2020 San Francisco Good Government Awards

Congratulations to the 2020 Good Government Honorees:

Emylene Aspilla
Director of Social Responsibility and Community Sustainability
San Francisco International Airport

Ms. Aspilla was San Francisco International Airport’s first Director of Social Responsibility and Community Sustainability. In the role, she brought together three different units — small business development, workforce development and compliance operations — to improve both the safety and experience of people working and moving through SFO.

Fifty-three million people travel through SFO every year, thanks in part to the dedication and hard work of over 46,000 employees. Yet eighty percent of SFO employers reported that they have faced challenges recruiting and retaining workers in the tightest labor market in over forty years. This was in part due to rising housing and transportation costs in the Bay Area, which made it difficult to attract and keep workers.

To address this, Ms. Aspilla worked collaboratively with employers, employees and the community to develop creative solutions that focused on improving working conditions. While these efforts met the business needs of the Airport, it also helped to meet the personal needs of workers by enabling them to keep more money in their pockets, stay in good jobs, and advance within their careers. As a direct result of her efforts, there was a thirty percent to seventy percent increase in retention, saving millions of dollars in recruitment, turnover and productivity costs.

Danielle Mieler
Principal Administrative Analyst, Office of Resilience and Capital Planning
City Administrators Office

San Francisco is ground zero for commerce, technology and, unfortunately, earthquakes. With the expectation that a 6.75 magnitude earthquake will hit the city within the next 30 years, there is an urgency to consider the potential damage of such a disaster.

Ms. Mieler manages the City's Earthquake Safety Implementation Program and the Lifelines Council. In particular, she was tasked with developing recommendations to improve the earthquake safety of tall buildings of over 240 feet. This effort looked at how tall buildings would perform during an earthquake as well as how they would affect, or be affected by, surrounding neighborhoods, soil conditions, and other factors. To accomplish this task, Ms. Mieler put together San Francisco’s Tall Buildings Study, a multi-departmental analysis of the unique seismic safety and recovery risks associated with these complex structures.

As a result of her work and leadership, San Francisco will be able to assess the safety of its buildings after the next big earthquake, enable re-occupancy, and fully recover more quickly and efficiently. The Tall Buildings Safety Strategy adds to San Francisco’s innovative programs and initiatives to improve the City’s ability to prepare for and recover from a major earthquake. It also strengthens the integrity and resilience of the City’s infrastructure, neighborhoods, and residents.

Peggy Sugarman
Worker's Compensation Director
Department of Human Resources

In response to concerns of employees deployed to the 2017 North Bay fires, Dr. Sugarman, in her capacity directing worker’s compensation for the City of San Francisco, rapidly established an Injury Hotline staffed twenty-four hours per day by a registered nurse. Her department expanded the program citywide, where it remains valuable to employees affected by work-related exposures and injuries. Through the program, workers can receive immediate medical care, set medical appointments and obtain claim forms. Their calls also serve as their first report of injury, thereby improving the City’s claims recordkeeping and response. Employees benefit from immediate access to help while the City benefits from prompt injury reporting, thereby reducing delays in claim evaluations and ensuring rapid treatment.

This is one example of how Dr. Sugarman supports employees who have work-related injuries and illnesses. As a result of her leadership, the Police Officers Association and Firefighters Local 798 honored her efforts to expedite effective cancer treatment, with the White Helmet, the highest award a civilian can receive in support of firefighters

Dr. Sugarman has developed services and efficiencies to improve the experience for city and county workers, which has generated $600,000 in cost savings for San Francisco. Her efforts have led to a reduced average cost of indemnity claims, a reduced average number of days to close a claim and a satisfaction score of 4.67 out of 5 for WCD claims management services.

CalFresh Expansion Initiative Team
SF Human Services Agency / Aging and Adult Services
Jeimil Belamide, Krista Gaeta, Chandra Johnson, Phil Mau

With the adoption of AB1811 in June 2018, older adults and persons with disabilities who receive federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits became eligible for CalFresh nutrition benefits for the first time ever in California. CalFresh, formerly known as Food Stamps, lifts more people out of poverty than any other public safety net program by providing a monthly benefit that can be used to purchase nutritious food, thereby freeing up a portion of low-income recipients’ household budgets to pay for other needs. The average benefit for a single-person household is $139/month – a significant amount, particularly in a high-cost-of-living county.

