53% of City-Funded Nonprofits Failing Accounting Standards

Two weeks ago, I blogged about the City Controller's Office replying to my query about the last time HIV service groups receiving public dollars were last audited and it was back in 2007-2008 when the books were combed over by the City.

The City Controller also made me aware of the FY13-14 Annual Report of the Citywide Nonprofit Monitoring and Capacity Building Program, which was issued in October, and while it's not specific to AIDS organizations, it's still of interest to me.

This chart shows the nonprofits with the most "outstanding findings", which is bureaucratese for failure to comply with accounting standards. The report says, "In addition to repeated findings, having a large number of total findings can also illustrate potential instability."

Yes, and just one or two findings of noncompliance could be about major faults at a City-funded nonprofit that should be of concern to the Controller and taxpayers.

This is quite an alarming statistic: "62 contractors (53%) had one or more findings (i.e., did not meet a standard in some area)." More than half of the nonprofits receiving City dollars weren't in compliance with all mandated accounting standards.

In my view, we need a full and public discussion about this October report to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors. I don't recall any attention given to its release and findings, but if there were hearings or coverage of the report, please let me know about where or when if was scrutinized at City Hall or in the community.

Chiu Slings Feces at Campos in New Mailer
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
(Originally posted here on October 29.)

Today's snail-mail contained a new mailer from an independent expenditure committee (wink, wink), promoting Supervisor David Campos for the District 17 seat of the State Assembly and it brought San Francisco politics to a new low.

The mailer features an image of an alleged Mission District resident identified only as Allie E. and she's quoted saying, "I live on the street with the most human feces in David Campos' district. David Campos has done nothing to address this issue. All of our neighborhoods deserve better."

Chiu's supporters are now slinging feces at Campos after throwing vomit at Campos in a mailer last week. Can anyone tell us how to measure, as Allie E. apparently has, the amount of people poop on the streets of the Mission? We're just curious how she determined her block has the most fecal matter of all streets in the Campos district.

The issue of lack of public restrooms for all citizens and visitors, whether homeless or housed individuals, is a public health problem in desperate need of address.

We believe all members of the Board of Supervisors and Mayor Ed Lee have not done nearly enough thinking about providing more toilets for folks to use so they don't have to pee and poop on the streets.

In Chiu's mailer last week, er, from an independent expenditure committee, Campos was alleged to have stood by as his supporters vomited on shuttle buses.

Well, we're saying Chiu and his backers, including Mayor Lee and tech mogul Ron Conway, are silently standing by as their choice for assembly slings metaphorical puke and poop on Campos. It's time for the Mayor and Conway to denounce such sleazy political crap, pun intended.

After we #VotePetrelis, we're voting for Campos for assembly and we hope you also cast ballots for Petrelis and Campos.

Vid: If You're Pissed Off, #VotePetrelis!
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

One-week from today, the 2014 election will be over and we hope our DIY Democracy campaign will rack up decent numbers of protest votes from District 8 residents who support what we stand for and also cast ballots for us to send a message of dissatisfaction with the incumbent Supervisor.

We shot this video today to reinforce our campaign slogan, "If you're pissed, vote Petrelis!"

What better way to do this than in a men's room standing near urinals? Needless to say, the candidate gave full permission to be videotaped making good use of the restroom and proudly wore his SF Giants' apparel.

All District 8 voters are asked to vote three times for Petrelis. Mark all three ranked-choice columns, with Petrelis' name at the top of each, and let the incumbent, Mayor Ed Lee, their wealthy tech friends, the real estate and construction industries and power-brokers such as Willie Brown know you're pissed off.

As Election Day draws closer, we again express deep gratitude to everyone who has donated or taped up posters or worn a button or shared campaign info via social media (do more of that, please!) and already voted for Petrelis. Thank you.

 

Which Supes Got Airbnb Executives' Donations?
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Following the money of Airbnb executives for the current election season as listed at the San Francisco Ethics Commission web site led us to some unsurprising info. All of these contributions from the executives were made in 2014.

Varsha Rao gave Supervisor Mark Farrell $500; Stephen Conley donated $500 to Assessor Carmen Chu, $500 to Supervisor Katy Tang, $500 to Supervisor Malia Cohen; Jeffrey Nanney contributed $500 to Supervisor Scott Wiener; and David Owen gave $100 to Chu.

Airbnb Inc contributed $2,500 to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, which is the home club for Wiener.

All of the Supervisors who received donations from the Airbnb leaders voted in the majority last week legalizing short-term stays in private homes and apartments, and absolving Airbnb of having to pay about $25 million in back taxes.

The legislation was signed by Mayor Ed Lee yesterday, as affordable housing advocates built an alter honoring all the displaced and evicted renters and small businesses over the past few years of the tech boom disfiguring San Francisco.

We're just saying it's rather curious four of the Supervisors who voted for legislation with very favorable terms for this tech firm also received the maximum amount allowed by local law for donations from individuals.

Pissed off about this sort of stuff? Then #VotePetrelis!

