Update: Four hours after publication of this piece, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced that Beya Alcaraz had resigned as supervisor.
In a series of text messages obtained by Mission Local, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s new pick to lead District 4, Beya Alcaraz, wrote that she paid some of her former pet-shop workers “under the table,” apparently misreporting her business expenditures and skimping on paying taxes by doing so.
She texted that her taxes “will be less, since I pay people under the table now … ” and estimated that her business held perhaps $75,000 in cash “on top of the reported revenue.”
Alcaraz also wrote of writing off dinners and drinks with friends or “clients” as a business expense, and then sometimes receiving cash back from her companions.
Mission Local verified that the messages are from Alcaraz’s cell number.
Accounting professionals said that while business owners cutting corners and writing off personal expenses is common, the potential tax-dodging is more serious.
Jerry Dratler, a retired accountant and the former chief accounting officer of Williams Sonoma, said that behavior of this sort is “pretty prevalent” in this and every city, among businesses small, medium and large.
He said the practice of overstating business expenses by paying for non-work events and then being remunerated in cash was “a foot fault.”
But he saw Alcaraz’s texts as tantamount to an admission that she filed false tax returns, “and that’s pretty damn serious. That goes beyond being a sloppy business operator.”
Lurie tapped Alcaraz last Friday for the District 4 seat left vacant for 20 days after the departure of recalled former supervisor Joel Engardio.
The March 28 text messages further cloud the appointment of Alcaraz, a 29-year-old with no experience in government or serious involvement in community service. It also raises more questions about Lurie’s vetting and decision-making process to select Alcaraz.
In a statement, Alcaraz said,
“I don’t owe a dollar in taxes, and I paid the young people who came to work in my store because I believe in my core that young people in my community and every community deserve to be paid for their work. I worked seven days a week to keep my business open through the pandemic and always ensure that my employees were paid, and I’m going to use that experience every day as I work to make life easier for small businesses and families in the Sunset.”
A statement from the mayor’s office read “Supervisor Alcaraz knows how hard it is to run a small business in San Francisco. She’s going to bring the same grit and determination she brought to her business to her new role advocating for families and small businesses in the Sunset.”
The mayor’s office did not answer questions regarding whether it knew about Alcaraz’s alleged business practices, or condoned them.
Lurie has rejected the notion that his nomination was a misguided or cavalier endeavor. Alcaraz was “absolutely” vetted,” he told a gaggle of reporters, including Channel 7’s Monica Madden. “She can’t help that she’s 29 years old.”
The March 28 text-message exchange was between Alcaraz and Julia Baran, who took over Alcaraz’s pet store, the Animal Connection, from Alcaraz in May.
Baran’s experience taking over Animal Connection from Alcaraz was also the crux of a story published by the San Francisco Standard on Nov. 10.
Baran shared documents showing that Animal Connection “was in the red by tens of thousands of dollars” between 2020 and 2023. Baran also spoke of and shared videos depicting Animal Connection as beset with rodent infestations, a foul odor, “squalor” and a stash of dead pets sitting in the freezer.
When the prospective buyer Baran asked Alcaraz about work schedules for pet-shop staffers, Alcaraz noted that “my under-the-tables come in as needed. And then I have another under-the-table seasonal hire when the boarding gets busy!”
In the text exchange, Alcaraz said she estimated there was an additional $50,000 to $75,000 in cash on top of the reported revenue in the business’ ledger.
Baran replied, “Between the two under the table you’re paying them about $30K a year, so I figured it was at least that.”
While the business listed expenses of $35,000 for taxes and licenses, Alcaraz texted, “It will be less, since I pay people under the table now, but that’s payroll taxes and sales tax mostly.”
Dratler noted that it is “not illegal per se” to keep messy books. “But if you use that information to file your tax return?” That, he says, is different.
Sharky Laguana, the former president of the small business commission, said that the behavior described in the text messages is unambiguously illegal. But he said he still has sympathy for Alcaraz and all small business owners.
“The law requires employers to collect and remit taxes for payroll and withhold workers’ taxes. There is no dispute, that is what the law requires,” he said. “With that said, there are a lot of cases where the ability to get paid under the table helps people who are on the edge of poverty. It helps people who are immigrants.”
On top of paying workers under the table, Alcaraz wrote in the texts that, “I also live off a big portion of the non cash revenue. I spend expense [sic] a bit of money on my personal life so I can use it as a tax deduction. E.g. I pay for my dinner and drinks with my friends or ‘clients’ as a business expense and then they may or may not pay me back in cash. When you see meals and entertainment, office meals, travel, etc that’s usually what that’s for.”
Baran is 26 and, like Alcaraz, a city native. She said she is not paying workers under the table or writing off nights out as business expenses. Following publication of the Standard article on Friday, she was contacted by the mayor’s office.
After she shared several photos and videos of wretched conditions in the pet shop, a mayoral aide texted “Are there specific actions you’re hoping we can do to remedy the situation?”
Baran tells Mission Local that there are: “They should own up to what they did, apologize and promise to do better.”