There were nearly 41,000 SSI recipients in San Francisco eligible to benefit from this state policy change when it went into effect, but the majority of them would not be enrolled automatically; they would have to apply. These newly eligible individuals would almost double the CalFresh caseload, which was approximately 45,000 enrollees prior to the policy change. Moreover, the policy change was announced in July 2018, leaving less than a year to plan before individuals could apply in May 2019. As of October 24, 2019, the Agency had process CalFresh applications for nearly half of the SSI recipients in San Francisco (49%). 92% of those applications were approved, resulting in access to nutrition benefits for 18,300 seniors and persons with disabilities.

Goal to Roll Initiative Team
Assessor-Recorder's Office
Molly Peterson, Connie Vindell, Christina McKinnon, Adrienne Yan

Every year, property taxes are the single largest revenue source — more than $3 billion — for general City services more than $3 billion for local services and public education. For several decades, the Assessor‐Recorder has operated in a constant state of backlog, unable to complete all assessments nor appropriately track and add value from new construction on time. The consequences of this backlog have been significant and resulted in unrealized or lost property tax revenues, lack of clarity for individuals and businesses who must pay multiple years of unknown bills at once and an opportunity cost associated with inaccurate financial forecasting and public service programming.

The Assessor‐Recorder adopted a multi‐year, interdisciplinary, cross‐division effort called the Goal to Roll Initiative (G2R) to eliminate the backlog and provide transparency into the organization’s operations and productivity. The major components of G2R can be distilled into four broad areas: (1) development of data‐driven tools that are automated and auditable to understand productivity, (2) re‐engineering business processes, (3) implementing new technologies that assist with tracking employee’s work to improve efficiency and, (4) aligning management and staff resources to eliminate the backlog. As a result of G2R, in June of 2019 the Assessor-Recorder’s office the roll on‐time for the first time in over twenty-five years, eliminating the backlog.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Sponsorship opportunities for the 2021 San Francisco Good Government will be available in the winter. If you have questions please contact Amanda Fasenmyer at [email protected].

2020 Supporters:

2019

Kate Conner
Principal Planner/Complex Projects Manager
Planning Department

Diane Oshima
Deputy Director of Planning and the Environment
Port of San Francisco

Gigi Whitley
Deputy Director of Administration and Finance
Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing

Child Support Services Team
Child Support Services Department
Mary Alatorre, Kathy Fong Chen, Freda Randolph Glenn, Lisa Saporito

SF Prepared - The City's Finance and Admin Emergency Preparedness Team
Christie Beetz, Ana Contreras, Mark McLean, Kamroonbanu Mohideenbasha

2018

Sonali Bose
Deputy Director, Finance and Information Technology, CFO
SFMTA



To learn more about Sonali watch this video >>

Kelly Cornell
Chief Urban Forester
San Francisco Recreation and Park Department

To learn more about Kelly watch this video >>

Jesus Mora
Chief Information Officer
San Francisco Fire Department

To learn more about Jesus watch this video >>

Dahlia Housing Portal Team
Maria Benjamin, Barry Roeder, Michael Solomon, Ashley Meyers
Office of

To learn more about the Dahlia Housing Portal Team watch this video>>

Encampment Resolution Team
Tom Carter, Paul De Freitas, Scott Walton
Port of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Works, Department of Homelessness & Supportive Housing

To learn more about the Encampment Resolution Team watch this video >>

2017

2016
Jane Gong
Office of Economic & Workforce Development / Department of Technology

Diana Hammons
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Greg Kato
Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector

Robert Smuts
Department of Emergency Management

Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Team: Kate Hartley, Lydia Ely, Erin Carson, Sarah Nusser
Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development

2015
Colleen Chawla
Department of Public Health

Jimmy Chiu, PE
San Francisco International Airport

Paula Kehoe
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Peter Dailey, John Davey, John Doll, Elaine Forbes and Meghan Wallace
Port of San Francisco

Freda Randolph Glenn, Stephanie Ting and Thomas Wolf
Child Support Services Department

2014
Douglas Legg
Department of Public Works

Zoon Nguyen
Office of the Assessor-Recorder

Lisa Wayne
Recreation and Park Department

Marc Babus, Lauren Brady Blalock, Patricia Lee, Marynella Woods
Office of the Public Defender

