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Davis, who resigned on Friday, is being investigated by San Francisco’s city attorney for spending more than $1.5 million. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The report states that beginning in 2021, Davis signed agreements that HRC would pay tens of thousands for a personal podcast. While marketed as a “limited series hosted by the executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission,” PEC investigators said she did not mention the department or any city work, which HRC staff characterized as Davis’ “personal endeavor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Collective Impact later paid for at least $12,000 of those costs, and emails show Davis instructed one of the vendors to bill the organization another $10,500, though it’s unclear if that was ever paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the same time, Davis approved an agreement to grant Collective Impact more than half a million dollars in city funding in a series of grants.[aside postID=news_12052010 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/026_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed.jpg']“This agreement was executed one day after Collective Impact made its first $10,000 payment to GPS for the provision of services for [Davis’] podcast,” the probable cause statement reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following months and years, the document alleges Davis engaged in a similar pattern: soliciting payment for flight upgrades, keynote speaker slots, promotion of her personal book and the Martha’s Vineyard stay from Collective Impact, and granting the nonprofit major sums of HRC funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the two-year period, Davis received and solicited $39,100 from Collective Impact and granted them more than $1 million, according to investigators. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The allegations led to a \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/HRC_Prop_Q_Audit_Report_09.16.25.pdf\">larger city investigation and audit\u003c/a> by the Controller’s Office and City Attorney, which revealed in September that the agency had misspent at least $4 million under her leadership, and sunk confidence in the Dream Keeper Initiative, an HRC-led equity program founded by former Mayor London Breed to reinvest in the city’s Black community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the charges in the probable cause determination aren’t new, but the document warns that Davis could owe “monetary fines and penalties” for her violations, per HRC policy, and clear the way for a formal hearing into the allegations by government ethics investigators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12004694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12004694\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/025_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/025_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/025_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/025_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/025_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/025_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/025_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021_qed-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheryl Davis, former head of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, speaks during a Juneteenth kickoff rally on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on June 17, 2021. Davis, who resigned on Friday, is being investigated by San Francisco’s city attorney for spending more than $1.5 million. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The report states that beginning in 2021, Davis signed agreements that HRC would pay tens of thousands for a personal podcast. While marketed as a “limited series hosted by the executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission,” PEC investigators said she did not mention the department or any city work, which HRC staff characterized as Davis’ “personal endeavor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Collective Impact later paid for at least $12,000 of those costs, and emails show Davis instructed one of the vendors to bill the organization another $10,500, though it’s unclear if that was ever paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the same time, Davis approved an agreement to grant Collective Impact more than half a million dollars in city funding in a series of grants.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This agreement was executed one day after Collective Impact made its first $10,000 payment to GPS for the provision of services for [Davis’] podcast,” the probable cause statement reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following months and years, the document alleges Davis engaged in a similar pattern: soliciting payment for flight upgrades, keynote speaker slots, promotion of her personal book and the Martha’s Vineyard stay from Collective Impact, and granting the nonprofit major sums of HRC funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the two-year period, Davis received and solicited $39,100 from Collective Impact and granted them more than $1 million, according to investigators. The majority of that grant money came from the Dream Keeper Initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis is also accused of violating conflict of interest rules when she approved just over a quarter million dollars for Urban Ed Academy, an organization that trains Black men to teach in public schools, after receiving a portrait of herself from the organization’s executive director, which she did not disclose, in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022 and 2023, she approved a series of voucher payments to the University of San Francisco while employed by the school as an adjunct professor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The determination said that Davis did not respond to a Probable Cause Report from the commission in September, and unless the parties reach a settlement, the commission can move forward with a formal hearing on the charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The appeal case of one of the central figures in a sprawling \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> City Hall corruption scandal will be submitted Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, is seeking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955753/jury-convicts-top-sf-official-in-corruption-trial-here-are-5-takeaways\">overturn his 2023 conviction\u003c/a> for various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes, which earned him four years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged as part of a bombshell FBI investigation that shook San Francisco politics in 2020. The federal probe became public after former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru was indicted on charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for advantages in winning city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\">more than a dozen other city officials and contractors\u003c/a> were implicated in the scheme, including Sandra Zuniga, who previously led the Mayor’s Office Fix-It Team, and Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly, Harlan’s wife, also stepped down from her role as city administrator as a result of the scandal, though she did not face indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also at the center of the probe was political insider and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">construction contractor Walter Wong\u003c/a>, who owned multiple companies that vied for city contracts over decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11873533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873533\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walter Wong (right) and former Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui at a fundraiser in Chinatown in February 2017. \u003ccite>(Anonymous courtesy photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While many of the central figures in the scheme — including Wong and Nuru — pleaded guilty to charges brought by the federal government, Kelly has maintained his innocence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a three-week trial in 2023, federal prosecutors alleged that Wong began bribing Kelly as early as 2013 by doing heavily discounted home repairs for him, such as fixing water damage and installing wine cellar shelving in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also alleged Wong treated Kelly’s family to five-star hotel stays and a $600 meal on a lavish trip to China in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed a message Kelly sent to Wong saying, “I owe you big time!!!” after the wine cellar work, and alleged that Kelly repaid Wong by helping his companies secure roles in city projects.[aside postID=news_11955753 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Kelly urged his staff to buy lights from one of Wong’s companies for downtown San Francisco’s holiday display one year and gave Wong insider information to give him a leg up on a proposal for a contract to swap city streetlights to LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his testimony, Walter’s son, Washington Wong, admitted that his father’s company used information Kelly provided to tweak its proposals and give it better chances at winning contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separately, prosecutors \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">accused Kelly\u003c/a> of conspiring with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was ultimately found guilty of six charges: one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, one count of honest services wire fraud, and four counts related to bank fraud. He was acquitted of two other honest services wire fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2024, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days later, Kelly appealed the conviction, and on Monday, the case will be submitted to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based on briefs from federal prosecutors and his attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court was initially slated to hear oral arguments on Monday but announced in July that it would rule based on the briefs and existing record alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11893097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit and tie stands behind a lectern with a projection screen on the wall behind him.\" width=\"1548\" height=\"1017\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly on Jan. 31, 2014. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court is of the unanimous opinion that the facts and legal arguments are adequately presented in the briefs and record and the decisional process would not be significantly aided by oral argument,” the document said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what Kelly’s appeal strategy is. He is now represented by litigator Steven Kalar, who the court appointed in June 2024, after Kelly testified that he could no longer afford criminal defense attorney Brian Getz, who represented him in his original trial and submitted his appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar declined KQED’s request for comment on the appeal on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Kelly’s original trial, Getz and his other attorney, Jonathan Baum, largely based their defense on discrediting Wong, whose testimony should therefore be treated with “greater caution” than other witnesses’ since he agreed to cooperate with the government in exchange for a lighter sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argued that Wong and Kelly had a friendship — hence the gifts and dinners — and cast Wong as a calculated businessman looking for city officials to bribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorneys also pointed out that Wong’s bribes to Kelly were different from those he gave to other city officials, like Nuru, which included envelopes of thousands of dollars in cash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Kelly has maintained innocence after being implicated in a sprawling corruption web that ensnared more than a dozen San Francisco city officials over several years.",
