Quentin Kopp: Ethics Commission is "baring its teeth"

By Ethics Commissioner Quentin Kopp in the Westside Observer:

...The [Ethics]Commission has been revitalized with inspirational assistance from a citizens’ association, Friends of Ethics, led by Larry Bush, ex-aide to Mayor Art Agnos, and ex-Deputy Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Housing during President Bill Clinton’s administration. 

An enormous backlog of complaints, caused mainly by the feckless District Attorney’s insistence of claiming he was investigating a complaint and, therefore, the Ethics Commission should wait for him to authorize it to proceed, and some one-and two-year-old complaints arising from inaction by the City Attorney have now been reduced substantially. 

The Commission adopted two months ago a rule that if the District Attorney (or City Attorney) requests we suspend investigation until he has finished his investigation, the Commission will honor the request for 90 days only. If there’s been no action by the District Attorney (or City Attorney), the Commission will proceed. 

Incidentally, did you know the District Attorney has over $1,000,000 budgeted at his request for prosecuting corruption? He has pending but one corruption case against City employees hired during Willie Brown’s mayoralty, and I’ll freely predict no conviction will occur because two superior defense lawyers, Public Defender Jeff Adachi and John Keker represent the defendants.

Next month, I think I’ll be able to relate the story of a Planning Commissioner who is the Executive Director of the vaunted San Francisco Planning and Urban Renewal Association (SPUR), which claims to be a “think tank,” but is nothing more than a building and development organization which gained nonprofit status years ago and spends money to support or oppose ballot measures which affect benevolently or adversely the business interests of its architects, engineers, contractors, real estate tycoons, City Hall lobbyists, and other members. I promise you’re going to like it, and by next month there will be more titillation to report. 

The Ethics Commission is alive and baring its teeth!

For more on Friends of Ethics Larry Bush, click on "Larry Bush" below.