Is San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on his way out? That’s the question CalWatchdog is asking. The site, which focuses on California state government goings-on and other shenanigans, claims that both the city’s mayor and its fire chief seem to be a little raggedy when it comes to handling business. The difference for the mayor, however, is that there is also a grassroots movement afoot calling for him to step down and sit next to his former chief of police, Greg Suhr. According to CalWatchdog:
“Mayor Lee is seen as a likely target of corruption investigations by both the FBI and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.”
“The FBI’s long-running “Operation Whitesuit” probe focuses on political bribery, Chinese-American gangs, money laundering and booze- and gun-running. It has already yielded criminal convictions against now-former San Francisco state Sen. Leland Yee, former San Francisco school board president Keith Jackson and its initial target, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, a legendary gang figure who claimed to have gone on the straight and narrow in recent years.”
While Lee has denied any wrongdoing and his supporters claim he may be a victim of a “witch hunt,” Chow (the subject of Operation Whitesuit) name-dropped Lee last year in a motion to dismiss the charges. Chow’s claim was that he was being selectively prosecuted and certain officials who should be prosecuted, such as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, were not.
The case against Chow did net two of the mayor’s colleagues in its web.
“ … former Human Rights Commissioner Nazly Mohajer and former commission staffer Zula Jones, both of whom left in 2014. The women are accused of trying to persuade an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman to give an illegal contribution of $20,000 to Lee’s 2011 mayoral campaign, in exchange for providing access to him that could lead to political favors.”
...
”So far, any evidence that Lee knew of the corruption comes from Jones’ own words. FBI documents made public in August show her telling the undercover agent, “Ed knows you gave the $10,000. ... He knows you will give another $10,000. He also knows that we had to break the $10,000 up,” an apparent reference to San Francisco’s limit of $500 for individual contributions to city candidates.”
Could this be the ammunition that grassroots activists in the city need to remove Lee? The mayor’s critics claim that he enabled the climate for the San Francisco Police Department to declare war on the city’s black and brown inhabitants in the name of gentrification, thus the need to fire Suhr. And even though Suhr is gone, there is still the issue of the city’s move toward attracting more affluent residents (who will likely also be whiter) in a city that is already among the most expensive places to live in the country. Overseeing schemes such as “renting” out park grass would be a case in point.
We’ll just have to wait and see if anti-Lee activists accomplish their mission.