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District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder will today submit legislation calling for an audit of San Francisisco’s Recreation and Parks department.
The move comes after a nonprofit affiliated with the department, the Parks Alliance, has come under fire for possibly misspending at least $3.8 million in donations.
Both the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office have recently launched investigations into the Parks Alliance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle…
As a city department, Rec and Parks is a separate entity from the Parks Alliance. But, the Parks Alliance has often served as a conduit for private money to flow into city projects, operating like “a city account without city oversight,” as the controller’s office put it in a 2020 audit of the Alliance…
This isn’t the first scandal at the Parks Alliance. In 2020, the since-convicted and incarcerated head of Public Works, Mohammed Nuru, used a Parks Alliance account as his personal slush fund to underwrite boozy holiday parties. Nuru was in 2022 convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven years in federal prison.
The proposed audit of Recreation and Parks would not directly review Parks Alliance funding. The Parks Alliance was most recently audited in 2020 by the controller. The proposed 2025 audit would more broadly review partnerships between the department with nonprofit organizations, according to a press release from Fielder’s office… (more)