Hostility to open government is subtle, but pervasive.
Karl Olson
by Karl Olson
California’s Supreme Court has famously declared, “Openness in government is essential to the functioning of a democracy.”
Sadly, many of the state’s bureaucrats, from the Governor down to city and county officials, seem determined to defy that command.
To be sure, the hostility toward open government in our state is more subtle than the brand practiced by former President Trump. Trump branded the press the “enemy of the people” and did his best to trash the Freedom of Information Act. Indeed, one of the Trump officials arrested in the January 6 Capitol riots once handled FOIA requests under Trump.
California officials, including Governor Newsom, are far more subtle, and most officials profess to believe in transparency. But while they talk the talk, they don’t walk the walk, and their instinct is often to deny Public Records Act requests.
The California Supreme Court has explained that access to records enables the public and press to uncover “corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism.” The “pay to play” scandal unfolding in San Francisco makes clear the extent of corruption in government...”
In the wake of National Sunshine Week March 14-20, there are many recent examples of state and local agencies defying the command of openness and invoking flimsy claims of exemption from the Public Records Act. Some examples:
Governor Newsom claimed the so-called “deliberative process privilege” allowed him to avoid disclosing his office’s emails about the infamous “French Laundry” dinner with lobbyist Jason Kinney.
The California Government Operations Agency claimed it could withhold emails about how it responded to questions from a journalist about the ouster of former Public Utilities Commission Executive Director Alice Stebbins.
Newsom resisted disclosing a contract between the state and a company which was supposed to provide masks to stop the Coronavirus.
The City of San Francisco is fighting disclosure of records related to the infamous police raid of a journalist after former Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s death.
The problem, at least in California, isn’t bad laws. The California Supreme Court has issued a series of strong pro-transparency rulings in the past 15 years, ordering the disclosure of named public employees’ salaries and holding that when government officials communicate on their so-called “private” electronic devices, their texts and emails must be disclosed when they deal with public business. But compliance with the high court’s 2017 ruling in that case has been spotty.
Openness has perhaps never been more important. A $1.9 trillion stimulus is on the way. While the aid to individuals, especially the unemployed, and state and local governments will be welcome, the public must be able to have access to records which will show how that enormous amount of public money is spent. The Trump administration fought a losing battle against disclosure of the names and loan amounts of businesses which took part in the $521 billion Paycheck Protection Program. It’s essential that the Biden Administration take a different approach to disclosure of records under FOIA, but it’s too early to tell whether the new President will in fact do so, and in fact even now the Small Business Administration is still fighting disclosure of PPP records.
The California Supreme Court has explained that access to records enables the public and press to uncover “corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism.” The “pay to play” scandal unfolding in San Francisco makes clear the extent of corruption in government, as did the scandals in Trump’s White House with former lobbyists running the agencies which supposedly regulated their former clients. Only a vigorous press and educated public can ensure a working democracy. Those are words to live by in the wake of National Sunshine Week.
Karl Olson is a San Francisco lawyer who specializes in Public Records Act litigation.
April 2021
More Trending Articles
Wading through the local ballot measures
Fourteen Propositions for Voters
by Doug Comstock
Most voters have received their vote-by-mail ballots and face fourteen propositions that must be decided. Hope this helps.
Since its inception, the SOTF has been a thorn in City Hall’s backside. Why? ... Engaged citizens and journalists seek more information than officialdom likes to share.
Previous Articles about Sunshine and Open Government
California Supreme Court Clears the Cobwebs
by Doug Comstock
California Public Records Act (CPRA) gave the public access to government documents and records in 1968, "access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state." (§ 6250.) But it was originally designed to deal with paper documents. Today, much of governments activities take place in the digital realm, and may take place outside the office, often using private e-mail and other digital means.
Here, we hold that when a city employee uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the writings may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act.”
So when Ted Smith requested disclosure of 32 categories of public records from the City of San Jose, and other agencies, and officials in June 2009, he was disappointed when e-mails and text messages "sent or received on private electronic devices used by" and "on the personal accounts" of the mayor, city council members, and their staffs were not disclosed. He sued the City, arguing that CPRA defines "public records" as all communications about official business, regardless of how they are created, communicated, or stored. The City maintained that such messages "are not public records because they are not within the public entity's custody or control." The trial court agreed with Smith and ordered disclosure, but on appeal the higher court stayed the disclosure.
Now, in a unanimous decision filed on March 2, 2017, the Supreme Court has reversed the Court of Appeal: "Here, we hold that when a city employee uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the writings may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act."
Reacting to the decision, Angela Calvillo, Clerk of the Board of Supervisors responded that "This is nothing new for the Members of the Board. Since the lower courts decision, I personally brief the Members, (including the new Members and their Legislative Staff) and I can tell you they understand and operate as city employees if they use their personal account to communicate official business the content may be subject to disclosure…"
Board Clerk Calvillo is to be commended, but City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who provides guidance for the other 40,000 full and part-time City employees has been less forthcoming. Sunshine activists have long been disturbed by Herrera's obstinate blocking of public access to records. John Coté, Communications Director for his offices, responded meekly, "We are aware of this opinion and we're reviewing it. We will be communicating to city employees about it in an appropriate manner."
A particular bone of contention between the City Attorney's Office and the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force has been the City's contention that older e-mails stored off-site are too burdensome to access, and therefore need not be disclosed. Herrera's Good Government Guide opines, "… departments need not search their back-up electronic files in response to a public records request. Back-up files serve the limited purpose of providing a means of recovery in cases of disaster, departmental system failure, or unauthorized deletion. They are not available for departmental use except in these limited situations. Electronic records such as e-mails that an employee has properly deleted under the department's records retention and destruction policy but that remain in back-up files are analogous to paper records that the department has lawfully discarded in the trash but may be found in a City-owned dumpster. Neither the Public Records Act nor the Sunshine Ordinance requires the City to search the trash for such records, whether paper or electronic."
David Snyder, Executive Director of the First Amendment Coalition agreed, "Smith v. City of San Jose helps clarify the definition of "owned, used or retained" under the CPRA. Specifically, it applies that definition to e-mails sent via personal (i.e., nongovernmental) e-mail, concluding that such records are indeed "owned, used or retained" by the government agency, even though the records are no longer literally within government possession, in the sense that they are not held on government-owned servers.
