San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera is suing a former member of the Board of Supervisors, alleging more than 70 violations of the city's lobbyist law.
Herrera's suit accuses Michael Yaki, who served on the board from 1996 to 2001, of failing to register as a lobbyist and other infractions while representing Rescue Air Systems earlier this year. The San Carlos-based firm makes emergency air-supply systems for high-rise buildings that allow firefighters to replenish their air tanks. The company retained Yaki and several lobbying firms to try to persuade the Board of Supervisors to continue an ordinance that required high-rise buildings to be equipped with firefighter air systems. In September, the board dropped the policy in favor of requiring fire-resistant elevators.
The city attorney's lawsuit, a 468-page document filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday morning, says Yaki contacted members of the board, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and other city officials more than 70 times while the legislation was under consideration. The complaint alleges:
Yaki flouted the lobbyist ordinance in every way. He failed to register as a lobbyist, failed to disclose who was paying him to lobby and how much he was paid, and failed to disclose any of his lobbying contacts. With his identity as a paid lobbyist undisclosed, Yaki sometimes misrepresented who he worked for. When trying to convince two members of the Board to meet with him, Yaki told them that he was "working with constituents concerned about ... fire safety," and he told three other Board members that he was the "attorney for a firm that advocates for increased safety engineering for firefighters."
Asked to comment, Yaki sent an email response saying his work for Rescue Air Systems was legal:
"There is an exception within the Ordinance allowing attorney representation, and as an attorney I worked within the parameters of the ordinance. My client retained several lobbying firms to handle lobbying on the ordinance when it came to the Board of Supervisors. I look forward to positively resolving this matter with the City Attorney."
The city's lobbyist ordinance provides for civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, or three times the amount of compensation scofflaw lobbyists fail to report, whichever is greater. In a statement, Herrera said, "Yaki himself voted to support the ordinance in 2000 while a member of the Board of Supervisors. ... Unfortunately, in the case we've filed today, the evidence is overwhelming that Mr. Yaki brazenly flouted a law with which he had no excuse to be unfamiliar."