STACKED DECK; SF CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION
l3wis 
2012
The Ugly Table #59
ILLITERATE DINER
D: “What are your sides?”
Me: “There is a full listing in the menu, let me show you the page.”
D: “Why can’t you just tell me?!”
Me: “Because I didn’t see you walk in here with a white cane or guide dog.”
S. L. Ehrisman (c) 1/8/12
The City of SF Contract Dilemma
This was submitted to South DaCola;
Joe Kirby’s (Huether and administration) amendment does much more than contracts, frankly it would gut the council and reduce them to a rubber stamping committee — of which they are not far from now.
Having the mayor to be able to hire/fire council employees is a huge threat to internal audit and any staffer of the council.
The mayor has the authority to hire and fire his own employees — if that is what the Charter Revision wants to repeat in Charter, fine, BUT clearly state that this applies to employees of the mayor NOT the council. (Again, the mayor/administration want to have internal audit BACK and under their thumbs. This is a MUCH bigger threat than just contracts.)
Second, the City purchased a software program (SIRE) in early 2011. It now runs the CC meetings and assists with agenda management, the software was purchased to address document imaging and managing those documents electronically. The City has the software to post ALL contracts/agreements online now (making them available to the public) — in fact this should have been accomplished last year. I think the City spent $100K for SIRE so it is ridiculous that this system is not up and running and providing more transparency to the public for contracts/agreements.
*CRC member De Knudson claimed during the last meeting that the software wasn’t available yet to post contracts, but that is not true.
Third, a number of departments and recipients of city contracts DO NOT want those contracts/agreements public. Why? Well if you are a conspiracy theorist, like myself, it would expose the inside deals the mayor provides to his special interests/friends.
A recent example is a contract between Mayor Munson and Council Member Beninga. BTW, this contract was NOT on the City’s current document management system (called the AS400). An internal auditor found the contract at Transit. The contract reduced the fee (which is specified in city ordinance) to the Center of Active Generations. (Beninga manages Center for Active Generations) Center for Active Generations riders were permitted to ride the City Transit system for a reduced fare (in violation of city ordinance) because of this contract between a mayor and council member. (See September Audit Committee’s report on Transit: Transitaudit)
Last, a number of circumspect contracts/agreements do not get posted on the current AS400 system. In a council working session last year ,the budget analyst when doing research for council, found a contract that the Landfill Supervisor signed, in violation of the city ordinance. (The mayor is to sign all contracts and the clerk’s office attests to his signature — unless the mayor is out of town.) These contracts were not in the AS400 but were found with the vendor of the city by the budget analyst. Contracts are important but the council staff needs to remain independent from the mayor/administration to do their job — especially internal audit. The proposed revision to the Charter would jeopardize the independence of internal audit.
As you can see, the handling of contracts goes much, much deeper then a change by the CRC. And for the record, I am not revealing my source to anyone, besides, I am still unclear who it is – but it doesn’t matter, because I fact checked all of the submitted material and edited anything I could not verify.
UPDATE: The Charter Revision Commission wants to turn the city of SF into a dictatorship
UPDATE: This information was sent to me by a reliable source, but I have not verified it as of yet, but thought it was some food for thought;
Dennis has had at least 4 contracts if not five since the late 90’s. One of his contracts led to a dispute between he and the City. The City tried to get out of the contract and he threatened to file a lawsuit. The City paid him $67,273.66 in 2005 so that he wouldn’t sue the City. He then had another contract in 2006, contract number 2006-0024A. This contract was to supply coin operated copiers to the libraries. The City didn’t pay him, but allowed him to keep 50% of the profits from the copiers. This contract expired in June of 2011 after being extended twice from its original contract expiration.
Dick’s firm Woods Fuller has had multiple professional services agreements since 2000. Most recently his firm was retained to represent the City with the Event Center. They have also been on retainer for general legal services. Dick himself billed the City last for services he supplied to the City in Dec of 2009, which was a time period when he was on the previous Charter Revision Commission. I didn’t see any recent billings with his name on it, but his firm is still on retainer with the City. One note, if you go back and watch Council meetings from sometime in 2008 or 2009 (I can’t quite remember when) there is at least one if not two meetings where he testifies in front of the Council as the City’s legal counsel in the condemnation proceedings against Bob and Shirley Phelan. He offered other legal services during this time frame, but that case was the one that was before the Council.
ALSO, as I understand it, since they have no current contracts (or so it seems) and they are appointed by the mayor, filing an ethical complaint against them may be difficult, that and the fact the ethics board is appointed by the mayor to.
Another one of the Mayor’s Tools, Dennis Aanenson (image: Chamber News)
As South DaCola reported on Monday, the commission was pushing towards giving the mayor more power, a lot more power. As you can see in this video (worth the watch, FF 1:17 and follow thru to 1:33) and summary in this article by Ellis, the commission, or at least one member thinks the mayor is king;
“From my thing, the city should be ran as a business — it should be ran as a business, and the mayor’s in charge,†said Dennis Aanenson, a member of the commission. “I deal with boards, councils, all the time, and it’s a nightmare. That you’ve got different opinions from different people. And yeah, it’s the public dollar, but at the end of the day the mayor is responsible. That’s why everybody voted on him and put him in office.â€
Well guess what, Dennis, IT IS NOT A BUSINESS! And if I hear one more person say this I am going to puke. You collect taxes from the taxpayers and we are ultimately in charge, not the council, not the mayor and certainly not some douchnozzle who was hand picked to be a puppet for the mayor. It is people like you who scare the living shit out of me because you want to strip all transparency and checks and balances in government and give that power to one person. That is called a DICTATORSHIP not a DEMOCRACY. And as for your ‘business’ comments, since when does a city make a profit and function on it’s own? If the city wants to run as a business, fine, stop collecting taxes and only depend on fees . . . oh that’s right, they would fail. Not a very good ‘Business’ model is it?
For his part, Jamison said he was disappointed by how the commission conducted the hearing. Jamison had five proposals of his own for the commission to review, but three were rejected in a parliamentary move without an up-or-down vote, and the commission adjourned before voting on the other two proposals.
Let me sum up this part of the meeting. The commission dropped their drawers and took a gigantic crap on Greg, and made no apologies for it. In fact they basically chastised him for even testifying. ‘How dare someone question Joe Kirby . . . uh . . . I mean the commission.’
Jamison pointed out that Mayor Mike Huether appointed the members of a commission that is recommending more power for the mayor. “The council has no oversight in their selection,†he said.
And in that statement lies the root of all evil.
For the record, Mr. Aanenson runs A & B Business Equipment . . . wonder if he has any city contracts?
UPDATE: Both Dennis and Dick have received city contracts. Can you say ‘Conflict of Interest?’