The phrase no fewer than three colleagues of retired Department of Building Inspection engineer Robert Chun used while recollecting their former coworker was “a Chinese Mister Rogers.”
He was described as soft-spoken and buttoned-down: A tall, thin, proper man who was talented at his job as a plan-check supervisor. So Chun’s fellow building department employees were shocked when the feds charged him as one of 10 defendants in a vast prostitution ring accused of importing women from Asian countries and housing them in as many as 40 brothels operating throughout the Bay Area.
Shocked, shocked. But not surprised.
Around seven or eight years before Chun was indicted, a DBI colleague was headed over to Chun’s desk for a query about the building code. Just what manner of coding arcana prompted this visit has been lost to time, but the outcome of the meeting has not.
“He pulled out his laptop and says, ‘You want to see something good, here?’” recalls Chun’s former longtime colleague. “He starts showing me pictures of these women, nude or partially nude. He told me he was a photographer who was doing photographs of strippers. He told me they used them for ads on the internet.”
“I always thought of Robert as a nice guy and a competent plan-checker. It surprised me that he showed me those pictures,” continued his former colleague. Engaging in this behavior in the office during work hours “was unprofessional for someone who was an engineer working for the city. But I figured that there’s no law against taking pictures of strippers.”
Chun’s colleague, who had work to do, got on with his day. He never complained. And that was that. Until the feds got involved.
Chun was federally accused of taking photographs of “nude and partially nude prostitutes” and posting those online as ads, an arrangement he texted about with the ringleader of the prostitution operation. Chun additionally leased out “at least two” brothels in his own name, and was reimbursed monthly rent money plus $500 by the ringleader.
That federal case was filed in October 2014. On Jan. 21, 2020, Chun was sentenced to five years probation on three counts: Conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, conspiracy to use interstate and foreign commerce in aid of racketeering enterprise, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
On Feb. 29, 2020, Chun — who, at one point, managed the city’s mandatory retrofit program — retired from the building department.
Yes, you’re doing the math correctly: For not quite six years, while under federal indictment, Chun kept his job at DBI. More than that: He remained a supervisor, managing mixed-gender teams. He even got a raise. And his official last day on the job didn’t come until 39 days after his sentencing for three federal crimes.
Robert Chun, reached through an intermediary, declined to be interviewed.
Well, fair enough. There is no upside for him. And the purpose of this article is not to hound him in the present. Anyone who wanted details on the federal charges he and others were convicted of only had to Google his name. Chun continues to serve his sentence and move on with his life.
Rather, the focus here is on Chun’s former place of employment. In a nutshell: How the hell could this happen? And what does it say about the place DBI was — and is? There are still plenty of people in this department who were brought in and moved up by its dubious former management. And, unlike Chun, they have not been sentenced for federal crimes, ostensibly making it even more difficult to push them out.
In present-day San Francisco, the question of just what it should take for someone accused of heinous behavior to lose their job and standing is both roiling and legitimate. When you’re a unionized city employee, however, even federal charges aren’t enough to automatically derail your employment. Such matters are codified in the staid and lengthy pacts brokered by unions with city management; the one relevant to Chun’s employment during the years in question can be read here.
So, Chun was going to be coming to work, even though his colleagues were well aware of what he was accused of, having read the stories in the local press (though, for reasons unknown, those stories named Chun but never connected him back to working for the city and DBI). “He was the elephant in every room,” said a former colleague.
But did Chun need to be kept in such a nice room? Did he need to remain a supervisor? Chun’s raise, in fact, came about because he was required to earn at least 5 percent more than the people he was supervising, meaning, yes, he was supervising people.
Could he have been busted down to technical services answering phones or banished to code enforcement? Yes, that could have happened if the building department’s former management desired it. It clearly did not.
Chun’s bizarre employment classification gives a hint as to why. From October 2000 until he left DBI nearly two decades later, he was categorized as an “acting supervisor.”