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"title": "Former SF Utilities Chief Harlan Kelly Is Appealing His 2023 Corruption Case | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The appeal case of one of the central figures in a sprawling \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> City Hall corruption scandal will be submitted Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, is seeking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955753/jury-convicts-top-sf-official-in-corruption-trial-here-are-5-takeaways\">overturn his 2023 conviction\u003c/a> for various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes, which earned him four years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged as part of a bombshell FBI investigation that shook San Francisco politics in 2020. The federal probe became public after former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru was indicted on charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for advantages in winning city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\">more than a dozen other city officials and contractors\u003c/a> were implicated in the scheme, including Sandra Zuniga, who previously led the Mayor’s Office Fix-It Team, and Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly, Harlan’s wife, also stepped down from her role as city administrator as a result of the scandal, though she did not face indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also at the center of the probe was political insider and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">construction contractor Walter Wong\u003c/a>, who owned multiple companies that vied for city contracts over decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11873533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873533\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walter Wong (right) and former Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui at a fundraiser in Chinatown in February 2017. \u003ccite>(Anonymous courtesy photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While many of the central figures in the scheme — including Wong and Nuru — pleaded guilty to charges brought by the federal government, Kelly has maintained his innocence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a three-week trial in 2023, federal prosecutors alleged that Wong began bribing Kelly as early as 2013 by doing heavily discounted home repairs for him, such as fixing water damage and installing wine cellar shelving in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also alleged Wong treated Kelly’s family to five-star hotel stays and a $600 meal on a lavish trip to China in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed a message Kelly sent to Wong saying, “I owe you big time!!!” after the wine cellar work, and alleged that Kelly repaid Wong by helping his companies secure roles in city projects.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly urged his staff to buy lights from one of Wong’s companies for downtown San Francisco’s holiday display one year and gave Wong insider information to give him a leg up on a proposal for a contract to swap city streetlights to LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his testimony, Walter’s son, Washington Wong, admitted that his father’s company used information Kelly provided to tweak its proposals and give it better chances at winning contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separately, prosecutors \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">accused Kelly\u003c/a> of conspiring with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was ultimately found guilty of six charges: one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, one count of honest services wire fraud, and four counts related to bank fraud. He was acquitted of two other honest services wire fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2024, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days later, Kelly appealed the conviction, and on Monday, the case will be submitted to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based on briefs from federal prosecutors and his attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court was initially slated to hear oral arguments on Monday but announced in July that it would rule based on the briefs and existing record alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11893097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit and tie stands behind a lectern with a projection screen on the wall behind him.\" width=\"1548\" height=\"1017\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly on Jan. 31, 2014. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court is of the unanimous opinion that the facts and legal arguments are adequately presented in the briefs and record and the decisional process would not be significantly aided by oral argument,” the document said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what Kelly’s appeal strategy is. He is now represented by litigator Steven Kalar, who the court appointed in June 2024, after Kelly testified that he could no longer afford criminal defense attorney Brian Getz, who represented him in his original trial and submitted his appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar declined KQED’s request for comment on the appeal on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Kelly’s original trial, Getz and his other attorney, Jonathan Baum, largely based their defense on discrediting Wong, whose testimony should therefore be treated with “greater caution” than other witnesses’ since he agreed to cooperate with the government in exchange for a lighter sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argued that Wong and Kelly had a friendship — hence the gifts and dinners — and cast Wong as a calculated businessman looking for city officials to bribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorneys also pointed out that Wong’s bribes to Kelly were different from those he gave to other city officials, like Nuru, which included envelopes of thousands of dollars in cash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "mayor-london-breed-says-shes-just-getting-started",
"title": "Mayor London Breed Says She’s Just Getting Started",
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"headTitle": "Mayor London Breed Says She’s Just Getting Started | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco voters will choose their next mayor this November, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12007833/london-breed-makes-her-case-for-re-election\">KQED’s Political Breakdown\u003c/a> is bringing you interviews with all the top candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor London Breed, a San Francisco native who steered the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, is promising voters she’ll see through the work she started in a second term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are five key takeaways from our interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1471812915\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Personal ties to the overdose crisis motivate her public service\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Growing up in the city’s public housing, Breed said she learned to “balance pride with the real problems” she witnessed, such as violence and drug addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My sister suffered from addiction. She lost her battle with drugs and lost her life,” Breed told KQED. “When I think about why I’m in public service in the first place, it’s because I’m trying to make sure this city makes the right kinds of investments to stop that kind of thing from happening again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s partly why she appointed Matt Dorsey, who is in recovery and drug addiction, to the Board of Supervisors. Together, the two have pushed for tougher consequences for drug dealers and users, including passing Proposition F in March, a controversial measure that requires drug screening and treatment for welfare recipients in order to receive cash assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008310\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holds a nasal spray and medication.\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A person displays the contents of their harm reduction kit on June 17, 2024. The kit includes new syringes, fentanyl test strips, and Narcan. