Larry Bush at CitiReport notes that Mayor Ed Lee’s recent appointment of Mohammed Nuru as permanent director of the Department of Public Works didn’t seem to get much attention. So Bush takes a look at the appointee in a long post beneath this Fog City Journal photo of Nuru huddled with mayoral chief of staff Steve Kawa, Chinatown power boss Rose Pak and Chronicle columnist Willie Brown. It’s a good read. Here’s the lede:
It came and went in the blink of an eye.
The Chronicle gave it one story, six paragraphs on page C-3 on March 2. No editorial, no commentary from Chuck Nevius. No billboard.
Yet the appointment of Mohammed Nuru to be permanent Director of the Department of Public Works delivers one of the city’s most important agencies into the hands of a man who allegedly protected a serial sexual harasser, fired his own Equal Opportunity officer who had objected, was at the center of election scandals in 1997, 1999 and 2003, was involved in using a city-funded agency for political campaigns, and used thousands of dollars in city-funds to beautify his own block.
If ever there could be a case study on the application of the city charter’s proscription against “conduct that falls below the standard of decency, good faith and right action impliedly required of all public officers,” it would be the case of Mohammed Nuru.
Image: Luke Thomas/Fog City Journal
