BOMA San Francisco Reception for City Attorney Dennis Herrera

Steve Levine, Member, BOMA San Francsico Board of Directors; Dennis Herrera; Kathy Mattes, BOMA SF-PAC Member; Michael Steele, BOMA SF-PAC Member


Ken Cleaveland, Director of Government and Public Affairs for BOMA San Francisco introduces Mr. Herrera.

Mr. Herrera; Gary Faleschini, Member, BOMA San Francsico Board of Directors

Dennis Herrera and Tom Kruggel , President-Elect, BOMA San Francisco

City Attorney Dennis Herrera speaks to BOMA San Francisco Members

BOMA San Francisco hosted a reception for City Attorney Dennis Herrera this morning. Ken Cleveland, BOMA San Francisco's Director of Government and Public Affairs, introduced Mr. Herrera by quoting Ken Garcia, San Francisco Examiner columnist, who stated:

[Mr. Herrera] hasn't kowtowed to critics who wanted him to weigh in on cases when the law suggested he shouldn't. He has hasn't forgotten that his primary focus is to offer legal, not political, advice to the City.

Mr. Herrera spoke to BOMA members about the City Attorney's Office, as well as a few of the Office's accomplishments. Here are the highlights:

Why does the City Attorney's Office matter?

• The City Attorney's Office makes sure that they are the voice of reason on issues that affect the Cityto protect taxpayers. Indeed, the Office advises both the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors regarding proposed legislation and any potential legal problems they may cause for the City of San Francisco. The Office also plays an important legal advisory role for all city departments.

What impact does the Mayor's budget have on the Office?

• Thankfully, Mr. Herrera tries to run the City Attorney's Office like a private law firm and reduced his workforce (currently 185 attorneys) before the City's budget shortfall. In fact, his office now provides city departments with monthly billings, as opposed to year-end reconciliations, which has reduced his office’s hard money costs by 50%, and made city departments more aware of their legal costs.
• All lawyers in the City Attorney's Office work at-will, per the City Charter. Mr. Herrera hopes that one day, all City departments will operate this way. At-will employment of City attorneys allows Mr. Herrera to increase or decrease employment levels when business needs dictate.

What has the City Attorney's Office accomplished?

• Stimulus Spending Task Force - Mr. Herrera established the City Attorney's Stimulus Spending Task Force recently to coordinate legal compliance by San Francisco departments and guarantee maximum transparency, efficiency and accountability for City investments made possible by the federal government's recently enacted $787 billion economic stimulus package. In Mr. Herrera's view, the City Attorney's Office is perfectly situated to provide this level of oversight.
• The City spends $600 million a year on community benefit organizations (CBOs) and other non-profit groups. Mr. Herrera and former DPH Director Sandra Hernandez (now the President of the San Francisco Foundation) have set up a task force to study the CBO/non-profit contracts with the aim of creating a model format for tracking their progress and expenditures in a transparent, publicly-accessible way. Mr. Herrera said he wanted to be sure that the CBOs and non-profits were using the most efficient service delivery models possible.
• The recommendations of the Construction Industry Task Force--which was spearheaded by Mr. Herrera--are finally being implemented by the city's General Services Agency and the Department of Public Works.
  

How does Mr. Herrera feel about the contracting out of City services?

• He would prefer to keep city services in-house, but understands that with the San Francisco's budget shortfall, some contracting out will have to be considered.
  

Thank you to the BOMA San Francisco members who took time out of their schedules to attend the reception. If you missed the event, please consider helping Mr. Herrera by contributing to his campaign here.

On behalf of the BOMA San Francisco membership, we thank City Attorney Dennis Herrera for his stewardship of the City Attorney's Office, and look forward to working with the him toward re-election for a successful third term.