Mohammed Nuru, Harlan Kelly, and Tom Hui are still pulling pensions as high as $21,000 a month, despite leaving their jobs in disgrace amidst federal corruption probes.
One of the funnest aspects of covering the ever-unfolding City Hall public corruption scandal is that the alleged bribe-taking former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru still has his @MrClean Twitter account totally public, so whenever he resurfaces in the news, there’s always an incriminating photo showing him enjoying the spoils of his alleged corruption. In the image above, we see him alongside fraud indictee and ousted SF PUC chief Harlan Kelly showing off their expensive possessions. Not pictured is former Department of Building Inspection head, who is also accused of raking in “improper gifts.”
These three fellows have another thing in common. They've all been forced from their city jobs, but according to a new Chronicle investigation, they’re all still collecting magnificently generous pensions.
Disgraced former Public Works chief Mohammed Nuru is collecting $7,200 a month in pension money, and former PUC director Harlan Kelly is collecting $21,000 monthly. This despite both men facing federal corruption charges. Via @meganrcassidy. https://t.co/jb7sO55zaz
— Heather Knight (@hknightsf) July 2, 2021
Kelly’s is the most generous of the bunch, as the ex-Public Utilities Commission head is making an astonishing $21,000 a month in city-paid pension, which is only partially taxpayer-funded. Hui, respectively, is getting $16,000 a month in pension payments. The Chron pegs Nuru’s pension at $7,200 a month, according to their review of San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System data.
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City law dictates that an employee can only lose their pension if convicted of a crime involving “moral turpitude.” Does that sound like a completely not-legal term that can be applied subjectively? It is! And according to the Chronicle’s conversation with the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System executive director, “no more than 10 people have lost their funding during his 22 years of working for the $26 billion pension plan.”
What’s interesting here is that Kelly’s wife, former city administrator Naomi Kelly, is not drawing any pension. (She’s not accused of a crime, though she did attend a trip that was allegedly a bribe toward her husband.) Nuru’s ex Sandra Zuniga is also not drawing a pension, and she’s also out of a job and under investigation. There are no rationales provided, only pension numbers, and not everyone implicated in this scandal is still getting a pension.
For their parts, Harlan Kelly and Mohammed Nuru both have court dates scheduled later in July.
Related: Expanded Check Fraud Charges Drop For Former SF Building Inspection Commissioner [SFist]
Image: @MrCleanSF via Twitter