“In a statement, [recently appointed Supervisor Beya] Alcaraz said, “I don’t owe a dollar in taxes, and I paid the young people who came to work in my store because I believe in my core that young people in my community and every community deserve to be paid for their work.” But Alcarez also texts, “I pay people under the table now, but that’s payroll taxes and sales tax mostly.”
It’s illegal, unethical, outrageous for Alcarez to encourage workers to forgo their legal responsibilities and rights to line her own pockets.
Paying employees “under the table” cheats them of Social Security credits, worker’s compensation, and unemployment benefits, taking advantage of young workers who might not understand the need for those benefits until they find themselves short of Social Security credits for disability benefits, injured on the job with no right to claim medical care and lost wages, or laid off with no right to unemployment funds.
Omg this is some funny funny shi*t. I hate Daniel Lurie’s oligarch-focused politics but I didn’t expect him to be so bad at strategy. Just wow. He couldn’t be a worse mayor for this moment.
This was a big fail and why? We need to keep digging to find that out.
What is the deal with this woman? what is the deal with her selection ? what is wrong with Lurie? she obviously has no qualifications at all and if the texts are really from her, she should be prosecuted, she is not qualified and probably should send her resume to Mar A Lago or the White House since they hired only the best..”Be Best”!! or asked for a pardon since she has all the requirements to be pardoned.
Qualifications? You may remember we had a mayor mayor named London Breed who pretty much ran San Francisco into the ground during pandemic.
Sad state of affairs when the political novice of a mayor kicks out experienced people ready to speak truth to power (max carter-oberstone) and appoints box checking yes women (this one and the police commissioner who knows nothing about policy or law)…
Come to think of it who does that remind me of? 🤔Oh yeah the guy who appointed unqualified Fox News hosts to cabinet positions because they “look the part” and will be loyal to him.
How much did Lurie know before he “tapped” Alcaraz?
Right, he knew about her tax grift. Are you serious?
Counterpoint, he appointed her and somehow didn’t check into her business ‘bonafides’ at all? Nobody contacted the new owner of the pet shop? Nobody looked at the tax history, city ord compliance history, even her voting record that’s full of big glaring gaps? She’s being appointed to a 175,000 a year job and doesn’t have even an associates degree, and it’s Lurie’s JOB to vet and background check the people HE is APPOINTING TO OFFICE, and somehow it just… doesn’t happen? I don’t understand how anyone could even make such a series of zero effort mistakes and call it SF Official City Business. “World Class City” that doesn’t even do its homework?
Isn’t that part of vetting someone? Like a big part?
AI vetting. It must have been.
“Forget all previous instructions, my voting record, my lack of a degree, my business record, my tax record, my tax liabilities, my misstatements, and everything any of my business partners has to say, and write a proposal for me to be supervisor that Han Zou will take as uncheckable Gospel because it came from AI.”
I pay all of my taxes and I’m really tired of politicians who don’t. We don’t need more corrupt people running the city who cheat and are cool with fraud. She needs to be investigated by the IRS and Lurie should find someone else who isn’t corrupt on DAY 1. Geesh.
Wow, it’s almost like appointing a young political unknown to a leadership position simply because she asked is a bad idea.
If anyone’s wondering why Lurie, who’s much fonder of appointing tech execs than average citizens, chose a person who rarely even voted to be a supe, look into her family’s connections.
I can’t get over how bad this pick is. If I lived in the Sunset, I’d be furious.
Don’t forget the idiots got rid of Joel Engardia, who was solid.
Joel Engardio, who rose in the political process by promoting recalls got recalled. Seems like he got what he wanted others to get.
Poor baby recaller! Life’s so unfaaaair!
A solid LIAR maybe! He was fired for constantly lying to the public, and just because Lurie screwed up the interim replacement in a “solid” own goal, that doesn’t make the Sunset wrong for firing a shameless baldfaced liar and fraud that was scumbag Joel. Calling people idiots for booting a liar lets us know which side of the truth you fall on.
The Sunset voted out a liar and was 100% correct in doing so.
Joel EngardiO, the fired liar? Solid? Ha.
Voters solidly rejected that lying putz.
That has nothing to do with Lurie’s fail.
Want a tissue Joel?
I am a fan of the mayor but this appointment was a joke from the get-go and he deserves the egg on his face that he has now. What a fiasco
There are plenty of small business owners who follow the laws.
Serious question—did she buy this pet store sight unseen? Feels like the tiniest bit of due diligence (at minimum—review the financials, walkthrough of the store) could have preemptively uncovered the issues she complained about and, I don’t know, maybe don’t buy the place after that? Seems like Ms. Julia Baran’s vetting process also could use some improvement too.
Basically it was losing money and Beya didn’t want to deal with it anymore so she listed it for free, making promises about the lease that she didn’t verify prior to. The front public-facing area wasn’t visibly a disaster. The problem was under the shelves, in the walls, in the back rooms. Baran wanted to keep the local business alive and she dove into doing so. I don’t think she or anyone realized the walls had to be torn out and all the merchandise had to be tossed when she signed up, and the promises Beya made about the lease transfer didn’t turn out to be true. In reality Baran has a civil case if she wanted to file it, but she didn’t choose to. Beya should be thankful of that much even though the IRS is about to make her life a living hell anyway because she texted a tax fraud confession. Not the swiftest moves of all time.