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When I’ve made hard decisions that I know people have criticized, including the arrest of people suffering from addiction to get them into treatment, or Prop F… that’s coming from people in recovery,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She wants the mayor to have more power\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While her opponents for mayor have made promises to ax department heads such as the Chief of Police or the Director of Public Health, Breed said that firing department heads is “easier said than done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incumbent has sparred with the police commission, which provides citizen oversight for the police department and would make recommendations for a new chief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not interested in any names they would send me,” Breed said. “This has been a rogue commission. I don’t have the support I need to do anything right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She accused her opponent, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, of pushing legislation over the years that has increased checks and balances between the mayor and the Board of Supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Willie Brown could appoint any police commissioner or MTA commissioner without going through the Board of Supervisors,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not suggesting that the mayor doesn’t have a lot of authority. I am saying there are things the public would expect the mayor can do but we need to make changes so the mayor can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She says she’s rooting out corruption that predated her time in City Hall\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Throughout Breed’s first term, multiple city officials and department heads were convicted for corruption and are now serving time in prison, including Mohammed Nuru, former head of the Director of Public Works, and former Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly, who was appointed by her predecessor, Mayor Ed Lee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back when I first became mayor, it was very devastating. I was just coming in as mayor, and I had to make some really hard decisions, and I did that,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, new corruption allegations have continued to follow Breed’s tenure, like the recent scandal at the Dreamkeeper Initiative, Breed’s hallmark program for the Black community, which is facing allegations of misspending and other ethics violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We took the action to freeze funding, to do investigations, and ask for her resignation,” Breed said, referring to Sheryl Davis, who led the city’s Human Rights Commission until resigning in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extremely hurt and disappointed by what has transpired. As a leader of the city, when you hire people, you put a lot of trust in them,” Breed said. “Even though I didn’t hire any of them, they still worked under my administration and I have to take responsibility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She vows to get more aggressive in clearing homeless encampments\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed.jpg\" alt=\"Tents with various items on a sidewalk next to a large vehicle.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A homeless encampment on Division Street in San Francisco in 2016. \u003ccite>(Amy Mostafa/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Breed received accolades for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the city faced increased criticism for an increase in overall homelessness, even as the number of sidewalk encampments has decreased. Breed touted her administration’s expansion of shelter capacity by 60% while also adding more units to the city’s permanent supportive housing stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='san-francisco-mayor-election']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a Supreme Court ruling in June that allowed cities to enforce anti-camping laws even if there was no available shelter, Breed directed city crews to become more aggressive with issuing citations and removing encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t saying this is an option. We are saying this is the option,” Breed said. “It’s not to imply that it’s gone away, but we have better tools to combat it. And we are trying to reconnect people with the places that they came from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the majority of people (69%) who are homeless in San Francisco were living in the city at the time that they lost their housing, according to \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/research-and-reports/pit/#PIT-Count-Dashboard\">2024 federal data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She says challenges like homelessness are not ‘what defines us as a city’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Breed was raised by her grandmother in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood before moving to attend the University of California, Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, she said, she experienced real “culture shock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t know much about college until 10th grade. I didn’t understand what a higher education option looked like. It was about graduating from high school. That’s what my grandma pushed,” Breed said. “Then a recruiter came to my class, and I thought, ‘This is my way out of poverty.’ So from that point forward, I really worked hard and went above and beyond and tried to improve my grades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That experience showed her that while San Francisco struggles with unaffordability, homelessness, and overdoses, these problems “shouldn’t be completely what defines us as a city,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What place would someone grow up in the most challenging of circumstances and grow up to be mayor? San Francisco is where, and I take a lot of pride in that.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco voters will choose their next mayor this November, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12007833/london-breed-makes-her-case-for-re-election\">KQED’s Political Breakdown\u003c/a> is bringing you interviews with all the top candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor London Breed, a San Francisco native who steered the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, is promising voters she’ll see through the work she started in a second term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are five key takeaways from our interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1471812915\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Personal ties to the overdose crisis motivate her public service\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Growing up in the city’s public housing, Breed said she learned to “balance pride with the real problems” she witnessed, such as violence and drug addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My sister suffered from addiction. She lost her battle with drugs and lost her life,” Breed told KQED. “When I think about why I’m in public service in the first place, it’s because I’m trying to make sure this city makes the right kinds of investments to stop that kind of thing from happening again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s partly why she appointed Matt Dorsey, who is in recovery and drug addiction, to the Board of Supervisors. Together, the two have pushed for tougher consequences for drug dealers and users, including passing Proposition F in March, a controversial measure that requires drug screening and treatment for welfare recipients in order to receive cash assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008310\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holds a nasal spray and medication.\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240617-SyringeExchange-43-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A person displays the contents of their harm reduction kit on June 17, 2024. The kit includes new syringes, fentanyl test strips, and Narcan. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When I’ve made hard decisions that I know people have criticized, including the arrest of people suffering from addiction to get them into treatment, or Prop F… that’s coming from people in recovery,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She wants the mayor to have more power\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While her opponents for mayor have made promises to ax department heads such as the Chief of Police or the Director of Public Health, Breed said that firing department heads is “easier said than done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incumbent has sparred with the police commission, which provides citizen oversight for the police department and would make recommendations for a new chief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not interested in any names they would send me,” Breed said. “This has been a rogue commission. I don’t have the support I need to do anything right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She accused her opponent, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, of pushing legislation over the years that has increased checks and balances between the mayor and the Board of Supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Willie Brown could appoint any police commissioner or MTA commissioner without going through the Board of Supervisors,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not suggesting that the mayor doesn’t have a lot of authority. I am saying there are things the public would expect the mayor can do but we need to make changes so the mayor can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She says she’s rooting out corruption that predated her time in City Hall\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Throughout Breed’s first term, multiple city officials and department heads were convicted for corruption and are now serving time in prison, including Mohammed Nuru, former head of the Director of Public Works, and former Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly, who was appointed by her predecessor, Mayor Ed Lee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back when I first became mayor, it was very devastating. I was just coming in as mayor, and I had to make some really hard decisions, and I did that,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, new corruption allegations have continued to follow Breed’s tenure, like the recent scandal at the Dreamkeeper Initiative, Breed’s hallmark program for the Black community, which is facing allegations of misspending and other ethics violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We took the action to freeze funding, to do investigations, and ask for her resignation,” Breed said, referring to Sheryl Davis, who led the city’s Human Rights Commission until resigning in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extremely hurt and disappointed by what has transpired. As a leader of the city, when you hire people, you put a lot of trust in them,” Breed said. “Even though I didn’t hire any of them, they still worked under my administration and I have to take responsibility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She vows to get more aggressive in clearing homeless encampments\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed.jpg\" alt=\"Tents with various items on a sidewalk next to a large vehicle.