Store
by Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, MD
To: Supervisor Dean Preston, Chair, Government Audit and Oversight Committee, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Re: Findings of San Francisco Sunshine Task Force and City Attorney regarding Hunters Point Shipyard Citizen Advisory Committee origins, funding and non compliance with Sunshine Ordinance. SOTF File #20011
Good morning, Supervisor Preston,
Please accept this friendly communication directed to you as chair of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in response to amendments to File #220271 re: 2021-2022 Civil Grand Jury Report: “Buried Problems and a Buried Process: The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in a Time of Climate Change.”
This communication is attached to the original email directed to the City Attorney’s Office on Dec. 23, 2021, in response to a document deliberately withheld from me as complainant and sent to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force in its investigation of a complaint I filed in July of 2018, archived in SOTF File #20011.
Supervisor Shamann Walton is included in circulation of this request. The matter is of immediate relevance to the proposed amendments, which read in part:
“The Board of Supervisors believes that the establishment of the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), along with consistent meetings with the Navy and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demonstrates that a proactive mechanism does exist for the City and County of San Francisco to articulate its interests and concerns about the cleanup for the Federal Facility Agreement signatories; furthermore, the CAC’s existence also demonstrates that the City and County of San Francisco understands the importance of community representation, feedback and participation in ensuring the shipyard is clean and safe.”
The City Attorney’s Office opinion was ultimately released to me and is available for your review in SOTF File #20011. The City Attorney opined the Hunters Point Shipyard CAC was created by the former Redevelopment Agency and as a state agency and passive meeting body does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Sunshine Ordinance and local open government laws. Additionally, the SOTF (Sunshine Ordinance Task Force) three year investigation initiated following my 2018 complaint confirms the activities of the Hunters Point Shipyard CAC are fully funded by Master Developer Lennar/Five Point.
Additionally, it has yet to be confirmed, but SF Bay View newspaper sources have received information that members of the Hunters Point Shipyard CAC do not reside in the City and County of San Francisco.
I urge you to strike wording in the proposed resolution that clearly implies the San Francisco Board of Supervisors believes a state agency funded through the developer that is not compliant with open government laws and may seat non-city residents is an appropriate community forum that substitutes for an empowered federal Restoration Advisory Board and is an alternative to the Civil Grand Jury recommendation for a permanent oversight body legally and openly operating within San Francisco City Government.
Sincerely yours,
Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, MD
- Proprietor, Golden State MD
- Former Elected Member, Hunters Point Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board, and Founder of the Radiological Subcommittee
- Former Physician Specialist, San Francisco Department of Public Health
- Former Attending Physician, Palo Alto Veterans Administration Toxic Registry
- Founder, Director, Principal Investigator, Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program
Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai MD can be reached at AhimsaPorterSumchaiMD@HuntersPointCommunityBiomonitoring.net.
