Questions on Nuru’s tenure, pension in fallout over probe
Calls for disgraced Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru’s ouster from city government are intensifying amid the widening fallout from the public corruption scandal he’s been accused of orchestrating.
But despite the details the Justice Department laid out in its criminal complaint against Nuru this week, the expected end of his decadeslong career as a public employee depends on the outcome of a meticulous personnel investigation now under way.
That process will also provide the answer to another central question: Will Nuru get to keep his city pension, despite accusations of corruption and fraud?
San Francisco supervisors have expressed outrage over the Justice Department’s charges against Nuru and prominent restaurateur Nick Bovis. Several supervisors have held up the scandal as evidence of the dire need for greater transparency and accountability from city government.
But they’ve had to walk a fine line when it comes to voicing their opinions on Nuru’s future. Nuru declined to answer any questions from a reporter Thursday, including whether he plans to resign.
Federal officials charged Nuru and Bovis with fraud on Tuesday, accusing the two men of concocting several schemes, including an attempt to bribe an airport commissioner, to give Bovis an edge in securing city
contracts. Nuru has also been accused of accepting gifts from a billionaire Chinese developer in exchange for help with a development deal, lying to the FBI and receiving free and discounted building materials along with a John Deere tractor at his Stonyford (Colusa County) vacation home. Nuru and Bovis face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
But the allegations on their own aren’t enough to lead to Nuru’s firing.
State law intended to protect workers’ rights forbids employers from firing someone because they’ve been arrested. Nuru was placed on paid administrative leave on Monday while San Francisco officials conduct an internal investigation — including a review of the criminal complaint and Nuru’s personnel file. The process also involves an interview with his boss — City Administrator Naomi Kelly — during which Nuru can defend himself.
In the next few days, the city’s human resources department and other agencies will recommend to Kelly whether or not Nuru should be terminated from the position, which paid him a $273,400 salary last year, not including benefits.
The question of his pension rests with the board of the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement system, which could decide to rescind it.
In general, city employees can lose their pension if they’re found to have engaged in unethical practices or deliberately misused city resources. Nuru could still lose his roughly $91,000 a year pension, even if he resigns.
San Francisco’s charter is clear about who has the power to terminate Nuru and who does not. It forbids supervisors from interfering with personnel decisions — including the appointment, promotion or discipline of city employees. The law is meant to prevent elected officials from influencing hiring and firing decisions within city government.
But on Wednesday, Supervisor Matt Haney — among Nuru’s most reliable critics in recent months — said Nuru should be fired. His calls for Nuru’s termination drew the attention of the Municipal Executives Association, which represents managers within San Francisco city government. Lawyers for the association wrote to Haney on Thursday, warning that while he can exercise free speech, calling for Nuru to be fired risked “committing official misconduct.”
On Thursday, Haney retreated from his call to fire Nuru and demanded instead that the public works director resign.
“Now we know that the very time that the conditions on our streets worsened, Director Nuru is accused of spending his time lining his own pockets.
This is infuriating,” Haney said. “For anyone who is in a situation like this, it seems clear that they should resign.”
At a news conference Thursday, Haney said the city attorney’s office had also advised him that he “cannot call directly for someone to be dismissed. But I very much hope that the mayor and the city administrator will do the right thing here.”
Haney also said that he planned to lead the search for an independent investigator who’d be tasked with a sweeping review of alleged corruption within public works, the airport commission and any other city departments that may have been wrapped up in Nuru’s alleged schemes. Haney made it clear that the special investigator would be looking into agencies overseen by the mayor.
That investigation would apparently be done in parallel with another probe by the city attorney’s office and the controller initiated by Mayor London Breed this week. But Haney said restoring the public’s trust in city government, which has been corroded by Nuru’s alleged scandals, required an investigation conducted by someone independent from local politics.
“We absolutely cannot rely on the executive branch of government in the city and county of San Francisco to investigate itself. That does not work,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, who joined Haney alongside Supervisor Gordon Mar. City Attorney Dennis Herrera is independently elected and his office does not fall under the executive branch.
Asked about the separate probe, John Coté, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said “this office’s track record of independence is unparalleled. We will follow the facts wherever they lead.”
With Nuru on paid leave, Alaric Degrafinried was appointed as the city’s interim public works director on Wednesday. Degrafinried was previously the city purchaser, overseeing contracts for most city departments, but not public works. He has pledged to bring more “openness and transparency” to the troubled department, particularly around the contractbidding process. He said the department will do more outreach to potential bidders and try to get more local businesses involved.
Nuru’s boss, Kelly, who was in Glen Park with Degrafinried on Thursday, said the city is “taking these allegations very seriously” and described Degrafinried as “an expert at contracting integrity.” Chronicle staff writer Rachel Swan
contributed to this report.