The bad news: On Jan. 24, three days after taking office, Trump fired 17 inspectors general from various departments of the federal government.
The good news: San Francisco is finally ready to hire an inspector general of its own.
“San Francisco will have an embarrassment of qualified applicants for this position, just because the federal government is firing these people left and right,” said Aaron Peskin, former District 3 supervisor and the political force behind Proposition C.
That measure allowed city residents to vote on whether they wanted a dedicated office in city government tasked with investigating waste, fraud, and abuse within city government (60.94 percent of them did).
Yesterday, the San Francisco Controller’s Office launched its job posting for an inspector general, seeking someone with at least eight years of professional experience in auditing, investigations, or compliance and amenable to a salary ranging from $167,336 to $213,512 per year.
While many aspects of city government will be seeing cuts, the Controller’s Office has dedicated funding and a regular budget surplus that makes the position relatively recession-proof.
In the meantime, a March 2025 report found that San Francisco’s current efforts to limit corruption and conflicts of interest have not been effective, despite corruption cases having been lavishly documented over the years. Just yesterday, the city held a hearing on the financial mismanagement at the San Francisco Parks Alliance.
What the new inspector general will be able to do about these regular scandals remains to be seen. In a statement accompanying the job posting, the Controller’s Office wrote that it is working to “ensure the Inspector General can hit the ground running and be as effective as possible.”
However, the Controller Office’s implementation update also noted that the new position “may face pushback from the persons and entities it seeks to hold accountable.”
Stay tuned.
“may face pushback from the persons and entities it seeks to hold accountable.”
Sounds like a job for me, that would be like dousing the whole corrupt mess with hydrogen peroxide.
Shouldn’t the Inspector General be the one who knows the lay of the land, where the cemeteries are and what bodies are buried where who can just hire forensic accounting expertise?
The City should designate some discretionary money to opening a hotline for “whistleblowers” without delay. Knowledge of nonfeasance, misfeasance, or malfeasance in local government does not begin with the installation of an IG.
Campers,
The Mayor’s Office made a move to place this position under the auspices of the overall Safety Executive Director (yep at time) along with top cop and Emergency Director and everyone else not elected but the legislation that went to the voters (thanks, Aaron) specifically placed appointment power solely with the Controller (thanks, Greg Wagner).
Anyone got a link to interviews ?
go Niners !
h.