Porn probe snags S.F. planning officials

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/5/10 | Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

[SmithL]

It seems the gang over at San Francisco's Planning Department has been looking at more than zoning codes on their computers - namely, porn.

According to City Hall sources, Planning Director John Rahaim has recommended the firing of four high-ups - including veteran Zoning Administrator Larry Badiner - for allegedly receiving and in some cases circulating X-rated photos and videos for years.

The material wasn't criminal - we're talking "Debbie Does Dallas" stuff, not child porn - but it was "incredibly inappropriate for the workplace," said one source, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the personnel case.

The source said as many as two dozen staffers may have received e-mails at work containing the sexually explicit images and videos, along with joking comments that some construed as racist and homophobic.

Badiner, who just last week was serving as the department's acting boss while Rahaim was on bereavement leave following the sudden death of his partner, is not believed to have sent any of the e-mails. However, he was receiving them and did nothing to stop their circulation, city officials believe, and stands to lose his $154,000-a-year job.

City higher-ups got wind of the office raunchiness in December when a female employee filed a whistle-blower complaint, saying she had received numerous offensive e-mails.

The city's human resources director, Micki Callahan, immediately contacted Rahaim and opened an investigation zeroing in on the zoning section that Badiner oversees.

Last week, we're told, Rahaim filed formal charges seeking to dismiss Badiner and three other senior planners - one of them a woman.

Under civil service rules, the four are entitled to disciplinary hearings, and they could fight the charges.

[SmithL]

San Francisco + porn + probe

Any questions?

[Dilbert San Diego]

Hope I don’t get banned, but, this is San Francisco. If it was man/woman activity, then the guys are in trouble. But if it was man/man, shall we say, then that infraction is a minor one, along the lines of checking your personal e-mail at work.

[Defiant]

Or was it Donnie Does Dallas?

[US Navy Vet]

Anyone want to know why California is SO blanked up. San Francisco was the cradle of the State.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Just a bunch of leftists practicing the sexual harassment that Americans won’t.

[WOBBLY BOB]

maybe they pretend they’re greek rioters if they get canned...

[jazminerose]

They’ll be hired by the SEC.

[Beowulf9]

It’s a good thing this article considers this a bad thing. In SF they prob are shocked anyone feels its a problem.

[hoosierham]

It could be more than a minor infraction:my workplace has a written ,published policy stating that compouters are for business use only and more than a dozen workers with decades of seniority lost their jobs over porn viewing.They are still gone and it has been a couple of years.

People are paid to do a job, not view porn or shop online or write their novel.

[NativeNewYorker]

Badiner’s facebook page links to a pol who wants to boycott AZ over the immigration bill.

[shiva]

Duhhhhhhhh for me.....What the heck is Debbie does Dallas?

[Dilbert San Diego]

You’re right about personal use of business computers. I was being flippant and sarcastic.

[Disambiguator]

joking comments that some construed as racist and homophobic.

This, plus the fact that they were probably viewing heterosexual material, is the real concern. This is San Francisco, after all.

If a bunch of homosexuals were watching gay porn and making "breeder" jokes, there wouldn't be a problem.

[madprof98]

This story is obviously bogus. No public official in SFO in recent memory has been watching "Debbie Does Dallas."

[Oldpuppymax]

In Frisco it was more like Brucie does Dallas!

[a fool in paradise]

The material wasn't criminal - we're talking "Debbie Does Dallas" stuff

In San Francisco? Are they SURE it wasn't washroom sex and "cruising" videos?

[wbill]

Interestingly enough, all of the management computer forensics requests that I've had to handle, have involved, erm, "deviant" surfing. I can't think of a single case that I'd call, for lack of a better word, "normal" - ie, some guy checking out nekkid chicks online.

Almost all of the cases involved gay men in one form or another. The psychologist in me wonders if it's an impulse control issue, or something.

There were a couple of cases - not involving gay men - that decorum prevents me from discussing. Stuff that just made me go, "Yick".

Then there was the guy who had thousands (10s of thousands, more like) of pictures of naked Barbie Dolls in various suggestive poses. Not really sure what category to file that one under. You can make up yer own. :-)

[wbill]

"Debbie Does Dallas" was a porn video that was popular back in the 70s or early 80s.

You ain't missing much.

[oyez]

San Francisco has the distinction of having a mega porn studio that is officially on the list of U.S. National Register of Historic Places

[Liz]

Guess who dropped by?