A manager in San Francisco’s Department of Human Resources was arrested this morning and charged in connection to the bribery and corruption case that enveloped the San Francisco Community Challenge Grant Program last year.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s office is charging Stanley Ellicott, 38, with aiding former challenge grant director Lanita Henriquez and consultant Dwayne Jones in their alleged municipal-theft-and-kickback scheme.
The Community Challenge Grant Program is housed in the City Administrator’s Office. It is supposed to, in its own words, “provide grants and technical assistance for projects that improve neighborhoods.” Instead, a district attorney investigator alleges in a sworn affidavit that Ellicott sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of “BRAND NEW” and “SEALED IN THE BOX” electronics on eBay that had been purchased using Challenge Grant dollars earmarked for quake-relief supplies.
The DA also alleges that Jones’ company, RDJ Enterprises, paid Ellicott — a city employee — nearly $270,000 over the course of four years. Ellicott then purportedly used Venmo and PayPal to funnel some $65,650 of Jones’ money to Henriquez.
Jail records show that Stanley John Ellicott was booked at 10:01 this morning. He has been charged with eight counts, including misappropriation of public funds and buying or receiving stolen property. He is being held on a $50,000 bond. Ellicott has worked for the city since 2012, with a brief hiatus between 2015 and 2016. He has been a manager at the human resources department since 2017.
Transparent California lists Ellicott’s 2022 pay as $187,884, with benefits of $55,613, for a total compensation package of $243,496. He is presently on paid administrative leave.
The DA filed charges against Jones and Henriquez in August of last year, alleging that longtime government fixer and former Gavin Newsom mayoral staffer Jones directed nearly $200,000 to Henriquez or her friends and associates between 2016 and 2020 — and, in return, was awarded 23 city contracts valued at some $1.4 million.
A subsequent probe by the controller and city attorney found that Henriquez may have out-and-out “fabricated” the judging criteria used to award $3 million worth of city grants in 2023 — and, to boot, one of the judges on her scoring panel was employed by Jones.
In the affidavit unsealed today, the district attorney alleges that the electronics Ellicott purportedly sold on the internet were obtained with challenge grant money intended to buy earthquake supplies for neighborhood groups. Instead, some $14,000 worth of items were obtained at Best Buy — but, deceptively, listed in invoices as “Eureka Valley and Inner Sunset Supplies” and “Bayview and Excelsior Supplies.”
In reality, the DA alleges, these “supplies” were “three Oculus virtual reality headsets, four Rylo Action cameras, an HDTV projector, a Nikon DSLR camera worth nearly $2,000, four Go Pro cameras, three mini instant cameras, six Microsoft tablets, and four OSMO pocket cameras with expansion kits.”
The DA alleges that Ellicott sold the bulk of these items on eBay, while Henriquez also sold a pair of tablets on eBay. Henriquez then purportedly recommended the city pay Jones back for his electronics purchases by sending him $100,000 for the earthquake supplies he never bought.
While Ellicott’s position at the human resources department is unrelated to the Challenge Grant Program, DA investigators found a series of emails between Henriquez and Ellicott in which he assisted her with “computer-related tasks.” Personal emails between Jones and Henriquez obtained by the DA purportedly reveal clandestine plans to loop Ellicott into the mix on several contracts, but bill his hours elsewhere.
A November search warrant entitled the DA to plumb the metadata surrounding a Gmail account tied to Henriquez and the Community Challenge Grant program — CCGSFGOV@gmail.com. Today’s affidavit alleges that the “principal user” of that email address was actually Ellicott — who, again, did not work for the Challenge Grant program. He was allegedly “using that account to communicate with Henriquez on both her personal and work accounts regarding work he was doing at her direction for the [Community Challenge Grant] program.”
He also purportedly used the CCGSFGOV@gmail.com address to shop online. Revealingly, today’s affidavit notes that he purportedly used that email address to place an order with British luxury outfit Molton Brown in September 2021, and received a response reading, “Hello Stanley Ellicott, thank you for your purchase.” The delivery address listed from Molton Brown corresponds with Ellicott’s Oakland residence.
The DA also alleges that a physical search of Jones’ office turned up physical invoices from Ellicott written on stationary with an “SJE” embossed letterhead. While emails between Henriquez and Jones mention “Stan’s invoice,” there are no city invoices indicating that Ellicott performed work for the Challenge Grant program.
