https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/player/clip/51038?view_id=22&meta_id=1189832&redirect=true
When the SF Water Department fired the three workers, it was an act of retaliation of the worst kind.
The stupidity of Dennis Herrera knows no bounds; he will leave the SFPUC with a prize on his head — and a corrupt, good-for-nothing sucker.
This failure to make the victim and their families suffer for over one and a half years cries to heaven for justice and fair play/
When the workers from Union 261 went to Union 261 for help, they were told the Union could do nothing.
Most Unions in San Francisco are quick to collect dues, make deals with the crooks, and have failed those Union workers who work hard and are treated with disdain,
San Francisco is a Union City— we all remember Bloody Thursday, July 5, 1934.
We must honor those who laid down their lives so that we may better understand our freedom and rights, set standards, and address quality-of-life issues.
The SF Police Department fired on our longshoremen on our waterfront, killing two longshoremen, Nicholas Bordoise and Howard Sperry. Hundreds of others who protested were injured.
It is a sad day when we learn that today's Union favors the greedy and fails to stand by our hardworking Union workers.
SFPUC is a corrupt entity, an Enterprise Department, bringing in millions by charging clients for drinking water.
In recent years, the reservoirs have been contaminated, and San Franciscans have no clue that this is an emergency.
Deferred maintenance and poor leadership are responsible for this nonsense. We have a General Manager who is an attorney, not an engineer; he makes $600,000. He has no clue about the contaminated reservoirs.
At first, the SFPUC Plumbers would clean the reservoirs, a project named "Confined Space." "
Those in charge are trained and certified and must maintain strict standards: working underground, some forty to fifty feet down, the drinking water has to be drained, and the entire area, the size of a football field or two, sanitized using sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite, and Chlorine dioxide.
SFPUC has deferred maintenance and has failed to train and certify workers to date. The laborers, who for a long time were sent into harm's way, that is, until we brought it to the attention of the SF Water Department managers, William Taehan and Frank Jordon, their supervisor, Steven Richie, and Steve Richie's boss, Dennis Herrera and Ronald Flynn.
We went before the SFPUC and spoke Truth to power.
We went before the SF Inspector General and the SF Controller.
We approached the SF Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and they investigated, and SFPUC was indicted on five counts:
www.osha.gov
1. No pre-entry training and rescue.
2. No confined Space training and rescue.
3. No testing of the air inside before entry.
4. No stand-by person.
5. No radio communication.
San Francisco gets its water from Hetch Hetchy, close to Yosemite National Park.
The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir has natural granite walls, and the Tuolumne River delivers water into the Reservoir, where it is mismanaged.
For thousands of years, the water was guarded by the indigenous people of the once-famous Hetch Hetchy Valley, the Paiute, Yokuts, Sierra Miwok, and Washoe tribes, most of whom have lived in the area for over 7000 years.
Unlike the others who take their water and flush the toilets - folks who have no conscience, no empathy, no clue about history and less about geography, social culture, the filthy rich, and most importantly those that have no spirituality - who have taken sacred water and desecrated - the Water - Water is Life!
There are those who came here some 300 years ago — seeking refuge and freedom of religion. Today, they think they belong to the privileged class — far from it; they are a disgrace to the human race.
These folks who were treated well by the indigenous people bit the hand that fed them. This history is not written in detail — but Truth be told — the Whites have turned their backs on the indigenous people and Turtle Island.
We have folks who do not respect the indigenous and, in like manner, have no respect for nature — all they think is themselves — selfish to the core and a nuisance to society and the environment.
The wise Indigenous tell us to take only what we need and leave more for future generations.
Right now, we have a $40 trillion deficit. How can we accrue so much debt and leave it to future generations to deal with the headache?
The SFPUC started with a $6 billion budget to cover its operations and other needs — today that budget has reached $15 billion and will soon be $25 billion — mostly due to crooks double-dipping and making tons of money that they do not deserve.
These ignorant folks have no clue about Life.
All sorts of Life — the trees, the plants, the birds, the animals, the fish — have no clue, nor deep understanding, of the Salmon and other fish. The rivers in and around Yosemite and the salmon and other fish go hand in hand.