Closed-Door Job Evaluation of SF Fire Chief Protested
By Michael Petrelis

The San Francisco Fire Commission met yesterday afternoon for a regularly scheduled meeting and I was there for a few reasons, starting with verbally protesting how Chief Joanne Hayes-White's performance would be discussed out of public view.

As you may know, she's been under withering criticism from Supervisor London Breed, a former member of the fire commission, members of the firefighters union and its bosses, and ambulance workers and their parent companies over issues such as long response time for EMT vehicles.

However, Mayor Ed Lee has stood by Hayes-White and has given no indication that he's unsatisfied with her leadership and several women in leadership positions at City Hall have come to her defense.

During public comment about Hayes-White's report to the commission, I protested the closed-door evaluation that would happen at the end of the meeting and stated it was a huge disservice to the taxpayers, the general public and the safety of citizens to conduct the evaluation out of public view.

I mentioned that she's faced a pitchfork brigade and a trial by fire, no pun intended, in the media, and that I wanted facts unfiltered about her leadership protecting the public from fires and solving the ambulance response time crisis.

Even though the job evaluation would be behind closed-doors, I still requested a summary be issued to the public about what transpired in the session. I also distributed my #VotePetrelis campaign cards to folks.

How the heck are we taxpayers supposed to fairly judge Hayes-White's performance if we don't have access to the information and details presented to and debated by the fire commission? Yes, I understand privacy protections for public employees, but when that employee is responsible for a vast portion of public safety a way must be found to provide some degree of transparency to the public.

The fire commission owes everyone additional data about the job performance and evaluation of the chief.

Chief Hayes-White giving her report.

 Two ambulance workers. Minutes do not reflect the diversity of attendees at commission meetings.

Yours truly at the podium before the meeting began.

12 Reasons to #VotePetrelis
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

A District 8 voter asked recently us why he should vote for Michael, now that he's received his vote-by-mail ballot and wants to send it back to the Department of Elections.

We reeled off several reasons he should use his first ranked-choice vote for us, starting with he's not pleased with the politics of the incumbent Supervisor.

Then we provided him with a few accomplishments we brought about this year that he should consider as cause to vote for us:

1. Persuaded the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to repaint white bike lane stripes protecting riders near the dangerous Market and Octavia Street intersection at the ramp to the highway. The repainting was done in August.

2. Succeeded in getting the Department of Public Works to steam clean hazardous pigeon poop from surfaces at the 16th Street BART Plaza, while also nudging the Department of Public Health, the SFMTA and BART to expand pigeon proofing and other measures to increase sanitary conditions at this transit hub. This multi-agency advocacy project transpired over June and July.

3. Obtained emails from the City Attorney Dennis Herrera's staff revealing that this office provided extensive public relations assistance, using taxpayer-funded infrastructure including organizing an author meet-and-greet inside the City Attorney's City Hall office, to assist promoting a book about Prop 8 that showcases Herrera in a favorable light. This act of civic transparency and accountability was in May.

4. Requested and received the names and demographics on all city residents killed by members of the San Francisco Police Department, in officer-involved-shootings. For the first time ever, we had a central list of all 168 such fatal shootings stretching back to 1939. The SFPD released this info in April.

5. Posted on the web in May, for the first time, a similar list of all BART police officer-involved fatal shootings.

6. After seven years of lobbying, in March convinced the DPH's director Barbara Garcia and the Health Commission to broadcast their bi-monthly meetings on SF Gov TV, bringing much-needed transparency to the DPH and its decision-making process.

7. Revealed that Protocol Chief Charlotte Shultz has a nonprofit group that receives $250,000 annually in taxpayer funds to host soirees and she's violated the sunshine law requiring the nonprofit's board to hold two public meetings each year. It took six months of public records requests to hold Shultz accountable and follow the city dollars that she uses for parties with her friends.

8. Showed that Mayor Ed Lee and his staff hadn't sent a condolence note to Alex Nieto's family and friends after he was fatally shot by an SFPD office, to express condolences over his death. This info came to light after a public records act request was made in September.

9. Obtained the list of all attendees at Mayor Ed Lee's invitation-only meeting with tech firms and executives, where current and future city policies related to the tech industry were discussed, providing sunshine over whom the Mayor meets with behind closed doors. The list was posted on the web in January.

10. Organized a picket and press conference in July at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's pharmacy in the Castro to protest their unscientific opposition to using Truvada as a method to prevent HIV transmission to negative individuals.

11. Asked for and received monthly calendars from nine of the eleven members of the Board of Supervisors, along with the calendars from the Clerk of Board, and in January shared them on the web while calling on the Supervisors to voluntarily post their monthly calendars on their-city funded web sites.

12. For the first time, making the full audio of Dan White's bone-chilling confession to murdering George Moscone and Harvey Milk available on the web, after requesting a copy of it from the city archive at the San Francisco Public Library back in April. There can never be too much multi-media LGBT history on the web.

