Category: Corruptions

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Prior to her resignation, Dream Keeper Initiative director Sheryl Davis threw a party at one of D.C.’s swankiest hotels

By Susan Dyer Reynolds – via email (excerpt)

She also took two trips to Martha’s Vineyard in 2023 and 2024, where she and other Dream Keeper recipients were event sponsors…
Mayor Breed, right, appointed Mawuli Tugbenyoh to serve as acting replacement for Human Rights Commission head Sheryl Davis…
 
To nobody’s surprise this close to an election where Mayor London Breed, her dear friend, is battling to keep her job, Sheryl Davis, head of the Human Rights Commission where she also ran the Dream Keeper Initiative, has resigned (on Friday the 13th, no less). As I pointed in last week’s GBTB, when London Breed was District 5 supervisor, she asked Mayor Ed Lee to allow Davis to run programming at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center. After a few years there, Davis was asked to be interim director of the Human Rights Commission, and soon after that she became the director. In November 2023, I called out the Dream Keeper Initiative, which took $120 million from law enforcement and created a citywide plan for “reinvesting” those millions in San Francisco’s African American community, as a pet project of Mayor Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton ripe for grift. “A quick glance at the beneficiaries brings up numerous ‘nonprofits’ with ties to Breed and Walton, including organizations involved with the SFPUC Community Benefits pay-to-play scheme,” I wrote. A year later, my predictions came true, with many of the nonprofits I referenced caught misusing those funds on everything from cigars and bourbon to $700,000 for two Juneteenth parties.
On Sept. 12, Davis took a paid leave of absence, but she phoned it in. The day before, on Sept. 11, she presided over the Dreaming Forward “fireside chat” and reception at the luxury five-star Riggs Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was hosted by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, as was a seminar held from 11 a.m. to noon that same day called “Dreaming Forward: Investing in Black Culture to Advance Academic Excellence,” featuring Davis and Dream Keeper Initiative director Dr. Saidah Leatutufu-Burch.
It turns out Burch has big City Family ties as well, to District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton, co-sponsor of the Dream Keeper Initiative. Walton officiated the wedding of Leattutufu to his aide and longtime associate Percy Burch. In his opening comments, Walton made light of the fact they met “while one was the boss of the other” but said (with a “wink-wink”) that both swear the relationship started outside of work. And where did they work? At the infamous Young Community Developers while Walton was director. Not surprisingly, YCD got a nice grant from the Dream Keeper Initiative…(more)
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Could SF get anticorruption ‘inspector general’? Peskin hopes good-government proposal doubles as good politics.

By Joe Eskenazi : 48hills – excerpt

Ballot measures for mayoral candidates serve as as publicity engines, storyline generators and soft-money conduits
Board President Aaron Peskin on April 6 officially announced his mayoral run. He mentioned a potential future ballot measure regarding the establishment of an ‘inspector general’ to confront San Francisco’s rampant corruption issues.

This was what was ostensibly in the back of Board President Aaron Peskin’s mind when he shocked, shocked gatherers at his April 6 mayoral launch with the announcement that he’d establish “a new tool for fighting corruption and cleaning up City Hall – an Inspector General, under the Controller, with the power of subpoena and investigation.”

An inspector general? That’s a very dramatic title; surely others also envisioned Russell Crowe glowering in an ill-fitting period costume. But that’s not what Peskin is envisioning. Rather, his proposal is, literally, cribbed from “best practices” reports for “promotion of the public trust.”

That would make it neither creative nor theatrical. And, if Peskin can persuade five of his Board colleagues to get to yes, we’ll all be voting on this come November…(more)

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50 Story Skyscraper Hearing July 26

Money Money Money as High as your eye can see!

City and Supervisor Engardio claim the project is a no go on San Francisco  Beach. Petition against skyscraper in SF’s Sunset District draws over 2,500 signatures. Planning Department will hear the matter on July 26. One other issue that has been raised is over who is  behind the caper.

