Category: Update

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Supervisors debate Over Budget this week

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Dates for budget item considerations by the SF Board of Supervisors this week…

The supes will learn, we hope, more specifics on the mayor’s budget cuts this week as the Budget and Appropriations Committee begins what will be a long series of hearings on the individual departments’ budget proposals.

The supes can’t directly add money to the mayor’s budget, although they can cut. Typically, the Budget and Legislative Analyst finds millions in cuts that the supes can then negotiate with the mayor to fund as “add backs.”…

And what, exactly, is going to be cut?…

On Wednesday/11, the committee will start with these agencies: Assessor/Recorder, Treasurer and Tax Collector, Technology Department, Board of Appeals, City Administrator, Health Service System, Civil Service Commission, Human Resources, Department of Elections, Department of General City Responsibility Controller, Human Services Agency, Building Inspection, Planning Department, Ethics Commission, Public Works, Board of Supervisors

Thursday/12, Asian Arts Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Academy of Sciences, Arts Commission, War Memorial, Child Support Services, Early Childhood, Recreation and Park, Homelessness and Supportive Housing, Public Health, Mayor’s Office/Housing and Community Development, Human Rights Commission/Status of Women, Department on Children, Youth, and Their Families, Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Friday/13 is when some of the most controversial proposals will come before the panel: City Attorney, Office of the Superior Court, Environment Department, Law Library, Public Library, Retirement System, Rent Board, Emergency Management, Juvenile Probation, Adult Probation, Public Defender, Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department, Police Accountability, Department of Inspector General, District Attorney, Police Department…

Also: Lurie has said he will fund the new Office of the Inspector General, which has funding mandates in the charter, but nobody has been hired yet …(more)

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What did the director of Rec-Park know and when did he know it?

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

The Government Audit and Oversight Committee will hold a hearing Thursday/5 on the allegations of financial mismanagement at the San Francisco Parks Alliance and the impact that’s had on city agencies.

Sups. Jackie Fielder and Shamann Walton called for the hearing, and have asked the Recreation and Parks Department, as well as the Parks Alliance, to appear and answer questions.

Among the issues that should, and I suspect will, come up: What role has Rec-Park Director Phil Ginsburg played in the management, direction, financing, and operations of the private alliance? What did he know about the current mess, and when did he know it?… (more)

UPDATE:

S.F. supervisor seeks to subpoena ex-leaders of collapsed parks nonprofit

By Michael Barba : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio)

A city supervisor is seeking to subpoena the former leaders of the collapsed San Francisco Parks Alliance, compelling them to testify about the demise of a prominent and politically connected nonprofit that is the subject of multiple investigations.

Supervisor Shamann Walton plans to subpoena the Parks Alliance’s last CEO, Robert Ogilvie, and his predecessor, Drew Becher, as well as its former treasurer Rick Hutchinson.

His request for a subpoena, which needs approval from his colleagues, comes after the Parks Alliance began to wind down its operations this week ahead of a scheduled hearing on its collapse and outstanding debts to the city at a Board of Supervisors committee.

The hearing was supposed to be held Thursday, but has since been postponed…

The Parks Alliance was in the grips of a deepening financial crisis long before its decision to shutter. Its board chair, Louise Mozingo, admitted in a leaked email obtained by the Chronicle that the organization had misspent $3.8 million in restricted funds on its operating expenses.

The shutdown left small neighborhood groups around San Francisco that entrusted the nonprofit to safeguard their money unsure about the fate of their savings. Before all of its board members resigned and itsremaining staffers were terminated, the Parks Alliance hired an outside firm to liquidate its remaining assets through a process akin to bankruptcy...

“I want to know how the city will collect the outstanding dollars and how the Parks Alliance could get away with using city and organization resources for their own operations,” he said.

Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who joined Walton in his call for a hearing, still plans to introduce a motion Thursday calling for a full audit of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, including its long-running financial ties to the Parks Alliance, her office said.

