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San Francisco housing authority approves confidentiality agreement with City Attorney to share privileged legal work
Summary
The Housing Authority voted to allow a common interest/confidentiality agreement with the City and County of San Francisco so commissioners may receive privileged legal communications from the City Attorney's Office amid recent federal executive orders.
The Housing Authority of the City and County of San Francisco voted unanimously April 30 to authorize a common interest confidentiality agreement with the City and County of San Francisco that would permit privileged communications to include the Board of Commissioners.
Linda Mason, the housing authority’s general counsel and chief people officer, told commissioners the authority’s legal staff is limited — “as of right now, I am the only attorney here at the Housing Authority” — and that entering the agreement would let the authority share legal research and policy analysis with the City Attorney’s Office and receive privileged advice that could help staff plan for executive-level policy changes.
Mason said staff had discussed the arrangement with a city attorney assigned to housing and described the agreement as similar to work done in 2016. She said the Board’s inclusion in the agreement is the reason the item required commission approval: “Because we want to be able to speak with you directly under the attorney client privilege, we want the Board of Commissioners to be part of the agreement.”
Mason cited a federal executive order titled Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens, which she said “essentially says that all sanctuary cities are going to be placed on notice that their funding will be cut,” and warned that further federal actions could follow. She framed the potential legal and policy changes as issues that may affect housing authority residents and that shared legal work would assist in contingency planning.
A public commenter thanked Mason and the City Attorney’s Office for their work and for pursuing the agreement to protect the housing authority and its residents. There was no opposing public comment.
The motion to approve the resolution was made and seconded; roll call votes were recorded as Commissioner Pikes: Aye; Commissioner Kim: Yes; Commissioner Lindo: Aye; President Joaquin Torres: Aye. The motion passed.
The resolution authorizes the chief executive officer to enter into a common interest/confidentiality agreement with the City and County of San Francisco; no further details of the agreement’s text or duration were discussed at the meeting.
