Some of the concerns have already been addressed after the two entities created a memorandum of understanding earlier this year to safeguard against potential corruption, but that agreement needs to be strengthened, the report said. The Parks Alliance serves a unique role in this, raising money for some projects and selecting contractors, a role often served by government agencies. The nonprofit could then disburse those funds to be used for city staff appreciation parties in ways that would have otherwise violated city law if done transparently or on pet projects of that department head. "Like everyone, we were outraged to learn of the public corruption in our local government, Becher said, in a statement. And what about the Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park? If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us. San Francisco's Parks Alliance and Recreation and Park Department are both facing scrutiny from District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan about their use of donations, after subpoenaed records were made public in an NBC Bay Area news report. It will be interesting to see what information is uncovered. The Parks Alliance, a major non-profit dedicated to bettering the citys parks, became ensnared in the citys ongoing corruption scandal involving Public Works. We did collect a lot of information from all the departments, including Rec. The probe stems from federal criminal charges . The park departments memo said, For the most part we welcome the recommendations in the report and many of them are generally in place through the (memorandum of understanding) or existing policy.. The San Francisco Parks Alliance has declined several interview requests from NBC Bay Area but said in a statement it was cooperating with investigators. "Adequate controls against the possibility of corruption and financial transparency were found lacking in our review of key agreements between the two organizations from recent years," the report reads. How are the contractors who build out our green spaces chosen? One example investigators have given of the sort of transparent but still somewhat wink-wink emails and letters they're looking for is one from 2015 in which Public Works Deputy Director for Operations Larry Stringer wrote to Recology inviting them to a department picnic in McLaren Park and asking for the company's "support" in making the event a "success." Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench. But recent revelations have demonstrated that the opaque nature of several organizations, including the SF Parks Alliance, has aided and abetted corruption within San Francisco government.". SF Parks Alliance is the only city-wide parks nonprofit in San Francisco. The audit says those contracts need to adhere to basic city contract standards to prevent conflicts of interest. Supes Call For Investigation Into Sf Park Alliance Contracts - SFGATE We are putting a stop to it, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, in a statement. As approved in 2000 by the public, $150,000 is allocated annually for a period of thirty years toward community gardens. That is why I am calling for an investigation focusing on this agreement and SF Parks Alliance practices," she said. Before that, she freelanced with a focus on the Yemeni diaspora while studying at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Her businesses, Kwan Wo Ironworks and SFR Recovery, are among several businesses that do lots of business with the city including PG&E and Recology about which the feds are seeking a decade's worth of documents and correspondence. The Department of Building Inspection issued 218 building permits to seven of those entities. Just last week, two city contractors pleaded guilty to bribing Nuru with the construction of his vacation home and a $36,000 gold Rolex watch in exchange for help in obtaining city contracts. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera on Wednesday announced that his office issued eight new subpoenas as part of the corruption investigation in the wake of the criminal charges filed . A widening S.F. These funds were largely spent on staff appreciation and events that benefited City employees.. The Planning Department, Department of Public Health, and the City Administrator's Office have all been hit with subpoenas stemming from the sprawling federal investigation into corruption in San Francisco government. The report's authors came away with more questions than answers. City Attorney Dennis Herrera issued subpoenas investigating those same city contractors in February, in connection with the ongoing corruption scandal that first ensnared Nuru, but has only grown in the following months. Audit Finds $3.5 Million In Anonymous Donations to SF Parks Alliance . Haney called Public Works actions "inappropriate behavior" and said the department "is clearly out of control." We have put forward actionable recommendations to correct loopholes that seemingly normalize unethical practices that undermine faith in public actions.. Previously, the board needed a majority to issue a subpoena, but since March 2020, the three-supervisor Government Audit and Oversight Committee has the power to issue its own. Much of that spending from the subaccounts were related to staff appreciation, including department initiatives with volunteers and merchandise, generally at Public Works direction. editor / reporter who has been published in almost every San Francisco publication, including Hoodline, SF Weekly, Thrillist, and Broke Ass Stuart. The nonprofit has not been charged with any crime, but according