State Sen. Leland Yee: A call for accountability

In June, the head of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni) resigned from his job with a $384,000 payout, despite leaving only six months after renewing his contract. Even worse, Muni's governing board agreed to the inflated severance package behind closed doors – with no public hearing and no public input.

The city's former Muni chief, Nathaniel Ford, was not fired, but because of a decision by Muni leadership, he has left the agency with a full year's salary plus $75,000. Ford's golden parachute is five times more than what the Muni board is obligated to pay. To put the cost in perspective, $384,000 is equal to 19,200 fast passes for youth and seniors; 3,291 discounted passes for disadvantaged youth; and another 5,907 $65 parking tickets.

Meanwhile, problems at Muni persist. In the days surrounding the announcement of Ford's severance, there was a massive disruption of service and the cost of fast passes for youth and seniors increased five percent.

But this issue is not about Ford. Instead, this is about Muni management and the overarching culture of secrecy and arrogance in our government. I have long championed full accountability and transparency of executive pay at the state and local levels. As a state senator, I successfully advocated on behalf of students and families in the face of huge payouts to executives at the University of California and California State University systems. As a result of legislation I authored, all executive UC and CSU compensation packages must now be voted on in an open session of a subcommittee and the full board after a period of review by the public.

Last month, we similarly took a public stand against Ford's payout, delivering more than 1,200 signatures to Muni's board of directors from citizens who view this payout as a misuse of taxpayer dollars.

Unfortunately, the board still unanimously approved the severance package. In a time when public dollars are in short supply, it is imperative that our local leadership embraces the challenge of providing full accountability to the public by stopping excessive severance packages for executives – especially at the expense of everyday citizens.

Fill up on healthy food at the Noriega Street Food Fair
We are proud to sponsor the second annual Noriega Street Food Fair, which will be held on Noriega Street between 30th and 33rd avenues, an annual community event that aims to promote holistic health and delicious, nutritious food.

At this year's fair on Saturday, Aug. 6, we strive to empower the community by demonstrating how to prepare simple, healthy meals and by providing resources to help our constituents lead more health-conscious lives.

This free event is open to the public and will offer healthy cooking demonstrations, free healthy food samples from local vendors, health education, arts and crafts, live entertainment, music and more. We hope you can join us. For more information, call (415) 557-7857.

California Sen. Leland Yee represents the west side of San Francisco.