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/IMAG2736_qed-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A homeless encampment on Division Street in San Francisco in 2016. \u003ccite>(Amy Mostafa/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Breed received accolades for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the city faced increased criticism for an increase in overall homelessness, even as the number of sidewalk encampments has decreased. Breed touted her administration’s expansion of shelter capacity by 60% while also adding more units to the city’s permanent supportive housing stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a Supreme Court ruling in June that allowed cities to enforce anti-camping laws even if there was no available shelter, Breed directed city crews to become more aggressive with issuing citations and removing encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t saying this is an option. We are saying this is the option,” Breed said. “It’s not to imply that it’s gone away, but we have better tools to combat it. And we are trying to reconnect people with the places that they came from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the majority of people (69%) who are homeless in San Francisco were living in the city at the time that they lost their housing, according to \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/research-and-reports/pit/#PIT-Count-Dashboard\">2024 federal data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>She says challenges like homelessness are not ‘what defines us as a city’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Breed was raised by her grandmother in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood before moving to attend the University of California, Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, she said, she experienced real “culture shock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t know much about college until 10th grade. I didn’t understand what a higher education option looked like. It was about graduating from high school. That’s what my grandma pushed,” Breed said. “Then a recruiter came to my class, and I thought, ‘This is my way out of poverty.’ So from that point forward, I really worked hard and went above and beyond and tried to improve my grades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That experience showed her that while San Francisco struggles with unaffordability, homelessness, and overdoses, these problems “shouldn’t be completely what defines us as a city,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What place would someone grow up in the most challenging of circumstances and grow up to be mayor? San Francisco is where, and I take a lot of pride in that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Former SFPUC Chief Harlan Kelly Sentenced to 4-Year Prison Term Following Fraud Conviction — Here Are 5 Takeaways",
"headTitle": "Former SFPUC Chief Harlan Kelly Sentenced to 4-Year Prison Term Following Fraud Conviction — Here Are 5 Takeaways | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Monday, March 18, 2024:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday, March 18, and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine after being found guilty last year of various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly “betrayed the public trust and made a mockery of his oath to serve the community in his high public office,” U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said in court Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although federal prosecutors sought a 6 1/2 year prison sentence, Seeborg said Kelly had done enough for the community — as evidenced by the many letters of support sent on his behalf — to warrant a more lenient punishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His sentencing is the latest development in the \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link=\"native\">FBI’s expansive, six-year investigation\u003c/a> into city government corruption that has now ensnared more than a dozen individuals and two corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly is expected to begin serving his four-year prison term on June 19, and is ordered to serve three years of supervised release after that, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Original story, July 14, 2023\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>Yet another San Francisco city leader has been found guilty on charges related to bribery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After less than two days of deliberation, a San Francisco jury Friday convicted the former head of a powerful agency on six of eight charges stemming from a federal investigation into corruption in the city’s government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was charged with wire fraud in 2020, charges that were later expanded to include bank fraud in late 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was accused of taking bribes for years from a construction contractor, Walter Wong, who sought to win a contract to update city streetlights. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">separate bank fraud charges\u003c/a> allege Kelly conspired with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to Quicken Loans to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg has yet to sentence Kelly, but the former SFPUC chief faces a possible 20 to 30 years on each count against him. Wong \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> for his role in multiple alleged bribery schemes in 2021. Makras \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/jury-convicts-san-francisco-broker-and-investor-victor-makras-fraud-real-estate-loan#:~:text=The%20federal%20jury%20today%20convicted,in%20violation%20of%2018%20U.S.C.\">was convicted late last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wide-ranging corruption scandal started in 2020 with a federal indictment of former San Francisco Public Works director Mohammed Nuru, who accepted bribes like a John Deere tractor, a $37,000 Rolex watch, and construction work on his Colusa County ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the corruption scandal didn’t stop at Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A slew of city officials and contractors have been ensnared in the corruption probe, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-director-san-francisco-mayor-s-office-neighborhood-services-and-san-francisco-s\">Mayor’s Office Fix-It team head Sandra Zuniga\u003c/a> and former Department of Building Inspection director \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">Tom Hui\u003c/a>. Former senior building inspector Bernie Curran also was convicted in a related corruption case, and was sentenced Friday to a year and one day in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, did not face indictment, but stepped down from her role as city administrator after evidence against her husband implicated her, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the city leaders who found themselves under the FBI’s microscope pleaded guilty, Kelly fought his charges in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the three-week trial, a jury heard testimony and closing arguments from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Kelly’s defense attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are five key takeaways from the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wong didn’t just admit to bribing Kelly once. He spent years trying to influence him\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The owner of several construction companies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/PROFILE-Walter-Wong-Powerhouse-pushes-2882045.php\">Wong was a politically-connected San Francisco insider\u003c/a> with ties to past mayoral admirations going as far back as Mayor Art Agnos. He used his largesse to help host banquets in Chinatown and bolster annual Lunar New Year parade celebrations. He also featured prominently in the case against Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors argued Wong’s attempts to influence Kelly started as early as 2013.\u003cbr>\nWong allegedly gifted home repair work to Kelly at a heavy discount, from installing iron hand-rails in his home to fixing water damage, and even installing wine-cellar shelving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I owe you big time!!!” Kelly wrote to Wong after the 2013 installation of the wine cellar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also spent lavishly on Kelly’s family during a 2016 China vacation, including a trip to a zoo, sightseeing tours, a meal between Wong and Kelly that topped $600, and freebie stays in five-star hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Kelly did pay Wong back, prosecutors argued, on two key projects he had control over: putting up holiday lights in San Francisco’s downtown, and a contract to convert existing city streetlights to use LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Stories' tag='san-francisco-corruption']Kelly pushed his staffers to expedite the purchase of holiday lights from one of Wong’s companies, a claim prosecutors punctuated in court. Emails sent at the behest of Kelly egged on employees to hurry on the purchase. Kelly also allegedly handed Wong insider-information to help edge-out other contractors bidding to win the city streetlight contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In closing arguments to jurors on July 12, prosecutor Kristina Green, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said text messages tell the tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do you know Harlan Kelly was receiving gifts intended to influence city business? Because Harlan Kelly shows that link himself,” Green said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors then showed jurors a 2014 text message from Kelly to Wong, “My loan was approved. We need to get together to chat how to reimburse you and rfp (request for proposal). I should get the money in three weeks.” Essentially, in one message, prosecutors argued, Kelly both told Wong he would use a loan to pay him back for the discounted housework, while also saying he would share information about an RFP. That’s a request for proposal, essentially the guidelines the city would use for bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Importantly, that information is supposed to be confidential, so all companies bidding on a contract have an even playing field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong’s son, Washington Wong, who worked with him on those contracts, said on the witness stand, “we used that information to, I guess, tweak our next proposal [to the city].”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly’s defense attorney sought to sow doubt about Wong’s statements\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wong’s testimony was undoubtedly the biggest pillar of the U.S. attorneys’ arguments, which is likely why the defense had a laser focus on challenging his credibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s defense attorneys, Jonathan Baum and Brian Getz, cast the China trip and discounted home repair in a far rosier and more innocuous light, saying that Kelly and Wong enjoyed years of friendship that naturally resulted in exchanged gifts, dinners, and favorable treatment. At the same time, they described Wong as a shark on the hunt for new bribery marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Was Harlan naive? He should’ve been more careful. He should’ve suspected what Walter was doing, but didn’t,” Baum told the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To punctuate his point, Baum flashed the dictionary definition of “naive” in large-font text on screens in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11873494 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1020x678.jpg']Kelly’s lawyers also argued that Wong’s actual bribes to city officials – like Nuru – came in the form of thousands of dollars of cash stuffed into envelopes. If he were truly bribing Kelly, why not do that, instead of offering construction work on his home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That home construction work was also shoddy, and even over-charged, an expert witness brought by the defense said on the witness stand. While Wong tried to fix a water leak, photos showed water stains streaking Kelly’s Inner Sunset-home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this was a complex elaborate bribery scheme, would [Walter Wong] have done that?” Baum said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most pointedly, however, the defense made sure to remind the jury that Wong stands to see his own bribery-related sentence reduced for cooperating as a witness, an idea they argued influences everything he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Seeborg instructed jurors to treat Wong’s testimony with “greater caution” than that of the other witnesses for that same reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Despite alleged bribes, Kelly’s influence didn’t always help Wong. But that doesn’t mean a crime wasn’t committed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed reams of evidence highlighting how Kelly inappropriately aided Wong in navigating an LED streetlight contract with the city. Kelly even went so far as to stuff confidential documents into a manila folder, later handing them to Wong out on the street, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that didn’t mean Wong had any luck winning his bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When ranking companies who had thrown their hat in the ring for the city contract, Wong’s company ranked 47th out of 51 total bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can we say that was dead last?” Baum, the defense attorney, said. “The most important thing to think about is, what happened? [Prosecutors would] argue this information was very valuable. But what were the results?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on the witness stand, Wong’s son, Washington Wong, admitted their attempts to game the system were fruitless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the grand scheme of things, no, it didn’t seem to help,” Washington Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in his instructions to the jury, Judge Seeborg reminded them that Kelly need only have agreed to commit an act to have acted corruptly. And Green, one of the prosecutors, underscored that to the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walter Wong didn’t win the LED lights contract. Under the law, that doesn’t matter,” she said. What matters is if jurors decide they corrupted the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly allegedly flouted the rules, but emails and text messages showed he knew the law\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kelly hoped to keep much of his communications with Wong and other co-conspirators outside of the spotlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wrote in a 2018 email “I’m not the only one who sees my email at work – I have some staff with access because I get a lot of emails and can’t be reading, and responding, to every one. Also emails sent to me are public record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subsequently, many of his emailed communications with Wong are from Kelly’s personal Yahoo email. It’s a problem known to happen in the city writ large – \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11935973/i-am-somebody-who-enjoys-arguing-anonymoose-who-exposed-sf-city-hall-secrets-hangs-up-antlers\">citizen journalist “Anonymoose” found plenty of city officials trying to hide their communications\u003c/a> by skirting the city’s open records law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11935973 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/GettyImages-1302058535-1020x680.jpg']Kelly also, at one point, emailed a city ethics rulebook to his San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff. That rulebook contained explanations of city regulations that bar gifts from contractors with bids before the commission, much like Wong did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors asked Mary Tienken, a project manager at the SFPUC, to take the witness stand in June. She wrote many of the bidding documents that – unbeknownst to her – Kelly eventually passed to Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about her duty under the law, Tienken said, “I was obligated not to provide any advantage to any bidders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The city is as connected as can be\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Testimony and documents submitted for evidence during the trial revealed guest-star appearances from various city politicos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2016 trip to China where Wong allegedly bribed Kelly included a visit to an ailing Rose Pak, a well-known Chinatown community leader, who was hospitalized, and later died after returning to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rose Pak was a friend of the family. I met her and she became a friend,” Maria Little, Kelly’s mother-in-law, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras also dined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899657/mohammed-nuru-to-plead-guilty-in-city-hall-corruption-probe\">Mohammed Nuru, the former Public Works director who pleaded guilty to bribery charges in 2021\u003c/a>. And Wong and Kelly planned a dinner with the late Mayor Ed Lee by writing their text messages in code, referring to Lee \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Former-S-F-Mayor-Ed-Lee-code-name-35-15777827.php\">only as “35”\u003c/a> — his initials on a phone keypad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s not a surprise that these folks \u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2021/10/20/real-estate-magnate-victor-makras-the-latest-to-indicted-by-feds-in-sf-public-corruption-probe/\">would rub shoulders with other city leaders\u003c/a>, the extent to which others have been mentioned in FBI documents, and the court record, has fueled \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2021/11/web-of-corruption-explore-the-cronyism-lies-and-federal-crimes-at-the-heart-of-san-franciscos-government/\">speculation\u003c/a> as to who in city government, if anyone, was also under federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conviction is a milestone in San Francisco political history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no other major indictments pending, Kelly’s conviction may snip the final thread in the tapestry of the San Francisco corruption scandal that has ensnared so many, giving a glimpse into a system of influence many have heard whispers of, but few had seen before in such full view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Kelly is the latest San Francisco official to land in prison after being found guilty of charges related to bribery, as part of an expansive, six-year federal investigation into city government corruption. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Monday, March 18, 2024:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday, March 18, and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine after being found guilty last year of various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly “betrayed the public trust and made a mockery of his oath to serve the community in his high public office,” U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said in court Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although federal prosecutors sought a 6 1/2 year prison sentence, Seeborg said Kelly had done enough for the community — as evidenced by the many letters of support sent on his behalf — to warrant a more lenient punishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His sentencing is the latest development in the \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link=\"native\">FBI’s expansive, six-year investigation\u003c/a> into city government corruption that has now ensnared more than a dozen individuals and two corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly is expected to begin serving his four-year prison term on June 19, and is ordered to serve three years of supervised release after that, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Original story, July 14, 2023\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>Yet another San Francisco city leader has been found guilty on charges related to bribery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After less than two days of deliberation, a San Francisco jury Friday convicted the former head of a powerful agency on six of eight charges stemming from a federal investigation into corruption in the city’s government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was charged with wire fraud in 2020, charges that were later expanded to include bank fraud in late 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was accused of taking bribes for years from a construction contractor, Walter Wong, who sought to win a contract to update city streetlights. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">separate bank fraud charges\u003c/a> allege Kelly conspired with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to Quicken Loans to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg has yet to sentence Kelly, but the former SFPUC chief faces a possible 20 to 30 years on each count against him. Wong \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> for his role in multiple alleged bribery schemes in 2021. Makras \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/jury-convicts-san-francisco-broker-and-investor-victor-makras-fraud-real-estate-loan#:~:text=The%20federal%20jury%20today%20convicted,in%20violation%20of%2018%20U.S.C.\">was convicted late last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wide-ranging corruption scandal started in 2020 with a federal indictment of former San Francisco Public Works director Mohammed Nuru, who accepted bribes like a John Deere tractor, a $37,000 Rolex watch, and construction work on his Colusa County ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the corruption scandal didn’t stop at Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A slew of city officials and contractors have been ensnared in the corruption probe, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-director-san-francisco-mayor-s-office-neighborhood-services-and-san-francisco-s\">Mayor’s Office Fix-It team head Sandra Zuniga\u003c/a> and former Department of Building Inspection director \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">Tom Hui\u003c/a>. Former senior building inspector Bernie Curran also was convicted in a related corruption case, and was sentenced Friday to a year and one day in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, did not face indictment, but stepped down from her role as city administrator after evidence against her husband implicated her, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the city leaders who found themselves under the FBI’s microscope pleaded guilty, Kelly fought his charges in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the three-week trial, a jury heard testimony and closing arguments from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Kelly’s defense attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are five key takeaways from the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wong didn’t just admit to bribing Kelly once. He spent years trying to influence him\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The owner of several construction companies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/PROFILE-Walter-Wong-Powerhouse-pushes-2882045.php\">Wong was a politically-connected San Francisco insider\u003c/a> with ties to past mayoral admirations going as far back as Mayor Art Agnos. He used his largesse to help host banquets in Chinatown and bolster annual Lunar New Year parade celebrations. He also featured prominently in the case against Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors argued Wong’s attempts to influence Kelly started as early as 2013.