Head of SFHA Resigns
San Francisco Housing Authority Director Gregg Fortner recently resigned his post after facing increasing pressure from the mayor’s office and the public concerning the deteriorating state of the city’s public housing. Fortner will resign in January 2008, and City Administrator Ed Lee will head up the transition team working to find a replacement. Fortner, who had held the director position since 2001, was the longest serving director of SFHA in two decades.

Fortner had an uneasy relationship with Mayor Gavin Newsom and was one of the few administrators who did not submit a resignation letter when the mayor requested one from all the city’s department heads in mid-September. At the time, Fortner said that the agency’s board of commissioners had the right to ask for his resignation, not the mayor’s office.

In other public housing news, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has released $3.5 million to rebuild public housing developments in terrible condition. Mayor Newsom had requested $5 million, but the board told him it needed more details before it could release the rest of the funds. Newsom hopes to rebuild 2,500 public housing units in eight developments under a program called Hope SF. Under this program, $5 million would serve as a down payment on $95 million in bonds that the city would float to restore and rebuild several public housing project.

The millions recently released by the board will be split several ways. The redevelopment of Hunters View in Hunters Point will receive $1.5 million and the rest will go to immediate repairs in public apartments in dire need throughout the city. Major problems include mold, sewage and malfunctioning elevators. In addition, 210 boarded-up and vacant units will be repaired and hopefully reopened for use. The additional $1.5 million requested by the mayor will eventually be released, once an appropriate project has been determined.

SFAA Trophy Award Nominations Due November 5
The deadline for rental housing professionals to submit nominations for the SFAA Trophy Awards has been pushed back to November 5. The formal dinner event will be held at the Palace Hotel on November 29, 2007. “We’ve been talking about having an event like this for so long,” says SFAA Executive Director Janan New. “We thought our ninetieth anniversary was the perfect opportunity.” Categories include: Best Independent Owner, Best Resident Manager, Best Property Management Firm, Building of the Year, Best Green Building and Best Residential Amenities. “It’s really about honoring our industry,” New adds. For more information and the nomination form, turn to page 68. Tickets for the event are on sale now. Contact SFAA Education and Events Director Vanessa Khaleel at vanessa@sfaa.org or 415-255-2288.

SFAA is proud that NorthStar Risk Management and Insurance Service, Inc. will be the co-sponsor for the Trophy Awards. NorthStar will be the only co-sponsor, but other sponsorship levels are still available. “Lombard”-level sponsorships are available for $500 and include a listing in the program directory, recognition in this magazine, event signage and two complementary tickets to the award ceremony. “Coit Tower” sponsorship is $1,500 and includes four tickets, a half-page ad in the directory and the same event signage and recognition in the magazine as the Lombard sponsorship. For $5,000—“Golden Gate” sponsorship—you are entitled to a full-page ad in the directory, a table at the event, major signage and recognition in the magazine and at www.sfaa.org.

SFAA Holiday Party December 17
SFAA’s annual holiday party will be held at Fort Mason on December 17, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The party will be held in lieu of the membership meeting for December. All members should come out and attend this festive event. All associate members who wish to participate in the holiday party should contact SFAA Education and Events Director Vanessa Khaleel at
vanessa@sfaa.org or 415-255-2288.

Berkeley Rent Board Member Steps Down Amid Scandal
San Franciscans have been following the Ed Jew saga, but a similar story is unfolding in Berkeley. Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Member Chris Kavanagh has stepped down after being accused of lying about where he lives by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. The center of the controversy is a 2001 lease that Kavanagh signed for a residence in Oakland. According to voter registration files, Kavanagh even claimed to be living at the Oakland address for a brief time while running for his first seat on the rent board in 2002, but he changed his registration to a Berkeley address by the time he began serving on the board. The manager at the Berkeley apartment building where Kavanagh claims to live says he does not believe Kavanagh has lived there in the more than two years that he has been managing the building, and a postal worker claims no mail for Kavanagh has been delivered to the Berkeley address in more than a year and a half.

Kavanagh asked to be put on leave for the remainder of the year, at which point he hopes the charges will be resolved. He has asked that his $500 stipend be held in escrow during his absence. Grand theft is among the charges Kavanagh faces because the district attorney claims he illegally accepted the stipend and city benefits. Other charges—all felonies—include perjury, registering to vote where ineligible and filing false nominating papers. Kavanagh has pleaded not guilty to all charges. At press time, the Alameda County Superior Court was determining a preliminary hearing date for the trial.

Debt Forgiveness May Be Tax Free
Forgiven debt does not count as income and should not be taxed as such, according to legislation passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. House of Representatives. Before this bill, forgiven debt was treated as income and subject to tax. The legislation is a response to the subprime lending crisis and would save homeowners an estimated $650 million in taxes over the next three years, and $1.38 billion in the next decade. The proposed legislation also extends the income tax deduction for private mortgage insurance through December 31, 2014. A temporary version of the deduction is set to expire at the end of this year. The bill is backed by the National Association of Home Builders, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Realtors.

The bill was approved by a vote of 386 to 27 and now moves on to the Senate. The White House said it supports the bill, but only if the tax break is temporary, rather than a permanent change to tax code, adding that the change is only needed during the current “transition period” and that the code already addresses the needs of “the most financially stressed mortgage borrowers.” The administration also objects to a provision in the bill that would make it more difficult to claim a second home as a primary residence and therefore get valuable capital gains deductions after its sale. This change is estimated to raise $2 billion in taxes during the next 10 years.

Same-Sex Couples Get Property Tax Break
Domestic partners in California now have the same right as married couples to accept or inherit real estate without a tax increase, thanks to a ruling for the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento. The ruling gives registered domestic partners all the tax benefits of Proposition 13, which limits property tax increases to 2% per year. The property can be reassessed at market value after it is sold or changes owners, but transfers of property between spouses are exempt from this often-hefty reassessment. In 2003, the state Board of Equalization approved a regulation extending those rights to domestic partners, and in 2005 a law passed by the state legislature reaffirmed those rights. But assessors in several counties challenged the expanded tax break, saying that Prop. 13 is a part of the state constitution and can not be expanded by the board or the legislature. The appeals court disagreed with this argument and said that lawmakers were within their rights to expand the change-of-ownership exemption.