Now, that is a very long act. Bringing in someone as an “acting” supervisor and keeping him that way serves two purposes. It’s easier for a boss to unilaterally promote an “acting” supervisor without dealing with input and pushback from other powerful groups. And a long-term “acting” supervisor is more vulnerable to be leaned on to carry out the whims of that boss.
The boss of the Department of Building Inspection from 2012, until he was abruptly marched out of the building at legal bayonet-point in 2020, was Tom Hui. Hui, somehow, remains a free man. He has not yet been charged by local or federal law-enforcement for the rampant, well-documented corruption, in writing, unearthed by the city attorney — namely, turning over management of his department to permit expediter and fixer Walter Wong. Hui continues to draw a monthly pension of $17,061.11.
Chun’s former colleagues described Chun and Hui as tight. But even they may not realize how tight. Mission Local obtained a number of documents, including Hui’s resume and an October 2001 letter from Hui to then-Mayor Willie Brown. But the metadata on the files reveals that Chun edited the resume, and he is listed as the author of the letter to Brown.
When you’ve edited the resume of the guy who goes on to get the department director job, then you’re tight.
An accusation alone couldn’t cost Chun his job (though, inexplicably, he remained employed nearly six weeks after his sentencing). But the accusation could’ve triggered an internal investigation to determine if Chun could no longer “hold the public trust.”
It is unclear if such an investigation was ever launched. If it was, there appear to have been no ramifications stemming from it.
Tom Hui left the Department of Building Inspection in March 2020, less than two weeks after his former editor Chun.
So, that’s a while ago. Yet this remains a relevant situation, because you’ll remember that — separate and apart from being convicted of federal crimes — Chun’s colleagues regarded him as a competent employee.
The same cannot be said for the many current and former DBI workers brought in by Hui to do the bidding of Hui — who was, himself, essentially brought in by Wong to do the bidding of Wong.
“This was just one of a long line of instances where DBI took care of its loyal minions,” sums up a department veteran.
The department’s prior management was both unwilling and unable to show Chun the door. Even if the present leadership is willing, it is unable to summarily jettison Hui’s people — and again, unlike Chun, they haven’t been sentenced for federal crimes relating to an international prostitution ring.
They also haven’t shown racy images to their co-workers. In 2010, higher-ups at the Planning Department were fired for forwarding around smutty emails. Not long thereafter, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development lost a supervisor not because of his own misbehavior but because he didn’t clamp down on an underling’s inappropriate workplace web browsing quickly and forcefully enough.
So, that’s something to think about. Showing your co-workers photographs of nude women will probably get you fired — if someone complains about it. Being accused by the FBI and Department of Justice of taking those photos in furtherance of a massive international prostitution ring will not.
San Francisco remains an amazing place. Just another beautiful day in the neighborhood.
The corruption at DBI is off the charts. But in this case, I’m not sure I see the point of this story. You’re innocent until proven guilty, so the fact that he kept his job while the case went to trial seems reasonable to me. What’s not reasonable is that the case took 6 years to prosecute.
If you want to see real corruption at DBI and our justice system, check out the article about Sia Tahbazof over on The Standard. The guy was convicted of bribing DBI for 18 years and his punishment is 3 years probation and a $75K fine. He probably extracted more than $75K of value from just one of his countless bribes. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston: SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!
