San Francisco, CA
Mayor Breed Orders Increased Scrutiny of San Francisco Contract Work, Grantees | KQED
The city is also still working to earn back voters’ trust after a spiraling corruption scandal within the Department of Public Works and the Department of Building Inspection, which has led to convictions for Mohammed Nuru, former head of the Director of Public Works, and former Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly.
“Those who undermine our contracting processes and exploit public resources are not welcome to do business with our City and will be held accountable,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “I am proud of our attorneys and investigators who have worked diligently to root out corruption and maintain the integrity of City government”
Meanwhile, those hoping to unseat Breed in the mayoral election are laying out their own plans to combat corruption in City Hall.
“You can’t solve the problem when you are the problem, and we can’t trust the same people who built this broken, corrupt bureaucracy to turn it around,” nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie said in a statement. “I am the only candidate who will bring a new culture of accountability to City Hall on day one.”
Lurie wants to remove a campaign fundraising loophole where candidates are able to raise more than the $500 contribution limit through ballot measure initiatives. He also wants to raise candidate filing fees for those who have records of ethics misconduct, fully fund the Ethics Commission, require reporting for any meals costing over $500, and create an ethics enforcement dashboard to track campaign finance reports, lobbying disclosures, gifts, contracts and other areas for potential conflicts of interest.
The plan explicitly targets several of the ethics complaints that former interim mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell, who is also running for mayor, has faced in the current election cycle. He has come under scrutiny for his ties to the moderate political organizing group Together SF Action, which has raised millions of dollars through a ballot initiative to slash the number of city commissions.
Farrell faced similar accusations for campaign finance violations during his bid in 2010 for San Francisco Supervisor. The Ethics Commission fined Farrell $191,000 – the largest in the city’s history – and he later paid the city $25,000 to settle the case.
Still, Farrell has sought to portray his candidacy as a break from past City Hall scandals.
“I will bring new transparency and accountability from day one,” said Farrell, who has defended his record on the current campaign trail. “I will centralize all third party non profit contracts under the Office of the Mayor to reduce fraud and waste while bringing greater accountability.”
Supervisors running for mayor criticized Breed for the corruption that has come to light during her administration, pointing to their own efforts to weed out corruption in City Hall from within.
“Our current mayor’s administration is one of the most corrupt in San Francisco history,” said Supervisor Ahsha Safaí. “More of her senior officials have been convicted of corruption than in any other administration in modern times.”
The Excelsior supervisor pointed to his efforts to maintain funding for the Ethics Commission when Breed attempted to reduce it and said mandating audits of nonprofits and other city contractors will be a priority if he is elected.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco's Chinatown hosts events to celebrate city's new mayor Daniel Lurie
The celebration of San Francisco’s new mayor isn’t over yet.
San Francisco’s Chinatown hosted a community banquet, a special night market and community-led celebration for new mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday night.
There will be live performances, an opportunity to showcase artists and Chinatown restaurants and small businesses said they’re ready for it.
Some of the people who spoke to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday said that clear Lurie is bringing a lot of hope for change to those in this community. A section of Grant Avenue was transformed to host a special night market in celebration of San Francisco’s new leadership.
Lurie made the rounds on Wednesday morning before being sworn in as the city’s 46th mayor and touted the event.
“We’re going to have some celebrations in Chinatown tonight,” he said.
Tane Chan of the Wok Shop said that she thinks the new mayor’s decision to put Chinatown in the spotlight could have a lasting impact.
“We have had some tough times and with mayor Lurie here encouraging all the visitors and all the residents to come and walk through Chinatown and just give us boost,” she said.
Mark Young, co-chair of the unity celebration banquet, said that people can feel the buzz in Chinatown.
“There is going to be 18 vendors a local headliner DJ, his name is Zhu,” he said. “There is going to be cultural festivities as well as this banquet that we have going on which is going to have over 900 guests from the AAPI community.”
The night market celebration is cohosted by the inaugural committee and the non-profit group ” Be Chinatown.”
Jayde Wong with Lion Dance Me said they’re bringing about 75 high school students out to perform at Wednesday night’s event.
“We’re bringing out all red lions tonight and red is the symbol of good fortune and so we’re some hoping to bring some good fortune to Daniel Lurie during his term as mayor and hopefully he will bring some good fortune back to our community as well,” she said.
The night market runs until 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie Launches Political Career With Cable Cars, Chinatown Market and Prayer | KQED
After breakfast, Lurie walked through the Tenderloin with San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott.
“People in the Tenderloin are frustrated,” Lurie told KQED. “People in Bernal Heights are frustrated, so I’m going to commit myself every single day to be tireless in getting people the help that they need, whether it’s into a mental health bed or a drug treatment bed or into a shelter bed.”
It wasn’t Lurie’s first time walking through the Tenderloin, according to Kate Robinson, director of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District. She said he joined her team on multiple morning shifts to ensure kids got to school safely.
“Incoming Mayor Lurie was the very first to request to come back and then come back again,” Robinson said. “That set him apart just for me, personally, seeing the level of care and seeing how genuinely interested he was in talking to the residents, talking to our safety stewards.
“I’m optimistic.”
Scott said the new administration has a lot of ideas and energy, but San Francisco residents will expect the city to move forward.
“When all the ceremony and all that goes away, we still have a job to do, so it’s really important that we stay focused on getting that job done, and that’s where my focus is,” Scott said. “Of course, I’m gonna do the things that the mayor has asked for us to do and do that to the best of my ability.”
Darrell Luckett, who’s lived in the Tenderloin for 40 years, stopped Lurie and urged him to follow through on his promises to clean up encampments and drug use.
“He said he’s gonna do it. All we can do is kick back, and you see what he do,” Luckett said after shaking hands with the mayor.
“A lot of people always say they’re gonna do this stuff,” Deonte Dial added.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie holds interfaith ceremony before inauguration
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