Both Jones and Henriquez have pleaded not guilty to their charges. Following that development, today’s affidavit states that the CCGSFGOV@gmail.com email account was deleted on Sept. 6, 2023 (its contents were preserved at the city’s behest and obtained via warrant). The DA alleges that, in October, Ellicott moved thousands of dollars from the “bank account associated with his Jones payments” to another account, and “left it with a zero balance.”
“The charges announced today reflect my Office’s continuing commitment to uncover official misconduct in San Francisco’s City government,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins via a statement. “The District Attorney’s Office’s Public Integrity Task Force is dedicated to holding accountable those who steal public funds for their own ends.”
Ellicott was listed on the Sheriff’s Department inmate finder as still being incarcerated within County Jail No. 1 at mid-day. His employer, the Department of Human Resources, expressed horror and shock at the situation.
“There is no excuse or place for this type of behavior in City government and
anyone who participates in this type of misconduct should be held accountable,” reads a statement from the department. Moving forward, DHR is conducting a thorough and transparent forensic audit of all business operations and transactions handled by this employee.”
That’s a pretty hefty salary that taxpayers are continuing to pay Stanley Ellicott while his crimes are being documented. ‘Paid administrative leave’ indeed.
Indeed more than $200k a year and bennies.
Typical San Francisco corrupt politicians!
Shifty beards make for shifty chiselers…. just look at those shady smirks. Hard labor for all three I say! Breaking rocks into pebbles and stuff, or pushing wheelbarrows full of dung up and down the Hyde St. hill.
A city employee for every 20 residents with the results we have implies there’s a lot more of these thieves out there.
They ALL need to be audited and it needs to be done sooner than later. I bet they are all crooks all the way up to the top including London Greed!
All u wonder why all this insane about of money ain’t helping homeless and people in need this happens every where shelters safe sleeps I mean all these programs are stealing the money and u wonder why nothing changes there no help
I wonder what’s going on at the other one thousand or so city funded nonprofits that have no oversight and receive close to a billion dollars of taxpayer dollars a year? Looks like a new source for corruption articles Joe seeing as the DBI is only turning up crumbs these days.
Bring Rudy Nothenberg back to clean house.
Elizabeth,
My Lord woman, how old are you ?
I haven’t heard that name since Angela was Board prez.
lol
Harvey Rose still running around in his running shoes ?
I remember watching Harvey in front of a Board committee look over a 25 million dollar contract Willie wanted to give someone related to Treasure Island …
“It looks like a straight giveaway.”
Ahhh, the great ones.
You’re getting there in your own way, Eskenazi.
Go Niners !!
h.
Where does the buck stop? Where is the CAO? Candidate for Mayor Mark Farrell is right to want to fire every appointed agency/department director under the current administration. You can retire from SF City and County with high six figure pensions marking your time and just ignoring your duties of due diligence and oversight allowing the thieves who report to you to plunder and steal our tax dollars. When and how will we taxpayers be compensated by the bureaucrats who stole our money. Thank you Mission Local for keeping your eye on the ball!
l hope there is a mechanism to claw back the hefty pensions all these folks probably have vested. I mean, 90% on their last year’s salary alone is stupendous to those of us who aren’t in “the City family” (let them keep their medical, albeit at a COBRA level).
COBRA level alright; these people are snakes–slithering their way into the pocketbooks of San Francisco taxpayers. Civil Service reform, please!
So not surprised. The Community Challenge Grant bureaucracy has been extremely dysfunctional for many years!
Prosecutions of corruption did not happen under Chesa Boudin, who won’t shut up about how great he was and how lousy every other DA is.
Boudin gave a long interview to Politico this week but of course he didn’t mention how he simply turned a blind eye to corruption because all he cared about was trying to prosecute cops, which he never once did successfully.
Thank you, Brooke Jenkins, for getting the DA office’s priorities back in order.
Hey,
Great story as usual Joe and, I mean, wow can you rile a fan.
My educated guess as to what ties these 3 disparate people together and makes a guy knocking dow two hundred g’s to fence stuff ???
Gotta be cocaine.
Wish I had a Grateful Dead link but I’m gonna go dial Jerry in now.
Thanks for the idea.
And, (talking to my dog, Skippy) …
I’ll just have my usual Pot.
Go Niners !!
h.