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PROFILE
Walter Wong
Powerhouse pushes projects in S.F.
Neighborhood critics complain insider wields too much clout
Friday, September 7, 2001

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/09/07/MN228222.DTL

San Francisco -- Mayor Willie Brown was running late for a pep talk to workers at an awards ceremony for San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection, and director Frank Chiu had to fill time.

After surveying the assembled employees, Chiu pointed out that "our good friend Walter Wong" was in the crowd. His announcement prompted polite applause.

For one of the most influential figures in San Francisco's development world, it was a rare moment in the limelight.

Inside San Francisco's building and political circles, Wong is known as the man who has rented office space to the mayor and thrown annual Christmas parties for the power elite. He's also a man who, in more than a decade, has won approval for buildings that have changed the face of San Francisco.

He helped get approval for the giant Metreon complex downtown and a big commercial-residential development in the Mission District. Today, sources say,

he is involved in many of the building projects South of Market.

Some of Wong's greatest effect, though, has been felt in San Francisco's residential neighborhoods. There, a fight over a project's size and scope may mean that the losing homeowners or apartment dwellers end up with less sunlight, privacy and views -- and more traffic, noise and restaurant smells.

Wong is an expediter -- a private citizen who sees to it that his clients' projects get through the building bureaucracy, sometimes despite public objection.

His unparalleled success in this realm is built on connections he forged with city leaders and bureaucrats. He is often spotted behind the counter before business hours at the Department of Building Inspection, which passes judgment on almost all construction in the city. The wife of the department's deputy director works for Wong.

Wong's critics say his connections let him sidestep city and public scrutiny, in no small part because he is so well known to the bureaucrats approving his projects and so unknown to the residents affected by them. The clout of Wong and other expediters has prompted calls on the Board of Supervisors to force expediters to register with the city and publicly disclose their clients, just as City Hall lobbyists must.

Wong's projects get "a grossly inadequate level of review by the bureaucracy," said Robert Bossi, a retired engineer and code consultant who dealt with the Building Inspection Department for more than two decades. "It is obvious to me the projects receive special treatment."

Wong's friends say he isn't a typical influence peddler -- he doesn't wear expensive suits and his English is broken. They say his critics incorrectly assume something sinister is at work when he outmaneuvers them.

"The system is not set up to deal with people like Walter Wong -- it is set up to deal with the downtown blue suits," said former Mayor Art Agnos, one of Wong's closest friends. "Here comes a guy that doesn't fit the image, but he outworks, outthinks and outsmarts his opposition -- all within the rules. Walter Wong is the embodiment of the American dream fulfilled."

Wong was born in 1948 and grew up one of six children in Hong Kong. He immigrated to San Francisco when he was 23 and worked as a janitor, busboy and waiter. In 1979, he started a contracting business.

Although Wong rejected The Chronicle's request for an interview, he wrote answers to many questions.

In the 1980s, he said, people began to seek his help cutting through the city's red tape. In 1985, The Chronicle's Herb Caen wrote glowingly of Wong, saying he became a millionaire before turning 40 and was a "new San Franciscan. "

In political circles, Wong became an ally of Rose Pak, a powerful figure in the Chinese American community. He rented office space to Brown for the 1995 and 1999 mayoral campaigns. Wong's close associates included Agnos and Mabel Teng, who lost her bid last year to retain her Board of Supervisors seat. He gave thousands of dollars in political contributions and helped candidates collect big money from the Chinese American community.

"My political involvement is only one small part of what I believe is an obligation to give back to the community," Wong said. Last year alone, he said,

he gave about $20,000 in political contributions and more than $300,000 to charity.

Many of Wong's clients say he helps assure smooth sailing for their projects. Herb Lembcke, a Metreon vice president who hired Wong to obtain more than 100 permits for the entertainment and shopping complex, said: "Walter is very good at following plans through the process to make sure they don't get stuffed under someone's desk."

In the Asian American community, Wong's star burns brightly: Hundreds of Chinese Americans work in construction, and many turn to Wong for help.

"Among the Chinese, the one who can really walk on water for you is Walter Wong," said Ed Liu, a Chinatown lawyer. "An inspector delays a permit, and Wong will smooth it over, and the problem will go away."

David Dawson, Wong's lawyer and friend, recalled one recent Chinese New Year's parade when Wong was in the lead car with Brown.

As Wong rode down the street with the mayor, Dawson said, "There was a Chinese couple next to us. One said to the other, 'Hey, there's Walter. But who is the guy next to him?' "

At least a dozen people in San Francisco do what Wong does for a living, but none has the connections to the Department of Building Inspection that Wong has.