to federal prosecutors, Nuru used the Parks Alliance to funnel alleged bribes to his department, in the form of donations from. SF City Attorney Subpoenas 8 Organizations As Public Corruption "What we found is that the [memorandum of understanding] had a high-level preliminary budget but no detail as to what the costs were going to be for the design contractor, for example, that was being paid for by the Parks Alliance," he told the supervisors at Thursday's hearing. While the Parks Alliance raises money to build park infrastructure across the city in a private-public partnership, it's usually primarily interested in one type of green planting trees, for instance. Newly disclosed documents sought under subpoena by city supervisors critical of the Alliance -- detail transactions involving a different fund related to the Parks Alliances annual Crab Fest event. It was previously unclear how federal investigators knew about the tipoff Nuru was re-arrested and the complaint against him and Bovis made public in late January after he initially had likely entered into a cooperation agreement with the feds. The City controls the contracts and we follow the terms of the contracts, so there is a lot of information that came out that is really a City issue. Let'sPlaySF! and Park since 2003, starting with the Conservatory of Flowers. The San Francisco Parks Alliance has threatened to pull just over $2 million in funding for a playground in the city's Richmond District if the district's supervisor, Connie Chan, doesn . A California man is forced to live in a country hes never known, Warriors lean into championship DNA, beat Kings behind sublime Curry, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). They have long operated in a largely unregulated behind-the-scenes capacity as power brokers controlling the purse strings to the pet projects of their donors," Peskin said. The nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance is being scrutinized again in the wake of the citys corruption investigation, and a supervisor whos criticized the group in the past now wants to look more closely at its operations. However, it has since agreed to new restrictions on fundraising activities that require it to disclose all contributions of more than $100. During the Thursday hearing, Farrell from the Parks Alliance said they have already apologized for that spat. And, wouldn't you know it, 88 percent of the money comes from just two sources: $131,948 from Recology and $721,250 from the San Francisco Clean City Coalition, a nonprofit. Recent revelations have demonstrated that the opaque nature of several organizations, including the SF Parks Alliance, has aided and abetted corruption within San Francisco government." Argue all you want about how much fun the Ferris Wheel can be. But this audit seems like the latest chapter of her ongoing feud with the Parks Alliance, wherein she alleges potential corruption, and the Alliance threatens to pull money out of projects in her district. Following the release of the report, Mayor London Breed announced an executive order to address the recommendations in the report. One of the subpoenas, sent to the citys custodian of records in early May, for instance, is seeking any and all "invitations, posters, fliers, announcements and programs" pertaining to any "holiday party, picnic, breakfast, award or recognition ceremony" for the City Administrators Office or Public Works over the last 10 years. San Francisco Parks Alliance - Better Public Spaces Mallory Moench is a San Francisco City Hall reporter. needs these 5 sites to thrive so the city can recover. It's the breakdown of the sources of the money siphoned into the funds Nuru controlled at the Parks Alliance. "In this case, are we now setting ourselves up for a two-tier parks system for those who can pay to play, literally, and for those who cannot afford access to our public space?". These subaccounts really operated like a city account, she said, because invoices were directed and approved by Public Works employees and tracked by both Public Works and the Parks Alliance. The report criticized the park department for picking a vendor for the wheel without a competitive process and giving the Parks Alliance a cut of ticket sales to help cover the cost of the celebration, which totaled more than $1 million. has aided and abetted corruption within San Francisco government." In September 2020, in responding to the Board of Supervisors' hearing request on public corruption, the Controller's Office presented before the Government Audit and Oversight . She said from July 2015 through January 2020, we found that Public Works paid eight contractors a total of $572 million through contract purchase orders or other voucher payments. An auditor with the City Controllers Office, Amanda Sobrepena, told the Committee that from 2015 through 2020, the SF Parks Alliance received $11.9 million from multiple city departments and serves in this role for both SF Public Works and Rec. Selling Off Golden Gate Park: Privatization & Corruption Destroying The ongoing federal investigation into corruption at San Francisco City Hall has reached into the City Administrator's Office, the Planning Department and the Department of Public Health,. While City Administrator Naomi Kelly has not yet been named in any of the subpoenas, her husband, SF Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly, has, per the Chronicle. The Parks Alliance non-profit said in a statement that it has cooperated and turned over all documents sought by the citys subpoena, but Chan and Peskin are skeptical that the city has all the