San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and City Administrator Carmen Chu today issued the following statements on the upcoming departure of Acting Public Works Director Alaric Degrafinried, who has accepted a new position with the Bay Area Rapid Transit Agency (BART) as Assistant General Manager, effective August 23, 2021.
An Acting Public Works Director will be named in the coming days, and a search is underway for a long-term replacement.
“Alaric has done a tremendous job leading Public Works during an incredibly challenging time in our city,” said Mayor Breed. “In February of 2020, Alaric stepped in to run this Department at a time when faith in the Department had been shaken, and our workers needed a steady hand to guide them. Alaric quickly guided the implementation of a number of important good government reforms to provide greater transparency and accountability, including mandating ethics training for all Public Works employees, and strengthening transparency and oversight involving Public Works contracts and grants. He also led our hard-working Public Works employees through a pandemic that challenged all of our Departments like never before. Under his leadership, the men and women who clean and care for our city showed up day after day to keep our streets clean and help get this City through this crisis. I wish Alaric luck in his new role at BART, and I am confident that he has set a strong foundation for the next leader of the Department.”
"On behalf of the City Administrator’s Office I want to thank Alaric for an exemplary 14 years of service,” said City Administrator Chu. “At every step of his career, Alaric sought understanding and excellence. He began his career with the City as a contract compliance officer with the Human Rights Commission helping local businesses succeed, managed contracting at the Public Utilities Commission, a $1.5 billion operating enterprise, and oversaw all contracting and purchasing activities for the City and County of San Francisco as City Purchaser. Recently, he stepped up to help steady the ship and lead Public Works through an unprecedented and challenging time. I will miss working with Alaric, the ability to tap his mind on a host of complex City processes and the integrity with which he operates. His experience and commitment to San Francisco will be hard to replace, but we are comforted knowing he will continue to serve the public in his capacity at BART."
“I would like to thank Mayor Breed, City Administrator Chu and especially the Public Works team for supporting me during my time here. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career, as we stepped up to the challenges of the COVID crisis, implemented good government reforms and advanced our organization’s racial equity initiative,” Degrafinried said. “The men and women of this department day in and day out demonstrate resiliency, hard work and innovation serving the people of San Francisco.”