"Analogizing to the physical world, it stands to reason that if records are removed from city offices and taken, for example, to the private home of a city employee or to an off-site storage facility, they would and should still be considered to be "owned, used or retained" by the city and, thus, subject to the disclosure requirements of the CPRA."
It would be "appropriate" now for Herrera to revisit his "Good Government" model.
March 2017
Sunshine: Uphill Battle to Keep 'em Honest
Journalist Rick Knee
San Francisco leads the nation with its revolutionary open government laws. Its unique people's court—the Sunshine Task Force—is an approach to resolving problems ordinary folks have with a burgeoning bureaucracy—access to documents and meetings. It all looks good on paper, but the reality has been shown, after almost 20 years, to have too many loopholes that officials have routinely exploited.
By Richard Knee
Activists aim to get a package of sunshine-law amendments on the local ballot that would, among other things, increase the independence and effectiveness of the city's 11-member open-government watchdog commission and lessen the ability of public officials to sabotage the commission's work as happened in 2012.
Retiring Chair Allyson Washburn accepts an award from Dr. Derek Kerr, San Franciscans for Sunshine, at her last meeting with the Sunshine Task Force. As the nominee from the League of Women Voters, she remained on the Task Force as a "holdover" when the Board of Supervisors refused to reappoint her. This happened because the League stood steadfastly behind her, refusing to nominate anyone else.She currently chairs the effort to adopt the proposed amendments proposed by San Franciscans for Sunshine.
The grassroots group San Franciscans for Sunshine has drafted a series of revisions to the city's open-meeting and public-records laws known collectively as the Sunshine Ordinance (Administrative Code Chapter 67) and hopes to put the measure to the voters by collecting upward of 9,500 valid signatures..
Besides giving the commission more power and autonomy, the initiative would bring the Sunshine Ordinance into the 21st century on the technology side, mandating live televising or videostreaming of all policy-body meetings in City Hall and tightening requirements for retention, storage and accessibility of electronic records. The initiative would also prescribe a $500 to $5,000 fine for willful violations of the ordinance.
The measure's text appears on the home page of the SFS website, SanFranciscansForSunshine.org. It is the product of more than a decade of work by the commission, called the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, drawing on the body's own experiences and input from dozens of citizens.
The SFS steering committee (disclosure: this writer is on it) comprises current and former task force members and other sunshine activists, most notably Bruce B. Brugmann, the retired Bay Guardian editor who shepherded the original ordinance through the Board of Supervisors in 1993 and helped lead a successful initiative campaign to strengthen it in 1999.
But remaining loopholes in the law and persistent refusal of entities and officials who can enforce it to do so signal people in City Hall that they can violate it without consequence, sunshine advocates say.
… task force members who vote to find willful violations of the ordinance risk political retaliation. In September 2011, the task force found unanimously that Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and Supervisors Eric Mar, Malia Cohen and Scott Wiener had violated local and state open-meeting laws by ramming through a Parkmerced redevelopment contract with 14 pages of amendments that Chiu had slipped in at the last minute.”
On top of that, task force members who vote to find willful violations of the ordinance risk political retaliation. In September 2011, the task force found unanimously that Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and Supervisors Eric Mar, Malia Cohen and Scott Wiener had violated local and state open-meeting laws by ramming through a Parkmerced redevelopment contract with 14 pages of amendments that Chiu had slipped in at the last minute.
The following spring, Chiu, Wiener and Supervisor Mark Farrell orchestrated a purge of the task force resulting in appointments of five neophytes and a former member, David Pilpel, well known for trying to curry favor among elected city officials and department heads.
Sunshine Task Force prior to the Board of Supervisors' purge: Suzanne Manneh, Allyson Washburn, Vice Chair Bruce Wolfe with guide dog Lady (below), Jay Costa, Richard Knee, Jerry Threet (City Atty), Chair Hope Johnson and Administrator Andrea Ausberry
At the same time, the board failed to appoint anyone with a physical handicap – even though incumbent Bruce Wolfe met that criterion – prompting a deputy city attorney to caution that in light of a requirement in the ordinance that the task force at all times have a physically handicapped member, any actions taken without such a person seated could pose legal risks to the task force and its individual members. The task force had to take a five-month hiatus, exacerbating an already thick backlog of complaint cases.
In 2014, the board's Rules Committee, which conducts initial vetting of board and commission applicants, recommended reappointment of Pilpel and two other Anglos to the task force and then deferred action on other appointments, saying there wasn't enough racial/ethnic diversity among the remaining applicants.
Subsequent scathing commentaries in the Westside Observer and the San Francisco Chronicle embarrassed the committee into ending its stall.
The appointments process this year went relatively smoothly, but unless the system is changed, there is no safeguard against recurrence of the 2012 outrage. SFS's initiative proposes a remedy: expanding to nine from four the number of task force members who must be nominated by outside organizations and requiring the board to appoint all nominees absent clear and convincing evidence that specific individuals are not qualified to serve on the body, which would be renamed the Sunshine Commission.
Also, commissioners' terms would be staggered beginning in 2019. Currently, most of the terms start and end in even-numbered years. The length of all terms would remain at two years.
Equally important, the initiative would empower the commission to appoint its own executive director/legal counsel and a clerk. Currently, legal and clerical aides are assigned by the city attorney and the Board of Supervisors clerk, respectively, and that has created problems.
Originally, the deputy city attorney assigned to the task force attended all meetings of the task force and its committees and stayed for their duration. Purportedly due to budget constraints, the deputy CA has for about the last decade been attending meetings of the full task force only and must leave at 9 p.m. (meetings usually start at 4 p.m.).
The initiative would give the commission more say in the hours and duties of its staff personnel. It would also enable the commission to exercise quality control in terms of its aides' competence. The administrator now assigned to the task force, Victor Young, is highly regarded by task force members but a number of them give low marks to the currently assigned deputy CA. And a number of Young's predecessors were clearly in over their heads.
Revamping the Sunshine Commission
Currently the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force includes an attorney and a journalist nominated by the Society of Professional Journalists, a journalist nominated by New America Media and a member of the public nominated by the League of Women Voters. The other seven members are directly appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
A ballot initiative sponsored by San Franciscans for Sunshine would rename the body the Sunshine Commission; would, beginning in 2018, increase to nine the number of members nominated by outside public-interest groups; and would mandate that the board appoint all nominees absent clear and convincing evidence that specific nominees are unqualified to serve on the commission. The nominating roles:
Society of Professional Journalist NorCal would continue nominating an attorney and a journalist, and would take over New America Media's authority to nominate a journalist from a racial/ethnic minority or L/G/B/T/Q community. Both organizations are requesting this change.