By Joe Kukurta  wrote in sfist, ” There are other things that smell funny about this proposal. CH Planning “project consultant” John Hickey, the wife of listed developer Raelynn Hickey, was convicted on securities fraud and mail fraud charges in 2006. Plus, YIMBY Law executive director Sonja Trauss has been doing a full-court press giving interviews on behalf of this project. That indicates this whole scheme may be a ruse to create Housing Element-related lawsuits, albeit lawsuits that could push the Overton window of San Francisco height limits up a little more. And that would benefit real estate developers pretty much across the board.… (more)”

RELATED:
Prison term for developer who defrauded investors / S.F. man ordered to pay $17.4 million in restitution as well

 

 

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Top SF Public Health Official Drew Second Six-Figure Salary From Drug Nonprofit As Its Finances Unraveled

By David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excerpt

A top Department of Public Health employee is making six figures moonlighting for a city-contracted drug rehab nonprofit that’s currently embroiled in a financial scandal and may be forced to shut down some of its programs.

At her day job, Lisa Pratt works as the city’s director of Jail Health Services overseeing medical care for inmates. But on the side, Pratt clocks 20 hours a week as the medical director of Baker Places, earning $123,000a year on top of her $428,750 city compensation. Baker Places receives the bulk of its funding from the health department, which also employs Pratt…

“Anytime there is even a hint of impropriety then that needs to be dealt with,” said Richard Greggory Johnson III, a University of San Francisco professor who specializes in nonprofit policy. “She might not have done anything outright wrong, but it’s certainly unethical.”… (more)

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Labor Union Sues City for Corruption and Retaliation

by Dr. Derek Kerr : westsideobserver – excerpt

Why does the FBI manage to unearth City Hall corruption, while our watchdog agencies; the Controller’s Whistleblower Program, Ethics Commission and City Attorney’s Office cry “What happened?”

Clues emerge from a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit filed in Superior Court on behalf of the Laborers’ International Union, Local 261 (Case No. CGC-21-596956). The central claim is that the Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Department of Public Works (DPW) and the City Administrator’s Office had “engaged in a multi-year process to divert public funds and resources to enrich themselves and friends and family…”  And, City Hall knew about it…

The impression conveyed was that the City Family views reports of corruption as nonsense to be ignored – or threats to be obliterated. That may explain why Local 261 notified the FBI and decided to sue…

Colliding Ideologies – Prelude to Lawsuit

Local 261, represents some 1,000 City workers. Most toil in construction, environmental services and other public jobs involving manual labor. Committed to workforce development and apprenticeship training, Local 261’s partnerships with the City have been contentious. For example, the union withdrew from a 2004 joint project with DPW. After co-creating lower-wage job classes to boost employment for unskilled workers, “the Department of Public Works took over the funds…to fill other positions that did not promote workplace development,” per the lawsuit…

The Union contends that former DPW Director Mohammed Nuru, and former SFPUC Assistant General Manager Juliet Ellis, hired cronies to “facilitate the flow of public funds to outside non-profit agencies.” Further, these favored nonprofits were paid to perform the same duties as City employees represented by Local 261. Nonprofit workforce development projects sometimes side-stepped the training standards used in union-run programs, thereby compromising workplace safety, quality standards, and career ladders, per Local 261…

Local 261 also chafed at the way SFPUC managed its Community Benefits Program, calling it “nothing more than a slush fund.” SFPUC contractors who pledged to donate money, equipment or volunteer hours to local non-profits received extra points for their proposals. However, the lawsuit alleges; “In many cases, contractors are advised by insiders at the SFPUC to hire an outside ‘consultant’ who will advise them how to draft the… proposal to ensure the SFPUC staff would accept the bid…These consultants in turn received their direction from SFPUC staff.” …

At first glance, this dispute looks like a turf battle: Union versus City-funded nonprofits. But the documented sleaze permeating the DPW and SFPUC leadership adds credence to this lawsuit’s claims. Following its “limited hang-out” audit of SFPUC’s Community Benefits Program, the Controller’s Office intends to audit SFPUC’s overall contracting practices by April 2022. Detecting corruption is unlikely. That would fuel Local 261’s lawsuit. Fortunately for Local 261, the California Supreme Court recently decided to relax the standard for proving whistleblower retaliation. The Westside Observer awaits the City’s response to the above-noted allegations.

Dr. Derek Kerr is a San Francisco investigative reporter for the Westside Observer Contact: watchdogs@westsideobserver.com… (more)

Now we know where some of that consultant money is going. Has anybody calculated what percentage of the city budget goes to consultants and how it is accounted for in each department? How long term and open-ended are these consultant contracts?