City Hall Digest: How Should We Police Traffic Violations? Plus: A City Worker’s Less-Than-Kosher Side Gig

City Hall Digest is TogetherSF Action’s weekly dispatch from San Francisco’s City Hall, broken into bite-sized pieces—because understanding local government is your fundamental right.

Why Did an SF Health Department Official Make a Six-Figure Salary from Her Unauthorized Nonprofit Side Gig?

This week, the San Francisco Standard reported that a top employee at the San Francisco Department of Public Health has been earning a six-figure side salary from a city-contracted nonprofit that her department directly oversaw. Dr. Lisa Pratt, Director of Jail Health Services, held an unauthorized position as the medical director of Baker Places which netted her $123,000 a year on top of her $428,750 city salary. While city employees can hold secondary employment, they must first get approval from the Department of Human Resources—which Pratt did not.

Pratt’s employment with both the city and Baker Places, which runs a large drug rehabilitation group that provides 215 treatment beds, creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, as she could have influenced city dollars going to the nonprofit. Baker Places received about $70 million in contract awards for this year alone. Despite this, the organization still asked the city for a $4 million bailout this month, citing a budget shortfall. 

This highlights the need for serious reform when it comes to contracting oversight. Whether intentional or not, the Department of Public Health failed to prevent Pratt from taking advantage of a broken system. Supervisor Aaron Peskin spoke out, telling the San Francisco Standard that “it just feels really wrong if the head of that department has another half-time job.” Indeed, this incident raises serious questions about DPH’s contract monitoring. 

A common response to this type of revelation might be to create a commission to increase oversight. In fact, there is already a commission to oversee the Department of Public Health. Real commission reform might look like sending contract approval through the Office of Contract Administration instead of through the departments, where individuals might be disincentivized to provide oversight to their team members. This is something the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors have the power to change today—and Catherine Stefani appears to already be on it, introducing draft legislation Tuesday.

SFUSD Teachers Still Plagued By Payroll Errors, Ten Months Later

Ten months after the San Francisco Unified School District became aware of a problem with its payroll software affecting teachers’ abilities to get paid on time (or at all), the issue persists. Reminder: this is the software that the previous Board of Education voted to purchase for $16 million.

As of October 21, the district has 9,216 outstanding payroll help tickets affecting 3,530 workers. More than 2,000 of these tickets have not been acted on in more than three months. While the District is now taking action like launching a call center and clinics for affected people, this could have been prevented with more attention to detail.

Gabriela López, who was the president of the Board of Education when they made the decision to purchase the faulty payroll system, is running for re-election. Read about why we’re endorsing Ann Hsu, Lainie Motamedi, and Lisa Weissman-Ward instead.

Tragic Traffic Fatality Sparks Debate About Law Enforcement 

Last week, Hayward resident Robert Green struck two pedestrians while he was speeding, running a stop sign, and driving under the influence. One of the pedestrians, Sunset resident Huansu He, was killed. 

In addition to being devastating for He’s family and community, this incident sparked debate about the police’s role in traffic enforcement, with some saying that reducing traffic stops is necessary to reduce racial bias in police work and others saying they’d like to see more enforcement from police to reduce traffic fatalities.

District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar seemed to voice support for both sides of this debate (something he seems to be making a habit of doing this election cycle). He tweeted that law enforcement should “stop the excuses and step up on enforcing traffic laws,” but also answered a Bicycle Coalition candidate questionnaire saying that “law enforcement in its current form should not play any role in traffic safety enforcement.” 

This traffic fatality was a terrible loss that policy has the power to prevent, and we hope that our elected officials will focus on potential policy changes to the San Francisco Police Department that could reduce both racial bias during traffic enforcement and the potential for traffic-related death and injury. They can start by choosing which side of the debate they are on.

Cooperation Between the Superintendent and the School Board Signals Hope for SFUSD’s Recovery

SFUSD has faced some serious problems over the past few years, including declining enrollment, learning loss, and low student attendance.

Last week, SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne unveiled an action plan for the district to address its most pressing problems. The most significant policy change? A shift in responsibilities for the school board, which will now be focused on setting big-picture goals and then handing it over to Superintendent Wayne to execute the policies that will lead to outcomes.

The board’s goals for Superintendent Wayne include increasing third grade proficiency in reading from 52 percent this month to 70 percent in the next five years. During that same time, eighth-grade math proficiency should reach 65 percent, up from 42 percent. Seventy percent of 12th graders will be college and career ready, up from 58 percent.

Three of the current school board members, Ann Hsu, Lainie Motamedi, and Lisa Weissman-Ward, are up running to keep their seats. Read more about why letting them continue their work is crucial for the success of the district.

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