “No,” she replied.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the reaction of the mayor’s critics on the
Board of Supervisors has raced ahead of the facts at hand. Supervisor
Hillary Ronen immediately called for Breed’s resignation, suggesting that
it would be wrong to “call out Trump for his corruption” while accepting
it in San Francisco.
It’s rather absurd to compare a $5,600 car repair with the scale and
seriousness of the president’s abuses of power that included the
withholding of military aid to pressure an ally under duress to
investigate a political rival. But this is San Francisco, where
perspective is often lost in the fray.
Breed said she would not resign — and noted that Ronen voted for Mark
Farrell over her for interim mayor in January 2018 even though he had been
accused of campaign finance violations in his 2016 race for supervisor. He
ended up settling for a $25,000 fine.
“Talk about the hypocrisy that continues with her,” Breed said of Ronen.
“It’s just insane.”
In her blog post, Breed acknowledged that she may be “weighed down from
guilt by association as a result of this episode.” Nuru recently resigned
his post after being arrested on federal fraud charges. That corruption
scandal has rocked City Hall and led to calls — including from Breed — for
wider investigations of City Hall practices.
A top San Francisco
official tasked with keeping the streets clean was charged with public
corruption in schemes that include offering a bribe for
space at San Francisco International Airport ...
A top San Francisco
public official and go-to bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was
charged with public corruption Tuesday, upending City Hall as
elected leaders scrambled to reassure the ...
Report on the Causes of
Municipal Corruption in San Francisco,
as Disclosed by the Investigations of the Oliver Grand Jury, and the
Prosecution of Certain Persons for Bribery and Other Offenses Against
the State. THE EARLIER INVESTIGATION BY THE WALLACE GRAND JURY- THE
ADOPTION OF THE CHARTER.
SAN FRANCISCO
-- A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled to ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(KRON) — San Francisco's Director of Public Works and
the owner of a popular Fisherman's Wharf restaurant were arrested
Monday on allegations of public corruption related to ...
The San Francisco
Airport commissioner caught up in an ongoing corruption
scandal involving the city's public works director and a well-known
restaurant owner resigned late Wednesday, citing ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled to reassure
the public that bribery and kickbacks would not be tolerated. The
complaint unsealed ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(CBS SF) — The head of San Francisco's Department of
Public Works has been arrested on charges of public corruption,
federal authorities said Tuesday. Public Works Director ...
Well, Bob, seems few
remember the 'gold rush.' The history San Francisco is
passing on from generation to generation would seem to be political
graft and corruption, theft of public funds by substandard
employees and leaders, business fronts in non-English, and homosexual
activities.
According to the FBI, the
owner of two longstanding San Francisco businesses was
arrested Monday for his alleged role in a newly-released city corruption
scandal, including a bribery scheme to ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(CBS SF) — Several San Francisco supervisors are
calling for a independent investigation of city departments involved
in a growing corruption scandal. At a news conference Thursday
...
If Mohammed Nuru did what
he's accused of, it's hard to figure what the head of San Francisco's
Public Works department was thinking. Nuru and restaurateur Nick Bovis
are in the middle of ...
At its regular monthly
meeting on November 27, 2017, the San Francisco Ethics
Commission gave final approval by a vote of 4-1 to recommend and
transmit to the Board of Supervisors its Anti-Corruption and
Accountability Ordinance that proposes new restrictions and public
disclosure requirements on certain city officials and the interests
that ...
San Francisco
Official Charged With Corruption in FBI Probe A top San
Francisco official and go-to bureaucrat for mayors has been
charged with public corruption.
A top San Francisco
public official and go-to bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was
charged with public corruption Tuesday, upending City Hall as
elected leaders scrambled to reassure the public that bribery and
kickbacks would not be tolerated.
"The complaint alleges corruption
pouring into San Francisco from around the world,"
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California David Anderson
said at a press conference detailing ...
Mohammed Nuru has been in
San Francisco city government for a long time. He was
appointed to the Public Works department in 2000 by then-Mayor Willie
Brown and eventually became the director of that department in 2011.