At one time, our forests were pristine, the air clean, the lakes, rivers, and streams clean and wholesome, the plants and fruits were free of pesticides; you all know what I mean. Today, without knowing it, we poison our bodies, and most folks do not give a damn.
I traveled the world and saw it all - I know what I talk about - today we have an idiot in the White House - and among us - autocrats who do not respect our Constitution.
Our Founding Fathers respected the Earth and wrote about their love for gardening and other natural things; it was not all about politics.
The SFPUC took on the Environmental Protection Agency and took them to the Supreme Court, wasting millions of our taxpayers' money. The issue: the Clean Water Act. The SFPUC neutralized that ACT that we all fought for. Such are the ways of the wicked.
The SFPUC will fall on its face; there is more to come. We had to bring the abject corruption to everyone's attention. I see the gadflies who were sitting on the wall fall one by one.
There was a time, long before tSalmon'smon had arrived, when fires were lit by the rivers to welcome tSalmon'smon. Such rituals went on for thousands of years, until the Whites came and fucked it all.
My name is Francisco Da Costa, and when we took up this case, the SFPU Commissioners did not respond to us because they had no clue about the "Confined Space" issues.
The SFPU Commissioners have no clue about what they are doing, and when there is a need for a needs assessment, they call in the consultants, some of whom hang around the SFPUC, raking in millions.
We have no engineer worth the salt, not one SFPU Commissioner an engineer, none who chronologically know what has happened in the past years, three decades or more.
The moral among the employees is at all time low - many managers bulling the employees and using micromanagement to treat the employees like slaves.
This is San Francisco; we will checkmate those whom we do not want to ruin, bullying our SFPUC employees, disgracing the good name of the City and County of San Francisco.
The SFPU Commissioner was ignorant - and it was a pity - to see these Commissioners - the look of their faces - they had no clue they would be exposed and rightly so,
The SFPU Commissioner rubber-stamps and will not speak Truth to power. They bow down to folks like Dennis Herrera, who will soon retire — good riddance to bad rubbish.
Steve Richie and the Deputy General Manager, Ronald Flynn, could have done better; they failed and put the innocent in harm's way.
SFPUC has no standards for upper management.
Micromanaging is not the way to do business; constantly spying on one another and reporting nonsense to upper management.
Audit after audit by the SF Controller's Office has revealed that SFPUC lacks the ability to set standards, and that millions of dollars, all of taxpayers' money, are wasted, all while the shameless managers at SFPUC feel they can do as they please.
We now have an SF Inspector General who falls under the auspices of the SF Controller. We met the SF General Inspector in April, 2025 and have yet to receive any adjudication regarding three SFPUC workers who were fired without cause.
We formed a team and met to do our own investigation and found the SFPUC lacking basic operational ability in the sordid system, and the SF Water Department, who are the worst, all the managers, corrupt to the core.
One SF Water manager is wasting his time and the time of others at work — showing porn and bringing disgrace to the City and County of San Francisco.
That same manager is stealing copper wire and amassing thousands of dollars illegally, was caught stealing in a store, and the SF Police Department is aware of this incident, and is daily treating those who are not White with disdain.
The SF Water has chosen to build a brand new one million square foot building and two managers are salavating - thinking the two of them will manage that building - high hopes - you will fall flat on your face - you who made headling in the SF newspaper showing porn to the workers, stealing copper wire - the other one who will go out of his way to abuse fellow workers who are not White.
Let me tell you - we have facts, empirical data, videos, photographs, and what have you - shame on the many higher managers - who are corrupt and allowing this cancer to surge all over the SFPUC - at every level, especially the higher-level managers.
As Director of Environmental Justice Advocacy, I led a team of experts; we met for 9 months and researched more than 25 areas that the SF Water Department failed to implement.
A judge will deal with the facts that our team has: empirical data, photographs of the Reservoir, sludge buildup of two or three feet, and other contaminants that we will reveal at the appropriate time.
The three SFPUC workers will be present and state the facts; they will also reveal the retaliation and other atrocities committed, and we have witnesses, so that the Judge can adjudicate with fair play and justice.
https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/player/clip/51038?view_id=22&meta_id=1189832&redirect=true



















