Following reports of corruption at San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection, investigations revealed bribery payments and conflict of interest violations resulting in a two-year prison sentence for a senior building inspector, the San Francisco District Attorney’s office announced Oct. 2.
The now former senior building inspector, Bernard “Bernie” Curran, was ordered to surrender to authorities Oct. 12 to begin his sentence, after he pleaded guilty in state and federal courts for concealing illegal cash payments from developers and property owners whose construction projects he was responsible for approving.
“The residents of San Francisco must be able to trust that the city’s public officials act with integrity and in accordance with the law,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. “Public officials, such as Mr. Curran, who violate laws designed to ensure such integrity will be held accountable for their improper actions.”
Ms. Jenkins’s office charged Mr. Curran in 2022 with perjury and violating local conflict of interest law, with the case ultimately ending Oct. 2 in a plea agreement of two years in prison, with the state and federal sentences set to run concurrently.
Federal prosecutors filed charges earlier this year, and the defendant pleaded guilty in July, agreeing to a one-year sentence.
An investigation into the department was spurred by the arrest of Public Works Department head Mohammed Nuru in 2020 for accepting bribes and using government contracts for personal gain, ultimately ending in a seven-year prison sentence and the forfeiture of Mr. Nuru’s custom home situated on 20 acres in Stonybrook, California, near the Bay Area.
In the more recent case, scrutiny began in earnest in May 2021 following the arrest of Mr. Curran and the president of the commission responsible for overseeing the department, Rodrigo Santos, for illegal activity at the city’s building inspection department, thus prompting the Public Integrity Task Force to investigate.
Mr. Santos also pleaded guilty earlier this year to a series of crimes, including failing to disclose $1.6 million in taxable income, peddling influence, and defrauding clients of $775,000—resulting in a 30-month federal prison sentence.
Evidence revealed that Mr. Curran was involved in several criminal acts, including failing to disclose a $180,000 loan on state-mandated financial disclosure documents. The developer behind the loan subsequently received approval for his permits.
The former senior building inspector admitted to taking cash payments from two individuals during the period he was employed with the department, from 2005 until his resignation in 2021.
Officials with the department are now conducting thousands of permit application reviews to determine the scope of the fraud, according to Ben Rosenfield, city and county controller, who suggested that corruption and fraud are detrimental to public safety and should be urgently addressed.
“The work that [the Department of Building Inspection] does, ensuring that all manner of construction projects are designed, inspected, and built to code, is critical for our city’s health and safety,” Mr. Rosenfield said in a statement released when the audits began in 2021.
Mayor London Breed stressed, when the audit assessment report was released, all officials must lead by example and be held accountable for their actions.
“Every City department must operate with the highest level of integrity and transparency, and every City employee must hold themselves to the highest standard in their work,” Ms. Breed said in the same press release. “The report ... documents an unacceptable pattern of misconduct and systemic failures under the previous leadership of the Department of Building Inspection, and the people of San Francisco deserve better.”