That’s true. You are innocent until proven guilty. However, Robert Chun was promoted to be the manager who ran the soft story program while being indicted. There is no secret throughout the department that Robert Chun was a crucial figure in an international prostitute enterprise. Robert Chun is not the only corrupted DBI manager. Was DBI necessary to promote a guy who was being indicted as a prostitution entrepreneur to being that man who should hold the trust of 10000+ property owners? The answer is yes because all business will be under control with a manager who has a history of corruption resume to carry out that scheme. It is no secret that DBI is structured like a criminal enterprise. The soft story program forces SF residential property owners to pay hundreds of thousands to upgrade each property. If the structures were inspected correctly to code when first built and survived after two significant earthquakes, why do those properties need such substantial upgrades again? An average of $100,000 for each upgrade multiplied by 10000 units equals one thousand million in construction cost. Who benefits the most? Contractor!? Who implanted those minions into DBI management to jiggle those bogus programs once every five years? All DBI managers were planted in a position to implement programs for the extraction of money out of property owners
you can substitute the names of the people in the story as well as the name of the department with the name of just about any other City departments. As the story alludes to, the larger issues at hand is City Leadership. The top brass at City hall are the ones who bring in department heads “CIOs” who bring also then bring in their people. When you are not one of their people, and report or try to whistleblow them- good luck, say good by to your employment. The City is run like an organized crime ring.
More scandal under mayors Ed Lee and London Breed. If this happened under a progressive mayor, the billionaire/Republican funded Stop Crime Action would pay for posters to be pasted on walls all over town saying that the mayor should be recalled.
That’s why I vote NO on any of these local initiatives….it just feeds the corruption. Get rid of the so called non profits and all the local politicians. Hey enable this by having no oversight.
“Bringing in someone as an “acting” supervisor — and keeping him that way — serves two purposes. It’s easier for a boss to unilaterally promote an “acting” supervisor without dealing with input and pushback from other powerful groups. And a long term “acting” supervisor is more vulnerable to be leaned on to carry out the whims of that boss.”
I think there may be a very important third reason. I’ll bet that bump in salary he got along with that title was pensionable, which plays in nicely with the other two. The pension spiking gane is real in SF city govt.
The funding structure of the department itself invites corruption. The contractors paying for permit fees are the department’s “customers” (DBI’s word). Yet the job of a building department is to police those same people who are paying their salaries. Under this funding structure, DBI will always forget that their client should be the general public and that their fundamental responsibility is public safety, not obtaining more permit fees or streamlining (“expediting”) things for “customers” who pay the most.
whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I’m not saying the guy isn’t a sleeze… but innocent people get accused of things all the time. It’s not fair to expect employers to fire everyone that gets accused. People have the right to judgement by a jury of their peers before dropping the hammer. That 39 days should have been shorter…
Just imagine how many never get caught. And here you are arguing about a guy who pretty much outed himself is guilty.
Robert is like Donald. Both worked for the government and also participated in prostitute enterprise ring. There are many civil servants just like Robert Chun and Donald Trump.
Robert Chun
Donald Trump
Tic tac toe
Are they long lost twin brothers? 😄😀😄😀
Disgusting! Just goes to show you how the City Government protects their own without accountability or transparency including the City Attorney. Chun will probably keep his pension as well just like the criminally accused Tom Hui and jailed Bernie Curran. This seriously turns my stomach how the City Attorney’s Office does nothing but persecute the innocent citizens which have been victimized by the City’s corruption while they turn their blind eyes at the corrupt City officials. This is the climate and policy SFDBI created and now the citizens have to navigate it. Just go down to SFDBI now and look who’s there. Nothing but overpaid officials counting the days till retirement and nobody filing for permits. They have shot off their foot and soon will have a huge budget deficit that they will have to accommodate by fining and overcharging the good honest people of this City.
Another case in point is how Patrick O’Riordan now runs the show at SFDBI after he was the boss that oversaw all the corruption as Chief Inspector. Either he was too blind and dumb to know what was going on or he didn’t care, either way it guarantees the corrupt status quo at SFDBI. Thats like giving the poacher keys to the game preserve and guarantees nothing has changed but the players. No wonder so many good peole have given up on the City and moved out.
Ann —
Robert Chun will undoubtedly keep his pension as you can only lose it by committing a moral turpitude crime relating to on-the-job misconduct. If city resources were involved in his crimes, he would be liable to lose his pension. They are not.