\u003cbr>\nWong allegedly gifted home repair work to Kelly at a heavy discount, from installing iron hand-rails in his home to fixing water damage, and even installing wine-cellar shelving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I owe you big time!!!” Kelly wrote to Wong after the 2013 installation of the wine cellar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also spent lavishly on Kelly’s family during a 2016 China vacation, including a trip to a zoo, sightseeing tours, a meal between Wong and Kelly that topped $600, and freebie stays in five-star hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Kelly did pay Wong back, prosecutors argued, on two key projects he had control over: putting up holiday lights in San Francisco’s downtown, and a contract to convert existing city streetlights to use LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly pushed his staffers to expedite the purchase of holiday lights from one of Wong’s companies, a claim prosecutors punctuated in court. Emails sent at the behest of Kelly egged on employees to hurry on the purchase. Kelly also allegedly handed Wong insider-information to help edge-out other contractors bidding to win the city streetlight contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In closing arguments to jurors on July 12, prosecutor Kristina Green, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said text messages tell the tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do you know Harlan Kelly was receiving gifts intended to influence city business? Because Harlan Kelly shows that link himself,” Green said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors then showed jurors a 2014 text message from Kelly to Wong, “My loan was approved. We need to get together to chat how to reimburse you and rfp (request for proposal). I should get the money in three weeks.” Essentially, in one message, prosecutors argued, Kelly both told Wong he would use a loan to pay him back for the discounted housework, while also saying he would share information about an RFP. That’s a request for proposal, essentially the guidelines the city would use for bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Importantly, that information is supposed to be confidential, so all companies bidding on a contract have an even playing field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong’s son, Washington Wong, who worked with him on those contracts, said on the witness stand, “we used that information to, I guess, tweak our next proposal [to the city].”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly’s defense attorney sought to sow doubt about Wong’s statements\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wong’s testimony was undoubtedly the biggest pillar of the U.S. attorneys’ arguments, which is likely why the defense had a laser focus on challenging his credibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s defense attorneys, Jonathan Baum and Brian Getz, cast the China trip and discounted home repair in a far rosier and more innocuous light, saying that Kelly and Wong enjoyed years of friendship that naturally resulted in exchanged gifts, dinners, and favorable treatment. At the same time, they described Wong as a shark on the hunt for new bribery marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Was Harlan naive? He should’ve been more careful. He should’ve suspected what Walter was doing, but didn’t,” Baum told the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To punctuate his point, Baum flashed the dictionary definition of “naive” in large-font text on screens in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly’s lawyers also argued that Wong’s actual bribes to city officials – like Nuru – came in the form of thousands of dollars of cash stuffed into envelopes. If he were truly bribing Kelly, why not do that, instead of offering construction work on his home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That home construction work was also shoddy, and even over-charged, an expert witness brought by the defense said on the witness stand. While Wong tried to fix a water leak, photos showed water stains streaking Kelly’s Inner Sunset-home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this was a complex elaborate bribery scheme, would [Walter Wong] have done that?” Baum said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most pointedly, however, the defense made sure to remind the jury that Wong stands to see his own bribery-related sentence reduced for cooperating as a witness, an idea they argued influences everything he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Seeborg instructed jurors to treat Wong’s testimony with “greater caution” than that of the other witnesses for that same reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Despite alleged bribes, Kelly’s influence didn’t always help Wong. But that doesn’t mean a crime wasn’t committed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed reams of evidence highlighting how Kelly inappropriately aided Wong in navigating an LED streetlight contract with the city. Kelly even went so far as to stuff confidential documents into a manila folder, later handing them to Wong out on the street, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that didn’t mean Wong had any luck winning his bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When ranking companies who had thrown their hat in the ring for the city contract, Wong’s company ranked 47th out of 51 total bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can we say that was dead last?” Baum, the defense attorney, said. “The most important thing to think about is, what happened? [Prosecutors would] argue this information was very valuable. But what were the results?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on the witness stand, Wong’s son, Washington Wong, admitted their attempts to game the system were fruitless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the grand scheme of things, no, it didn’t seem to help,” Washington Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in his instructions to the jury, Judge Seeborg reminded them that Kelly need only have agreed to commit an act to have acted corruptly. And Green, one of the prosecutors, underscored that to the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walter Wong didn’t win the LED lights contract. Under the law, that doesn’t matter,” she said. What matters is if jurors decide they corrupted the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly allegedly flouted the rules, but emails and text messages showed he knew the law\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kelly hoped to keep much of his communications with Wong and other co-conspirators outside of the spotlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wrote in a 2018 email “I’m not the only one who sees my email at work – I have some staff with access because I get a lot of emails and can’t be reading, and responding, to every one. Also emails sent to me are public record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subsequently, many of his emailed communications with Wong are from Kelly’s personal Yahoo email. It’s a problem known to happen in the city writ large – \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11935973/i-am-somebody-who-enjoys-arguing-anonymoose-who-exposed-sf-city-hall-secrets-hangs-up-antlers\">citizen journalist “Anonymoose” found plenty of city officials trying to hide their communications\u003c/a> by skirting the city’s open records law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly also, at one point, emailed a city ethics rulebook to his San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff. That rulebook contained explanations of city regulations that bar gifts from contractors with bids before the commission, much like Wong did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors asked Mary Tienken, a project manager at the SFPUC, to take the witness stand in June. She wrote many of the bidding documents that – unbeknownst to her – Kelly eventually passed to Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about her duty under the law, Tienken said, “I was obligated not to provide any advantage to any bidders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The city is as connected as can be\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Testimony and documents submitted for evidence during the trial revealed guest-star appearances from various city politicos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2016 trip to China where Wong allegedly bribed Kelly included a visit to an ailing Rose Pak, a well-known Chinatown community leader, who was hospitalized, and later died after returning to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rose Pak was a friend of the family. I met her and she became a friend,” Maria Little, Kelly’s mother-in-law, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras also dined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899657/mohammed-nuru-to-plead-guilty-in-city-hall-corruption-probe\">Mohammed Nuru, the former Public Works director who pleaded guilty to bribery charges in 2021\u003c/a>. And Wong and Kelly planned a dinner with the late Mayor Ed Lee by writing their text messages in code, referring to Lee \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Former-S-F-Mayor-Ed-Lee-code-name-35-15777827.php\">only as “35”\u003c/a> — his initials on a phone keypad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s not a surprise that these folks \u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2021/10/20/real-estate-magnate-victor-makras-the-latest-to-indicted-by-feds-in-sf-public-corruption-probe/\">would rub shoulders with other city leaders\u003c/a>, the extent to which others have been mentioned in FBI documents, and the court record, has fueled \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2021/11/web-of-corruption-explore-the-cronyism-lies-and-federal-crimes-at-the-heart-of-san-franciscos-government/\">speculation\u003c/a> as to who in city government, if anyone, was also under federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conviction is a milestone in San Francisco political history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no