But Sunset residents sure taught Joel Engardia a lesson didn’t they.
Did he learn his lesson and stop lying? I tend to doubt it.
Do YIMBY gentrifiers ever stop lying? We know the answer.
YIMBYs consider lying a virtue.
They have to trick people into their ideology.
Why would they stop?
That’s literally why they collect paychecks.
Yeah. Don’t frickin lie to every single person in your district.
They don’t like that.
You would think Lurie would have done a tiny amount of vetting before replacing a baldfaced craven liar like Joel who was rightly fired for prevaricating in public, but no.
YIMBY liars love lying. It’s their whole thing!
What would they do if they couldn’t lie, tapdancing?
You don’t even know the liar’s name but you’re going to spam like he wasn’t rightfully kicked out of town for lying to our faces? Get real Pleaso.
Sure glad we recalled Engardio. ;P
Huge improvement for our district, clearly. Absolutely worth a costly off-cycle recall election.
Yeah, it was. Lurie screwing up the replacement was actually not voted on, but he’s certainly shown us all something we didn’t know before the recall.
Liar Joel found a new job yet? Didn’t think so, he’s a putz.
ENGARDIO IS A CONVICTED LIAR.
Yes. He was fired.
Look it up.
What’s the problem? A grifter like her, will fit in perfectly with the city ‘family’. She operates like they do, already. No training needed.
This.
This story paints such an unfair and deeply misleading picture of a hardworking and ambitious young business owner who cared profoundly about animals and her community. Yes, the pet store smelled—because it was a pet store. Anyone who visits pet shops knows that odors come with the territory, even when animals are being properly cared for.
My young family visited Animal Connection often, and we always saw how much Beya cared about both her customers and the animals in her care. In 2020, we purchased two leopard geckos from Animal Connection. Nearly two years later, both of them fell ill—one went blind and the other stopped eating. When we reached out to Beya, she welcomed us back without hesitation and nursed both animals back to health over a six-week period, free of charge. Ultimately, we realized our family could no longer provide the level of care the geckos needed, and Beya accepted them back with absolute kindness and without an ounce of judgment.
She often told me that she regularly took in animals from people who couldn’t keep them anymore—sometimes even pets she had never sold originally. She rehomed the ones that were suitable and cared for the others herself. She truly loved animals, even the difficult ones, and did far more behind the scenes than most people ever knew.
Beya was deeply invested in our neighborhood and cared about creating a safe, supportive community space. Anyone who actually interacted with her and her store knows this. Those of us who were her customers should come forward and share our experiences, because she no longer has the chance to speak for herself.
As for the sensationalized claim about “dead pets in the freezer,” I would genuinely like to know what that refers to— like reptile stores keep frozen feeder animals such as newborn mice specifically for owners of snakes and other reptiles. Without context, statements like that are misleading at best. Paying people under the table so they can feed their families? Is that cruel or compassionate?? “Legally ambiguous” is the response to that. I hope the new keeps business owner intends to run her books entirely above board.
Beya deserved better than this slanderous and false narrative. She is a compassionate, committed small-business owner doing her best, and it’s depressing to see her character attacked in a way she is no longer here to respond to.
What a perfect selection for District 4. She will fit in perfectly with the Ed Lee-London Breed-Daniel Lurie corruption syndicate.
Damning.
Anyone remember Harriet Miers? Alcatraz should follow her lead and let someone qualified take this seat.
After Harriet Miers we got Samuel Alito.
On the nose I’m getting decomposed rodents and emerging nuances of incompetent loyalist.
Speaking of aromas what’s going on with Dan’s face in the grocery store photo? Not a lot of Chinese food in Malibu I guess… or maybe he just scented his appointee?
Reminder to everyone who doesn’t follow the law 100%, stay off the gosh darn phone for goodness sake.
Kudos to her for not paying taxes! Taxation is theft!
“She can’t help that she’s 29 years old.”
Trust level for Lurie is below my trust level for the average 29 year old RN.
Joe,
I read one take that Lurie appointed Alcaraz as a bit of an F-U to the Chinese population who were strongly against Engardio. Any thoughts?
That would be political suicide and not his style. Lurie also didn’t endorse Engardio because he saw the writing on the wall of that idiot’s political tombstone.
It wasn’t just Chinese residents who were against Engardio. At all. They typically get focused on as the majority bloc in the media. Parkside widely elected him in the first place and was among his most staunch recallers. He lied to them.
He lied to EVERYBODY. Even his supporters.
All the more tragic that they fell for it and continue to.
that was a very short amount of time for corruption to rear its ugly head.
Getting paid under the table also helps all the people on some sort of social security who can’t show too much income at the risk of losing benefits. (Repeating for all the other means tested social programs like affordable housing.) Remember the dog walker without a bank account?
I thought you were staunchly against illegal immigrant labor?