A ho-hum item on Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors agenda has turned into a full-blown witch-hunt for Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who says he’s launching an investigation into some fellow supe he claims leaked confidential info.

A very humdrum item on this week’s SF Board of Supervisors agenda was approving $14.5 million for some kind of new tactic to fight public fentanyl use, something called the RESET Center, which would basically be 25 so-called "sobering beds” run by the sheriff’s office. People busted high on fentanyl would simply be given the change to sober up on a bed and then hopefully seek drug treatment. The program would be run by some outfit called ConnectionsCA, which despite the name, appears to be based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Supervisor Matt Dorsey is behind the proposal, and spoke of it in very lionizing terms. “This is the single most important drug policy innovation San Francisco has offered since the advent of the fentanyl crisis,” he declared. (Note: This is exactly how Dorsey talks every time he's asking for law enforcement to be showered with more money.)

But just after the vote, Mission Local published a stunning exposé that the SF City Attorney has determined that Dorsey’s RESET Center plan is not compliant with the law. Mission Local obtained a "confidential memo” from the City Attorney's Office,  which said that the proposed center had a “failure to comply with State law” in terms of staffing, safety checks, and detox treatment, and that anyone who went through the center could then sue the city for “non-compliance with standards for detention facilities.”

And oh, is Matt Dorsey pissed that the letter somehow became public.

“When the investigation identifies who unlawfully disclosed confidential @SFCityAttorney advice, I’ll introduce a censure motion against the @SFBOS member involved.” Dorsey fumed on Twitter. “City officials who violate these laws are subject to penalties and ‘removal from office due to official misconduct.’”

Whoa, “the investigation?” Whomst exactly is performing this “investigation?” And is Dorsey talking about supervisors kicking other supervisors off the board? We have not heard that kind of talk on the board since the Ed Jew affair nearly 20 years ago.

It’s not even a guarantee that a supervisor leaked the memo. According to Mission Local, “Lurie, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, police chief Derrick Lew, and Director of Public Health Daniel Tsai also received the memo.” That’s also a lot of staffers who may have seen the memo, and Mission Local is darned good at procuring privileged information out of City Hall.

Some supervisors were pretty irate that the lack of legal con-compliance only came up the day before the vote.

“I have received additional information I did not have in the Budget Committee,” complained Supervisor Connie Chan. “The additional information that I received, I find it troublesome and problematic about the model of the center. This information should have been provided to the Budget committee.”

Meanwhile, Supervisor Jackie Fielder had issues with the fact that the source of the $14.5 million in funding is not even identified, and on top of that, this new cost comes while the Department of Public Health is making $17 million in budget cuts to programs for children's health.

“I will not be supporting spending city funds for new sheriff's facilities that come at the expense of community health programs,” Fielder said.

Regardless, despite Supervisor Chan and Fielder’s opposition, every other supervisor voted for this potentially illegal sobering center, and it passed the board by a 9-2 margin.

“The reality is, not having places to take people right now is a huge problem,” Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said before the vote. “I think we need to move as quickly as we can on this pilot. If it works, do a whole lot more, and if it doesn’t, find something else better.”

So the $14.5 million sobering center is probably coming. And some grand investigative drama into the SF Board of Supervisors over supposedly leaking confidential information may be coming too.

Related: Protesters Take Over Board of Supervisors Meeting, Completely Shut the Meeting Down [SFist]

Image: SFGovTV