Mary Ellen Carroll, Daniel Lehr, Thomas Siragusa, Cheryl Taylor
SF Public Utilities Commission

2013
Susan Giffin, Rodrigo Castillo, Alan Honniball and Leo Solomon
Crime Data Warehouse Team

Michelle Ruggels
Department of Public Health

Lea Militello
Municipal Transportation Agency

Jaime Flores-Lovo
Department of Public Works

Ted Egan
Controller's Office

 2012
Ed Harrington
MFAC Lifetime Achievement Award

Jocelyn Quintos
Department of Public Works

Harlan L. Kelly Jr.
SF Public Utilities Commission

Steven Castile
Recreation and Park Department

Jay Primus, George Reynolds, Steven Lee, Lorraine Fuqua
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Darrell Ascano, Tajel Shah, Rebecca Villareal-Mayer
Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector

2011
Dr. Susan Fernyak
Department of Public Health

Dana Ketcham
Recreation and Park Department

Cheryl Nashir
San Francisco Airport Commission

Dave Curto, Tony Lugo, Leo Sauceda, Jim Whelly
Human Services Agency

Brian Benson, Fran Breeding, Brian Strong, Adam Van de Water
General Services Agency

2010
Toni Coe
Municipal Transportation Agency

Brent Dennis
Recreation and Park Department

Allison Magee
Juvenile Probation Department

Maria X. Martinez
Department of Public Health

Nadia Sesay
Controller’s Office

SPUR Infrastructure & Planning Award
Water System Improvement Program
SF Public Utilities Commission

2009
Tangerine Brigham
Department of Public Health

Dan Kelly
Human Services Agency

Kevin Kone
San Francisco Airport Commission

Edgar Lopez & Brook Mebrahtu
Department of Public Works

Julie Kirschbaum, Britt Tanner, Sally Allen & Liz Garcia
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Clare Murphy
Lifetime Achievement Award
San Francisco Employee’s Retirement System

2007
Peter Acton
Airport Commission

Derek Chu
Human Services Agency

Brad Benson
Port of San Francisco

Judith Klain
Project Homeless Connect

Nancy Alfaro, Kevin Dyer, Jay Nath, Diana Nguyen & Heidi Sieck
311 Customer Service Center Project

2006
Sue Currin
San Francisco General Hospital

Jeff Gary
Municipal Transportation Authority

Chris Iglesias
Mayor’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development

Todd Rydstrom
Office of the Controller

Michelle Allersma, Denise Cannonier-Craig, Jennifer Johnston, Kerry Ko, Julian Low, Karen Taylor, Bruce Topp, Ted Yamasaki
Department of Human Resources

2005
Leo O’Farrell
Human Services Agency

Diana Guevara
Department of Public Health

Kathy Bull, DeMarris Evans & Louise Winterstein
Office of the Public Defender

Kerstin Magary
Municipal Transportation Agency

Jackson Wong
San Francisco International Airport

2004
Michael Cohen
Office of Economic & Workforce Development

Dorothy Enisman & Dariush Kayhan
Department of Human Services

Gary Franzella
San Francisco International Airport

Robert Kuzma
San Francisco Fire Department

Florence Mar
Office of the Treasurer

2003
Dr. Rajiv Bhatia
Department of Public Health

Philip Ginsburg
City Attorney’s Office

Olson Lee
Redevelopment Agency

Pacifico Paculba
Municipal Transportation Agency

Bridget Smith
Municipal Transportation Agency

2002
Gigi Harrington
San Francisco Municipal Railway

Wanda Jung
Department of Human Services

Bill Lehew
San Francisco International Airport

Monique Moyer
Mayor’s Office of Public Finance

Peg Stevenson
Controller’s Office

2001
Bond Yee
Department of Parking & Traffic

Marc Trotz
Department of Public Health

George Nichols
Public Library

Jay Banfield
Treasurer & Tax Collector’s Office

Pamela David, Richard Newirth & Kary Schulman
Mayor’s Office of Community Development, Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts

2000
Jeffrey G. Adachi
Public Defenders Office

Susan Hildreth
San Francisco Public Library

Janice Anderson-Santos & Jimmie Gilyard
Department of Human Services

Sam A. Mehta
San Francisco Airport Commission

Rick Ruvolo
Department of Administrative Services

1999
Carol Bach
Port of San Francisco

Fernando Cisneros
Department of Public Works

Mary Counihan
Department of Human Services

Barbara A. Garcia
Department of Public Health

Anthony Irons
Department of Administrative Services

1998
Jonathan Chow
Public Utilities Commission

Hillary Gitelman
Planning Department

Dolores Heaven
Department of Human Services

Monique Zmuda
Department of Public Health

Marcia deVaughn & Alex Mamak
Department of Public Works

1997
Adrienne Frazier
Department of Parking & Traffic

Sandra Jo Gartzman
San Francisco Rent Board

Nelly Lee
Department of Public Health

Jill Manton
San Francisco Art Commission

Severin Rizzo
San Francisco Art Commission

1996
Sai-Ling Chan-Sew
Department of Public Health

Matthew Gass
Hetch Hetchy Water & Power

Sharon Kotabe, Pharm D.
Laguna Honda Hospital

Johnny Miller
Juvenile Probation Department

Kathy Page
San Francisco Public Library

1995
Hugo Aguilera, Cheryl Austin, Sheila Kenny, Dennis Sato, Anna Suttmann & Nancy Wong
Laguna Honda Hospital

Evangeline H. Bruce
Controller’s Office

Jim Buick
Department of Social Services

Judith Griffin
Juvenile Probation Department

Mitchell H. Katz, M.D.
Department of Public Health

1994
James Bowen
Hetch Hetchy Water & Power

Teresa Chow
Controller’s Office

Emilio Cruz
Office of the CAO

Gene O’Connell, R.N.
San Francisco General Hospital

Robert Prentice, Ph.D.
Department of Public Health

1993
Donna Burchard
Laguna Honda Hospital

Daniel Patrick Daly
Treasurer’s Office

Rebecca Kohlstrand
Planning Department

Diarmuid Philpott
Police Department

Germaine Q. Wong
Office of the CAO

1992
Phil W. Arnold, Ph.D.
Recreation & Park Department

Dorothy Chen
Department of Social Services

Ricardo Hernandez
Office of the CAO

Judy Johnston
Controller’s Office

Anthony G. Wagner
Laguna Honda Hospital

1991
Alec S. Bash
Planning Department

Patric Duterte, Anthony Nicco &
Michelle Rutherford
Department of Social Services

Robert Gamble
Redevelopment Agency

Roger L. Peters
Port of San Francisco

Charles Saunders, M.D.
San Francisco General Hospital

1990
Cheryl Austin
Laguna Honda Hospital

Rich Cunningham
Public Works Department

Joseph Johnson
Office of the CAO

Bill Lee
Department of Public Health

Mary Smith
Department of Social Services

1989
Dorothy Enisman
Department of Social Services

Steven Koneffklatt
Laguna Honda Hospital

Brenda Lauer
San Francisco General Hospital

Sara Pickus
Public Works Department

Edwina Young
District Attorney’s Office

1988
Chief Ronald Driscoll
San Francisco International Airport

Mary Anne Johnson, M.D.
Laguna Honda Hospital

Joel Robinson
Recreation & Park Department

Reiko Homma True, Ph.D.
Department of Public Health

1987
Catherine Bremmer & Vivian Sykes
San Francisco Public Library

Bernard Cummings
Public Works Department

Ron DeLeon
Recreation & Park Department

Michael Marcum
Sheriff’s Department

1986
Ann Branston
Municipal Railway

Barney Barron
Recreation & Park Department

John Roumbanis
Public Works Department

Flo Stroud
Department of Public Health

1985
Ed Gazzano
Public Health Department

Sal Kitchener
San Francisco Zoo

Virginia Leishman, RN
Laguna Honda Hospital

Geoff Rothman
Civic Service Commission

1984
Richard Sullivan
Tax Collector’s Office

Leslie Miko
Commission on the Aging

Richard Rogers
Municipal Railway

1983
Stanley Stephens
Controller’s Office

Joe Dominguez
Municipal Railway

Angela Gittens
San Francisco General

Jason Yuen
Airports Commission

1982
Don Birrer
Public Works Department

Mark Finucane
Public Health Department

Richard Koeritz
Housing Authority

Roberta McDonough
Civil Service Commission

1981
Tom Malloy
Recreation & Parks Department

David Fong
Controller’s Office

John P. Mullane, Jr.
Public Works Department

Carl Williams
Housing Authority