It's the breakdown of the sources of the money siphoned into the funds Nuru controlled at the Parks Alliance. SF Parks Alliance is the only city-wide parks nonprofit in San Francisco. A visibly mentally ill suspect, who just a month earlier had been jailed for a terrifying incident in which he entered the home of a disabled woman, was arrested again in August following another highly disturbing incident outside a school. Sign up for NBC Bay Areas Housing Deconstructed newsletter. 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. The Parks Alliance is a major philanthropic backer for the parks and other city departments. "It's time for me to come home, time for me to be more than a weekend wife, mother and friend," said longtime Bay Area Congresswoman Jackie Speier. A total of 10 subpoenas . 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. They have very similar names, but the SF Recreation and Parks Department and the SF Parks Alliance are two different entities. It also isn't the first time the Parks Alliance and Supervisor Chan have clashed in public. The report's authors came away with more questions than answers. $20.00 donatedin the past month. The city's corruption scandal investigation is ongoing. 20002023 San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. These purchases would then be reimbursed through Public Works accounts held by the Parks Alliance "outside of city purchasing rules." Under the terms of its contract with Ferris wheel operator. But Supervisor Chan is not done with the Parks Alliance yet. Peskin worries that the Crab Fest event could allow for an end run around city ethics rules that otherwise restrict direct contributions to city officials by firms doing business with the city. The probe stems from federal. At the behest of Nuru, the Parks Alliance also directed $66,000 to entities whose figureheads were also arrested by the FBI in connection with Nuru's corruption scandal, permit expediter Walter Wong and Nick Bovis, the owner of Lefty O'Doul's. The City Attorney and District Attorney have failed to investigate and prosecute the privatizer's funding of Park and Recreation Director Phil Ginsberg and his managers. 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. Nuru would solicit those funds from contractors whose city contracts Nuru oversaw. necessarily endorsed by the SF Bay Area IMC. 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. Construction companies subpoenaed by San Francisco City We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts! SF Restaurateur Nick Bovis Admits Corruption Charges Supervisor Matt Haney also plans to introduce legislation next week that will go further than the mayor's order, explicitly banning department heads from asking any person or party doing business with their department for donations, among other changes. This isn't the first time the Parks Alliance has found itself under the microscope. Call (415) 706-6428 for information about advertising online and in the printed versions of the Richmond Review and the Sunset Beacon newspapers. SF corruption probe: PG&E, major construction firms, nonprofits hit Stay in touch. Looking to get in touch with our Although the wheel was eventually able to open in the fall at limited capacity, a surge in cases halted operations after just five weeks. The latest subpoenas also reflect the ongoing probe into the city's dealings with two businesses run by city contractor Florence Kong, who was charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in early June with lying to investigators about gifts she allegedly gave to Nuru. In an aerial view, the SkyStar Wheel in the Music Concourse carries riders at Golden Gate Park on June 14, 2021, in San Francisco. Previously: Feds Charge Three More People Linked to Mohammed Nuru and City Hall Corruption Probe. 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). 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 . The idea is to avoid arrangements like the one Nuru and other Public Works employees had with the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance and Recology, the trash-hauling giant that holds a monopoly on garbage collection in San Francisco. City Attorney subpoenas business, nonprofits in public corruption At the time, U.S. Attorney David Anderson commented on the allegations by saying, "corruption is pouring into San Francisco from around the world." . 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. We did not dive deeper with Rec. The supervisor and the organization have clashed before. The report says that the network of kickbacks and benefits involved former Public Works boss Mohammed Nuru, the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance and a range of entities benefiting from their . Joe Kukura is an SFist staff asst. In a statement, Recreation and Parks officials denied wrongdoing. In that span, the non-profit took in $44 million, including an estimated $3.5 million in anonymous donations, the audit concludes. SF Supervisors Issue Subpoena Into Records Between Parks - KQED "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. As a discussion by city officials around whether to keep a 150-foot tall Ferris wheel at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park continues to go in circles, two city supervisors on Tuesday called for an investigation into the San Francisco Parks Alliance the nonprofit group that oversees the Ferris wheel's contract. The SF Parks Alliance is a Friends of-type outside nonprofit that raises money or provides philanthropic services on park-related matters, donating money back to the city's Parks and Public Works departments for various projects. 