Frank Fung, a 20-year city appointee who served on the Planning Commission until June 2022, has signed onto a stipulated ethics agreement in which he’ll shell out a $24,200 fine.
The bulk of Fung’s penalty — $20,000 — stems from his contracting with a city entity while he was, himself, a city commissioner. The rest of the agreed-upon fine stems from Fung’s inadequate reporting of his income sources.
At issue is a 2021 sewage contract with the Airport Commission, in which Fung’s architecture firm, ED2 International, signed on as a subcontractor. Fung “signed the contractual agreement … on behalf of ED2,” reads the stipulated agreement. “The subcontract between ED2 and the Airport Commission constituted a violation of City ethics laws on Respondent’s part because Respondent was a City officer.”
Fung, additionally, failed to list his actual sources of income on financial disclosure forms in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
“I made an error,” Fung told Mission Local. “Unfortunately, I had misunderstood the ethics rules and regulations, in terms of how I read it. I was incorrect.”
Fung said that his partner entered into the contract, though he is the one who signed it. “I am the president of the company, so I signed the contract. No doubt.”
He insists, however, that he did not “receive a penny” from the contract, though his firm received just shy of $40,000. But he concedes that this is immaterial under San Francisco’s rules: “I made a mistake.”
The stipulated agreement — worked out by Fung and his representatives and Ethics Commission staff — notes that Fung proactively reached out to engineering giant ARUP in January 2022 to become a sub consultant on an airport sewer treatment plant project, and received $39,460 under the contract.
This is a violation of rules preventing any “city officer” from “entering or attempting to enter into any contract or subcontract with the City.”
Fung, additionally, failed to properly denote seven sources of income of $10,000 or greater during his tenure as a planning commissioner. While Fung affirmed that he had completed mandatory ethics training courses throughout his time in government, he and other appointed commissioners were informed during those training sessions that “City officers may not enter into contracts worth more than $10,000 with the city … this ban also applies to businesses managed and controlled by the officer.”
Fung’s San Francisco government service began in 1986, when he was appointed to the Board of Appeals, on which he served until 1988. He was appointed to the appeals board again in 2004, where he served until Mayor London Breed tapped him for the Planning Commission in 2019. His term expired on June 30, 2022.
Breed opted to not reappoint Fung last year, instead nominating Derek Braun. Mission Local is told that the mayor was unaware of Fung’s admitted transgression of city ethics rules, and simply saw him as not sufficiently in line with her pro-development views. Fung’s former colleagues didn’t universally agree with that assessment. Some said he was reliably pro-development, while others characterized him a difficult vote to predict on everything but cannabis matters, which he routinely opposed.
The Ethics Commission will vote Friday on whether to ratify Fung’s stipulated agreement.
Breed sure can pick ’em.
Again and again and yet again. This never ends in the construction/development/planning departments within SF. What is truly biting the ass of these politicians is that these departments have always operated with many people whom know these loop holes. And it’s never a problem until someone lifts the rug and takes a look at the mess hidden beneath.
To fix this mess it will take a politician with the gravitas to put in place policies that actually force true accountability and transparency. And possibly remove Directors that actually can not do the jobs given to them. The pay at the top is plenty good enough to attract actual qualified people not just criminals.
What we really need, in my humble opinion, is a breakdown of what these fine civil servants are walking away with in terms of pension and benefits.
One can only assume, short of a federal felony conviction, that these folks are wallowing in a money downpour in addition to Rolls-Royce health care benefits – for life.
Case in point – this guy and all the others who took a discrete powder as a result of the Nuru thing. Seems there is very little risk of losing pension benefits unless you move on up to levels of corruption attracting Federal attention.
Bottom line – 24K? Pizza money for Mr. Fung.
Some commissioners are paid a tiny stipend, get city health insurance, but no pension. The pensions are how corrupt management in the Municipal Executives Association enforces the omerta amongst city employees at the behest of whoever’s the figurehead for Willie Brown’s 8th term.