A Pandora's Box Of Workplace Horrors

In February 2006, a group of Department of Parking and Traffic employees met with Stuart Sunshine and Diana Buchbinder, two San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency directors.  They met to discuss a statement sent to MTA by the group that included a request to relieve various Parking and Traffic directors and supervisors from duty.  The statement provided evidence of favoritism, nepotism and retaliation on the part of the Department's administrative offices.  Examples of doctoring internal work records to excuse chronic unexcused absenteeism were included.


The two directors listened to the employees, asked questions and thanked them.  No apparent action was ever taken as a result of the reports.


As a former DPT employee and a participant at this meeting, I myself was a victim of harassment and retaliation.  I knew first hand of injustices suffered by other colleagues within the Department.


For two years, my workplace presented an emotional and physical threat to my well-being on a daily basis.  I followed internal protocol in reporting and documenting my complaints through all of the proper channels.  I began to help other colleagues who were suffering worse violations, including homophobia, intimidation and actual threats, for even longer periods of time.  The only action taken on my behalf, in the end, was to temporarily move me from my workplace to another MTA facility--while the culprits remained in place.  I subsequently found another position--a wonderful position, as it turns out--within San Francisco government.




By the end of 2006, two other parking supervisors brought additional nepotism charges to SFMTA management.  They both claimed that the assistant directors office was attempting to list the daughter of Assistant Director Marie Holland above them on the seniority list.  Their charges were confirmed by SFMTA.


All of the Assistant Directors and supervisors identified by the 2006 DPT employee group--except for one, who has retired--remain in the employ of The City and County of San Francisco.  When ABC local television affiliate KGO ran its May 2011 story on rogue DPT supervisor Elias Georgopolous, and when the SFMTA quickly fired the supervisor who had "blown the whistle" on Georgopolous, I was not surprised.  San Francisco government's defense of such employees goes back years and even decades.


Reform of San Francisco civil service is long overdue.