If Tom Hui is convicted of on-the-job corruption, then he would stand to lose his pension. Bernie Curran, convicted of job-related moral turpitude crimes, will all but certainly lose his pension.
Best,
JE
No where in this story are we told just what his sentence is, just that he continues to serve it. Is he at home, in jail or prison, or simply on probation? I would really like to know this one bit of information. I cannot even find it with a general google search.
After retiring from DBI in 2020, Robert Chun immediately landed a plan check job at CSG Consulting, a 3rd party plan check corporation. CSG approves permit plans under outsourcing contracts with multiple government agencies and California’s local jurisdiction. Coincidentally, Rudolph Pada, another convicted-corrupted DBI plan checker who was also a supervisor and manager of DBI, also landed a plan checker job at CSG after he retired from DBI in 2008. After one and a half years of employment at CSG, Robert Chun departed in 2022. He joined another similar outsourcing plan checking company named True North Consulting, run by DBI ex-Director of 2007-08, Islam Hasenin. Robert Chun is still working as a plan checker at True North. If you are a lucky permit owner in Bay Area, you may still find Robert’s fingerprint on your permit.
“That federal case was filed in October 2014. On Jan. 21, 2020, Chun was sentenced to five years probation on three counts: conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity; conspiracy to use interstate and foreign commerce in aid of racketeering enterprise and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. ”
Easy to miss because it’s nothing. Sigh.
What do you mean? Nothing? This is a serious crime of running an international ring of prostitutition. Aid in international money laundry. The reason why Robert Chun was sentenced with probation on 5 years because FBI worked out a bargaining deal with him for testifying against the ring leader. The judge wasnt willing to hand out such a relatively light sentencing but respect with the spirit of a bargaining deal. Usually the judge would announce how serious was the crime however the sentence was based on the recommendation of FBI. In that way, it wont taunted the reputation of the judge itself.
Let’s talk about London Breed’s trip to China and a lot of the people traveling with her.
And he was a structural plan checker on the Millennium Tower… And he was the structural plan checker on that Building Inspection Commissioner’s (Mel Murphy) house on Crown Terrace that fell down the hill b/c it wasn’t shored properly…
Wow. He should get charges on the Millennium Tower alone.
This article is a story of one individual but it highlights DBI’s penchant for taking care of the people who help keep the current system in place…I certainly cannot believe any other Building Safety can handle this the way San Francisco can handle this….Look at the Rudy Pada story, worked for DBI in the field and began extorting people so DBI made him an in house engineer (big raise) and then “helped” DBI until his recent troubles. Bernie Curran worked in the field so well they made him Senior (big raise) until his recent troubles. And you better believe more people are in the pipeline for future promotions based on their “helping” keep the current system in place.
If charges are brought against someone, how serious do the charges have to be and can they be punished if they’re presumed innocent until found guilty? I remember reading about a detention room for teachers in NY public school system where they go when there has been accusation but no evidence of improper action because they cannot be charged with no evidence but they cannot allow the teacher to be with kids because they cannot risk something happening when there was report of an incident in the past. Purgatory is what the teachers called it since they cannot prove their innocence but many get tired of not doing anything other than clocking in and passing the time before clocking out at the end of the day. There are a lot of unsatisfactory partial solutions that create a lot of waste and possibly a more creative solution would be more beneficial to everyone. Perhaps it’s best to have the person just take administrative leave while they’re under investigation like the police do. If they’re found to be innocent, they could maybe prepare for a different job while being paid to stay away and not cause any more issue for the city. Nowadays, perhaps these people could be limited to work from home and given tasks that can be easily supervised while not having enough access to create much trouble.
It’s a neighborly day in this beauty WOOD a neighborly day for a beauty. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?
Scandals in San Francisco Burton/Brown/Pelosi Demo Regime!
Am shocked! Truly shocked! Next thing one knows is that
the departments are loaded with Demo Regime minions!