LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN ALL OUR MAJOR PROJECTS IN SF TOTALING OVER $30 BILLION (11/12/10)

Over the next eight years large projects costing over $30 Billion will be executed right here in San Francisco. While, the rest of the Nation is suffering these large projects can help the economic growth of San Francisco and by large measure improve the Quality of Life for us San Franciscans. Eliminate the unemployment. In recent years large corporations have come to San Francisco and they are sparing no effort to bid on these project and bid low as much as twenty percent low and that fact in itself reveals how bad the economy is all over our Nation. It just so happened that all those projects that we San Franciscans had planned were "shovel ready" to use a term from the Stimulus Plan that has helped the Doyle Drive project, the TransBay Project and will help the Central Sub-Way Project and others. But, there is more the Water System Improvement Project linked with Hetch Hetchy and the soon to be declared Waste Water Project that is taking place right here in San Francisco, in our back yard. What is totally mind boggling is how the contracts are divided and distributed in San Francisco. Some few consultants, most of whom have deep connections with the movers and shakers and control San Francisco City Hall - receive the inside scoop and then rake in the millions before doling out the contracts. The so called bid process is rigged and this has been going on right under our noses. This type of nonsense with absolutely no transparency and accountability has been going on for years. However, in the last three years these "thug consultants" have been so embolden that they are ready to challenge anyone that exposes them. They need to be investigated and they need to be jailed. If you follow the money and you know the players, it is not very difficult to find out who these crooks are. It helps if you know how City Hall operates. It helps if you can review the documents using the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act as some of us have been doing for the last fifteen years. It helps if you can connect the dots. It may surprise many to know that right here in San Francisco we have had many construction projects in the last three years. The projects together total over $4 Billion and during the last three years we could have employed all the workers in San Francisco - journeymen workers, entry level workers, skilled workers and non-skilled workers - but on purpose we did not. Why? In San Francisco we may talk the talk but we have absolutely no desire to enforce laws that are in our books. For example our Human Rights Commission has some compliance officers but if you investigate the number of inspection they have conducted in detail on the major projects - it will shock you. Add to that the City and County of San Francisco until recently did not have any mechanism to study and derive vital statistics linked to payroll. Until very recently, the payroll was primitive to say the least and the Human Rights Commission and other Regulatory Agencies did not have the capacity first to collect the data, secondly to analyze the data and thirdly to enforce what they had to in the first place. It was the blind leading the blind and has been so until in very recent months. Some so called progressives are now trying to mandate fifty percent local hiring on projects within the City of San Francisco. It sound right but we have no mechanism first to enforce this ordinance or law and second to monitor it across the board. Large corporations do as they please and bring in their own workers, they defy local mandates and pay their workers below wage rates and will tell you blatantly to go take a hike, if you pry into their dubious practices. If have local Unions foremost among them Local Union 22 the Carpenters Union that discriminates and will bring Union workers that they like from far off places but fail to give jobs to Black and other minorities that belong to Local Union 22 in San Francisco. One has just to meet the Carpenters from Local Union 22 the ones that are Black and they will try you that many of them have not worked for years. Pay attention to Manny Flores he says something but there is nothing to it. It is a shame how Local Union 22 promised innocent mostly Hispanic workers jobs on the Washington Project only for Aaron Peskin to shut down the project. At Hunters Point on the Apartment Investment Management Company's (AIMCO) project Local 22 and one Bill Wong was charged taking money from Union and non-Union workers to help his gambling habit. This fact right here in San Francisco. The Mayor Gavin Newsom did nothing at all. Charges brought before the SF District Attorney went no where. Workers got shot and killed and no one bothered. We, the community put the job on track and Mr. Ruben Santana can be contacted for the facts. Up until now AIMCO has not paid him. Go figure. It is pathetic when one Michael Theriault of the San Francisco Trade Council and Ed Paulson of the San Francisco Labor Council belong to a racists, elitist entity called SPUR. SPUR has a blue print to fight blue collar workers and work for the filthy rich and BIG developers. Case in point Lennar a Rogue Developer that with intent bombarded and poisoned our children and our elders in the Bayview Hunters Point, on Parcel A by the Shipyard, failing to abide by its own Disposition and Development Agreement that is a legal document that pointed to a protocol to abate toxic dust and other adverse impacts such as Asbestos structures. Recently, the majority of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave Lennar the permission to build ten thousand five hundred homes on Hunters Point and Candlestick Point. This reckless decision is a slap and defies logic and more sanity. Building ten thousand five hundred homes on land prone to liquefaction and flooding and more contaminated by radiological elements - the Hunters Point Shipyard has been designated as a Superfund Site. In San Francisco we have a population of about 900,000 this we gather from the the latest 2010 census. Here is San Francisco the City and County employs over twenty eight thousand employees. Over fifty percent of them make over $150,000. Over sixty percent of them live outside San Francisco. These mostly inept City workers come in daily rake in the millions and laugh all the way to the bank. How impossible is it to first give opportunities to San Franciscans to work at City Hall and all our City Departments. The Enterprise Departments like the San Francisco Port Authority, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and the San Francisco Airport Authority. Set a mandate of thirty percent employment to San Franciscans. We will have eliminated all the high unemployment in each and every district. Former Mayors and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors could have done this a long time ago. However, these mostly inept so called Representatives love to spew diatribe and will not represent the constituents of San Francisco. If only the public knew the millions wasted by our City Department, the lack of coordination, the duplicity in sharing software - it is disgusting to say the least. Right now we have over $30 billion in the pipeline and most of the San Francisco Supervisors have no clue how to create a Blue Print and address this situation. They prefer discussing sensational issues to attract the corrupt Press to give them some attention. Boost their low morale and shed poor light on this great City and County of San Francisco. Right now it is dog eat dog and dogs with fleas that are restless and do not know what to do. The Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Workforce is a joke. City Build has wasted over $40 million in the last six years and graduated less then nine hundred candidates mostly linked with entry level jobs. Most of the money going to pay staff and one like Rhonda Simmons who makes over $175,000 with benefits for doing a lousy job. There are others too, one worse then the other. Consultants like Laura Luster paid over $600,000 during the last six years by this City, a person who lives in Marin and make her money wheeling and dealing with dubious projects of no value what so ever. She together with Dwayne Jones has learned how to milk the system and must be investigated. Our past Mayors and our San Francisco Board of Supervisor think nothing of approving grants without any detail review. The SF Health Department has a budget of over $1 Billion and does not meet the required standards. Our SF City and County has a budget of $6.8 billion, yes BILLION - and look at us. We require a Mayor that will rock the boat, send those that waste our money to jail, for a long, long, long time. It is time to stop all this crap while thousands of innocent San Franciscans are suffering and more do not have jobs that this City can easily afford to give them. If you pay taxes and live in San Francisco and are qualified you get first preference. Most jobs should be caped at $100,000. If you do not like it, because you live outside our City but still think you can may big bucks and not work hard - take a hike, we can do without you.

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