District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder will submit legislation today calling for an audit of San Francisisco’s Recreation and Parks department.
The move comes after a nonprofit affiliated with the department, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, has come under fire for possibly misspending at least $3.8 million in donations.
Both the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office have recently launched investigations into the Parks Alliance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Parks Alliance, which privately raises money for San Francisco’s parks and open spaces, is believed to have improperly diverted donations earmarked for specific projects to cover its operating expenses. The nonprofit has struggled to stay solvent in recent years.
Fielder, who is chair of the board’s Government Audit and Oversight Committee, will make a motion at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to have a Budget and Legislative Analyst audit the Recreation and Parks Department.
As a city department, Rec and Parks is a separate entity from the Parks Alliance. But the Parks Alliance has often served as a conduit for private money to flow into city projects, operating like “a city account without city oversight,” as the controller’s office put it in a 2020 audit of the Alliance.
In 2021, Mission Local spoke with contractors hoping to do business with the Recreation and Parks Department who say they were leaned on by department higher-ups to donate to the Parks Alliance — donations that were unattached to any potential contracts.
This isn’t the first scandal at the Parks Alliance. In 2020, the since-convicted and incarcerated head of Public Works, Mohammed Nuru, used a Parks Alliance account as his personal slush fund to underwrite boozy holiday parties. Nuru was convicted of fraud in 2022 and sentenced to seven years in federal prison.
The proposed audit of Recreation and Parks would not directly review Parks Alliance funding. The Parks Alliance was most recently audited in 2020 by the controller. The proposed 2025 audit would more broadly review partnerships between the department with nonprofit organizations, according to a press release from Fielder’s office.
Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration has made public-private partnerships a key part of bridging San Francisco’s $781.5 million deficit.
“It’s important that we establish proper oversight and transparency,” said Feng Han, a legislative aide in Fielder’s office. This audit is part of doing that, they added.
In March, Recreation and Parks received a waiver to fundraise, separately from the Parks Alliance, for redevelopment of the Embarcadero Plaza and Sue Bierman Park. Fielder’s office also argued that park services vary wildly across the city.
Recreation and Parks was last audited more than 10 years ago, according to Fielder’s office. It still is generally one of San Francisco’s more popular city departments. It’s also one of the few services that higher-income residents tend to use more often than low-income residents.
Mission Local reached out to Recreation and Parks, but had not heard back as of publication.
I love how lurie claims to want lower costs and more transparency, yet advocates public-private partnerships, which almost always cost more and lack transparency. What, were we born yesterday
“public-private partnerships, which almost always cost more and lack transparency”
Citation needed
The City has sunshine ordinance and ethics rules for gifts, contracting, etc. Both have been routinely ignored since Willie Brown days, but they exist. Private entities have no such constraints by default. They can and do spend money more freely without oversight, so I’d say that in a general sense the claim rings mostly true. They blur the line between public laws and private money sources that can’t be as easily traced. 501c3-c4 collusion is also completely off the charts rampant.
Why is a government department panhandling for private donations in the first place? Shouldn’t this be ILLEGAL? Such donations are always political bribes because nobody would willingly donate money to a government agency without the expectation of something legally questionable in return. The entire point of having park and recs run by our public government is specifically to avoid the types of corruption that always happens when private money is involved. Fire everyone involved and start revoking pensions for government staff that accept these bribes! Corruption should never be tolerated, but here in SF it’s the only way anything is ever done, which is why everybody hates SF politicians. Corruption should be a criminal offense. We should be doing corruption sweeps in the halls of city hall with the same swat teams that are current assaulting and harassing all the people who’ve lost everything and literally have nothing left to their name.
Why would a non-profit raising money to create more parks in the city be “illegal?” You say it opens the door to corruption, but being a city department does not stop inspectors from DBI getting kickbacks, or the director of Public Works receiving free services. By the way – Good morning Eliyahu, corruption is a criminal offense.
Why would the City be taking that money for “a city purpose” without the oversight and accounting that takes place for all the other city purposes? It’s allowing wealthy donors to essentially privatize the commons without oversight, and if you don’t understand why that’s a problem you probably still support Joel Engardio and Scott Wiener pumping Billionaire bucks into redeveloping SF into a yuppie paradise for the connected while the hard work of managing the rest of the ordeal falls into a Billion dollar hole. “Bespoke Government” is not a Democracy, that’s why it’s a problem.
Amen, this has been going on way too long. It’s become business as usual in SF.
Not every day I agree with Jackie, but yes! Full investigation.
At a time when honest, hard-working, willing-to-work-5-days-a-week-in-office city employees are getting let go left and right, watching the GRIFTER CLASS continue more of this criminality is beyond dispiriting. It feels like San Francisco government rewards shady nonprofits like TODCO and Urban Alchemy, or criminals like Kimberly Ellis or Mohammed Nuru.
An investigation may take place, but doubtful anything will happen…business as usual.
Voters robustly supported Prop C, Aaron Peskin’s legislation establishing a much needed position of Inspector General at City Hall. That was 8 months ago. Fiscal mismanagement at the Parks Alliance and Wreck the Park has been going on for years. Kudos to Fielder for calling for this desperately needed investigation/audit. Where’s Lurie? Mahmood? Sauter? At a Nintendo ribbon cutting or Civic Center dance contest?
It is definitely time to investigate this entire department. Seems that it’s been far too long they have operated with little regard other than for themselves.
Park Alliance would show up to those DPW events with Mohammed Nuru years ago. I always wondered who paid for those lunches, hats, t shirts and give aways? Now I know.
A broken clock is right twice a day — sure, let’s audit Rec and Parks — but, can we also agree to audit the Homeless Nonprofit Industrial Complex?
So you’d prefer to change the subject? There are dozens of articles here about the homeless in a given month and ONE or TWO about the corruption of Ginsburg and crony SF Family goons running Park & Rec into the ground and having the gall to demand even more taxpayer money to do it.
Sure we need audits across the board, but let’s focus up for a hot second.