• The First Amendment Coalition would nominate an attorney.
• The Media Alliance and the Pacific Media Workers Guild would each nominate a journalist.
• The League of Women Voters of San Francisco would continue nominating a member of the public.
• The Freedom of the Press Foundation would nominate a member of the public with information-technology expertise.
• The Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods would nominate a member of the public.
• The Board of Supervisors would directly appoint two members of the public, at least one of whom must have a physical disability.
The measure has support from the League of Women Voters of San Francisco; the First Amendment Coalition, a San Rafael-based free-speech and sunshine advocacy organization; and the Pacific Media Workers Guild (NewsGuild-CWA Local 39521). SFS is seeking additional endorsements.
Richard Knee is a freelance journalist who served on the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force from 2002-14.
Supervisors cannot be trusted to oversee their own transparency
by Doug Comstock
Sixteen years ago voters adopted “the strongest local open government laws in the state”— the Sunshine Ordinance. But bit by bit the Board of Supervisors, the City Attorney and the Ethics Commission have underfunded, understaffed and dismantled the Task Force that is charged with enforcing the voters’ mandate.
The moment of truth came in 2012 regarding the approval of the Parkmerced project. It was the first time a complaint was brought against the Board of Supervisors’ President and several members. Whether you agree with the Task Force’s decision,finding the Supervisors in violation, the Board’s retaliation was wrong—refusing to reappoint any of the members who voted their conscience. They were ‘purged’ from the Task Force and ‘friendly’ advocates were appointed. Even the required disability advocate was not reappointed, making it impossible to convene the Task Force for over five months and exacerbating an already severe backlog of issues before the body. Oddly enough the only noticeable qualification seemed to be membership in the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, or a relationship with Supervisor Scott Wiener.
This ‘purge’ behavior—subverting the voters’ will—needs to be fixed. The Supervisors are not above the laws to which all other boards and commissions are held.
Amendments to the Ordinance must be on the ballot this November when the electorate is most likely to pass them. The Westside Observer will continue to cover open government. More: westsideobserver.com/news/sunshine.html
February 2016
New Complaint Procedures Defeat Sunshine
By Peter Warfield
The City’s official check on open government compliance, the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, has been considering changes to their “Public Complaint Procedure.” The group’s Chair, Allyson Washburn, said at the last meeting that she wants final decisions about the complaint procedure at the October 7 meeting.
It has never been easy for a member of the public to bring, and win, a complaint at the SOTF, but even more so after Supervisor Scott Wiener made sure, several years ago, that not a single member of an excellent, but independent, Task Force was re-appointed after he and several other supervisors were found by the then-existing SOTF to be in violation of the law in their handling of Parkmerced-related legislation.
It has never been easy for a member of the public to bring, and win, a complaint at the SOTF, but even more so after Supervisor Scott Wiener made sure, several years ago, that not a single member of an excellent, but independent, Task Force was re-appointed…”
After a period of many months during which the SOTF was unable to meet because the Supervisors had also refused to reappoint the only handicapped member, and the law requires that there be at all times such a member present, new members were appointed. Unfortunately, the SOTF has not dealt publicly with how to catch up on the resultant backlog of cases by, for example, discussing the problem at a meeting. Or by scheduling additional meetings until caught up, say meeting twice a month instead of only once a month. Or by stricter, prompter, and clearer enforcement of the law, so that violators are not encouraged to repeat by enjoying endless delays on hearings, multiple hearings at various subcommittees, and unclear Orders of Determination that fail to spell out precisely what action(s) caused what violations. Or by insisting that the level of support from other city departments be as is called for in the Sunshine Ordinance: a “full-time staff person” from the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and “an attorney from within the City Attorney’s Office … [who] “shall serve solely as a legal advisor and advocate to the Task Force.” Or by referring all failures to comply, with SOTF orders to comply with the law, to the “district attorney or the attorney general” within 5 days (Sunshine Sec. 67.21(e)).
No, it appears the SOTF’s solution to the backlog will be to squash complaints via proposed changes to its Complaint Procedure, by discouraging, preventing, and even tossing out complaints from the public that come in over the transom. These proposed changes would throw major obstacles in the path of anyone complaining about violations of the law, and give a great deal of powerful new discretionary actions to an already over-worked and under-staffed “staff” rather than the Task Force or even its chair.
The new rules would allow the SOTF “staff” not to accept complaints at all, unless the staff determines that certain minimum criteria have been met. The complaint would be reviewed, by staff, to determine whether it is under the jurisdiction of the SOTF, a function done previously by the full SOTF. And among the worst proposed changes, “With approval of the Chair of the SOTF, the [staff would] ensure that complaints are not duplicative of previous complaints or subject matter.” Would repeat City violators get off scot-free? Almost any complaint could be considered “duplicative” of some other complaint filed in its 20-year history. And allowing “similar” complaints to be “combined” could lead to enormous confusion.
Citizen activist and retired attorney Allen Grossman1 sent the Task Force a list of problems with the proposed changes.
The SOTF should shine a light on, and help fix, problems with open government, taking more seriously its role as guardian of Sunshine for the public and those who come before it hoping for a measure of justice.
Efforts by certain city legislators to keep the city's Sunshine Ordinance Task Force as ineffective an open-government watchdog as possible continue.
The Board of Supervisors is stalling on eight appointments to the 11-member panel, and of the three they have picked, all incumbents, two have often angered sunshine advocates by siding with city agencies or officials accused by members of the public of open-meeting or public-records violations.
What's in play is retaliation for a finding by the task force in September 2011 that board President David Chiu and Supervisors Scott Wiener, Malia Cohen and Eric Mar had violated local and state open-meeting laws by ramming through a Parkmerced redevelopment contract with 14 pages of amendments that Chiu had slipped in at the last minute.
…the mayor and the Board of Supervisors … made sure that the panel gets minimal funding, staffing and resources, and the board has refused to fill two long-standing vacancies, making it difficult at times to muster a quorum…”
Supervisor Scott Weiner
Launching a smear campaign aimed ultimately at purging the eight task force members who had unanimously voted to find the violation, Wiener surreptitiously asked the Budget and Legislative Analyst to survey all city departments on how much it cost to comply with sunshine laws, and how many hours their personnel spent at task force hearings on sunshine-related complaints.