Just a few reasons why District 8 voters should make Petrelis their number one choice on their ballots in the remaining three weeks before Election Day.

Here's a photo of Petrelis with his friend and endorser Veronika Fimbres.

SF Mayor Lee: 91-Pages of Palestinian Related Emails 
By Michael Petrelis

As a taxpayer, I requested that Mayor Ed Lee fly the Palestinian flag from the publicly-funded flagpole outside his office at City Hall overlooking Civic Center and the request was emailed to him and his top staffer on August 25th.

Despite many attempts to receive a confirmation from Mayor Lee, it never arrived so I filed a public records request for all emails related to Palestine and Gaza from August 25th forward.

On September 5th, the mayor's staffer for sunshine requests emailed a document containing 91-pages of emails and I knew not to get our hopes up for much, if anything, of relevance.

Sure enough, ninety-pages are all the emails (tinyurl.com/SF-Mayor-Palestine-emails) I sent to Mayor Lee except for page number ninety which shows a our flag-flying request was forwarded by communications director Christine Falvey to Caitlin Jacobson of the mayor's Protocol Office with "FYI" included.

That's it. Three letters is all that was generated by Mayor Lee's staff in response to this simple request to raise the Palestinian flag for a few days. I noted in our request that I couldn't locate any public document about the process taxpayers should follow when making such requests to have equal access to the flagpole we paid for.

I asked the mayor to use this opportunity to finally develop a transparent process and, well, like our Palestinian flag request, all that generated from City Hall was radio silence.

Back on May 9th, San Francisco's mayor and Supervisor Scott Wiener were joined by Israel's consul general Andy David and our chief of protocol Charlotte Schultz and they collectively raised the flag of Israel (tinyurl.com/Mayor-Lee-Flies-Israeli-Flag), and the consulate posted the photo below on their web site.

Btw, for two years now, in Paterson, New Jersey, the flag of Palestine has been raised at the local City Hall (tinyurl.com/NJ-City-Flies-Palestinian-Flag). I suggest Mayor Lee look to this city for guidance on how to handle and agree to our request.

While I assuredly support Israel's right to exist and protect itself, I also vehemently opposed its latest war on the citizens of Gaza and the deadly intransigence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed or maimed by Israeli bombs, the wanton destruction of homes, healthcare facilities and schools turned them into rubble and dust, and Israel does not wish to be held to account. This is unacceptable.

If San Francisco's City Hall can fly the Israeli flag, not to mention flags of sports teams and the LGBT rainbow flag, I fully expect for there to be a way to raise the Palestinian flag too.

Mayor Lee: 14-Pages of Emails on Alex Nieto Killing by a Cop
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

(Since we cross-posted this to our campaign site on Sept. 3rd, the medical examiner has released the autopsy and it shows that Alex Nieto was struck by police bullet more than a dozen times.)

In response to our public records request, Mayor Ed Lee's office today released 14-pages of emails related to the fatal shooting of Alex Nieto in March by a member of the San Francisco Police Department and we learned that three investigations were conducted and have ended. News to us.

Mayor Lee's director of communications Christine Falvey on August 14 responded to San Francisco Chronicle columnist Caille Millner, who asked if he had issued any public statement of sorrow about the officer-involved death, and Falvey said:

"There were three separate investigations and the police were extremely transparent with the family and the community throughout. The mayor has had confidence in these investigations and the focus is to make sure the City does everything it can to prevent a similar incident."

If they were so transparent why is it we and so many others not only weren't aware of the multiple investigations but also that they've concluded?

We are greatly displeased Mayor Lee can't properly express sorrow in public about the killing of Alex and that nothing in the Falvey statement on behalf of the mayor relates to justice being served over the fatality.

Instead, Mayor Lee's focus is to prevent another officer-involved fatal shooting, which is a goal we certainly support, but social justice is denied when the mayor can't say those words and instead under-values Alex's death when calling it a mere "incident".

Among the email exchanges between mayoral staffers is one involved Falvey asking Paul Henderson, deputy chief of staff in charge of public safety, "Did we send a condolence letter or anything?"

The communications director, whom we would expect to know if any condolence note were sent to Alex's surviving family and friends, apparently doesn't recall one being sent revealing, we believe, just how little impact this tragedy has had on the Mayor's Office.

Henderson replied, "I have a draft of one to send, but we didn't send one in that case."

As part of our longstanding commitment to delivering accountability over the police and City Hall, we've posted the 14-pages of emails released to us here: tinyurl.com/SF-Mayor-Alex-Nieto-emails.

The tragic loss of Alex's life at the hands of a San Francisco police officer is painfully compounded by the fact that the names of the cops involved have not been released, the District Attorney's Office hasn't charged anyone over the killing, the Office of the Medical Examiner has possessed the corpse since March and hasn't released their autopsy report, and Mayor Lee and his staff haven't had the simple common human courtesy of sending the survivors a condolence letter.

When will San Francisco's City Hall and law enforcement agencies deliver justice for Alex Nieto?