Wong employs the wife of Jim Hutchinson, deputy director of the department, at his CitiCenter office at 1717 Mission St. His W. Wong Construction has done remodeling work on department offices, and he received $36,000 over three years to store records for the department.

Last year, Wong told a reporter that if "there is a wrong determination and a wrong ruling on a politically sensitive project," from time to time he will contact Hutchinson or City Planning Department Director Gerald Green and ask them to check it out. "Usually, they look into it right away."

As Wong sees it, his success flows from his understanding of "what the person behind the counter needs."

". . . I would humbly suggest that I am the only one with this strength."

Chiu, director of the Building Inspection Department and the man who pointed Wong out to the assembled employees at the awards event last summer, said he has known Wong for 18 years. But, he said, "Mr. Wong has not approached me for help on any of his projects."

Wong is also well connected in city government. In 1997, the Board of Supervisors approved a measure by Teng allowing Wong to add another story to his Mission Street office. One year later, Wong took out a permit to remodel Teng's kitchen. Wong said he was paid at standard rates for the work. Teng did not return calls asking for comment.

Out in San Francisco's residential neighborhoods, Wong has represented many people over the years. Often the projects stir no controversy. In some cases, though, neighbors who had differences with Wong came away unhappy with what happened to them.

In 1999, Jeff Rogers and his wife, Katia, learned that their neighbor on 29th Avenue in the Sunset District planned to add a third floor that they said would block sunlight on part of their property. They protested to the City Planning Commission.

The neighbor, Edwin Yuen, said several months later that he hired Wong to try to get the city's attention. The Rogerses continued to protest Yuen's project, and in August of last year, the city came calling.

In one month, city building inspectors visited them four times, citing an anonymous complaint about construction of an illegal unit in a room where the Rogerses said they had added nothing.

Katia Rogers said the department "threw the book at us," issuing an order that the couple said will require costly changes to the room, including removal of a sink and walls that a previous owner put in.

The city eventually approved a big expansion of Yuen's home that will block some of the Rogerses' view and cast shadows on their property.

"People can draw their own conclusions," said Steve Williams, the Rogerses' attorney. "But Walter Wong represented the Rogerses' neighbor and suddenly the full weight of the building department crashed down on my client's little home in the Sunset District."

The inspector who cited the Rogerses, Tony Fong, could not be reached for comment. Chiu said it was his understanding that Wong never discussed the case with Fong or senior management officials.

Wong contends that he made only preliminary inquiries and did no work for Yuen. However, in a July 2000 memorandum from Wong to a city planner, he referred to Yuen as "our client" and pressed to get a hearing date on the Yuen project.

In the Cow Hollow neighborhood, Ronjon and Leila Sen never had reason to pay much attention to how building projects got approved. That changed when they became convinced that John Peabody, their neighbor on Filbert Street, had exceeded his permits when he did an almost complete teardown of a barn and replaced it with a structure that was to have a rooftop deck.

That deck would have a view into the Sens' bedroom.

The Sens went to the Building Inspection Department, and the city issued a violation notice on Peabody's property a year ago, stating that he had not notified neighbors of additions to his front and rear buildings. The city's zoning administrator, Larry Badiner, also wrote the building department saying there was evidence of a questionable expansion.

Last summer, though, Chiu wrote a letter to Badiner that made no mention of his own department's violation notice. Instead, Chiu argued that Peabody's work did not constitute an improper demolition.

During the course of Peabody's push to win the permits he needed, he hired Wong. By Wong's account, he acted as a "technical consultant" who only prepared a report on the project. Although sources said Wong lobbied for the project, Wong denies it.

The city -- which can issue fines when a property owner does more work than a permit allows or does not obtain a permit -- eventually barred Peabody from building a deck but imposed no penalties on him for the violation notice.

As Ronjon Sen sees it, Peabody's hiring of Wong helped him build a two- story structure that exceeded his initial permits.

"Peabody had warned me he was well advised and he would prevail," Sen said. "He was able to bypass standard procedures for construction, enhance the value of his property and avoid any fines."

Peabody, deputy director of the University of California-affiliated Institute for Global Health, dismisses the Sens' version of the dispute as ridiculous. "We met with the city scores of times and followed their direction, " he said.

Peabody said Wong's "job is to take the permit application and present it to city officials and to explain our case."

"That's what he does."

Sometimes, the interests of Wong's commercial clients also clash with the desire of residents to have a say over what gets built in their neighborhood.

Owen Travers, a 33-year-old computer analyst, and his neighbors were unaware of Wong before November 1996, when workers showed up at the apartment building where he lived on Ninth Avenue in the Inner Sunset and began constructing a Burger King on the ground floor.

