SF corruption scandal: Your good name is worth more than...

If Mohammed Nuru did what he’s accused of, it’s hard to figure what the head of San Francisco’s Public Works department was thinking.

Nuru and restaurateur Nick Bovis are in the middle of the city’s biggest corruption scandal in years. They allegedly tried to bribe an airport commissioner to help Bovis land a chicken restaurant lease at SFO. They allegedly cut inside deals aimed at getting Bovis a contract to supply portable toilets. Nuru allegedly accepted trips and fancy wine to help a Chinese developer with a building project, and he allegedly had a city contractor pour concrete at his Colusa County vacation home and got a free John Deere tractor in the deal to boot.

A chicken restaurant, portable toilets and a tractor. That would be pretty low-rent material to risk your career and good name for.

Nuru’s lawyer says he’s looking forward to answering the charges in court, and I want to believe Nuru is innocent. Because the guy in the criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors last week isn’t the one I knew when I was mayor.

Nuru came to Public Works after I took office. He’s been described as a guy who couldn’t be beat when it came to getting a street fixed, and that’s definitely true. Ed Lee, whom I put in charge of Public Works, recognized that and promoted him to deputy director in 2000.

Nuru ran a nonprofit gardening program for homeless people on the side, and he did get into hot water for having some of the workers campaign for Gavin Newsom when he first ran for mayor. He survived that and Newsom kept him on, and when Lee became mayor, he put Nuru in charge of Public Works.

Lee and Nuru were close friends, as well. At times, they would drive around town after work with brooms in the trunk. If they saw something that needed picking up, they stopped and picked it up.

Nuru was a can-do guy whom just about every supervisor could call to get a job done in their district. There’s nothing wrong with that. Public officials from all political stripes do favors for their constituents, their friends and their supporters. Friendly union leaders, nonprofit heads, developers and the like are in and out of City Hall full time.

But never, ever do you abuse your power for personal gain.

The reasons are twofold.

One, it’s wrong.

And two, you’re going to get caught.

There are more potential prosecution witnesses in the halls of government than there are in federal lockup. Just ask convicted former state Sen. Leland Yee. Or convicted former Supervisor Ed Jew.

Or you could ask me. I’ve been investigated by every agency with initials for a name that’s ever existed, and I came out clean.

I’m sure you’re wondering, did I get a heads-up about what was coming this time?

I had a long lunch a little while back with U.S. Attorney David Anderson, the top federal prosecutor in San Francisco. Not once did he give so much as a hint he was looking at Nuru or anyone else.

Anderson was as cool, friendly and funny as could be, the complete opposite of the stone-faced lawman who rolled out the charges against Nuru and Bovis at a news conference.

I wouldn’t want him as an enemy.

Schiff shift: Rep. Adam Schiff, the Burbank Democrat who led the House impeachment prosecution team against President Trump, came to Congress in 2000 after he beat the Republican who led the impeachment case against President Bill Clinton, Rep. James Rogan.

Rogan was born in San Francisco. His mother once dated John Burton.

In 2006, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made him a state judge in Orange County. Then-President George W. Bush nominated him for a federal judgeship the next year, but Democrats blocked it, citing his role in the Clinton impeachment.

Small world.

Movie time: “The Gentlemen.” Matthew McConaughey leads a great cast in this send-up about a Texas cannabis tycoon moving to Oxford. Chances are you haven’t heard about it, but it is a fabulous and fun movie. The clever twist is that the story keeps switching between what could be and what is.

Polly wanna what? KCBS morning news anchor Stan Bunger was driving home through Oakland on Interstate 880 the other day when the car in front of him suddenly slowed to a crawl.

As traffic began to back up, the car’s driver-side window went down and out came an outstretched arm with a parrot perched on it.

As the car crawled on, the parrot proceeded to relieve itself.

Once that was done, the arm and parrot went back into the car. The window went up. And off they drove.

“I’m not clever enough to make this up,” Bunger said.

Want to sound off? Email wbrown@sfchronicle.com