Mass Resignations Should Trigger Radical Housing Authority Reform

by Randy Shaw, 2007-09-18

San 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.

I have previously argued that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors should take control of the city’s Housing Authority. Pending that action, thousands of the city’s low-income families continue to live at the mercy of an uncaring, inept, and incompetent mayor-appointed Housing Authority Commission.

While Mayor Newsom has expressed anger over ongoing problems at the SFHA, he has maintained a Commission that has done nothing to improve the situation. Who are these Commissioners who remain out of the limelight while the children in their ultimate care live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions?

Here’s the list: Rev. George Woodruff, Commission President; Neola Gans, Vice President; George R. Brown; Rev. Amos Brown; Irene Yee Riley; Millard Larkin; and Jane Hsu.

For most San Franciscans, only former Supervisor and prominent Reverend Amos Brown is a known commodity. And what is known about Brown is not reassuring.


Recall that Amos Brown engaged in a questionable owner move-in eviction when he needed an address in District 11 to run in the 2000 Supervisor’s race. Supervisor Brown was best known for his attempt to take shopping carts from homeless people; he is now regularly quoted in the media about the city’s declining African-American population, without ever acknowledging his own complicity.

I am unaware of Commision President Woodruff’s qualifications for his post, though he presumably is an improvement over his predecessor, Julie Lee. Lee “qualified” for the position by raising money for Willie Brown on the city’s Westside, and was only forced to leave her post after being charged with multiple indictments in the funding scandal that forced Secretary of State Kevin Shelley out of his job.

Commissioner Larkin was appointed only a year ago, and has a long record of experience in the city’s African-American community. He is President of a consulting company, and appears to have the type of experience with disadvantaged youth that would serve him well on the Commission.

But amidst the media drumbeat of outrage of problems at the SFHA, has anyone read a quote from Larkin acknowledging the problems or vowing action?

Has anyone seen the slightest hint of public concern expressed by any of the seven commissioners?

Realize that this Commission reportedly recently gave Director Gregg Fortner a sweetheart contract extension, despite a job performance that is widely viewed as substandard. We have not seen such an example of rewarding incompetence since George W. Bush said “Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job” as FEMA’s Michael Brown was worsening the nightmare of Hurricane Katrina.

In case you are wondering why Fortner was one of only two department heads or commissioners who did not hand in their resignation, the reason is that it would have voided the golden parachute he recently negotiated for himself with a Commission asleep at the wheel. If Newsom wants to fire Fortner now, the city will pay a steep price.

If the other Commissioners have experience dealing with either tenants or property management, they have not used this track record to help improve the SFHA.

Now Mayor Newsom can avoid singling out specific commissioners and replace the entire group at once. And to begin rebuilding confidence among SFHA residents, he must appoint a high-profile Commission President who knows how to get things done.

Someone like former Mayor Art Agnos.

Director Fortner has been spending scarce Housing Authority dollars seeking to overturn Agnos’ court appointment as receiver for the SFHA, and Newsom’s appointment of Agnos as Commission President would send a strong message that life at the SFHA is about to change.

Newsom might prefer appointing a President with whom he has a closer relationship. Someone like Assessor Phil Ting, who has a real estate background and could later decide to replace Fortner as SFHA head.

Newsom has good relations with many can-do executives. Perhaps he could call upon Craig Newmark of Craig’s List fame to head the Commission----he may have no experience with tenants or property management, but he would certainly give the SFHA an “outside the box” image, and would know how to get the operation running to maximum efficiency in short order.

And for another Commissioner, how about Ted Gullicksen of the San Francisco Tenants Union, who lives in Bayview? With Gullicksen on the Commission, SFHA residents will know for certain that they have a strong ally on their side.

Weak commissioners who have been little more than “yes people” for the incumbent director have long ruled the SFHA. Mayor Newsom’s mass resignation request gives him an opportunity to change this destructive culture, once and for all.

My own sense is that the broadly negative response to the Mayor’s resignation directive will shift if it becomes a vehicle for radical change, and not just window-dressing to remove a handful of people. And if the Mayor ushers in a new SFHA Commission with an aggressive pro-resident agenda, it will be this new body, rather than the mass resignation request, that will be remembered.

Send feedback to rshaw@beyondchron.org