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Mayor Lurie halts funding for S.F. parks nonprofit that misused millions

By Michael Barba, Accountability & Public Safety Reporter : sfchronicle – excerpt

Mayor Daniel Lurie ordered a citywide pause Friday on all public funding to the San Francisco Parks Alliance after the Chronicle revealed that the prominent nonprofit fundraiser for open space projects had misspent millions and is facing a criminal probe.… (more)

Two city supervisors have also taken action in response to Parks Alliance admissions that they misplaced 3.8 Million dollars of client funds, setting them up for yet another investigation. The last one ended with multiple city employees going to jail after money laundering schemes were revealed by zealous investigative reporters before the books could be hidden or fixed.

This time Parks Alliance has a lot to answer for, and forgiveness will not be likely.

Supervisor Shamann Walton has called for a hearing on the Parks Alliance, scheduled for June 5, while Supervisor Jackie Fielder is seeking a full audit of the city parks department and the Parks Alliance, its longtime nonprofit partner..(more)

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In wake of nonprofit’s implosion, Fielder calls for audit of S.F. parks department

by MARGARET KADIFA :  missionlocal – excerpt

Parks Alliance art for donor campaigns

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)

 

 

 

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The last Black building inspector in San Francisco

By Joe Eskenazi : missionlocal – excerpt

Onaje Boone says he applied the building code fairly — and flunked builders who’d done poor work. He was abruptly let go with only weeks remaining in his probationary period.

Not long into his brief wondrous life as a San Francisco building inspector, Onaje Boone was taken aside by a higher-up. It was, to Boone’s recollection, a strange and terrible discussion.

Boone, 47, a former carpenter, a licensed contractor and a building inspector in both the public and private sector for more than a decade, was last year told there were issues with his report writing. Specifically: They were too detailed. If the rebar is good, just write Rebar Good.

This was not the sort of advice Boone expected to receive while being paid six figures to serve as a building inspector in a major city.

“The code calls for so much space, so much cleanliness of the area, a certain type of waterproofing,” he says, going into minute details about lap splicing and other matters of some importance in a town situated between two major earthquake faults.

“I write it specifically to what the code book calls out,” he continues. “Whatever was required was noted. I know how to write a report.”

For Boone, Rebar Good was not good enough. He continued to write reports his way. And do inspections his way: as in, failing people who didn’t meet the code. There were a few… (more)

The plan seems to be to let the problems fester for years and then jump up and “discover” hundreds or buildings were not properly built decades ago, Force the owners to pay for costly inspections and repairs now. Who was running planning and DBI back in the 1970s and 80s?

 

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The Bay Area has hundreds of below-market rate apartments sitting vacant

By Katalerico : mercurynews – excerpt

Some new moderate-income units offer little discount to market-rate rents. Some question whether we should prioritize building them at all

In April 2023, a new luxury apartment complex on Alameda’s waterfront, Launch, opened to renters, advertising views of the yacht club from its rooftop deck, poolside cabanas and a co-working lounge.

As required by Alameda’s inclusionary zoning law, the developer, Pacific Development, set aside 49 of the 368 units for low- and moderate-income households making between 50% to 120% of the area median income, $51,800 to $124,250 for a single person. The idea was to fill the complex with a variety of tenants, not just the kind of renters who could afford $3,000 a month.

Two years later, the results are mixed: units for the poorest tenants have filled, but all 19 designated for moderate-income renters — the so-called “missing middle” — remain empty, much to the frustration of the developer, Sean Murphy.

“The last thing we want to do as a developer is build housing units that sit vacant,” he said. “That doesn’t solve any social problems.”…(more)

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Supervisor Calls For Hearings Into Whatever’s Going On at Beleaguered SF Parks Alliance

By Joe Kukura : sfist – excerpt

The cancellation of the free movies in the park series may just be the tip of the iceberg of the financial problems of the SF Parks Alliance, and Sup. Shamann Walton is calling for hearings into why the group doesn’t seem to have money it should have.

We should start here by pointing out that the SF Recreation and Parks Department and the SF Parks Alliance are two different groups, despite having very similar names. SF Rec and Parks is a city department that manages SF’s public parks. The SF Parks Alliance is a nonprofit that organizes free movie nights in the parks, playground renovations, or giant Ferris wheels in parks.

And the SF Parks Alliance is able to take private donations that Rec & Parks, as an official city department, cannot legally collect themselves. Thus, the SF Parks Alliance also collects donations and grants for some 80 or so smaller neighborhood or “Friends of So-and-So Park” groups, helps these groups raise funds, and then “stores” their money like a bank so they don’t have to apply for nonprofit status themselves.

This all sounded like a noble arrangement, until the whole Mohammed Nuru scandal showed that Nuru was using the Parks Alliance as something of a slush fund for staff parties, merch, and shwag. That all blew over with Nuru now in prison, but new questions arose about the SF Parks Alliance after they laid off about two-thirds of their staff within the last six months, and their director abruptly stepped down… (more)

Looks like the Nuru curse never left the Parks Alliance. We look forward to a very detailed report on where the money went, including any funds that went into the recent ballot initiatives. We hope the PR and legal firms that represent most of the city departments and their close associates will be investigated as well.

