Stay in touch. March 10, 2020 / 5:11 PM / CBS San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The Director of San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection, Tom Hui, has been placed on leave amid a. Last year, a report by the City Controller's Office into ongoing corruption within city departments revealed that departments like Public Works engaged in relationships with nonprofit organizations to encourage large donations by contractors seeking lucrative city contracts. 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. 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. We did collect a lot of information from all the departments, including Rec. During a hearing Thursday, Supervisor Connie Chan with the support of two other supervisors issued a subpoena to the Parks Alliance to find out how many, if any, similar accounts the Recreation and Park Department has, and to report expenses and transactions dating back five years. 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. The new ferris wheel at Golden Gate Park. 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. 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. A memo from the park department sent Thursday to the report author said staff appreciate the need for transparency and already follow the city controllers guidance on accepting grants and gifts. and Park.. Sobrepena could not give an immediate answer but said she could come back with that information. The Parks Alliance serves a unique role in this, raising money for some projects and selecting contractors, a role often served by government agencies. "When gifts are solicited from those that do business with the City, it creates a risk to fair and transparent public processes. and Park Department and Parks Alliance, it seems to me that General Manager, Phil Ginsburg, had decided to double down.. During our review period, Parks Alliance made payments totaling $978,000 to support Public Works activities and as directed by Public Works. 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. The Department of Building Inspection issued 218 building permits to seven of those entities. 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. 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 (KRON) - City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced on Wednesday that several subpoenas were issued as part of a joint public corruption investigation. This story has been updated to include a statement provided by the San Francisco Parks Alliance on Sept. 25. "These so-called 'friends' groups don't have an entirely friendly history. Since then, the organization has eliminated anonymous donations above $100, listed all donors on its public website and upgraded its customer management tools to collect and track all disclosure information, Bunim said. 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. is a partnership between the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department and SF Parks Alliance to transform 13 of San Francisco's most timeworn playgrounds into dynamic hubs for creativity and family life. The San Francisco Parks Alliance was subpoenaed by the City Attorney's Office last year as part of the city's corruption probe. A new audit calls for greater controls over the San Francisco Parks Alliance, the major non-profit group named by federal prosecutors last year as helping to foster the city's public. 9 of the 13 playgrounds are now completed, and the last 4 will be transformed by the end The City Controller's Office and City Attorney's Office report into city ethics is the second to be released this year. As a result, city leaders have inspected departments relationships with philanthropic organizations. Stay up to date! Other agreements lack prohibitions against conflicts of interest. Haney argued this also showed a clear need for his ballot measure Proposition B in San Francisco, which would create an oversight body for Public Works, and place some of its street maintenance duties with a new Department of Sanitation and Streets. 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. Tagged as: Audit Committee, Richmond District, Richmond Review, SF Board of Supervisors, Sunset Beacon, Sunset District. 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. Of the $720,000 that (SF) Parks Alliance paid to vendors, more than half went to just five vendors. The Parks Alliance said in a statement Monday that it appreciates the citys work to strengthen transparency and accountability between nonprofit organizations and the City of San Francisco. Along with many other nonprofit groups, we continue to work with city departments to meet or exceed these good government controls, the Alliance said. Feb. 23, 2021 SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) 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. 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. 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. and Park to see if they actually have subaccounts with Parks Alliance or not, Chan said. The Bay Area will have some live sports to look at for the first time in four months starting next Monday, July 20! Just who has influence in renovating parks, and where, is a chief concern, said Supervisor Connie Chan, the lawmaker who requested the subpoena during a hearing of the board's Government Audit and Oversight Committee. 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. No budget was presented to the commission providing the details of what would be spent before the agreement got commission approval, Brousseau said. And what about the Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park? The nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance directed $66,000 to entities whose figureheads were arrested by the FBI in connection with disgraced former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru's corruption scandal, a new report has found. The lack of transparency in those finances leaves the possibility of a pay-to-play culture to flourish in the shadows, the supervisors said Thursday. The SkyStar Observation Wheel was installed last year as part of the park's 150th anniversary just as the COVID-19 pandemic began. The city's corruption scandal investigation is ongoing. Last year, a report by the City Controller's Office into ongoing corruption within city departments revealed that departments like Public Works engaged in relationships with nonprofit organizations to encourage large donations by contractors seeking lucrative city contracts. Supervisor Chan was bullied by the Parks Alliance for calling for an audit of this corrupt agency which is privatizing Golden Gate Park. In a statement, Recreation and Parks officials denied wrongdoing. Records reviewed by NBC Bay Areas Investigative Unit show that thousands of dollars raised by the San Francisco Parks Alliance scholarship fund, ended up paying for the city's Recreation and Parks staff retreats instead. Now it looks like the feds are following up on this pattern and trying to see if there are more examples of city vendors possibly disguising bribes that benefited city employees as charitable gifts. 