documents. Construction companies subpoenaed by San Francisco City It was one of more than 20 firms. The Historic Preservation Commission is expected to vote on whether to extend the contract through 2025 at its next meeting on March 3. SF Restaurateur Nick Bovis Admits Corruption Charges Since the FBI arrested and charged Nuru for allegedly attempting to bribe an airport commissioner in January 2020, the investigation has also indicted the former director of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, two heads of trash company Recology, a former senior building inspector and a city building commissioner. $20.00 donatedin the past month. Contractors and building permit holders made donations to the Public Works subaccounts at the SF Parks Alliance, Sobrepena explained. After Nuru Scandal, SF Anti-Corruption Proposal Seeks to Prevent Bribes Speakers who discuss this are David Romano, Harry Parisner and Steve Hill. At a hearing last year, Lisa Bransten, director of partnerships for the parks department, said Parks Alliance backing certainly played a part in boosting job satisfaction to 86% among the staff. The 33-page report follows sprawling investigations into corruption across the city. 9 of the 13 playgrounds are now completed, and the last 4 will be transformed by the end Supes call for investigation of Ferris Wheel money - 48 hills Thank you to Mr. Pendergast for this article. Prosecutors say Nuru used the fund to pay for everything from T-shirts to gift bags, from funeral expenses for a worker to event entry fees for public works teams. The report further alleged the San Francisco Parks Alliance accepted some $1 million in donations from contractors under investigation by the City Attorney's Office and the money was then funneled back to DPW to pay for lavish parties. The latest set of subpoenas, obtained by the Chronicle, sound both onerous in their scope and familiar in dealing with the sort of low-level corruption the feds have uncovered thus far primarily padding the pockets of some longtime city officials and contractors through sweetheart contracts and such. Although last week the Recreation and Park Commission approved the contract with SkyStar to continue operating the Ferris wheel at the park for four more years, the Historic Preservation Commission has the final say around whether the wheel will stay up. The organizations employees havent been charged with any crimes, and the recent report found no evidence of wrongdoing, although the report author said the purpose wasnt to investigate corruption but the processes in place to minimize its possibility. Im relieved to know Supervisor Chan and others are requiring transparency from our City agencies, especially SF Rec and Park. Explore: The Mission's gardens - Mission Local Former City Attorney Dennis Herrera first issued subpoenas investigating the Parks Alliance in early 2020, also in connection with the ongoing corruption scandal. Abrupt closure of S.F. Stay in touch. The closure of a growing number of spaces at the park for private corporate events is pushed by Mayor London Breed and the Park director who say they don't have enough money to fund the park. 1 in its park investments in the nation, dollars per capita," Chan said. The sell off and privatization of Golden Gate Park is escalating at the same time of a massive corruption scandal of top officials of the City and County of San Francisco. While the city appreciates and wants the donations the public deserves to know where the money is coming from and whether or not someone is buying influence in our city government.. SF supervisor subpoenas parks nonprofit in wake of report that calls for stronger controls, S.F. Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay. And that wheel, apparently, is still going round and round. The Parks Alliance was subpoenaed last year alongside a host of other firms as part of the City Hall probe. Near the end of the hearing, Chan said the driving force behind her line of questioning was to ensure that anyone, regardless of the amount of money they can donate to a nonprofit, gets their say in how parks across San Francisco are shaped. It's a large amount of money coming to the city, she said. But the supervisors were concerned that the public simply doesn't have enough information from the Parks Alliance to verify that fact on their own. She joined The San Francisco Chronicle in 2019 to report on business and has also written about wildfires, transportation and the coronavirus pandemic. Fallout from the arrest of former SF Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru on allegations leading to a federal charge of wire fraud after he was caught up in a wide criminal corruption investigation by the FBI has put the SF Parks Alliance in the spotlight after revelations that it was among the friends of type of non-profits involved in moving money around for Nurus department. At the time, U.S. Attorney David Anderson commented on the allegations by saying, "corruption is pouring into San Francisco from around the world." . Supervisors delayed voting Thursday on three city agreements to accept and spend more than $7 million from the Parks Alliance until Chans questions are answered. She previously covered immigration and local news for the Albany Times Union and the Alabama state legislature for the Associated Press. SF public corruption scandal: 8 organizations subpoenaed by - KRON4 "We receive so much donations and so much money to renovate and improve our parks, and we can see those results. Chan Raises Questions About Park Groups' Accounting All rights reserved, Union Lawsuit Alleges Retaliation