The district attorney, controller and city attorney are investigating…(more)

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S.F. official knew imploding nonprofit was ‘cash poor.’ Should he have rung the alarm?

By Michael Barba  : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio)

Nearly a year ago, the city’s top park official received an ominous message.

The San Francisco Parks Alliance, the big and politically connected nonprofit that Recreation and Park Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg had relied on for years as a conduit for private dollars to fund public projects, was facing “dire cash flow shortages.”

The words came not from a whistleblower, but directly from the nonprofit’s then-CEO, who admitted the problem in a message to a key donor last June that was forwarded to the city. Ginsburg sought assurances from the Parks Alliance that the funding it held for his department was secure.

But it wasn’t until 10 months later that Ginsburg halted his department’s relationship with the Parks Alliance and alerted other city officials. By then, the group had misspent millions of dollars earmarked for specific projects to cover its operating expenses and was headed toward potential insolvency…

The district attorney, city attorney and controller are investigating, and Mayor Daniel Lurie has frozen the flow of funding between the nonprofit and all agencies. Supervisor Shamann Walton is holding a hearing on the crisis at City Hall next week, and Supervisor Jackie Fielder has called for a full audit of Ginsburg’s department and its financial ties to the nonprofit.

The Parks Alliance has served as a pass-through for big donors to help fund city projects such as the construction of a state-of-the-art tennis center in Golden Gate Park and the opening of a new waterfront park in the Bayview. It also acts like a bank for more than 80 small community groups around San Francisco that pay the nonprofit a small fee to collect donations and grants on their behalf and disperse the money when they need to use it to care for playgrounds, trails and other parks projects

Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a longtime critic of Ginsburg and the Parks Alliance, said Ginsburg should have reported the organization’s financial problems months earlier to the mayor, the controller and other agencies that fund the nonprofit.

Peskin said Ginsburg had erred in protecting and championing the Parks Alliance for years, even after the organization in 2020 became implicated — but not charged — in an FBI bribery investigation. The nonprofit was used to funnel about $1 million from waste company Recology to disgraced former Public Works head Mohammed Nuru, who spent the donations on parties and merchandise for his staff.

“The public and the mayor need to know that this scandal was preventable and happened in large part because the general manager of rec and park was so closely tied to and invested in the Parks Alliance,” Peskin said. “If people are not held accountable, it sends a message to the public and to the rest of the government that there are no consequences.”…(more)

 I’m shocked! Shocked I say.” to hear that Ending Nuru’s reign at the Parks Alliance under a cloud did not end the corruption and abuse at the all to powerfully connected denounced non-profit. Ginsburg’s name popping up is no surprise. How could he have not have noticed that something was amiss with his department finances?

So many questions were never answered when Nuru left.

How much money was laundered through the agency that so many non-profits trusted to provide banking services for them?

Why were the investigations into Parks Alliance affiliates stalled after the Nuru incident was exposed?

How much momentum was lost by the switch between parties that cut off the initial FBI investigations based on complaints filed by whistleblowers?

How many cases were left out of the investigation? No doubt the successor to Nuru 1 cannot be far removed from the top of the power pyramid.

Has no one noticed that a lot of city departments and affiliates use the same PR firm? No one sees any conflicts during an election?

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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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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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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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SF upzoning could displace small businesses, advocates warn

By Keith Menconi : sfexaminer – excerpt (audio)

A new front is opening up in the brewing political battle over San Francisco’s still-in-progress plan to upzone large swaths of the west and north of The City.

A coalition of local businesses and progressive advocates is raising the alarm about the possibility that widespread upzoning could result in a large number of mom-and-pop shops getting displaced as looser zoning rules unlock a wave of new residential construction projects.

Such projects often force small businesses to relocate for lengthy periods to make way for demolition or remodeling work, they contend.

“As commercial corridors are upzoned and the value of buildings and parcels in these corridors increase as a result, we anticipate a substantial increase in landlords using these tactics to push long-term community-serving businesses out,” said Justin Dolezal, a co-founder of local advocacy group Small Business Forward.