Wiener and his allies hoped the B&L analyst's survey would cast the task force in a bad light. It didn't.
When the board was considering task force appointments in May 2012, Wiener mislabeled the survey as an "audit," said it had shown the task force's operation as inefficient, and accused the task force of saying, "How dare you? How dare you expose us to sunshine?"
First, an audit is an outsider's thorough look at an entity's operations and its net cost or benefit during a given time span, including funding sources and amounts, and expenditure amounts and uses. No such scrutiny of the task force has taken place.
Second, neither the task force nor any of its members said, "How dare you?" The task force did, however, send a letter objecting to Wiener's attempt to keep the survey secret while it was in progress, and as to the survey's content, which included questions that task force members thought were vague or vacuous.
Third and perhaps most important, the survey revealed that the task force's operation and the 1993 ordinance that created it (Administrative Code Sections 67.1 et sequitur) result in very small out-of-pocket costs and, in fact, produce certain significant, if difficult-to-quantify, benefits. Some key findings:
• Compliance with state and local sunshine laws carried "identified" costs of about $4.27 million to the city in calendar 2011, of which nearly $3.28 million stemmed from adhering to state laws. So the Sunshine Ordinance added $997,676 to the cost.
Since San Francisco's population was then a bit over 805,000, the latter cost amount worked out to about $1.24 per resident per year.
What's more, $4.27 million was just above 0.6 percent of the city's $6.83 billion budget for fiscal 2011-12.
• "[I]t is likely that without the (task force), some portion of complaints would be directed to other public bodies, such as the courts, which would in turn incur costs."
In other words, the task force has saved the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in court expenses. And there's no telling how many millions of dollars the local and state sunshine laws have saved the city by enabling the exposure or prevention of backroom deals.
Whatever inefficiencies exist with the task force can be laid at the feet of the mayor and the Board of Supervisors. They've made sure that the panel gets minimal funding, staffing and resources, and the board has refused to fill two long-standing vacancies, making it difficult at times to muster a quorum since task force members are volunteers with outside responsibilities such as family and work.
Two years ago, the board's failure to appoint a physically-disabled member forced the task force to take a five-month hiatus, exacerbating a backlog of complaints filed by members of the public.
Because of the difficulty in mustering a quorum, the task force has been unable to hold as many special meetings as its members would like in order to reduce the complaints backlog.
Even worse are the resulting delays to complainants trying to obtain disclosable public records.
The process of appointing task force members for the 2014-16 term looks farcical. And ominous.
At the May 15 meeting of the board's Rules Committee, which conducts initial vetting of applicants for city policy bodies, the two supervisors present, chair Norman Yee and Katy Tang, (David Campos was absent) complained that there wasn't enough racial/ethnic diversity among the 13 candidates.
That didn't deter them from recommending the reappointments of Todd David, Louise Fischer and David Pilpel, all Anglos.
Before the full board five days later Yee complained again, this time that lack of a regular schedule and frequent switching of meeting dates were making attendance difficult for task force members.
Either Yee had no clue of the facts or he was lying. The task force normally meets the first Wednesday of each month and its subcommittees usually meet during the third week of the month. Meeting postponements and cancellations are the result, not the cause, of difficulties in mustering a quorum, due to the vacancies – which now number three.
In gushing over David, Fischer and Pilpel at the board's May 20 meeting, Wiener offered no evidence or detail of their alleged accomplishments and ignored the fact that David has missed six task force meetings since March 2013, including those of last January, February and April. Until the board fills the other seats, the five remaining incumbents – Chris Hyland, Bruce Oka, David Sims, Allyson Washburn and yours truly – stay on as "holdover" members.
How all this plays out and how long it will take are anybody's guess. A key determinant is whether certain supervisors will abandon their vendetta. The Rules Committee is tentatively scheduled on June 5 to resume considering task force applicants.
Now, about that audit: good idea. Wiener or any other official would serve the city well by initiating it.
Richard Knee has served on the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force since July 2002 and is not seeking reappointment. He is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco.
June 2014
John St. Croix
Court to Ethics' St. Croix: Cough Up the Records
by Doug Comstock
In a stunning defeat for the SF Ethics Department's Director John St. Croix, the longest holdout against the City's 14-year old voter-approved Sunshine Ordinance, Judge Ernest Goldsmith ordered the disclosure of 24 documents withheld from Allen Grossman, a long-time activist for open government, who argued that Sunshine Ordinance Sec. 67.24 requires disclosure of city attorney's advice regarding public-records.
St. Croix held that his communications with the City Attorney are protected from public scrutiny under attorney-client confidentiality privilege provisions "on the advice of the City Attorney's Office." St. Croix has long held that Ethics is exempt from most open government laws that are routinely observed by other City offices, including the California Public Records Act and the Sunshine Ordinance.
St. Croix has long held that Ethics is exempt from most open government laws that are routinely observed by other City offices, including the California Public Records Act and the Sunshine Ordinance.”
The court ruled that Mr. Grossman, not Ethics, was right on the law, and we acknowledge his heroic stand against an illegal evasion of the public's right to know.
This is the second time Mr. Grossman has prevailed in court against St. Croix; perhaps this latest defeat will serve as his "teachable moment." We aren't holding our breath.
Editor's Note: Allen Grossman's attorney, Michael Ng has just been advised by the City Attorney that the St. Croix intends to appeal the decision. Atta boy -- a captain should always go down with his ship.
November 2013
Serving Two Masters
by Doug Comstock
It’s only fair that the Board of Supervisors admit the obvious: open government laws do not apply to the Board of Supervisors. It is exempt from Sunshine laws because it appoints the board that enforces them.
As the new, unwitting appointees to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force (SOTF) are sworn in, they are legally bound to enforce the laws they oversee. Little do they know that they will also serve a conflicting set of unwritten laws imposed by the Board of Supervisors.
The environment of impunity at City Hall, the result of the Ethics Commission’s refusal to pursue Sunshine violations, pales in comparison to the hostile take-over last month of the SOTF by the Supervisors. The removal of Bruce Wolfe, Jay Costa and Hanley Chan, three seasoned veterans of the struggle to bring full disclosure to City Hall, and the refusal to reappoint Allyson Washburn, the League of Women Voters’ nominee, and Suzanne Manneh, the New American Media’s nominee — both highly qualified and knowledgeable members who are willing to serve — has effectively killed the voter-mandated Task Force.