for Whistleblowing in SF City Hall Corruption Probe, Former San Francisco Public Works Head Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charge. That general fund had paid more than $5,000 in costs associated with the parks department staff retreat held in 2018 at Cavallo Point, The Lodge at the Golden Gate. and Park to see if they actually have subaccounts with Parks Alliance or not, Chan said. and Park has a similar practice with subaccounts involving the SF Parks Alliance. Those nonprofits have looser transparency requirements, creating a "pay-to-play" environment where city department heads could potentially ask city contractors they oversee to donate to the nonprofit, creating a risk that department head would be influenced by that spending when deciding to award multi-million-dollar city contracts. As a result, city leaders have inspected departments relationships with philanthropic organizations. I think that is a critical piece of information, dont you think, for us to obtain? said Chan. The supervisor and the organization have clashed before. S.F. Parks Alliance threatens to pull funding for Richmond District Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the Crab Fest had been a major affair in the city, drawing top city officials, community leaders and contractors, raising more than $100,000 annually for parks scholarships.. Your email address will not be published. "Instead of going directly to our city's general fund, the revenue generated from SkyStar is going to a non-profit that is still under FBI and public corruption investigations," said Chan, whose supervisorial district includes Golden Gate Park. A memorandum of understanding between the city and the Parks Alliance lays down some requirements for how they operate, and was retooled to strengthen some reporting requirements in 2020 in the wake of the citywide corruption scandal, but the Budget and Legislative Analyst still recommended it be strengthened. in the wake of an ever-unfolding corruption scandal that has ensnared four city department heads since early 2020, a new subpoena power the board crafted for itself in 2020, first issued subpoenas investigating the Parks Alliance in early 2020, threatening to pull $2 million in funding for a Richmond District playground. While philanthropic organizations provide tangible benefits to all of our residents, abuses in these relationships undermine the important role they play," said Controller Ben Rosenfield, in a statement. Now after nearly a year, the wheel is scheduled to be removed at the end of March, but a proposal seeking to extend the wheel's stay for four more years in order to help SkyStar "offset financial hardship" has yet to be decided by the city's Historic Preservation Commission. "We have issue with the way the vendor was selected. Press Release: Supervisors Chan and Peskin Call for Investigation on SF "We will implement any additional common-sense policies that provide greater transparency and allow us to continue to support and improve San Franciscos parks and public spaces," the organization said in a statement. City contract scrutiny draws attention to Golden Gate Park Ferris wheel In that span, the non-profit took in $44 million, including an estimated $3.5 million in anonymous donations, the audit concludes. Golden Gate Park officials and members of the Parks and Recreation commission are getting tickets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Lands End Festival as a payoff for their take-over of large parts of the Park. The letter goes on to spell out that Recology can do this by making a donation to the department's "fiscal sponsor," the non-profit SF Parks Alliance. It also isn't the first time the Parks Alliance and Supervisor Chan have clashed in public. Efforts to keep the wheel up received yet another setback during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, when both supervisors Aaron Peskin and Connie Chan called on the city controller and Budget Analyst's Office to conduct an investigation into the San Francisco Parks Alliance's contract with the city's Recreation and Parks Department, which allows profits generated by vendors like SkyStar to be directed to the San Francisco Parks Alliance. Chan then called on the Committee to issue a subpoena to the SF Parks Alliance for more information, including the number of subaccounts they have with Rec. A bicyclist passes the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. But that leaves some of their methodologies in the dark, the Budget and Legislative Analyst's report found. "It raises the question of whether this is a good government practice and whether such practices contribute to the 'pay-to-play' culture among city agencies. Here are five key structures that need to bounce back to help the city recover. But its more of a potentially problematic relationship, as the report found no smoking gun, and the alliance has since agreed to not accept anonymous gifts of $100 or more. But the board says more transparency is necessary to ensure another type of green money isn't changing hands improperly. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. The audit found the alliance took in $44 million overall, $3.5 million of which was donated anonymously, so about 8% of the money they rake in is donated anonymously. Chan is exploring every legislative tool possible to implement recommendations. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). During this same period, these entities donated $966,000 to the Public Works subaccounts at the Parks Alliance, she elaborated.
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