Saturday, October 29, 2011
City Overcharges, Doesn’t Disclose, Delays Public Records Request Until Post-Election
SFMTA triple charged for public documents, Ed Lee doesn’t disclose at all
SAN FRANCISCO – City departments are failing to properly follow open government laws under the direction of interim mayor Ed Lee – in some cases double and triple charging for documents, not disclosing at all, or invoking unacceptable delays
After not receiving even one correspondence – an email, letter or fax – from the mayor’s office in response to a public records request related to the Central Subway Project, this week Senator Leland Yee gave the mayor’s office and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) a second chance to release public documents related to the project and the Chinatown Community Development Center.
Yesterday, the SFMTA invoked a 14-day extension in order to not release any documents until after the Election on November 8. Yee made his original request over a month ago on September 26.
Yee has also been double and sometimes triple charged for the public documents he has received. To access public documents, the City charges 10 cents per a page. In the latest release of documents from SFMTA, they provided two copies of every document and charged as if they were all unique documents. In addition, half of the latest batch of released documents, the agency had already provided Yee weeks ago, therefore triple charging for the exact same information.
“I am shocked at the way our city government is handling sunshine laws,” said Yee. “Rather than fostering an environment of transparency and accountability, the interim mayor is hiding documents, overcharging, and delaying public release of information for his own political gain. It is wrong and unacceptable.”
The public records Yee did receive showed waste and abuse.
There was no work product, such as a report or analysis, produced for CCDC’s contract with the SFMTA for 2010 or 2011. Monthly status reports demonstrated that CCDC completed memorandums - yet, the actual memorandums were not provided.
No deliverables were produced for CCDC work, despite invoices for 6,887 hours of work for which CCDC charged the City $626,777. One invoice for 299 hours of work only showed attendance by CCDC at six meetings, including one with the Mayor’s Office of Housing costing the City a total of $25,207. (link to Exhibit A)
One of the more shocking discoveries from the public records request showed that CCDC charged the City for an internal CCDC meeting in March 2011 to discuss “media strategy as it relates to freedom of information requests.” (link to Exhibit B)
“It is quite shocking that CCDC would charge taxpayers for such a meeting, and even more shocking that the City would pay a nonprofit to strategize about public records requests,” said Yee. “I am not sure if Ed Lee is asleep at the wheel or just wants to enrich his friends at CCDC.”
In addition, there was absolutely no evidence provided showing any of the work done by CCDC was ever put out for competitive bidding by the City.
Yee has called on the interim mayor to halt all contracts with CCDC until a full and independent audit is conducted. Yee is also considering litigation in order to force the City to properly disclose the public documents.
Yee has released an open government plan that includes 21 specific actions he will take to increase transparency and independence at City Hall. You can read his plan at http://www.lelandyee.com/issues/plan-for-an-independent-city-hall/.
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