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‘Dumpster fire’: In leaked email, S.F. Parks Alliance admits misusing at least $3.8 million

By Michael Barba, Accountability & Public Safety Reporter :
sfchronicle -excerpt (audio)

 

The San Francisco Parks Alliance, a major nonprofit with a long history of beautifying the city’s beloved public spaces, diverted at least $3.8 million earmarked for specific projects to cover its operating expenses as the charity rapidly imploded, the Chronicle has learned.

The stunning admission comes in an email sent Thursday by the nonprofit’s chair, Louise Mozingo, to one of its donors, in which the official described the financial crisis facing the Parks Alliance as “what a friend of mine would call a dumpster fire.”…

The revelations are spurring some of those impacted to call for a criminal investigation. One official on Tuesday called for a hearing at City Hall, and a number of the nonprofit’s partners have come together to try to save it.

The Parks Alliance has been viewed as a crucial supporter and fundraiser for everything from new parks to trail maintenance, gardening projects and habitat restoration in San Francisco. It has also hosted well-attended events, such as outdoor movie screenings, until recently. …

However, the Parks Alliance told Baker Street that its $3.8 million deficit in restricted funds that were used for other purposes includes “approximately $1.9M of Baker Street Foundation money for the Crane Cove project.”

“I think law enforcement should be involved,” Nicola Miner said in an interview Friday. “I think we’re past the point of this was some kind of mismanagement. $2 million that was supposed to go to the people of San Francisco is $2 million, that’s a lot of money.”

The district attorney’s office declined to say whether it is investigating.

The Parks Alliance, while helping funnel private dollars to city projects, also acts like a bank for more than 80 smaller neighborhood organizations around San Francisco seeking to raise money from donors. As a result, these groups don’t need to obtain nonprofit status on their own or hire financial staff to manage their books….

The nonprofit was said to owe an estimated $4.6 million, including $1.7 million to partners and service providers — the latter of which Mozingo described as largely small businesses. The organization owes an additional $1.3 million to $1.7 million to the city parks department for “executed projects” and $1.2 million for a bank loan.

As of Monday, the email said, the nonprofit had just $1.6 million in assets, with $1.2 million in cash….(more)

How much of Parks Alliance money was spent on PR and the Prop K campaign? Remember all those signs and graphics that were sprouting up touting the Great Parkway? Guess they will not be financing any of the anti-recall campaign.

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Does building homes lead to lower housing costs? New research is roiling the debate

By Christian Leonard : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio)

The new paper argues other factors besides development restrictions are behind rising home prices.

Perhaps the most contentious debate surrounding the Bay Area’s housing affordability crisis is whether building market-rate homes restrains rising costs.

Most housing researchers say it does. Increasing the number of homes, they argue, means homeowners and renters have more options to choose from, forcing sellers and landlords to moderate their prices. Those findings have galvanized pro-housing advocates and California lawmakers who are pushing to make home building easier. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, for example, has proposed allowing taller buildings along transit corridors in less dense neighborhoods.

But a new paper from researchers at the University of California and the Federal Reserve of San Francisco challenges that stance. It specifically calls out the Bay Area, saying that whatever the reason is that homes are so much more expensive here than those in Houston, it’s not because it’s easier to build in Texas…

The paper measured changes in housing units, home values and for-sale house prices from 1980 to 2020 across U.S. metropolitan areas. The authors then compared the trends between places where housing is harder to build — whether because of policies or geographic constraints — and areas where it’s easier to build…

Vancouver-based economist Michael Wiebe made a similar critique, and also argued that looking at constraints at the metropolitan level could obscure potential connections between total income and building challenges. The report’s authors, who declined to speak on the record, responded to his critique in a follow-up paper. An additional analysis, they said, showed those connections aren’t strong enough to affect the results… (more)

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NO DAY AT THE ZOO

Via sfstandard email…

There’s nothing better than two controversies crashing into one another. That’s what happened late last month after the San Francisco Zoo director quietly suggested the closure of Upper Great Highway, now called Sunset Dunes, was screwing them over. 

In an April 25 memo, SF Zoo CEO Tanya Peterson said the highway’s closure had caused decreased attendance, impacted staff and volunteer commutes, and confused drivers in the area. The note was meant to be internal, Peterson later said, but it wound up in the hands of the campaign to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio, which blasted it out to supporters.

Asked for comment Friday, Peterson added that other factors may have impacted attendance, such as Sunset Dunes protesters and competing Easter weekend events. Then things got interesting.

By Saturday, the zoo director had issued an entirely new statement calling the April memo “premature” and saying she was “thrilled to witness the beautiful opening of Sunset Dunes and see first-hand how important parks are to our community.”