Who knew there were unwritten laws for Sunshine? Doesn't the public have a right to know what they are? We've long known that City Hall's "support" of Sunshine is mere lip service, but so far there has not been a coordinated effort to subvert the law — at least not to our knowledge.”
Who knew there were unwritten laws for Sunshine? Doesn’t the public have a right to know what they are? We’ve long known that City Hall’s “support” of Sunshine is mere lip service, but so far there has not been a coordinated effort to subvert the law — at least not to our knowledge.
The Task Force is already months behind in its hearings and out of compliance with its mandate through no fault of its own. The Board of Supervisors created this mess and must fix it immediately.
September 2012
What Price Sunshine?
Supervisor Weiner Just Doesn't Get It.
by Doug Comstock
Supervisor Weiner.
Supervisor Scott Weiner’s request to determine the “costs of compliance with Sunshine” is a fool’s errand. Especially the way he’s going about it. Wiener ordered a “Survey of the Costs of Compliance with the City Sunshine Ordinance.” All City departments received the 5-page “Survey” with directions to return it to the Board’s Budget Analyst by February 3, 2012.
It’s apparent that whoever designed the survey has little familiarity with the Sunshine Ordinance, a measure passed by the voters in 1999, and that’s not uncommon at City Hall. Few City workers know which requests are specifically required by “Sunshine” and which are required by the umbrella legislation, the California Public Records Act (CPRA). Most requests for information are required by CPRA, while the Sunshine Ordinance tweaks the response times, stops bureaucratic recalcitrance evoked “in the public interest,” a favorite abuse of Willie Brown’s administration, and provides a hearing mechanism for failure to respond.
Quantifying expenses has been discussed exhaustively at meetings of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force for many years, yet Supervisor Weiner did not even contact the Task Force to design a useful survey.”
Quantifying expenses has been discussed exhaustively at meetings of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force for many years, yet Supervisor Weiner did not even contact the Task Force to design a useful survey. A valid cost analysis could be useful—not that we would ever want to go back to the bad old days.
So now legislative analysts are going through hundreds of pages of departmental responses to a faulty survey. From what we’ve seen, not a single department is clear on the concept. All requests are lumped together, whether a response is mandated by State law (CPRA) or City law (Sunshine). If Weiner wanted to find the cost of open government, his order should have spelled it out. CPRA costs should not be accrued to Sunshine. And we still wonder what purpose this expensive survey serves?
We would hope that City Budget Analyst Harvey Rose has a little round file at the end of his desk and that he files this waste of time and resources accordingly.
March 2012
Parkmerced Agreement Illegally Excluded Public
By Hope Johnson, Chair, Sunshine Ordinance Task Force
Lurking in the darkest corners of San Francisco's Parkmerced Development Agreement is the question of enforceability of the agreement's rent control provision. The elusive answer remains shadowed in odd mystery, and the Board of Supervisors has done little to shed much needed light on the controversial issue.
Can the City require replacement of existing rent controlled housing scheduled for demolition?
the last minute introduction of fourteen pages of amendments did not provide adequate time for members of the public to review and comment on them as required under Sunshine Ordinance”
California's Costa-Hawkins Act prevents local regulations from requiring rent control on new construction. Rent control on the new apartments might make the project economically impractical.
But the City Attorney's Office position is that rent control is part of the contract, and there is no reason to believe the contract will be violated or challenged. Despite that assurance, the Board of Supervisors spent several hours discussing the enforceability question during its March 29, 2011 hearing on appeal of the Planning Commission's 4-3 vote approval of the environmental impact report.
The Board ultimately chose to continue their decision on the appeal to May 24th to allow time to consider the oddly mysterious legal standing of the City to enforce such a condition.
Meanwhile, the Parkmerced Development Agreement itself was assigned to the Board's Land Use Committee for May 16, 2011. Committee Chair Eric Mar opened the meeting by explaining that, because the item had been improperly noticed, no action could be taken—the item would be continued to the committee's May 24th hearing.
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd introduced "technical amendments" to the agreement. Discussion ensued, including enforceability of the rent control provision and Chair Mar's concern that energy consumption might need revision. Members of the public were provided copies of the revised agreement and were told it would be available online later that day.
The newly introduced amendments were then approved by the committee, notwithstanding Chair Mar's repeated declaration that no action would be taken on the agreement until May 24th.
One week later, on May 24th, two separate meetings were scheduled that involved approval of the Parkmerced project, one was the Land Use Committee's continued discussion at 9 am and the other was the regularly scheduled meeting of the full Board of Supervisors later that same day at 2 pm. The Land Use Committee was to make a referral on the agreement to the Board. The Board was then scheduled to vote on approval of both the Parkmerced environmental impact report and the Development Agreement itself.
At the May 24th Land Use Committee, a brief presentation of the amendments previously introduced at the May 16th hearing was provided. Then Supervisor David Chiu introduced fourteen pages of new amendments specifically directed at tenants' rights—the murky subject at issue for two months. These new amendments were not mentioned at the beginning of the hearing or at the meeting one week prior.
Supervisor Chiu said he and city attorney Charles Sullivan had stayed awake all night working on the amendments and Supervisor Cohen, a member of the committee, admitted she had only had about one hour to review the newly introduced amendments. Chair Mar expressed concern with a lack of transparency and that approval of the amendments would constitute a violation of Sunshine Ordinance public comment requirements.
The city attorney told the committee the agenda description of the Development Agreement was broad enough to encompass Chiu's amendments. The amendments were approved, leaving only a few hours for the public to review and comment on amendments to a contract provision the Board had allowed itself two months to review. Several hours later on the same day, the Development Agreement was approved by the full Board.
On June 20, 2011, an anonymous complaint was filed with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force against Supervisor Mar for alleged violations of the Sunshine Ordinance.
The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force concluded that the last minute introduction of fourteen pages of amendments did not provide adequate time for members of the public to review and comment on them as required under Sunshine Ordinance Sections 67.15(a) and (b), and were substantive changes to the Development Agreement for which the agenda description for the meeting was not adequate under Sunshine Ordinance Section 67.7(b).