Nuru has been accused of shady behavior at various times during his
career. But ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) - A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled ...
A top San Francisco
official has been charged with public corruption in
schemes that include offering a bribe for space at the airport,
providing inside information to help a friend get permits ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(CN) - One of San Francisco's highest-ranking city
government officials was arrested and federally charged Tuesday in
connection to a bribery scheme. San Francisco Public
Works director Mohammed Nuru, 57, faces charges of honest services
wire fraud and lying to FBI agents. He could ...
That process will also
provide the answer to another central question: Will Nuru get to keep
his city pension, despite accusations of corruption and fraud?
San Francisco supervisors have expressed ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders ...
Director of Public Works
Mohammed Nuru and his accomplice Nick Bovis shouldn't be the only ones
indicted in this week's FBI complaint. Nuru's arrest is an indictment
of San Francisco's ...
A San Francisco
police corruption scandal, triggered by surveillance videos
that appeared to show officers as thieves, registered its first
verdicts Friday when a federal court jury found two ...
SAN FRANCISCO
— A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled to ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled to reassure
the public that bribery and kickbacks would not be tolerated.
A top San Francisco
public official and go-to bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was
charged with public corruption Tuesday, upending City Hall as
elected leaders scrambled to reassure the...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scra…
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco official tasked with
keeping the streets clean was charged Tuesday with public corruption
in schemes that include offering a bribe for space at San
...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders ...
A top San Francisco
public official and go-to bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was
charged with public corruption Tuesday, upending City Hall as
elected leaders scrambled to reassure the ...
San Francisco's
head of Public Works, in charge of cleaning up the city's feces-filled
streets, has been arrested by the FBI on suspicion of public corruption.
SAN FRANCISCO
— (AP) — A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders ...
San Francisco
Mayor London Breed on Friday admitted having a 20-year friendship and
brief romantic relationship with a former city worker now under FBI
investigation, prompting some to call for ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders ...
Feb
25, 2016The FBI began an undercover investigation into corruption
and racketeering several years ago. It netted more than two dozen
people — including former state Sen. Leland Yee, a San Francisco
Democrat.
"The complaint describes
a web of corruption involving bribery, kickbacks, and side
deals by one of San Francisco's highest-ranking city
employees," said U.S. Attorney Anderson. "The public is entitled to
honest work from public officials, free from manipulation for the
official's own personal benefit and profit."
The FBI just arrested a
very well-connected and high ranking San Francisco
employee for "corruption, bribery, side deals from one of San
Francisco's highest-ranking public employees." Mohammed Nuru
was arrested last week and attempted bribery and wire fraud for a
corrupt scheme to rig some airport concessions.
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) - A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled ...
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — A top San Francisco official tasked with
keeping the streets clean was charged Tuesday with public corruption
in schemes that include offering a bribe for space at San
Francisco International Airport, providing inside information
to a friend seeking permits to build homeless shelters and portable
toilets and accepting lavish gifts from a billionaire Chinese
developer.
SFO Public Works
Director, a/k/a "Mr. Clean," Arrested by FBI on Corruption
Charges ... 2016, in San Francisco. Homeless people
have until the end of Friday to vacate a rambling tent city along a
busy San Francisco street declared a health hazard by
city officials earlier this week. The mayor's office says about 40
tents remain, down from ...
SAN FRANCISCO
-- A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled to ...
SAN FRANCISCO
— A top San Francisco public official and go-to
bureaucrat to mayors over two decades was charged with public corruption
Tuesday, upending City Hall as elected leaders scrambled to ...
A top San Francisco
official tasked with keeping the streets clean has been charged with
public corruption in schemes that include offering a
bribe for space at San Francisco International Airport
...
But he's no stranger to corruption
charges, as the Chronicle notes, with allegations dating back to the
earliest days of his employment at DPW in the early 2000s. ... the San
Francisco League of ...
In spite of its
heavy liberal leanings, San Francisco has the highest
percentage of "no party preference" voters of any California county,
as of November, 2012. Campaign corruption is monitored by the
San Francisco Ethics Commission and violations result
in fines up to $5,000 per violation.