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. The Parks Alliance has said it didnt know it was being used unscrupulously by city officials. This corruption of these officials is being covered up by the SF City Attorney and other officials. A report issued just this month from the San Francisco Budget and Legislative Analyst, an arm of the city tasked with researching questions posed by the Board of Supervisors, took a look at the Parks Alliance's financial relationship with SF Rec and Parks. Of the $720,000 that (SF) Parks Alliance paid to vendors, more than half went to just five vendors. Meet the team of park lovers and advocates who work to ensure that all parks and public spaces in San Francisco are vibrant, welcoming, and accessible to all, from Little Hollywood to Lands End. . The new ferris wheel at Golden Gate Park. "Like everyone, we were outraged to learn of the public corruption in our local government, Becher said, in a statement. and Park to see if they actually have subaccounts with Parks Alliance or not, Chan said. 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. "Certainly, some of these groups are operating above board. This S.F. The audit says those contracts need to adhere to basic city contract standards to prevent conflicts of interest. Related: Parks Alliance Pushes Back On Accusations, Tells Supervisor Chan to Kiss Richmond Playground Goodbye [SFist]. So I defer to the city attorney who oversees those contracts, Farrell said. Chan said she was disappointed with the reports about Nurus and the Public Works relationship with SF Parks Alliance, plus she was concerned that instead of pausing that type of agreement between Rec. SF Audit Critical of Non-Profit in Public Corruption Scandal SAN FRANCISCO - As a discussion by city officials around whether to keep a 150-foot tall Ferris wheel at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park continues to go in circles, two city supervisors on. She joined The San Francisco Chronicle in 2019 to report on business and has also written about wildfires, transportation and the coronavirus pandemic. Chan Raises Questions About Park Groups' Accounting "Certainly, some of these groups are operating above board. We are zooming in to really look at a very problematic relationship that a non-profit named San Francisco Parks Alliance has with our city departments, but specifically with our Recreation and Park Department, said District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, who called for the hearing. 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. 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. 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. 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. While no formal accusations have been made, Chan's subpoena comes in the wake of an ever-unfolding corruption scandal that has ensnared four city department heads since early 2020. 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. Abrupt closure of S.F. Sobrepena could not give an immediate answer but said she could come back with that information. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Call (415) 706-6428 for information about advertising online and in the printed versions of the Richmond Review and the Sunset Beacon newspapers. For a Richmond neighborhood playground, for instance, the $3 million budget was completely opaque, said Fred Brousseau, from the Budget and Legislative Analyst's office. but even at the lower levels it can lead to more of a culture of corruption where contractors have cozy . When the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department pitches in its own money, are they getting the most bang for their buck? The Parks Alliance wrote a letter to Chan earlier this year threatening to pull $2 million in funding for a Richmond District playground in response to her statements about their alleged wrongdoing. This corruption is part and parcel of the sell off of Golden Gate Park. It was one of more than 20 firms. 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 . Without more detailed oversight, the audit found, this benefit of philanthropic support risks being overshadowed by the possibility of corruption.. Sign up for our daily newsletter. They also look at the lack of transparency and the growing curruption scandal in San Francisco as more officials investigated an jails for corruption directly connected to the "non-profits" involved in privatizing City resources. That's the problem we are talking about here.". The BLA (Budget and Legislative Analyst) report that you will see later today will actually validate what we thought all along; that there was a lack of adequate controls against the possibility of corruption and financial transparency between the Parks Alliance and the Rec. Email: [email protected] Twitter:@mallorymoench. Nuru recently pleaded guilty to wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing. The organization said Friday that its books are totally open and available, and it would gladly provide park department records, which the city hasnt requested previously. Let'sPlaySF! The Historic Preservation Commission is expected to vote on whether to extend the contract through 2025 at its next meeting on March 3. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco City Hall reporter. Thank you to Mr. Pendergast for this article. This report makes it clear that pay-to-play has been happening in our city. They say they are awaiting a complete review by the City Controllers office of the data turned over so far to determine next steps.