Supervisors Eric Mar, David Chiu, Scott Wiener, and Malia Cohen were found in violation of those sections of the ordinance. Each supervisor is required to adhere to state and local open government laws, and their acknowledgement of their own lack of review of important and controversial amendments was minimal at best.
The Parkmerced Development Agreement had been deferred two additional months for review and there was no reason that another week to allow transparency in the process would damage the agreement. This project is scheduled to take up to 30 years to complete and many residents will be displaced from their homes in the process.
Hope Johnson is Chair of the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force.
December 2011
City the Big Winner As Sunshine Proves Its Value
Kimo CrossmanAllen Grossman
Kimo Crossman and Allen Grossman and are the kind of citizens we admire. These
two advocates for open government have conducted their own war on backroom
deals that has taken years out of their lives—so far at their own expense.
They’ve been vilified by Ken Garcia in the Examiner and in articles in
the Chronicle as well as the SF Weekly for “abusing the system” by requesting
that the City turn over public information in the time required by law
and in the form they requested. They were called “nuisance,” “vexing gadfly.”
This time Kimo Crossman’s bird-dogging led to a savings of $3.5 million in transfer taxes from real estate interests of Morgan Stanley. This kind of information should be rewarded under the City’s 2006 Whistleblower Act, but Assessor Phil Ting has not been willing to part with the reward. This prompted Crossman to hire high-powered attorney Steve Gruel, known as a no-holds-barred courtroom brawler, to get Crossman what is coming to him. “This is a complete win-win situation. The City gains with a huge tax payment and Mr. Crossman’s hard work earns him an award,” said Attorney Gruel.
The Sunshine Task Force depends on the Ethics Commission to enforce open government laws and can only make recommendations to the Director, an effort that has been severely crippled by St. Croix’s refusal to pursue a single violation or to make public the documents and records that would indicate his justification for the denial”
While Ting shared information willingly, some bureaucrats decide not to comply with Sunshine and the only recourse the public has is a potentially expensive legal battle. Since the passage of Prop G in 1999, no one has been willing to risk a trial. That is, until Allen Grossman sued the Ethics Commission and its Executive Director, John St. Croix. Sunshine won a major victory in January as St. Croix settled out of court on charges of suppressing public records without justification for his “summary dismissal of every violation by City officials, including the Mayor and the City Attorney, of open government laws referred to the Ethics Commission by the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, a total of 14 such referrals over the past five years.”
The Sunshine Task Force depends on the Ethics Commission to enforce open government laws and can only make recommendations to the Director, an effort that has been severely crippled by St. Croix’s refusal to pursue a single violation or to make public the documents and records that would indicate his justification for the denial. St. Croix’s failure to comply with the original records requests cost the City (and taxpayers) $24,900 in fees to Grossman’s attorneys. Grossman also has access to the records. We hope he will share them.
Crossman and Grossman have spared neither time nor expense in pursuit of Sunshine scofflaws, and have been unfairly maligned in the press. We believe the City benifits from increased public information, Westside readers want to know, and so do we.
April 2010
Herrera Should Get Serious About Sunshine
Our public-records laws are broken. When we need information from the City, it’s far from certain that we will get it. Many citizens are learning the hard way that the law may be on their side, but enforcement has been left to the good faith efforts of the Ethics Commission. The commission, relying on advice from the City Attorney, has dismissed every alleged violation since San Francisco voters passed Prop G (Sunshine) in 1999 by a 16 point margin. In truth, the enforcement of the law is based on decisions made behind the City Attorney’s closed doors.
...what was the City Attorney going to do about the sad state of open government in the City with what some consider the most powerful sunshine laws on the books? Herrera’s response was typical political banter — he loves sunshine and provides his calendars, etc. This may or may not be true, but the ultimate responsibility for compliance rests on his shoulders.”
No Department has more influence on the level of city entities’ compliance with open government laws than the City Attorney’s Office, and since we were invited to meet with City Attorney Herrera we decided to ask a few questions — especially after Herrera’s comment about his department’s involvement in everything City Hall,
“...you name it—we’re involved in it.”
Our question was, what was the City Attorney going to do about the sad state of open government in the City with what some consider the most powerful sunshine laws on the books? Herrera’s response was typical political banter — he loves sunshine and provides his calendars, etc. This may or may not be true, but the ultimate responsibility for compliance rests on his shoulders. In fact, the City Attorney’s Office has itself been the subject of numerous complaints to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, the 11 member body responsible for monitoring open-government laws. And the task force has upheld many of those complaints as violations of the law.
City voters spoke clearly in 1999, despite the opposition of then-City Attorney Louise Renne, who publicly opposed the stronger laws. Herrera, Renne’s protégé, appears to have defeated the laws behind the scenes, so bureaucrats can ignore the laws with impunity. (Please read the Task Force Report for 2008 on their website: sfgov.org/sunshine).
The task force is empowered to interpret the laws and recommend enforcement, not the City Attorney. The taxpayers pay to maintain that body; but day to day, City entities receiving public records requests must rely on the City Attorney’s advice to determine whether a given piece of information must be disclosed. In the eyes of the law, seeking such advice constitutes a good-faith effort to comply with the sunshine laws.
The problem is that the City Attorney at times gives advice that seems to run counter to the task force’s interpretations, and there is no recourse, short of a lawsuit, without cooperation from the City Attorney. We encourage Mr. Herrera to step up to the plate.
June 2009
More Trending Articles
Labor Union Sues City for Corruption and Retaliation
Union Lawsuit Reveals "City Family" Backroom Maneuvers
by Dr. Derek Kerr
Why does the FBI manage to unearth City Hall corruption, while our watchdog agencies; the Controller’s Whistleblower Program, Ethics Commission and City Attorney’s Office cry “What happened?
… instead of looking seriously into what could be done to solve the coupling problem … henceforth the trains operating in the subway would be only one and two cars long.
... SFPUC says 50% rationing could be required. Environmental groups contest that judgment. But if anything like that threatens imminently, you can bet costs will rise and fast. Rates follow.
Limit plastic used in wrapping done by on-line shopping? Since the pandemic, online shopping has created 29% more waste in landfills which can end up in our oceans
Board of Supervisors
Tue, January 24th • 3pm
PUBLIC COMMENT
We urge the BOS to vote to go forward, on Jan 24, with the Jan 31st Laguna Honda hearing even if the federal govt (CMS) agrees to a reprieve on closure and patient evictions (now set to begin Feb 2). If a reprieve occurs it will be temporary.
