The Standard found that the company\u2019s top executives had previously donated to the mayor\u2019s nonprofit, Tipping Point Community, and that Lurie and his wife indirectly held investments<\/a> in the company through their family\u2019s trust.<\/p>\n During the selection process this summer, staffers from multiple city departments raised concerns about OpenGov\u2019s software capabilities, including customer management and security.<\/p>\n Documents showed that Lurie\u2019s family had previously made at least two indirect investments in OpenGov, which was acquired last year by Cox Enterprises for $1.8 billion.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office has denied that OpenGov received preferential treatment or that donations to his nonprofit and his family\u2019s indirect investments factored into the contract.<\/p>\n The BLA\u2019s review was prompted by Supervisor Jackie Fielder, chair of the Board of Supervisors\u2019 Government Audit and Oversight Committee, and an increasingly vocal critic of the Lurie administration. She has scheduled a January committee hearing<\/a> on the contract, during which the BLA\u2019s findings will be presented, according to a spokesperson, who added that the supervisor also plans to request testimony from Segal.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Civil Service Commission, which conducts hearings about hiring and the treatment of city workers, is investigating whether the contract should have been presented to its governing body for approval.<\/p>\n A key focus of the BLA\u2019s report will be how the mayor\u2019s office structured the procurement process.<\/p>\n In May, as part of Lurie\u2019s PermitSF initiative, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Innovation released a \u201crequest for information,\u201d a more informal process that allows the city to talk with a variety of vendors about their products for a project. Such a request also opens the door for vendors that aren\u2019t approved by the city, such as OpenGov, to showcase their services. When a department is ready to make a purchase, it begins an official bidding process known as a \u201crequest for proposal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But the \u201crequest for information\u201d process allowed the Mayor\u2019s Office of Innovation to bypass a more rigorous and objective evaluation process and finalize the contract <\/a>in August<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mayor spokesperson Charles Lutvak said in a statement, \u201cThe city\u2019s permitting process is slow, complicated, and opaque, and it\u2019s holding back our recovery\u2014with OpenGov, we\u2019re going to continue our work to make it faster, simpler, and more transparent so we can bring our city back stronger than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n The overhaul of the permitting system, which has long been criticized as overly cumbersome, is part of Lurie\u2019s goal to streamline the city’s bureaucracy. The mayor wants to make it easier for businesses to operate in the city, including streamlining permitting for events or expansions, which he sees as a way to help downtown\u2019s post-pandemic economic recovery.<\/p>\n Under the current system, those seeking permits must apply through multiple city agencies, which use 20 types of software to manage the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office faces a February deadline to implement the OpenGov software, which promises a single landing page for permit approvals.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Oct. 31 weekly status report obtained by The Standard showed the project\u2019s status in red, meaning there were \u201cissues present with major impact to scope, schedule [and] resources.\u201d On Nov. 14, the status, issued by Angelica Au, OpenGov\u2019s director of professional services, was changed to yellow, indicating a \u201cpotential risk to project delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fiscal watchdog in City Hall is reviewing a controversial software contract Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s office signed with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[6702,4752,636,13133,6407,101,103,102,104,106,105,1970],"class_list":["post-60345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-board-of-supervisors","tag-city-hall","tag-daniel-lurie","tag-jackie-fielder","tag-ned-segal","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763561829_731_-S3840x2560-FPNG.png\"\/)
The mayor\u2019s policy chief, Ned Segal, favored OpenGov, despite city staffers\u2019 concerns with the software. | Source: Drew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763561830_452_-S3840x2560-FPNG.png\"\/)
FaSupervisor Jackie Fielder will hold a hearing in January about the OpenGov contract. | Source: Magali Gauthier for The Standard<\/p>\n