S.F. created a list of 'serial offender' builders and engineers. It has one name on it

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/serial-offenders-builders-
18499589.php

Disturbed by a City Hall corruption scandal that exposed a pay-to-play
culture in the building department, San Francisco supervisors voted to
crack down on builders and engineers who flout the rules.

In 2021, they unanimously passed legislation requiring the Department of
Building Inspection to track and log violation notices handed to
developers, contractors and engineers. The idea was that some would be
placed in an “Expanded Compliance Control Program” and their identities
made public, and that building inspection officials would be required to
notify licensing boards or regulatory agencies of their investigations and
findings and give extra scrutiny to any new applications for permits.

“Having serial offenders violate our laws again and again with no measures
in place to stop them is absurd,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen said when she
sponsored the legislation.

Structural engineer Rodrigo Santos — later sentenced to 30 months in
prison for his role in the scandal — was the first person placed on the
compliance list. But more than two years later, he remains alone. The city
hasn’t added additional names to the roster, even though several others
appear to have qualified.

Through a public records request, the Chronicle obtained a copy of the
Department of Building Inspection’s “compliance tracking file” of
contractors, owners, architects and engineers with sustained building
complaints. Among the more than 100 individuals and business entities in
the file, at least three received three or more notices of violations
during an 18-month period.

The ordinance, as outlined in a memo to DBI staff, states that if an
individual picks up three or more violations for doing work beyond the
scope of a permit in an 18-month period, that person becomes a candidate
for expanded compliance control. After an inspector reviews the case,
DBI’s senior staff members decide whether the individual should be placed
on the compliance list for five years, according to the memo.

The ordinance also allowed DBI, after consulting the city attorney’s
office, to place someone on the list for a single violation the department
determines to be “egregious and create significant risk to health, safety,
or property.”

None of the three people identified in DBI’s tracking file have been
placed on the compliance list. And despite the exception to allow DBI to
identify people responsible for especially egregious violations, the list
does not include developers or contractors involved in at least two
projects that were flagged for safety issues.

At 2867 San Bruno Ave., developers illegally built 29 apartment units
without a second exit — creating a potential firetrap — in a series of
buildings only permitted for 10 units, according to a city investigation.
The city is suing builders of another property, at 320 Alemany Blvd.,
where they are seeking up to $11.1 million in penalties after they turned
13 units into 32. That project, which has racked up 26 citations from four
city agencies, also didn’t have a second exit for residents to use in the
event of a fire.

Critics say the list, a tool meant to inform citizens of potentially
harmful contractors and engineers, doesn’t actually do anything.

“If the goal is to inform San Franciscans to be alert about people who
have had questionable dealings with DBI, it does seem like this isn’t
meeting the mark,” said Jon Golinger, a former member of the special
prosecutions unit at the district attorney’s office who now works for
government watchdog Public Citizen.

DBI spokesperson Patrick Hannan said that two of the three individuals the
Chronicle identified as eligible for inclusion on the list — engineer
Harold Howell and builder John Pollard — do not now meet the criteria
because their violations did not occur within the past 18 months. However,
records show they were previously cited for violations three times in an
18-month period, qualifying them for consideration.

Hannan said an inspector reviewed the alleged violations by Howell and
Pollard and that Director Patrick O’Riordan is aware of the situation. He
said DBI is consulting with the city attorney’s office, which is
investigating the men.

City attorney’s office spokesperson Jen Kwart said that her office was
investigating Howell and Pollard but could not divulge further
information.

The third individual who faced three violations in an 18-month period is
Santos’ wife, Ginny Santos, who is listed in documents as an engineer and
permit consultant. She is under “active review” and may be placed on the
compliance list in the coming weeks, Hannan said.

“We are following the law and the advice of the city attorney’s office,”
he said.

The Chronicle tried to reach Ginny Santos, Howell and Pollard by phone and
email, and included specific details about the story in email messages,
but none of them provided comment.

Hannan pointed to “a number of reforms” to ensure the department is
serving city residents “in the most transparent and ethical manner
possible,” including an audit of thousands of properties that had been
worked on by Rodrigo Santos and inspected by Bernie Curran, a former DBI
building inspector now serving prison time after pleading guilty to fraud
charges.

“The extensive work we have done on the expanded compliance control list
is just one example of our commitment to public integrity and the progress
we have made in the last few years,” Hannan said.

A spokesperson for Ronen said the supervisor would defer comment on the
matter until the city’s investigation played out — but added that the
supervisor would return to the issue in the coming months to see if
changes need to be made to the legislation.

Another supervisor criticized the initiative. “It’s a joke,” Aaron Peskin
said. “There are other bad players who have multiple violations that are
egregious violations of planning code who should be on the no-fly list.”

The building inspection department was central to the sprawling federal
corruption investigation. The probe led to the resignation of then-
Director Tom Hui and charges against Curran as well as Rudy Pada and Cyril
Yu, two plan checkers. Prosecutors also charged Santos, at least four
developers accused of bribing city employees for favorable treatment,
building permit expediter Walter Wong, and an engineer accused of forging
other engineers’ signatures on plans.

DBI is now engaged in the long-running audit of more than 5,400 properties
that Santos and former building inspector Bernie Curran worked on.
Auditors have reviewed more than 1,400 of those properties, court records
show, and flagged more than 300 for additional review. And after
inspecting 30 properties, auditors issued 25 violation notices.

A spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, Jeff Cretan, said the mayor expects
“all of our departments to work to implement and deliver reforms to
promote transparency and good government,” and noted the investigations
into Howell and Pollard.

“It’s important that departments work collaboratively to meet the ultimate
goals of protecting the public good, which is what’s happening in this
case,” he said.

Howell was previously accused by the Board for Professional Engineers,
Land Surveyors, and Geologists of incompetence and negligence. He had his
license stripped in 2016 and was put on a three-year probation.

DBI’s records show that the city gave him three violation notices in 2022
for properties at 221 Fifth Ave., 214 Fair Oaks St. and 1336 Green St.

Pollard — who has owned several construction and building companies,
including SF Garage, Mercury Engineering and SF Permitting — worked on
each of the properties tied to Howell and was subject to the same notices
of violation. DBI inspectors also filed complaints at two other properties
tied to Pollard in 2022, at 26 Parnassus Ave. and 3048 Fillmore St.

Ginny Santos, meanwhile, was named as engineer, expediter or authorized
agent on three properties: 2523 26th Ave., 1306 45th Ave. and 229 Whitney
St. Her husband also worked on two of those properties.

At 229 Whitney, inspectors shut down the job site in August 2022 after
they reported discovering that builders had done far more demolition than
they said they would. That same month, inspectors filed a notice of
violation alleging that the 26th Avenue property was being extensively
renovated without permits.

“Additional bathrooms were added. Reconfiguring of walls, remodel of
existing bathrooms and kitchen. New plumbing and electrical observed
throughout entire building,” the inspector wrote. “Drywall installed
throughout. All work was performed without the benefit of a permit.”

Almost a year later, inspectors halted work on the third property tied to
Ginny Santos. Excavation work was undermining the surrounding soil, they
said.

Reach St. John Barned-Smith: stjohn...@sfchronicle.com


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