Poor people seldom end up on the street.But, addicted and mentally ill people become “disaffiliated” from supporters – a key determinant of street homelessness
30% of Parkmerced's 3,221 units are vacant. If the Prop M Vacant Unit Tax does not encourage lower rents, the City might purchase them at a bargain, making thousands of new units available...
Madam Mayor parties down as City is deluged in “atmospheric river”
Mayor's Clueless New Years Fumble Signels Trouble
by Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai
Adorned in a feather boa and accompanied by City Attorney David Chiu, Breed's City Officials were oblivious to the massive flooding NASA satellite images predicted December 16, 2022.
A huge number of students who enter high school are not proficient in English and math — almost 45 percent of SFUSD 8th graders are not proficient in English. More than half are not proficient in math
...the mission of a nursing home is to promote resident autonomy. This is not compatible with the treatment of persons with unstable behavioral issues, which requires structure and agreement to "house rules." If LHH continues admitting persons with active substance use or unstable mental illness, we will lose Laguna Honda.
Willie Brown predicted the Central Subway would reduce (can you imagine?) Muni’s operating costs by $23.9 million annually. Muni’s operating costs will now increase by more than $25 million per year.
Renne sought to take credit for the Tobacco Settlement Revenue lawsuit. It was used, in part, to pay for the LHH rebuild project. Renne had done no such thing.
Climate reparations dominated Egypt's UN Climate Change Summit this month — overburdened communities demand help cutting emissions, adapting to climate change…and compensation for damages!
Since its inception, the SOTF has been a thorn in City Hall’s backside. Why? ... Engaged citizens and journalists seek more information than officialdom likes to share.
Audit non-profit agencies and City contracts to ensure that services are provided ... especially those providing homeless services. ...revenue-generating departments need to ensure all revenue sources are addressed
We don't trust the City to allow disabled access or fix the shuttle, after 50+ years of failure ... elders with walkers or canes — requires up to 2,500 feet of travel.
Quentin's Ballot Recommendations & Other Ruminations
by Quentin Kopp
It's socially acceptable for a Black to use the so-called "N" word about another Black; Walton's associates refused to relieve him as board president or criticize him.
You won't see from downtown what you can see from Mt. Tam. Out here at Ocean Beach the nighttime fog makes viewing an occasional event. Happy skywatching!
...authorities harbor illegal aliens and order law enforcement not to notify ICE of release from jail of criminally-convicted aliens, who should be deported
Despite these commitments to ensure safe and minimally-stressful transfers ... it did not fully grasp the number and complexity of LHH patients. So, LHH was “pigeon-holed into rules applying to standard nursing homes.
City Leaders Value Saving Money Over Saving Lives and Property
by Frank T. Blackburn and Nancy Wuerfel
Mayor Breed remains blissfully silent on the need to extend adequate fire protection to approximately half the City, even though she has knowledge of Fire Department needs having been a fire commissioner in 2010.
D5 gets $50,000 for tree planting. D8, $246,000 for sidewalk gardens and street trees. And that's it for the entire City. If there is a climate emergency you wouldn't know it from San Francisco.”
There is a need for a routine and consistent review of this facility. Programs that exist here are rarely audited, and when they are, the list of improvements required is long and important.
Time to Shine a Brighter Light on SFUSD Chronic Absences
by Carol Kocivar
Children living in poverty are two to three times more likely to be chronically absent—and face the most harm because their community lacks the resources to make up for the lost learning in school.
As of July 11, just 623 patients remain at LHH, compared to 681 in May. Most have been transferred to San Mateo nursing homes. Three went to homeless shelters.
Power plant emissions formed black soot on windows and doorways in their homes and triggered asthma attacks, headaches and nosebleeds in their children. Residents led the successful fight that ultimately closed the PG&E Hunters Point power plant in 2006
Farmers Market and St. Ignatious in Tug-of-war over parking spaces
by Jonathan Farrell
...the farmers market gets: 2000-6000 visitors per weekend. Whereas if the area were ceded back for Saint Ignatius’s parking needs they would serve about 60 cars...
LHH was given 6 months to correct its deficiencies. A follow-up inspection found persistent - and seemingly worse - drug and contraband use, despite LHH’s Plan of Correction.
Will Laguna Honda Solve Its Problems By Abandoning 120 More Patient Beds?
Patrick Monette-Shaw
Both consultants provided “preliminary assessment reports” of their initial recommendations. Only HMA’s “preliminary assessment report” has been made public.
Culture of Silence" and Cover-up Plagues LHH Management
Gray Panthers Pounce on Laguna Honda Crisis
by Dr. Derek Kerr
Younger, behaviorally-complex patients gained priority for admission resulting in the displacement of elders and women. Excluding unmanageable patients would open up beds for those who need skilled nursing care.
Everybody involved knew that adding “unstable” adults brought disarray and danger to Laguna Honda's seniors. Most folks just went along. Now they’re surprised?
The report concludes groundwater “may” become contaminated as sea level rises. In fact, Shipyard groundwater was documented as“contaminated” where thousands of homes are being constructed.
“It seems preposterous to put a library on a congested thoroughfare when there are better places that are safer for pedestrians to use,” one community member said.
Saying Something Over and Over Doesn't Make It True
Carol Kocivar
People are frustrated and spurt out the word “segregated”
That's because SFUSD has failed to prepare all ethnicities for a rigorous academic high school.
Why is the proposed library at 100 Orizaba Avenue desirable? The proposed site has so many failings and the traffic problems are so enormous. Is there a hidden agenda with this proposed site that’s not being discussed?
The moderates only need to flip one district from the progressive side of the aisle to preclude the veto power of the Board of Supervisors, since the mayor appointed moderate Supervisor Matt Dorsey ... the Redistricting Task Force handed moderates a perfect set up to do just that.
If a mandatory reduction is ordered, there will be a “floor” or minimum allocation per person so that those who have conserved, and now conserve, will not be penalized.
...competence erodes as conscientious employees get marginalized and lackeys are promoted. This consolidation promotes impunity. Betraying the public trust is normalized.