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 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. and Park. the San Francisco Parks Alliance and the San Francisco Clean City Coalition. necessarily endorsed by the SF Bay Area IMC. Let'sPlaySF! Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay. SF supervisor subpoenas parks nonprofit in wake of report that calls for stronger controls, S.F. "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. The Parks Alliance is also a contractor that runs the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, which left a lot of opportunity for conflict of interests, the report author said Thursday in the hearing. Parks Alliance spokesperson Juliana Bunim said in a statement Thursday that the group appreciates "all ongoing efforts to strengthen transparency and collaboration between nonprofit. The Alliance has not been accused of wrongdoing in the city corruption scandal and did not get paid for its account management. This report makes it clear that pay-to-play has been happening in our city. 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. These funds were largely spent on staff appreciation and events that benefited City employees.. It was a sole-source selection, there's no competitive bidding by the department," Brousseau 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. 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We have put forward actionable recommendations to correct loopholes that seemingly normalize unethical practices that undermine faith in public actions.. 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. Do you know when can we expect that information?. That is correct, Sobrepena said. 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. City officials cannot work behind the scenes with City contractors to benefit their departments and use other entities to cloak those efforts.". But the memo said the regulations on selecting contractors may not be fully in the best interests of the City, since many people who work on projects donate their services. They say they are awaiting a complete review by the City Controllers office of the data turned over so far to determine next steps. Stay in touch. Sign up for NBC Bay Areas Housing Deconstructed newsletter. This S.F. 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., Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. The 33-page report follows sprawling investigations into corruption across the city. 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. A new report from the San Francisco City Controller's Office, in conjunction with the City Attorney's Office, skewers a system where city departments like Public Works form relationships with nonprofit organizations that raise philanthropic dollars for issues related to that department, saying it's rife with opportunity for corruption. We did not dive deeper with Rec. It concluded, 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.. 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. The audit says those contracts need to adhere to basic city contract standards to prevent conflicts of interest. 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. While it's gotten a lot of love for its glowing lights at night, the contract to build it wasn't issued competitively, Brousseau said. The lack of transparency in the deal to bring the Ferris wheel to Golden Gate Park exposed the growing corruption by the Park managers and the Mayor with private contractors. In an aerial view, the SkyStar Wheel in the Music Concourse carries riders at Golden Gate Park on June 14, 2021, in San Francisco. When the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department pitches in its own money, are they getting the most bang for their buck? 20002023 San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. and Park Department.. 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 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 nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance is being scrutinized again in the wake of the city's corruption investigation, and a supervisor who's criticized the group in the past now wants to look more closely at its operations. 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. The Parks Alliance has not been accused of or found to be involved in any wrongdoing as part of the investigation into the government corruption, said its Board Chair Liz Farrell. It's the breakdown of the sources of the money siphoned into the funds Nuru controlled at the Parks Alliance. We are happy to invest in their learning and morale, which helps them deliver great services every single day, the department said in a statement. The SkyStar Observation Wheel was installed last year as part of the park's 150th anniversary just as the COVID-19 pandemic began. Contractors and building permit holders made donations to the Public Works subaccounts at the SF Parks Alliance, Sobrepena explained. The San Francisco Parks Alliance has declined several interview requests from NBC Bay Area but said in a statement it was cooperating with investigators. "When it comes to equity in our public parks, San Francisco doesn't even rank top ten. We are putting a stop to it, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, in a statement. Money was deposited into the account by Recology executives as part of a bribery scheme and was allegedly used to fund lavish parties. and Park has a similar practice with subaccounts involving the SF Parks Alliance. The Parks Alliance has said it didnt know it was being used unscrupulously by city officials. This raised a lot of questions, said City Supervisor Connie Chan, who has been a vocal critic of the Parks Alliances role in city politics.
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