Significant change has occurred within San Francisco government, but not enough. The City and County's Whistleblower program, which was designed to allow San Francisco civil servants to report "misuse of government funds, and improper activities by City government officials, employees and contractors" remains an empty shell. The Laguna Honda Hospital administrators responsible for the reprehensible workplace harassment campaign against Doctors Derek Kerr and Maria Rivero, which began after the two reported to the Whistleblower Program the misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars of Patients Gift Fund money for lavish staff parties, remain in place. Neither Kerr nor Rivero have yet to be offered a well-deserved return to duty at Laguna Honda.
Debra A. Johnson, SFMTA's deputy director in charge of the agency's morally bankrupt equal employment opportunity and human resources offices, remains in her position, despite news reports that she has applied for the top post at Bay Area Rapid Transit. (MTA’s latest organizational chart, updated August 15, no longer lists Johnson as overseeing MTA’s EEO office, however.)
MTA's Department of Parking and Traffic Assistant Directors remain in place, as does Elias Georgopolous, the parking control supervisor who is the subject of multiple legal cases. Vidalina "Bebe" Pubill, the parking control officer who was fired by the MTA for blowing the whistle on Georgopolous, remains unemployed after being fired in May.
It has been difficult to remain silent in the month since this blog’s last post. Parking supervisor Georgopolous has continued to act as if the restraining order issued against him by San Francisco Superior Court is meaningless—which it is, so long as San Francisco’s City Attorney’s Office, the MTA, Parking and Traffic’s AD office and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 continue to support him.
We have also learned recently that another Parking and Traffic officer has suffered irreparable career damage due to their fear that revealing their same-sex sexual preference would lead to their firing. No other information can be provided about this matter due to the officer’s legitimate concern. What can be said is that San Francisco’s Parking and Traffic’s assistant directors office continues to maintain its de facto hostile workplace environment towards lesbians and gays because San Francisco City Hall and the MTA allow them to remain in office. This intolerable human rights crisis must end.
Rogue San Francisco government administrators continue to hide their misdeeds behind pledges of allegiance to personnel record confidentiality and ongoing/possible lawsuits. These officers are allowed to pick and choose which legitimate civil service and legal concerns they honor by virtue only of their illegitimate hold on positions of authority.
All of the above issues and many similar others have been made known to San Francisco government leaders for years and, in some cases, even decades. Sanity still needs to be restored to the ways in which the City and County’s Government delivers its services to the public.
Postscript: It is no surprise to followers of San Francisco’s public transportation system that new Executive Director Ed Reiskin would not be able to complete his first week in office without a tragedy occurring on his watch. On the afternoon of Friday, August 19, 2011, a Muni bus struck and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk at the corner of 18th and Hartford Streets. There are stop signs at all four corners of the intersection. The Muni bus driver was either in too much of a hurry to reach his or her destination, was not paying close enough attention to the street onto which he or she was turning, or thought that the pedestrian was close enough to reaching the far corner to make the turn safely. In any case, the driver made a tragic error in judgment that led to the loss of life.
Too many San Francisco pedestrians have died in the past due to such driver negligence. It is hoped here that director Reiskin will institute a zero tolerance policy for such incidents, beginning with this one, terminate the employment of the driver and forward all relevant evidence to the San Francisco District Attorney's office for possible criminal prosecution.
