Mass Resignations Should Trigger Radical Housing Authority ReformRandy Shawbyline‚ Sep. 18‚ 2007San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has been widely criticized for requiring all of his Department Heads and Commissioners to submit resignation letters. But this action has an important upside: Newsom is now free to replace all of the current Housing Authority Commissioners with people who actually care about how poor people live. The Mayor’s desire to break from the past should apply with no greater force to a Commission so dominated by cronyism and incompetence that its Executive Director, Gregg Fortner, reportedly recently received a lucrative contract extension with a golden parachute despite his sorry record. If Newsom believed he was limited in changing the Housing Authority Commission out of loyalty to Willie Brown appointees, that impediment is now gone. |