other major indictments pending, Kelly’s conviction may snip the final thread in the tapestry of the San Francisco corruption scandal that has ensnared so many, giving a glimpse into a system of influence many have heard whispers of, but few had seen before in such full view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>About a dozen former employees of SF SAFE, a police-affiliated nonprofit that abruptly shut down last month, gathered at City Hall on Thursday to file an official complaint in an effort to recover lost wages and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decades-old crime prevention organization abruptly closed its doors in January and laid off much of its staff after an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Police%20Department%20SF%20SAFE%20Assessment%2001.18.24.pdf\">official audit\u003c/a> found it had \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/01/18/san-francisco-police-wrongly-paid-nonprofit-79k-for-lavish-expenses-report-finds/\">misused nearly $80,000 of taxpayer money\u003c/a> — funded by SFPD — for “excessive” expenditures, including a trip to Lake Tahoe, luxurious gift boxes and limo services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joshua Miles, a former employee, said he’s still waiting to get paid for at least a week of work and 50 hours of vacation and sick time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a total injustice for us to put in work for a company or organization, and because of someone else’s actions, we fall under unpaid. That’s totally unfair,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SF SAFE stands for Safety Awareness for Everyone, which SFPD describes as its “nonprofit community engagement arm.” It remains unclear if the organization’s closure is permanent or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Mulligan, the director of the city’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, which helped former SF SAFE employees fill out claim forms, said he couldn’t comment on the case because it is an open investigation but suggested it would not be resolved anytime soon, as his office is currently backlogged with at least 200 other cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some former employees also said they experienced poor working conditions at SF SAFE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was terrible. Honestly, I wish I’d never worked here,” said Miles, who had been at the nonprofit for eight months. He said at one point on the job, a man waiting for service acted as if he was going to pull a gun on him, an incident Miles reported but received no response about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kyra Worthy, SF SAFE’s former executive director for the last six years, was fired by its board shortly after the audit came out following allegations that the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/01/31/san-francisco-safe-castro-community-on-patrol-missing-funds/\">hadn’t been paying some of the partner organizations\u003c/a> it worked with and that its bank accounts were depleted, with indications of check forgery also thrown in the mix, the \u003cem>SF Standard\u003c/em> reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2024/01/sfpd-contractor-accused-of-stiffing-mission-nonprofit-625/\">SF Latino Task Force\u003c/a> has also claimed that SF SAFE owes them $625,000 for training services. And a florist business in the Mission District said the group owes it nearly $20,000 for a large number of flowers purchased.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Worthy nor the lawyers for SF SAFE replied to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite his negative experience working at SF SAFE, Miles, the former employee, said he greatly appreciates his former coworkers and their ongoing unity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It means everything because if we weren’t all united here right now, we’d probably be just swept under the rug,” he said. “But since we’re coming together as a unit and a group, I believe they have to hear us out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gina Guitron, another former employee, said she is still owed $10,000 in back pay. She said Worthy, the former executive director, also created a toxic environment by pitting staff members against each other and not providing health insurance to employees who were hired within the second half of last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just really hope it does get resolved with the right people,” Guitron said. “We will find somebody to get justice.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>About a dozen former employees of SF SAFE, a police-affiliated nonprofit that abruptly shut down last month, gathered at City Hall on Thursday to file an official complaint in an effort to recover lost wages and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decades-old crime prevention organization abruptly closed its doors in January and laid off much of its staff after an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Police%20Department%20SF%20SAFE%20Assessment%2001.18.24.pdf\">official audit\u003c/a> found it had \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/01/18/san-francisco-police-wrongly-paid-nonprofit-79k-for-lavish-expenses-report-finds/\">misused nearly $80,000 of taxpayer money\u003c/a> — funded by SFPD — for “excessive” expenditures, including a trip to Lake Tahoe, luxurious gift boxes and limo services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joshua Miles, a former employee, said he’s still waiting to get paid for at least a week of work and 50 hours of vacation and sick time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a total injustice for us to put in work for a company or organization, and because of someone else’s actions, we fall under unpaid. That’s totally unfair,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SF SAFE stands for Safety Awareness for Everyone, which SFPD describes as its “nonprofit community engagement arm.” It remains unclear if the organization’s closure is permanent or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Mulligan, the director of the city’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, which helped former SF SAFE employees fill out claim forms, said he couldn’t comment on the case because it is an open investigation but suggested it would not be resolved anytime soon, as his office is currently backlogged with at least 200 other cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some former employees also said they experienced poor working conditions at SF SAFE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was terrible. Honestly, I wish I’d never worked here,” said Miles, who had been at the nonprofit for eight months. He said at one point on the job, a man waiting for service acted as if he was going to pull a gun on him, an incident Miles reported but received no response about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kyra Worthy, SF SAFE’s former executive director for the last six years, was fired by its board shortly after the audit came out following allegations that the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/01/31/san-francisco-safe-castro-community-on-patrol-missing-funds/\">hadn’t been paying some of the partner organizations\u003c/a> it worked with and that its bank accounts were depleted, with indications of check forgery also thrown in the mix, the \u003cem>SF Standard\u003c/em> reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2024/01/sfpd-contractor-accused-of-stiffing-mission-nonprofit-625/\">SF Latino Task Force\u003c/a> has also claimed that SF SAFE owes them $625,000 for training services. And a florist business in the Mission District said the group owes it nearly $20,000 for a large number of flowers purchased.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Worthy nor the lawyers for SF SAFE replied to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite his negative experience working at SF SAFE, Miles, the former employee, said he greatly appreciates his former coworkers and their ongoing unity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It means everything because if we weren’t all united here right now, we’d probably be just swept under the rug,” he said. “But since we’re coming together as a unit and a group, I believe they have to hear us out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gina Guitron, another former employee, said she is still owed $10,000 in back pay. She said Worthy, the former executive director, also created a toxic environment by pitting staff members against each other and not providing health insurance to employees who were hired within the second half of last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just really hope it does get resolved with the right people,” Guitron said. “We will find somebody to get justice.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "disgraced-former-sf-public-works-chief-mohammed-nuru-sentenced-to-7-years-for-bribery-scheme",
"title": "Disgraced Former SF Public Works Chief Mohammed Nuru Sentenced to 7 Years for Bribery Scheme",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru was sentenced to seven years (84 months) in federal prison and three years of supervised release on Thursday.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru’s sentencing, while expected, marks an important milestone in the years-long indictment of multiple San Francisco officials. The bribery scheme unveiled in January 2020 continued to snowball, ensnaring contractors, a restaurant owner and five city department heads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the man known to be at the top of the FBI’s list, publicly at least, was Nuru.\u003c/span>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"U.S. Northern District Judge William Orrick\"]‘If what you had done was a one-off occurrence, I would absolutely agree the leniency was called for, but you made the city’s decision-making and competitive bidding a farce.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Expensive watches, international flights, extravagant dinners, even a John Deere tractor — Nuru took bribes of all sorts from contractors seeking multimillion-dollar contracts with the city, hoping to sway Nuru to give them a much-coveted rubber stamp. Nuru also attempted to bribe an airport contractor on behalf of a restaurateur who was his co-conspirator. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While much of his misdeeds were known, and Nuru pled guilty in January, the severity of Nuru’s punishment was unknown until Thursday when he heard the verdict in court. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">U.S. Northern District Judge William Orrick said Nuru’s sentence reflected how severely Nuru’s crimes as a public official breached public trust.