For the most part, small businesses in San Francisco do not own their own buildings, according to the group. That leaves local establishments — including bars, restaurants, retailers, and nail salons — highly vulnerable when landlords decide to increase rents or simply choose not to renew lease agreements.

Dolezal’s group is making the case that as city leaders consider adopting a new zoning map that would increase height and density limits along dozens of commercial corridors, The City should first put stronger safeguards in place to protect the thousands of small businesses dotting San Francisco’s cityscape.

Local small-business advocates turned out in large numbers during last Thursday’s meeting of the Planning Commission to present their list of proposals, including additional requirements that developers provide financial support to small businesses displaced as a result of building demolitions.

In making the case for such safeguards, they described such small businesses as beloved local institutions that serve as valuable engines of commerce as well as highly prized communal hubs for the neighborhoods they serve… (more)

 

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Good News out of Sausalito and San Diego

San Diego – Cities Can’t Assume Infill Development Reduces VMT 
By William Fulton – March 30, 2025
CEQA, Infill, San Diego County, SB 743, VMT
In a major opinion that could unravel implementation of SB 743 throughout the state, an  appellate court has ruled that cities and counties can’t assume infill development will  automatically lead to lower vehicle miles traveled.
The case was published and therefore  can be used as precedent around the state…  read more about the case: San-Diego_Infill_VMT_4thAppealsCourt
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Supply Constraints do not Explain House Price and Quantity Growth Across U.S. Cities

By Schuyler Louie,  John A. Mondragon  & Johannes Wieland : nber – excerpt

The standard view of housing markets holds that the flexibility of local housing supply–shaped by factors like geography and regulation–strongly affects the response of house prices, house quantities and population to rising housing demand. However, from 2000 to 2020, we find that higher income growth predicts the same growth in house prices, housing quantity, and population regardless of a city’s estimated housing supply elasticity. We find the same pattern when we expand the sample to 1980 to 2020, use different elasticity measures, and when we instrument for local housing demand. Using a general demand-and-supply framework, we show that our findings imply that constrained housing supply is relatively unimportant in explaining differences in rising house prices among U.S. cities. These results challenge the prevailing view of local housing and labor markets and suggest that easing housing supply constraints may not yield the anticipated improvements in housing affordability… (more)

RELATED:
New study by Fed economists directly contradicts Yimby narrative on housing prices: Dramatic data suggests gentrification and income inequality are far more important than ‘constraints’ on development as the cause of high housing prices. By Tim Redmond : 48hills

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The Average PG&E Utility Bill Has Gone Up Nearly 70% Since 2020

By Matthew Green : kqed – excerpt

The average utility bill for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers increased by about 67% over the last five years, driven in large part by a steep hike in electricity rates.

That’s according to a KQED analysis of PG&E charges, which found that residential ratepayers now pay an average of about $300 a month for their combined gas and electric service, up from $179 in 2020.

Electricity charges, which make up well over half of most ratepayers’ bills, have increased by more than 60% over that time period — from a monthly average of roughly $125 in January 2020 to about $202 in January 2025.

The utility’s gas rates have also risen markedly in recent years, including an additional 8.6% rate increase that went into effect in January.

The increasingly steep cost of keeping the lights on and the heat flowing comes as PG&E last week asked California regulators if it could increase the rate of return for its investors, to 11.3%, up a percentage point from the current limit — a move that would result in yet another rate hike.

If PG&E’s application is approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, the average ratepayer would see an increase of about $5.50 per month, PG&E bistarting in January 2026 at the earliest, according to the utility.

The company said in a statement that it pays the lowest dividend in the utility industry and that the increase is needed to attract investors, who provide the upfront capital for crucial system improvements, wildfire mitigation and safety and reliability projects. PG&E is California’s largest utility, serving more than 5 million customers across a 70,000-square-mile service area in Northern and Central California…(more)