Whistle-blower’s lawyer fees could cost S.F. millions

The city of San Francisco could be on the hook for $2.4 million in attorney’s fees racked up by a former deputy city attorney who said she was fired after exposing a long-running illegal kickback scheme between city workers and plumbing companies.

The fees, awarded by a San Francisco judge this month, come after a jury unanimously found in March that the city violated whistle-blower and false-claims statutes when it fired Joanne Hoeper in 2014. The jury awarded her about $2.7 million in compensation.

San Francisco has appealed the verdict, however, leaving unsettled the question of how much the city might ultimately have to pay.

John Coté, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said the city has always maintained it had independent reasons for terminating Hoeper.

“We were all surprised and disappointed with the jury’s verdict,” he said.

Coté added that because the case is ongoing, the city could not divulge how much it has paid out to its own attorneys at the prominent, and expensive, San Francisco law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters. In court documents, however, Hoeper’s attorneys estimated that the city “likely spent $5 million defending this case.”

An attorney for Hoeper at the law firm Cannata, O’Toole, Fickes & Almazan could not be reached immediately for comment.

Hoeper said she was fired after bringing to light a scheme in which city staffers received kickbacks after assigning as much as $10 million in contracts for unnecessary work to sewer lines. Coté said those allegations were never proved.

“Ms. Hoeper produced no evidence of fraud or kickbacks. This was always a case about employment,” Coté said.