Elias Georgopoulos testified on Monday that he ”pushed back” when he saw San Francisco’s parking-enforcement director disproportionately ticketing cars in Bayview, the Mission, and the Excelsior, all neighborhoods with a much higher density of Latinx and/or Black residents than the rest of San Francisco.
“I memorized the rules,” Georgopoulos told the court during the fifth day in his trial against the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “I learned what parking supervisors can and can’t do.”
Georgopoulos, who worked at the SFMTA for 22 years before walking out of the building and never coming back in 2020, has accused the transportation agency of fostering a culture of racism and discrimination, as well as failing to properly address his reports of harassment and physical intimidation in the workplace. Shawn McCormick, the SFMTA parking director, is not named in the lawsuit.
The case against the SFMTA is being heard in San Francisco Superior Court by Judge Daniel Flores and a new jury, after a dramatic mistrial on May 1 required a re-set.
On Monday, Georgopoulos, McCormick, and Daisy Lucas, the assistant director of parking enforcement, each shared different versions of what transpired at the SFMTA. However, they all described being berated, attacked, or threatened at the SFMTA office, as well as receiving (or filing) numerous harassment complaints.
Georgopoulos took things a step beyond filing complaints, and began wearing a body camera to the office in 2017, visibly clipping it to the front of his shirt. The camera, Georgopoulos said, was meant to deter another parking officer, Sterling Haywood, from bullying him about being short and walking with a limp. The bullying had gotten so bad that Georgopoulos had come to fear for his safety, he testified today.
McCormick, meanwhile, testified that he respected Georgopoulos as an employee until he began receiving complaints about him in 2019, specifically from Haywood, and other officers whose names he didn’t recall. McCormick consulted with city attorneys and instituted a policy banning body-worn cameras at work.
McCormick then began writing up Georgopoulos for his insistence on wearing a body camera as well as issues with other co-workers. In 2020, before Georgopoulos left the SFMTA building for good, the two had an explosive confrontation, during which multiple employees remember Georgopoulos yelling and swearing at McCormick. Georogopoulos alleges that this was a reaction to McCormick calling him a “spic.”
“I never called him that, ever,” McCormick said when asked if he referred to Georgopoulos with the ethnic slur. “I’ve never called anyone that.”
Asked if he targeted Bayview, the Mission, and the Excelsior for parking citations, allegedly justifying this to Georgopoulos, with the statement, “those people don’t know how to fight City Hall,” McCormick stated, “I don’t recall using those words specifically.”
Georgopoulos’ lawyer pointed to a pattern of incidents that were not investigated fully at the transportation agency. He alleges that often, not enough witnesses were interviewed, and the wrong officers were disciplined.
Lucas, who is also a personal friend of Georgopoulos, stated that she, too, had witnessed yelling and harassment at the SFMTA office, as well as lack of follow-through when it came to investigating it.
In one case, Lucas testified, she filed a report after being shoved by another parking-enforcement officer who was angry at Georgopoulos over not being involved in a meeting. As Georgopoulos attempted to calm the angry officer, she had stepped between the two of them, and been pushed by the other officer so hard that she lost her footing.
She testified that she was not interviewed about her report by anyone at SFMTA and she does not know if the officer was disciplined. In another incident, she testified, she saw a parking-enforcement officer close a door on another officer’s arm. Again, she said, she was not interviewed about the incident.
Georgopoulos stated that, as a parking-enforcement officer, he started a training program to teach new officers how to de-escalate situations such as an angry driver who receives a ticket. “Officers get beaten to a pulp all the time by citizens,” said Georgopoulos. “We have a tough job.”
Though the SFMTA still uses this training program, Georgopoulos says he received pushback on it from management every year he conducted it. “The department fought me on it, because they’re about citations,” said Georgopoulos, “Not safety.”
SFMTA is probably the most corrupt agency in the city and has needed a complete rehaul for many years now. Year after year they’re constantly crying for funding and yet they spend their budget on anything but public transit and cater only to small groups rather than the majority of the city. They’re protected by the city charter and voters aren’t given any opportunity to intervene in their decisions or choose an administration. Lurie replaced the incredibly incompetent Jeffrey Tumlin with Julie Kirschbaum and she’s already following in Tumlin’s footsteps.
Amen and absolutely so.
Well done to the sfmta worker who is bringing the injustices to the for front of the community, this division of sfmta needs to be held accountable for there actions. Without this man exposing this who knows how long this type of harrrament woild of went on. So good job .
It’s not easy speaking out about abuses on the job, kudos to Elias!
There are many departments in SF that do the same thing. They are in cahuys with the union and just deflect,deflect,deflect…not the liberal place it portrays, just a f*****’ hypocracy!
“Officers get beaten to a pulp all the time by citizens,”
The last time it happened was years ago.