In the background was PR guru Sam Singer, whose firm represents both the Stand with Joel campaign and the San Francisco Zoo, which has had its share of bad press over the years. In a phone call, Singer said it was a “matter of fact” that protesters had caused traffic disruptions during Sunset Dunes’ opening weekend. Sunset United Neighbors, a neighborhood group that endorsed the recall and shared Peterson’s initial memo with members, issued a clarification Saturday.

Asked whether his relationship with both the zoo and the anti-recall campaign presented a conflict of interest, Singer acknowledged the optics but said the recall camp “politically damaged themselves” by blasting out the memo prematurely. On Sunday, Peterson issued yet another statement: “While we appreciate Mr. Singer’s long-standing relationship with SF Zoo, we amended our analysis independently. We look forward to working with everyone to enhance our Zoo and our community…

Conflicts are growing as the opponents dig in their heels for the next round. The Zoo is finding itself in the place that the SF Museums have already gone, as the anti-car people continue to cut their businesses. Parks are free. Museums and Zoos count on paying customers to survive. Those seeking free fun do not intent to pay for anything. PR professionals should know better than to wear too many hats at one time. It is getting harder for city agencies and departments to keep from stepping on each other’s toes, especially during budget cutting season. PR might be considered a bit of an extravagance.

 

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Here’s a map of where SFPD officers work private security side gigs

by JOE RIVANO BARROS and KELLY WALDRON  : missionlocal – excerpt (map)

FPD says its officers working as security guards are ‘out in the community.’ But mostly, they’re downtown.

When Supervisor Jackie Fielder and Assistant Chief David Lazar sparred at a San Francisco city hearing this week, two questions arose: Is it good for public safety that the city’s police officers can go work private security after work, and are those officers spread out equitably across San Francisco’s neighborhoods?

Lazar said yes, full stop. The program “is a big win for the community, the public, the city, and for the department,” he said. Allowing SFPD to act as a broker for off-duty police officers is a way to have police ”visible in public” and “out in the community” reducing crime — but with private businesses paying the tab. It’s a great program that needs to continue, he said. SFPD should actually look to expand it.

Fielder countered. The program — known as 10(b) — gives certain parts of the city a stronger police presence, she said, based on the ability of local businesses to pay for it. The police department “should be equitably allocating public safety resources, including officers” where they’re most needed, without an option to buy your way into city-trained and subsidized security…

10(b) program underlies SFPD’s overtime abuse  Concern over geographic equity is not the only criticism of the 10(b) program. It’s now at the center of uproar over overtime misconduct within the San Francisco Police Department.

At the city hearing this week, six supervisors lambasted police brass for asking for another $61 million in overtime for the year… (more)

Instead of cutting back on police education, the academy ought to set up a less intense program to train security guards. Academy students may even work their way through the police program by gettin their start as security guards. That would solve two problems at one time and get a lot more people on the street faster.

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Unprecedented vote shows Dems fractured over housing policy

By Ben Christopher : calmatters – excerpt

IN SUMMARY

Two consecutive committee chairs getting overruled by their committee members signifies a growing rift among California Democrats about how to address the housing crisis.

One of the most controversial housing bills of the year has lived to be voted upon another day, but only by surviving the Legislative equivalent of two back-to-back prison breaks.

Last week, Senate Bill 79, a bill by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener to boost apartment and commercial construction around major public transportation hubs, passed the Senate Housing Committee over the strenuous objections of its chair, Sen. Aisha Wahab, a fellow Democrat from Fremont.

That was a notable development in its own right. Chairs tend to get their way on the bills that pass through their committees. When a majority of a committee’s members decide to buck legislative decorum and tradition and steamroll that committee’s chair, it’s often taken as a sign that California’s dominant Democrats are unusually divided over an issue; that the issue at hand is especially contentious; that the legislators either aren’t receiving clear guidance from legislative leadership or are willing to ignore that advice; or some combination of all of the above.

Fast forward to this week and it happened again.

In the Senate Local Government Committee, Sen. María Elena Durazo, a Los Angeles Democrat, urged a no vote on Wiener’s bill.

She didn’t get her way. The bill passed with the backing of all the other Democrats on the committee. Durazo voted “no” with the two Republicans.

A chair getting “rolled” is an unusual spectacle in Sacramento. In the typically arcane and perfunctory proceedings of the Legislature, this bit of human drama pops up once or twice a year. For it to happen twice in a row for the same bill is without any obvious precedent.

“Extra unique” is how Chris Micheli, a longtime California lobbyist and public commentator on the Legislative process, described the situation. “Beyond the particular bill at hand, it could give an indication that there is a philosophical split in the caucus.”… (MORE)

Pushback is probably coming from the public that no longer trusts the government that has been running the same scheme for over a decade and still complains and blames everyone else for the lack of housing. The huge number of entitlements cannot be lost of the public. We have a much more neutral media, including CalMatters, to thank for bringing the truth to the public. The obvious is becoming hard to ignore.