Ex-chief a harsh boss, say staffers
Employees often berated, city investigation shows
The San Francisco Housing Authority in recent years was a workplace awash in boorish comments and questionable contracting practices, with staff “always on pins and needles,” as its executive director, Henry Alvarez, led the agency onto financial shoals.
That’s the description that emerges from witnesses — and is strongly disputed by Alvarez — in more than 100 pages of independent investigative reports into complaints about Alvarez’s leadership of the agency, which provides more than 6,000 units of public housing to San Franciscans.
The inquiry, conducted by former City Attorney Louise Renne at the request of the authority’s Board of Commis-
sioners, found that the recently ousted Alvarez violated agency policies in his treatment of two senior employees, stripping one of responsibilities after that employee went on paternity leave and berating the other — and staff in general — “with some regularity.”
There was insufficient evidence, though, to show that Alvarez’s conduct amounted to harassment or racial discrimination, or that he retaliated against his staff for complaining to city officials about his behavior, according to Renne’s findings.
The reports also raise troubling questions about the procurement process under Alvarez, but indicate they will “offer no conclusions” on whether Alvarez was illegally manipulating contracts to bidders with ties to City Hall in an effort to keep his job.
At odds with witnesses
One report, though, points out several instances where Alvarez’s account of the contracting process was at odds with e-mails or other witnesses, and another of the reports concludes that “many of the witnesses, including Alvarez, were not always forthcoming.”
Renne’s investigation is one of at least three inquiries into Alvarez’s leadership of the Housing Authority, which is deep in the red and rated one of the two worst out of California’s 114 housing agencies. It is also the subject of a city audit that is nearing completion. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides funding, is also conducting an inquiry, including a potential criminal probe of contracting practices under Alvarez.
Unprofessional conduct
Three former Housing Authority employees, including Tim Larsen, who had been the authority’s general counsel, and Roger Crawford, an attorney and special assistant to the executive director, are suing Alvarez for discrimination and retaliation.
Alvarez, who took medical leave in February amid mounting criticism and recently opened a restaurant in Berkeley, was fired last month after almost five years on the job.
The Renne investigation, which included interviews with 32 people, found that Alvarez, 57, spouted unprofessional comments, such as telling three white, male attorneys they were “too homogenous,” or saying “there are too many Asians in finance” or that “there was no way a white lesbian” was going to tell him how to run his agency.
One of the reports details seven instances of suspicious contracting activity under Alvarez, including contracts allegedly steered toward friends or politically connected bidders.
In two instances in 2012, the authority sought bids for work on a particular project, received the minimum three bids and then put out a new, very similar invitation within a couple of weeks.
Both times, two of the bids came back with the same cost estimates. But the third bidder in each instance dropped his or her hourly fee enough to go from being the highest bidder to the lowest and to win the contract.
‘Needed to do a contract’
In the first instance, Larsen said Alvarez informed him that City Administrator Naomi Kelly had told him the Housing Authority “needed to do a contract” with Linda Richardson, the report said.
Richardson, president of the Treasure Island Development Authority’s Board of Directors, initially bid $185 an hour to help run elections for tenant boards at public housing projects, making her the high bidder. Larsen told investigators that Alvarez, after learning that, replied, “OK, I guess I’ll have to talk to (Richardson).”
Richardson later dropped her bid to $80 an hour on the second round and was awarded the contract. It was initially only supposed to be for $49,000 for 48 months, according to a draft document obtained by investigators, but it was changed to be a one-year contract for $99,000, according to the report, just under the $100,000 threshold that triggers commission review.
Richardson told investigators she dropped her bid because the scope of work had changed, and she called the allegation she had gotten a tip on what to bid “unfair.” Richardson, whose work under the contract has won high praise from some, also said she had “no idea” Alvarez had allegedly been urged to give her a contract, the report said.
Alvarez denied that Kelly had even suggested he hire Richardson.
Kelly told investigators she had encouraged Alvarez to find help with “tenant relations” and cited several people who could help, including Richardson, the report said. Kelly told The Chronicle the allegation she directed Alvarez to hire Richardson, or anyone else, was “not true.”
Kelly, who has been tapped by Mayor Ed Lee to recommend how to reshape the agency, said the report “raises troubling questions about the integrity of the Housing Authority’s contracting process.”
In another instance, Larsen said Alvarez had him resolicit bids three times for a contract to provide security at public housing projects. Alvarez later called Larsen into his office and said he had just returned from lunch with Chronicle columnist and former Mayor Willie Brown where he met Stan Teets, who runs the private security firm Personal Protective Services, which was not poised to win the contract, the report said.
‘Get PPS the work’
“Larsen said that Alvarez told him, ‘You need to figure this out; you need to figure out away to get PPS the work,’ ” according to the report. “Larsen said that his belief is that Alvarez saw Brown as an influential person, and that he (Alvarez) therefore needed to get Teets a contract or risk losing his job.”
After PPS failed to win the contract, Larsen said Alvarez told him to start the process over a fourth time, the report said.
Alvarez denied to investigators that ever happened.
Brown, when reached on his cell phone, said: “I can’t talk to you. I’m at a luncheon.”
The Housing Authority recently tightened its contracting controls, lowering the threshold for contracts that would have to be approved by the commission from $100,000 to $30,000.