Harvey Rose

Warming Up: Muni Starts its Wastefulness Early Every Morning

America's Cup: Losing Millions Is the Exact Scenario We Were Warned About, Repeatedly

The news over the weekend that the city could be left holding the bag for millions the America's Cup Organizing Committee has failed to provide is a revelation in the same sense that it's revelatory that promiscuous couples in horror films tend to be killed off. The very real possibility of San ... More >>

City Hall's $700,000 Ramp Will Actually Cost $1.1 Million

America's Cup: Ball Is Now in City Attorney's Court

The material everyone wants to have...​What are "material changes?" The answer is not immaterial.In tweaking the America's Cup agreement signed off by the Board of Supervisors, the mayor's office was entitled to make changes -- but not material changes.After analyzing the revamped deal, the board' ... More >>

America's Cup: Gavin Newsom's Changes to Deal 'Could Be Very Significant'

What's it going to cost, Gavin?​At a late January America's Cup press conference, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom said something a bit odd regarding the city's dramatically hammered-out deal to host the race: "We made a lot of promises. A lot of them have been reported. Candidly, a lot of them ha ... More >>

Supes Want to Rescind Law that Bans Competition in SF Trash Collection

Should City's Garbage Contract Be Trashed?

City Budget Analyst Says Question Should Be Put to VotersShould the city's garbage contract go here?​Thanks to a 1932 law, for 79 years only one company has been allowed to pick up and transport garbage on San Francisco Streets. In a new report, San Francisco's Budget and Legislative Analyst recom ... More >>

America's Cup: City Still Crunching Numbers on 'Doomed' Deal

Can San Francisco afford to have this? ​Being an accountant isn't usually compared to combat soldiering. But, in San Francisco, the city's Budget Analyst's office knows theirs is not to make reply, theirs is not to reason why, theirs is but to do and die. So while the America's Cup Powers That Be ... More >>

America's Cup: Daly, Newsom, Number-Crunchers On Board. Race Organizers Are Not.

Meanwhile, at the Budget and Finance Committee...​Supervisor Chris Daly has told SF Weekly he's ready to call off his cannonade against the city's bid to host the America's Cup. The mayor's people are obviously on board. And, finally, two more economic feasibility studies on the cup bid were relea ... More >>

America's Cup: How City Would End Up On the Hook for $55 Million

​During a lengthy Wednesday hearing regarding the America's Cup -- which was far less thrilling than a yachting race and had far more nautically themed public comment -- the city's budget analyst made an emphatic point. Based on the "Northern Waterfront Alternative" plan which is currently en vogu ... More >>

America's Cup: Regatta Argument Sails Into Next Week

Onward...​A new plan for hosting the America's Cup was today emphatically blessed by Port of San Francisco officials as the best deal the city could get. Yet the city's Budget Analyst warned that even under these "best" terms, the city could still end up giving away some $55 million to billionaire ... More >>

America's Cup: Budget Analyst Says It'll Still Lose City $101 Million

Vincent Van GoghWill the latest report take the wind out of the city's sails? ​The latest Budget and Legislative Analyst's report analyzing the potential costs and benefits of hosting the America's Cup regatta has finally hit dry land. But, crunching the numbers, the city's numerical mavens still ... More >>

America's Cup: 'Not One Cent' In Private Funding Guaranteed

This city knows a bit about being under water...​Budget analyst Harvey Rose today defended a report his office released Thursday, which claimed that hosting the America's Cup regatta would lose San Francisco up to $143 million. "I don't think everybody understands. We say there'll be huge benefits ... More >>

Hosting America's Cup Would Lose City Millions, Budget Analyst Reports

Them boats is expensive​Earlier this week we reported that the city's budget analyst was at work on a report to answer the big question: Can you actually make money hosting the America's Cup? The report is out, and, according to the city's official number-cruncher, the answer is no. A resounding n ... More >>

Gavin Newsom to Present City Budget Today

​Mayor Gavin Newsom's office  will today present the city with its budget for the next fiscal year. Union concessions and months of internal budget-hacking have likely made a potentially calamitous budget merely lousy. Yet, if past years are a guide, here's what will happen: City-funded nonpr ... More >>

Who Gave City's Budget Analyst That Wicked Black Eye?

Meanwhile, at the Budget and Finance Subcommittee...​One day after issuing a performance audit that delivered a black eye to Muni's drivers, management, and board of directors, city budget analyst Harvey Rose showed up at the Board of Supervisors with a massive black eye of his own. Rose, however, ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Mayor and Supervisors Still Not the Get Along Gang

  Oh bleary eyed passengers on San Francisco's ship of fools: I have to say I'm getting quite the kick out of my vacation. Last week I went a whole six days without thinking of Sean Elsbernd!  Honestly, life is too short to think about Sean Elsbernd. I don't know how he does it. Instead ... More >>

Is Chris Daly the Chief Martin Brody of San Francisco Politics?

Imagine, if you will, that Supervisor Chris Daly is Police Chief Martin Brody. We'll let you figure out who, in this analogy, the toothy fellow behind him is. Examples of Chris Daly behaving boorishly in the Board of Supervisors' chambers and embarrassing even his friends are as myriad as instances ... More >>

Budget Analyst Takes 100 Pages To Tell Us What We Knew: Muni Could Generate Money Via Fare Inspector Program, But Isn't Organized Enough To Keep Track

Jim HerdMore good news for Muni...This morning, the Chronicle reported that the city's budget analyst, Harvey Rose, released yet another damning report on Muni -- and this only hours before the Supes meet to determine -- this time, definitely! -- if they'll approve the Municipal Transportation Agenc ... More >>

Tales of the City's Incompetence: Why a $4 Million Program to Save Kids in Dangerous Neighborhoods Failed

Golf in the Hole

Will the city turn over our golf courses to the very people who are making them lose money?

Making Scents at SFO

Bad stuff's hitting the fan out at the airport. Can mayoral confidante Eleanor Johns help keep the smell down?

It Ate City Hall

If you like monstrous cost escalation, you'll love Don Todd Associates, whose mutating consulting agreements typify the city's horrifying contracting problems

Bunco Squad

Police brass can't account for a rogue vice operation

Policing the Vice Squad

Investigations launched into money collected from massage parlor workers

Rewarding Failure

What's really wrong with Muni? For starters, one third of its employees don't show up to work, causing systemwide delays and costing the agency more that $20 million a year in overtime. First in a two-part special report

The Redevelopment Sinkhole

Years of reckless borrowing have sent the city's Redevelopment Agency spiraling into debt. Mayor Brown's pet projects may flush it down the drain entirely.

Boondoggle by the Bay

Why the tacky political giveaway called Pier 39 shouldn't be used as a model for the coming redevelopment of San Francisco's waterfront

Press Passes Pass Away

No more free parking for the city's journalists

Dream Job

Do you like sleeping, eating, shopping, reading, TV watching, Internet surfing, large amounts of overtime pay, and small amounts of actual work? You may have a future as a dispatcher for the San Francisco Fire Department.

Unspun

The Grid

City Slackers

A guide toSan Francisco political corruption -past, present, and future

Letters

Paper Trails

Dollars Without Sense

For 25 years, Harvey Ross has rooted out the waste and lies of politicians and bureaucrats. But some say he's too lost in the line items to see the big picture

Cops vs. Cops

They look like cops. They carry guns like cops. They can even arrest you like cops. But San Francisco's patrol special officers are a different breed of police - one marked for extinction by the SFPD and powers that be.

Budget Lotto

Supervisor Alioto's potential conflict of interest