"I called the Building Inspection and Planning departments many times and was told there was nothing in the system" on the project, Travers said. "That was a nightmare."

It turned out that residents who opposed the Burger King -- including hundreds who later signed a petition to the Board of Appeals -- had been outmaneuvered at every turn.

There wasn't a public hearing about the construction ahead of time because the fast-food restaurant wasn't big enough to require one. When opponents looked at Building Inspection Department files for construction documents, project foe Lee Clinch said, staff members told them that "plans which are supposed to be on microfiche for public inspection had disappeared."

The Board of Appeals refused to let residents ask to have the project's approval rescinded, on the grounds that they had missed a deadline for filing an appeal.

"There was no due process, and we were told more stories than 'The Arabian Nights,' " Clinch said. "This experience made me completely cynical about San Francisco government."

Wong said the appeals board voted as it did because the project "met the existing legal and permitted standard for a restaurant in the neighborhood."

Five years after winning its fight, Burger King is at home on Ninth Avenue. It opens at 7:30 a.m. and doesn't close its doors until 9:30 p.m.

Travers still lives in his small flat above the restaurant. The air isn't very fresh, because Travers chooses to keep his window closed against "the smell of french fries and burgers."

"I think something was really wrong about how this project got approved," Travers said.

Wong was also at the center of one of the first projects to transform the Mission District in recent years -- a complex of live-work lofts, offices and two restaurants in an old Best Foods plant at 18th and Bryant streets.

Steve McMillan, whose Potrero Brewing Co. became the building's first tenant in 1996, said the project's developers told him to use Wong as his expediter and he paid him $25,000.

"With a project of this scale, the reality is Walter Wong is the force to rely on because it's like buying insurance -- your project gets through," McMillan said.

Curtis Eisenberger, one of the project developers, said the development helped transform a crime-infested area into a vibrant place. Wong, said Eisenberger, guided the project through the bureaucracy -- thanks in part to his "open line of communication . . . in the building department."

Wong said his company's role in the Best Foods project "was in processing the permits which were not contested." But some who opposed the development say Wong was more involved than that, using different addresses on different permits in a manner to avoid tougher city scrutiny.

Wong denies this, but Debra Walker, an appointee of Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano to the Building Inspection Commission who lives near the project, said, "The little public input that occurred came when the work was so far along, it was a foregone conclusion the city would approve it."

For all his millions and his power, all is not golden for Wong.

If he isn't widely known in the neighborhoods, Wong and other expediters have come to the attention of a Board of Supervisors that has grown less friendly toward unchecked development.

Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, a veteran of many land-use battles in the Richmond District, said he believes that expediters should be required to register with the city so San Franciscans would know who has been hired to smooth the way for building projects. He said the board hopes to tackle the issue this year.

Ammiano expresses grave reservations about how the system works now. "If it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, then it's a lobbyist," Ammiano said. "It smells like expediters are coming in under the radar. Their activity needs to be documented just like other lobbyists."

Mayor Brown says he doesn't see the need for it. He said such a law would be "another bureaucratic nightmare."

If someone insists, Brown said, the law should be limited to adding a box on a permit application indicating who is expediting a project.

Charles Marsteller, former head of the political reform group Common Cause in San Francisco, said expediters should be required on a quarterly basis to report their clients' names, how much money they received and how much they have been promised to influence city agencies' actions.

"Since expediters apparently don't view themselves as subject to our lobbyist rules, the city needs to clarify the law," he said. "With such laws in place, the public would know what this expediting industry is all about and the impact it can have on our neighborhoods and daily lives."

Wong and the Building Inspection Department are also coming under scrutiny from other quarters: In recent months FBI agents have been looking into tips of possible wrongdoing in the department and have interviewed city officials and others familiar with Wong projects. The inquiry has dragged on, however, and no one has been charged.

Wong says that if the FBI looks at him, "I believe they would find a proud American citizen who loves his family, church, city and country."

Former Mayor Agnos, his close friend, agrees.

"Walter came to this country with virtually nothing," Agnos said, "and through indefatigable work rose to be very successful -- a property owner, small businessman and philanthropist in his adopted city of San Francisco. He has helped thousands of people in this city, employed a lot of people and helped many with charitable contributions."

Others do not have such a kindly view of Wong's role.

Clinch, who battled the Wong-supported Burger King project, said: "It's obvious the average citizen cannot combat Walter Wong's inside connections. He manipulates the system so it is impossible for anyone to put up any kind of real opposition."

Chronicle staff writer Diana Walsh contributed to this report..

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