San Francisco Mayor London Breed is urging that Tom Hui, the chief of the city’s Department of Building Inspection, be removed after the city attorney’s office alleged Hui abused his official position. The city attorney’s allegations came out of an investigation into corruption launched after the arrest of former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.

Breed sent a letter to the president of the Building Inspection Commission, Angus McCarthy, on Tuesday, recommending the commission remove Hui. Only the commission has the power to fire the building inspection director, though the mayor appoints four of the commission’s seven members. The Board of Supervisors appoints the other three.

“While this recommendation is pending, I have placed Mr. Hui on paid administrative leave from his position,” Breed wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by The Chronicle.

Hui’s annual city compensation, including salary and benefits, is $347,662. Hui, who joined Building Inspection in 1996, has been its director since 2013.

Breed announced at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting Tuesday that she is seeking Hui’s dismissal. She asked the Building Inspection Commission to remove Hui at its March 18 meeting. The department is responsible for issuing building permits for all construction projects as well as inspecting and overseeing the safety of the city’s 200,000 commercial and residential buildings.

The department’s budget for the current fiscal year is $96.5 million, enough to fund around 269 full-time employees.

The city attorney’s office opened an investigation into corruption within city government following Nuru’s arrest on fraud charges in late January. The investigation has already yielded a flurry of subpoenas to construction firms, nonprofits and individuals suspected of playing roles in corruption schemes.

The city attorney’s office presented Breed with a lengthy memo Tuesday revealing the evidence they found tied to Hui. The memo, which was also reviewed by The Chronicle, indicated that Hui was initially cooperative with the investigation last month, but has since retained a criminal defense attorney. Whether he would continue to participate in the investigation was unclear, the memo said.

Breed’s letter to the Building Inspection Commission lays out that the investigation uncovered evidence that Hui “provided intentional preferential treatment and access to Walter Wong, a permit expediter who regularly conducts business with DBI.”

The city attorney’s memo also indicates that Hui and Wong corresponded for years on a variety of topics, including Building Inspection Department policy, suggesting a close relationship between the two men.

Citing a 2013 email exchange, City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s memo said it appears that Hui sought input on potential changes to the Building Inspection’s permitting process from Wong — a person with commercial interests before the department.

Herrera’s memo also alleges that Hui sought Wong’s help in getting city jobs for his son and his son’s girlfriend, which may provide a window into the sway Wong held over city departments, despite not being a government employee.

The memo alleges that Wong helped Hui’s son get a job at Public Works in 2011. Hui later personally approved paperwork to get his son a job at the Department of Building Inspection, but was later forced to rescind the job offer because officials are barred from hiring their own children. Hui’s son returned to Public Works in 2016, but resigned from the department in 2017.

Hui is also accused of asking for Wong’s help getting his son’s girlfriend a job at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission after she was passed over for employment at Public Works. Email exchanges show Wong agreed to help, but it was not clear how. The girlfriend was hired at the SFPUC in 2014, but transferred to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority in the next year, where she is currently employed.

The names of the son and the son’s girlfriend are not mentioned in the memo.

Neither Hui nor his attorney could be reached for comment Tuesday.

“Our investigation is continuing, and we will get to the bottom of this. There is no place in San Francisco government for self-dealing and nepotism,” Herrera said in a statement.

The investigation has also yielded evidence, Breed wrote, that Hui gave preferential access to Zhang Li, a billionaire real estate developer behind the beleaguered 555 Fulton project. The FBI alleged that Zhang paid for Nuru to take expensive trips to China, and provided him with a bottle of wine valued at over $2,000, which Nuru did not disclose, in exchange for preferential treatment on his projects.

Both Wong and Zhang and several business entities directly affiliated with them were served subpoenas on Feb. 27.

The investigation, Breed said, has also found that Hui accepted gifts of meals from Wong at dinners arranged to discuss the 555 Fulton project.

“Also, Mr. Hui solicited and relied on Mr. Wong’s input in making DBI operational decisions,” Breed wrote. Hui allegedly abused his official position in violation of city law and policy.

The memo from the city attorney’s office said that during one interview, Hui told investigators he did not socialize with Wong, but admitted to attending three to four dinners with Zhang, Wong and Nuru where they discussed the 555 Fulton project. Hui claims he told Zhang “we cannot do anything.”

Breed said that the city attorney’s investigation determined that Hui was “DBI Official 1” in the FBI’s criminal complaint against Nuru.

The investigation, Breed wrote, has determined that Hui allegedly violated state and local laws and the department’s professional conduct code along with other city policies.

“Restoring public trust is our priority, and we will work with the City Attorney, and DBI to ensure that new leadership implements the changes that are clearly needed in order to serve the residents, businesses, and property owners who rely on DBI every day,” Breed said in a statement.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa