Sordid details continue to emerge in the ongoing investigation of SFPD nonprofit contractor SF SAFE, which was recently found to have spent almost $80,000 in taxpayer money on limo services, hotels in Tahoe, and luxury gift boxes, among other ineligible expenses. The nonprofit’s board has now fired its executive director, Kyra Worthy, after employees found evidence of check forgery and noticed several of the organization’s bank accounts had balances close to or below zero. Elsewhere, Ripple CEO Chris Larsen, who donated $1.8 million to the nonprofit, called for an audit of how his donation was spent, while another nonprofit — Mission-based “Latino Task Force” — accused SF SAFE of failing to reimburse it for $625,000 worth of services provided. Supervisors have been united in their condemnation of the malfeasance. “Speaks to a very unfortunate and cozy relationship between the police department and SF SAFE,” Peskin said, “all on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Unfortunate, indeed. But far from unique in a city that spends $1.7 billion a year on contracts with over 600 nonprofits and has no standardized system for monitoring the performance of these contracts. Nonprofits in SF abuse taxpayer money in every way imaginable, from expensing ineligible or wasteful spending (as is the case of SF SAFE), to laundering money (as was the case of the “Clean City Coalition,” a nonprofit used by Recology to bribe DPW officials), to actively funding illegal “protest” tactics (as occurred with AROC and the recent Bay Bridge protest). For every one scandal that surfaces, dozens go unreported.

One way to start addressing this flagrant mismanagement is to mandate frequent audits of all nonprofits and institute standardized, department-wide metrics for evaluating performance. This is exactly what Supervisor Stefani proposed in September, when she introduced an ordinance requiring nonprofits receiving more than $750,000 in city funds submit audited financial statements and comply with regular reviews by the Controller. (The ordinance has since stalled in committee.) Of course, audits can't uncover all bad behavior. But the SF SAFE case shows how they can begin unraveling webs of corruption.

Eventually, though, we’ll have to start asking more difficult questions about whether wholesale outsourcing the provision of basic services — from homeless shelters to after-school care — to third-party organizations with limited responsibility to stakeholders and low financial transparency is worth the costs. But that's a long discussion for another day. For now, we'll settle for the audits.

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Last week, we published an explosive piece by my colleague River Page about how the Bay Bridge protests in November were funded by SF taxpayer money. It's an excellent — if infuriating — read.

Check out the article here.

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City Hall

policy, power struggles, and more from the legislative and executive branch (and their sprawling army of unelected hall monitors)

• Big donations have begun bankrolling campaigns for/against various ballot measures in the upcoming March election. Highlights include:

• Tech executive Chris Larsen’s $250,000 donation in support of Prop E, which expands the range of technology law enforcement can use in vehicular chases and curbs the power of the controversial Police Commission, and the ACLU of Northern California’s $100,000 donation to the campaign against it.

• A coalition of public-sector labor unions’ $605,000 donation in support of Prop B, which would increase police staffing levels by raising taxes (thanks to a late-stage amendment from Supervisor Safaí).

• Around $325,000 raised for Prop F, which conditions access to welfare benefits on regular drug screening.

• Data provided by Mayor Breed’s office shows that, 60 days into the temporary ban on street vending on Mission Street, assaults reported to the police along the street dropped 22%, while robberies reported to the police dropped 46%.

• Supervisor Peskin, who next year is termed-out for the Board, said he will not run for mayor in November, despite many supposed requests from supporters. “I’m not afraid of losing,” he told the Standard, “I’m afraid of winning.”

• Jovan Thomas, a “victim advocate” in DA Brooke Jenkin’s office, was fired on Friday after he responded “what color panties you have on” to a calendar invitation for an anti-discrimination meeting. Thomas had previously been sued for sexual harassment in 2018.

• Nonprofit Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit this week in SF Superior Court against Mayor Breed, Treasurer José Cisneros, City Administrator Carmen Chu and the executive director of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, alleging a guaranteed income program providing $1200/month of no-strings-attached cash to “transgender and gender nonconforming people” violates the California Constitutions equal protection clause.

• Matt Susk, a former small business owner and third-gen San Franciscan, announced his candidacy for D3 Supervisor, joining a crowded slate that includes nonprofit exec Danny Sauter, Deputy City Attorney Moe Jamil, and former city commissioner Sharon Lai. When we spoke by phone, Susk said he would prioritize staffing SFPD, supporting small businesses, and building housing in the district.

• Ryan Khojasteh, a former SF prosecutor who worked under ex-DA Chesa Boudin and was fired when DA Brooke Jenkins took office, announced he will run to replace Jenkins in November.

• On the heels of the Garry Tan drunk tweet debacle (see Rose Alert for more details), Supervisors Peskin, Chan and Safaí announced they would file police reports into the alleged "threat of violence" (aka 2Pac lyrics — again, see Rose Alert). Peskin said he would also ask the City Attorney to "draft legislation that would punish speech like Tan's and force political candidates who have received money from 'purveyors of hate and violence' to make public disclosures to that effect."

--- ffMfwe

Memo Sacramento

an essential spotlight on the state of california

• City officials in Modesto found homeless people living in “furnished caves” 20 feet below street level. Police and volunteers are currently at work to remove almost 7,600 pounds of trash from the surrounding area.

• In an effort to kick-start the economic recovery of Downtown SF, State Senator Scott Wiener introduced legislation allowing cities to establish temporary “entertainment zones” where the outdoor sale and consumption of alcohol is permitted.

• Elsewhere, Wiener proposed legislation requiring new passenger vehicles and large trucks sold in California be equipped with “speed governors” preventing them from going more than 10 miles an hour above the posted speed limit.

• The initiative to reverse Prop 47, which reduces crimes like drug possession and theft of up to $950 in merchandise from felonies to misdemeanors, has received over 200,000 of the 500,000 signatures it needs to appear on the November ballot, according toCongressman Kevin Kiley.

• Avian flu is ravaging egg farms in Sonoma County, leading local officials to declare a state of emergency and forcing farmers to kill over a million birds to control the outbreak.

• The San Mateo Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution requiring that whenever a government job risks elimination “due to advancements in AI” the County must “pursue options for maintaining the position until the position has become vacant for a reason other than the implementation of the AI technology.” (Sure, let’s mandate protecting obsolete government jobs at all costs, what could go wrong?)

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Rose Alert

notes from the bay area’s beloved class of local activists

• This week, after Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan sent out several ill-advised drunk tweets quoting 2Pac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” and substituting the names of progressive BoS members into the diss lines, D9 Supervisor candidate Jackie Fielder clapped back:

• Flashback: Remember when Scott Wiener pointed out Jackie Fielder had only lived in SF for 18 months before filing to run for state Senate, and she said he was implying she belonged on "the Rez"?

• Elsewhere, 48Hills editor Tim Redmond suggested Tan has “no right to appropriate [the] culture and legacy” of “Marxist radical anti-imperialist” 2Pac by quoting his song lyrics.

• In breaking news, the Chronicle reports Governor Newsom “appointed mostly white people last year.” In opinion, Soleil Ho (who we simply cannot resist featuring here every week) asks why the SF government “doesn’t just take over the gig economy?” Because obviously they’re already so well-suited to managing the billions of dollars over which they have jurisdiction.

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Man With Machete

cop car joyrides, stolen atms, and fentanyl-slingers

• Kaiser Permanente, Oakland’s largest private employer, issued a memo to employees at its headquarters Downtown urging them to stay in their buildings for lunch, due to rampant street robberies in the area.

• Vanessa Guerrero, a 27-year-old woman who was arrested in Vallejo last week on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle, was re-arrested Monday after stealing a California Highway Patrol vehicle while she was being booked the first time.

• Elsewhere, three armed robbers driving a Maserati with paper license plates were arrested after crashing their car into a Muni bus on 3rd and Bryant.

• Garret Doty, the 25-year-old homeless man acquitted last month of assaulting former Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani with a metal pipe, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of beating another individual with a guitar.

• Patrick Goodman, a man convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s three-year-old son in 2000, was granted parole last month by the state Board of Parole Hearings, over objections from Assistant District Attorney Victoria Murray-Baldocchi, according to newly released transcripts.

• The Bank of America ATM outside the Safeway on Diamond Heights Boulevard was burglarized Saturday night, in the latest of a series of city-wide ATM robberies.

• Yesterday, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced her office has charged nine people in connection with drug dealing in the Tenderloin, five of whom were allegedly dealing drugs while released on their own recognizance in other felony narcotics cases.

---fa

Around Town

stories from the neighborhood you should know about

• A body was found on the BART tracks near Balboa Park Station on Monday morning, officials say. No foul play is suspected.

• Concern from local business owners is rising over a 160-unit affordable housing site on Stanyan Street in the Haight that will include no additional parking.

• Firebrand Artisan Breads, an industrial bakery that operates under an employee-governed trust and hires mainly formerly homeless or incarcerated people, is facing two wage-theft lawsuits from former employees.

• Thousands of California-based Sikhs gathered at Civic Center Plaza on Sunday to cast their votes in an upcoming non-binding referendum urging the Indian state of Punjab to secede and become an independent nation called “Khalistan.”

• SoMa bar Bloodhound is permanently closing down after sales plummeted 70% post-pandemic. “The neighborhood is just so dead,” co-owner Mike Goebel said.

• Diego Rivera’s “Pan American Unity” mural will be removed from display at SF MOMA amid dueling legal complaints from the museum and the City College of San Francisco.

• Rongxin Liao, an 87-year-old who was the victim of a high-profile assault in the city in 2020 (and was assaulted again 3 months ago), has reportedly decided to renounce his American citizenship and move back to China.

• In The Standard, legendary reporter Hank Plante wonders whether San Francisco’s “brand is on life support.” “Unsheltered [homeless] people…have essentially held the city’s reputation hostage.”

• And of course, the story everyone was waiting for — but I was reluctant to provide (because I am, simply, not that interested in football) — the Niners are going to the Super Bowl. BANG BANG.

— Sanjana Friedman