Millbrae lawsuit alleges wrongful termination, collusion

The complaint claims Councilmember Anders Fung, at the time a member of the Planning Commission, used his influence in early 2020 to allow construction on his sister-in-law’s home to proceed after the city had deemed the work to be unsafe and unpermitted.

But it further states that when building inspector Tanya Benedik, who filed the complaint, presented the apparent conflict of interest in an email, Williams directed her firing in part for her role in his early termination in 2004 from his post as San Bruno’s Community Development director.

According to Michael Adams, Benedik’s attorney, Benedik had discovered Williams using city phones to place calls “to a rather off-color dating website, somewhere between dating and prostitution.” The website was myRedBook.com, he said, at the time commonly used to find sex workers in the Bay Area.

Williams held the top planning role in San Bruno for just 10 months before resigning unexpectedly, according to a 2004 San Mateo County Times article. Benedik meanwhile was San Bruno’s Community Development secretary from 2000 to 2004.

Williams firmly denied the allegation in an interview, and attributed his departure to dissatisfaction with the role.

“Somebody’s headhunting me,” he said. “Somebody’s coming after me trying to discredit me, obviously, and it sounds like it’s the person that filed the lawsuit making these allegations against a councilmember and myself.”

He said he was unable to publicly divulge his history with Benedik due to the active litigation, but that he looked forward to telling his side of story.

Following her time in San Bruno, Benedik was employed by the city of Millbrae as a building inspector from 2006 until her 2020 termination. Williams was hired as Millbrae’s city manager in 2018, following his resignation as Milpitas city manager amid allegations that he used taxpayer money to pay personal attorney fees.

Fung, meanwhile, was appointed as a planning commissioner July 2017 to November 2020, ahead of his election to the City Council in December 2020.

Khee Lim, who was the acting Community Development director in 2020, is also a defendant in the suit along with the city, Williams and Fung. A response filed on behalf of the defendants states they deny all allegations against them.

The three-bedroom home in question is in the Millbrae Highlands and was reportedly undergoing an 875-square-foot addition and remodel. The plans were approved by planning staff but did not go to the Planning Commission, according to an email from Benedik.

The city at some point during construction determined work “substantially and improperly exceeded the scope of the remodeling plans,” according to the complaint, and the city posted an “unsafe to occupy” sign on the home Feb. 21, 2020, and refused to issue final approval of the project.

But days later, Fung met with Lim at City Hall “for the sole and improper purpose of helping [the homeowner] because she was his sister-in-law,” the complaint reads. Lim deferred to Fung’s pressure and instructed then Building Official Mike Cully to remove the posting from the home, it states.

Benedik reportedly became involved after she was contacted by a person who claimed to be a neighbor, alerting her of the relationship between Fung and the homeowner and the questionable scope of construction. She followed up with an email relaying the concerns to building and planning department officials, including Lim and Williams.

On May 6, with Williams’ approval, Lim terminated both Benedik and Cully — at the time the city’s only building department employees, according to the complaint. The city, it says, maintains that it did so for the purpose of outsourcing the building department to a private company.

Cully died shortly after his termination in 2021.

Fung did not respond to a request for comment. City spokesperson Justine Bleeker also declined to provide a statement on the matter, citing a city policy against commenting on active litigation.

The house renovation has since been completed.