Good Scout, Bad Boy: Examining the Virtues of Leland Yee

But during that time, Yee has produced a series of possible ethical breaches so numerous and bizarre that voters might feel compelled to seek out extraordinary accomplishments to balance out his weird record.

At every step of the way, Yee has offered explanations, saying there's no fire amid all this smoke. And in response to a detailed list of questions from SF Weekly, his campaign manager said Yee's personal history is old news that has already been addressed.

Illustrations by Matt Smith

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More About

• Leland Yee
• Maxine Yee
• Jim Stearns
• Election Campaigns
• Campaign Ethics

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There may be populist appeal in Yee's repeating the videogame equivalent of The Simpsons' Helen Lovejoy's catchphrase, "Won't somebody please think of the children?" But his record of actual achievement is tainted with pay-to-play politics and pandering — just more points on his already compromised ethical compass.

Key to being a good politician is being a good explainer. Think of Barack Obama parsing healthcare reform. Or Winston Churchill calling for national unity.

Leland Yee is also adept at explaining, but not in a good way. He has given explanations for his shoplifting arrest, for getting caught up in prostitution dragnets, for being called out for falsifying his address, and for allegedly altering medical forms.

Then there are odd things that he doesn't seem to have explanations for. One has to do with the source of $1 million in mortgage debt Yee assumed more than a decade ago. His then-annual family income of $42,500 couldn't hope to cover the $60,000 in mortgage payments each year. The juxtaposition of Yee's massive debt and meager income interested then-SF Weekly reporter Peter Byrne. Through his campaign manager, Jim Stearns, Yee showed Byrne incomplete financial records meant to demonstrate that he and his wife, Maxine, could afford the debt because they had scrimped and saved.

Byrne was left to ask: "If the Yees have enough savings to keep paying off debts that their current income clearly cannot cover, where and when did the money originate?"

This question is more pertinent than ever in the wake of a mortgage meltdown fueled by liar loans.

When lenders and borrowers follow the rules, you don't see customers burdening themselves with debt payments equal to 140 percent of their income. Making the matter more confusing, in 2004 the press reported that florist and real estate entrepreneur Judy Yeung had identified Leland Yee as a member of the "honorary advisory council" of the nonprofit America Education Foundation International. Yee disavowed any connection. Last year, Yeung was convicted of fraud charges in connection with a scheme that involved using the nonprofit as a front for issuing "liar loans," where a broker and client fraudulently overstate the ability to repay. One of the brokers in that case worked for the same lender behind Yee's mortgage.

Another issue concerns a dispute the Yees had in 2002 with their next-door neighbors, who wanted to build an addition to their house. A private investigator, hired by convicted extortionist and former Yee political protégé Ed Jew, obtained hearsay claims from a friend of the neighbor that the Yees agreed to drop an official protest against the project in exchange for $20,000 in cash and donated remodeling work on the Yees' property. Planning Department records show Maxine Yee signing off on an agreement to rescind her appeal based on changes her neighbors made in their own building plans.

I told Stearns I planned to write about these issues, and asked whether he would reveal the name of the Yees' mortgage brokers. I also asked if Yee might instruct his neighbors, whom I had been trying to contact, that they were free to reveal the exact nature of the settlement deal they had reached with the Yees.

"Not only do we not see the point of revisiting this nonissue, we do not trust, based on previous experience, that the Weekly will respect the Yees' legitimate financial privacy concerns. So, the answer to both your questions is no," Stearns responded in an e-mail.

Leland Yee can be helpful when it suits him. To the right constituents, he has demonstrated that he can be kind and loyal. But there's nothing in his public record that suggests the virtues that might justify a city overlooking his past.