Violent Thug Attacks, Robs Asian Visitor—Goes Free
Boudin's famed "puppy killer" strikes again
by Lou Barberini
Boudin and the judge circumvented diversion rules because violent criminals are “not eligible” for diversion programs. Why did Boudin send someone to drug diversion if they weren’t arrested for drugs?”
Changes in San Francisco’s 11 supervisorial district boundaries caused even the Chronicle and Examiner suggest returning to at-large supervisors; unfortunately, it seems legally impossible to this observer.
One of the greatest discoveries when our family moved to West Portal was a library so close even our 3-year-old could walk to it! We would go to story hour and bring home bags of books.
Despite the fact that discharge is not legally required (yet) at Laguna Honda, all patients and their families are being interviewed for discharge and this is causing a lot of stress.
Too bad no one saw this coming......oh, a group of doctors from Laguna Honda did.
They would have us believe he’s responsible for the statistical rise in crime that’s occurred since the pandemic. Research, however, suggests otherwise...
Over time, those special interests have proven adept at using the same “peoples protections” to further their own interests. Recalls are expensive, and a few of San Francisco’s bitterest billionaires buy low-turnout elections when they disagree with the voters...
41% of companies allow employees to relocate permanently to any state freely, while companies that do not allow the employees to relocate elsewhere represent only 5%.
...there are issues that can unite us.. We all want to support our educators who have been doing the hard work every day despite a pandemic and political feud.
Could the motivation behind all of this be to create such a god-awful divisive plan and create so much anger that the voters would just throw up their hands and get rid of it altogether?
Taylor minced no words … the results of her 1995 investigation displeased health officials and influenced her decision not to publish significant findings, “I was convinced there was something there
Each student is tutored three times a week primarily outside of school time via an online, collaborative learning platform that offers intervention through guided reading lessons, gamification, and assessments.
Chair Townsend's Solution to African-American Population Decline Will Likely Result in a Lawsuit Redistricting's latest map has everyone on edge, scrambling to find out who their new Supervisor will be.
Three new Board of Education commissioners were appointed last month by Mayor London Breed who promises implicitly that SFUSD will somehow conquer a budget deficit of over $125,000,000.
District 7 reclaims Forest Knolls, Twin Peaks, Midtown Terrace, the Woods and Miraloma Park from District 8 as well as all of Lakeshore and Merced Manor from District 4, but loses ground entirely in the Inner Sunset.
Lowell high school's merit-based admission policy is perfectly legal. We’ve looked at the language of the law, the history of the law and the intent of the law. We've done our homework.
Haney garnered 34,174 votes compared to Campos’ 33,448 votes — a difference of only 726 votes. The April 19 run-off election couldn’t be a tighter race.
As additional funding for supportive housing services through programs like Project Home Key become available, radical reform of board and care programming and funding will be necessary to maintain and expand this crucial resource.
Civil rights laws have been enacted to protect people who are being denied equal access and opportunity. The closure is a violation of the ADA and California disability rights laws.
The PTA can be traced right to San Francisco and the founding of the Mother’s Clubs in 1897. It has become the largest child advocacy organization in the nation.
Donald Trump, disregards 42,000,000 Ukrainians by lauding Putin’s “genius” in invading Ukraine. I urge readers to divest themselves of any reverence or respect for Trump, a draft-dodger, who could demolish the Republican Party.
Labor Union Sues City for Corruption and Retaliation
Union Lawsuit Reveals "City Family" Backroom Maneuvers
by Dr. Derek Kerr
Why does the FBI manage to unearth City Hall corruption, while our watchdog agencies; the Controller’s Whistleblower Program, Ethics Commission and City Attorney’s Office cry “What happened?
… instead of looking seriously into what could be done to solve the coupling problem … henceforth the trains operating in the subway would be only one and two cars long.
... SFPUC says 50% rationing could be required. Environmental groups contest that judgment. But if anything like that threatens imminently, you can bet costs will rise and fast. Rates follow.
Limit plastic used in wrapping done by on-line shopping? Since the pandemic, online shopping has created 29% more waste in landfills which can end up in our oceans
Ten percent of SF housing is vacant, a new report shows
by Tim Redmond
More than 40,000 housing units that are sold but never occupied has soared in the past five years, suggesting that letting developers build freely doesn't really help the crisis.
... infant mortality rates in BVHP (were) twice as high as the rest of San Francisco and one of the highest in the state, a cluster of infant deaths were detected in the shipyard region.
The failure to properly prepare all students, particularly Black/African American students, is the main culprit. While the lottery may increase diversity, it also increases the number of students at Lowell who are struggling.
...an ever-growing disparity between our community and others — 73% of our Pacific Islanders live in low-income housing, the unemployment rate is nearly 22%.
... the efforts to clean up the Tenderloin are pushing homeless, especially the mentally ill and drug addicted, into other neighborhoods and making the problem worse all over the City
SFPUC: Controllers Audit Reveals Compromised Bid Process
by Dr. Derek Kerr
Most contractors lagged in delivering community benefits and submitting required progress reports. And, once a contract ended, undelivered benefits were not recoverable. SFPUC had no policies to monitor compliance.
Ideally, police can stop “sideshows” before they happen with intel from undercover officers and by monitoring social media accounts that announce where sideshows will be. That was not evident in West Portal & 30th/Lawton incidents
San Franciscans can avoid spending more millions on a run-off election in March. Cast your vote for Campos. (Don’t let Ron Conway’s “dark money” buy himself another election!”)
Ginsburg, working with the SF Bicycle Coalition and Walk SF, have banned cars on JFK Drive and the Upper Great Highway during the pandemic. Plans are being made make the bans permanent ...
Persistent Corruption, Incompetence & Some Good News
by Quentin Kopp
Despite City Hall corruption, Supervisors ignore Recology’s garbage monopoly...a year has passed with a minor refund of rate overcharges thanks to Controller Ben Rosenfield...
There are procedures for closing a major highway, and that includes an Environmental Impact Report — how much more pollution would be caused by rerouting up to 20,000 vehicles a day through stop and go traffic ...?
Drivers ... good news for you: the vast majority of streets are dominated by cars! You can drive on all the roads, which is why a radical change is necessary.
CEQA Protects Us From Special Interests’ “Big Lie”
by Roger Lin and Douglas Carstens
A sustained campaign, led by polluting industries, real estate developers, etc, has repeatedly and falsely claimed California’s environmental law is fueling the housing crisis.