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If what you had done was a one-off occurrence, I would absolutely agree the leniency was called for, but you made the city’s decision-making and competitive bidding a farce,” said Orrick. “By awarding [contractors] and favoring them in exchange for money, gifts, trips, a job for your son and construction for a home, a vacation home, what you’ve done is to question the fairness of every matter, every decision you made at DPW. During my time on the bench, I’ve sentenced people for really horrible things, gang murders, and really deadly stuff. In many ways, what you’ve done is at least as reprehensible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The federal government initially sought nine years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a $35,000 fine for Nuru. Nuru’s attorneys argued for a three-year sentence and the forfeit of his property.\u003c/span>[aside postID=\"news_11899657,news_11849988,news_11801734\" label=\"Related Posts\"]“Mohammed Nuru knows and accepts to his core that the conduct he engaged in was wrong, it was prolonged, and it is inexcusable,” said Miles Ehrlich, Nuru’s attorney. “It was a breach of the trust placed in him by the citizens of San Francisco, his co-workers, and his friends. In the public’s mind, it will overshadow any of the good he did in his life as a public servant, and perhaps Mr. Nuru knows deep down, it should.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ehrlich also argued that Nuru deserved a lighter sentence, citing Nuru’s poor health from diabetes, a recent heart attack and two surgeries for heart problems.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, U.S. Attorney Alexandra Shepard argued that Nuru lied and laundered money for years. When he was caught, he spent days, almost a week, sabotaging the investigation by notifying people under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is who he is,” said Shepard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office sought a particularly harsh sentence for Nuru since, after the FBI quietly arrested him in January 2020, Nuru leaked the investigation to multiple people. In doing so he “caused incalculable damage to the investigation,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a sentencing memo a week before Nuru’s sentencing date, saying the leak tipped off potential targets and jeopardized the FBI’s ability to obtain evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“A substantial sentence would send a message to other public officials that using their office for their own personal benefit will result in significant jail time,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In response, Nuru’s attorney wrote that Nuru regrets his wrongdoing, and “Mohammed Nuru apologizes to the people of San Francisco, to this Court, and to his family and friends for violating the public trust.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His corrupt acts don’t represent “the whole of him,” they argued, adding that Nuru has taught marginalized and incarcerated youth how to farm, and provided education and training jobs in his role at the Public Works department. They also argued Nuru raised five children as a single parent after his ex-wife became addicted to drugs, and that he helps financially support them and his elderly parents.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued Nuru did not commit these crimes out of financial hardship, citing his $278,586 annual salary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the FBI’s revelations, Nuru’s nickname of “Mr. Clean,” so-given for his department’s efforts to spit shine the city, proved to be the height of irony. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The U.S. Attorney’s Office described Nuru’s scheme as “a tale of greed as old as time.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They said Nuru “shook down” contractors for more then a million dollars in cash, goods and services over a 12-year period. Much of those ill-gotten gains went to paying for his ranch in Stonyford, California. That ranch was a cash cow for contractors seeking to influence Nuru: He gave them favorable treatment in city contracts after they custom-built and furnished it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru also often sought the help of contractors to buttress his San Francisco home; a city contractor did such work for free in 2008, when Nuru was a deputy director of the Department of Public Works. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Nuru was the quintessential grifter, using his position at DPW to enrich himself in a multitude of ways,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru was far from alone in his crimes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed their explosive allegations against Nuru in January 2020, one by one new San Francisco officials were accused of taking bribes, and prominent community members well-known to San Francisco politicos for their charitable good deeds were revealed to be in on the scheme. Most have already pled guilty. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since Nuru was first taken in, the federal government has indicted the former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Harlan Kelly, and the head of the Mayor’s Office’s “fix-it team,” Sandra Zuniga, in related bribery schemes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru, Kelly and Zuniga all worked under Mayor London Breed, and Breed counted Nuru, Kelly and Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, as long-time friends and allies for years. Naomi Kelly resigned as city administrator following her husband’s arrest, although she wasn’t charged; Carmen Chu took her place.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Breed publicly revealed she once counted Nuru as a romantic partner, and a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> few weeks after Nuru was charged by the FBI, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11883654/sf-mayor-london-breed-agrees-to-23k-fine-for-ethics-breach\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">she acknowledged in a statement that Nuru had paid for expenses involving repairs to her car in 2019\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Last year she agreed to pay an $8,292 fine for accepting that gift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since Nuru’s arrest, Breed has sought to distance herself from Nuru. Breed and the City Controller’s Office also have sought to plug the holes in city law that allowed much of the bribery under their noses to take place. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Co-conspirators of Nuru, construction contractor Walter Wong and Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant owner Nick Bovis, also were indicted by the federal government. Wong helped connect now-indicted officials to a luxury developer who sought to bribe them, and Wong himself admitted to bribing officials for contracts. Bovis set up a fake baseball charity that funneled bribes to Nuru so he could shower his employees with extravagant parties. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other city contractors also were indicted for bribing Nuru: Balmore Hernandez, Alan Varela and Bill Gilmartin all provided workers and equipment to help build or improve Nuru’s ranch. Hernandez, Varela and Gilmartin gifted Nuru with a John Deere tractor worth $40,000. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paul Fredrick Giusti, working for waste management company Recology, gave Nuru a “continuous stream” of money and benefits. He allegedly funneled over $1 million in bribes from Recology, through restaurateur Nick Bovis’ baseball charity, to Nuru. Giusti also found jobs for Nuru’s son. In return, Nuru allegedly gave Recology favorable treatment in setting garbage rates and securing millions of dollars in city contracts. City Attorney Dennis Herrera reached an agreement with Recology in March 2021 to reimburse $95 million in improperly charged garbage bills set under Nuru’s purview.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All have pled guilty, save Kelly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lastly, in an effort related to the federal investigation, the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office also accused former San Francisco Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui of taking an inappropriate dinner with a luxury housing developer who wished to curry favor with the department. Hui resigned after the allegations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Associated Press contributed to this report. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru was sentenced to seven years (84 months) in federal prison and three years of supervised release on Thursday. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru was sentenced to seven years (84 months) in federal prison and three years of supervised release on Thursday.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru’s sentencing, while expected, marks an important milestone in the years-long indictment of multiple San Francisco officials. The bribery scheme unveiled in January 2020 continued to snowball, ensnaring contractors, a restaurant owner and five city department heads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the man known to be at the top of the FBI’s list, publicly at least, was Nuru.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If what you had done was a one-off occurrence, I would absolutely agree the leniency was called for, but you made the city’s decision-making and competitive bidding a farce.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Expensive watches, international flights, extravagant dinners, even a John Deere tractor — Nuru took bribes of all sorts from contractors seeking multimillion-dollar contracts with the city, hoping to sway Nuru to give them a much-coveted rubber stamp. Nuru also attempted to bribe an airport contractor on behalf of a restaurateur who was his co-conspirator. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While much of his misdeeds were known, and Nuru pled guilty in January, the severity of Nuru’s punishment was unknown until Thursday when he heard the verdict in court. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">U.S. Northern District Judge William Orrick said Nuru’s sentence reflected how severely Nuru’s crimes as a public official breached public trust.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If what you had done was a one-off occurrence, I would absolutely agree the leniency was called for, but you made the city’s decision-making and competitive bidding a farce,” said Orrick. “By awarding [contractors] and favoring them in exchange for money, gifts, trips, a job for your son and construction for a home, a vacation home, what you’ve done is to question the fairness of every matter, every decision you made at DPW. During my time on the bench, I’ve sentenced people for really horrible things, gang murders, and really deadly stuff. In many ways, what you’ve done is at least as reprehensible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The federal government initially sought nine years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a $35,000 fine for Nuru. Nuru’s attorneys argued for a three-year sentence and the forfeit of his property.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Mohammed Nuru knows and accepts to his core that the conduct he engaged in was wrong, it was prolonged, and it is inexcusable,” said Miles Ehrlich, Nuru’s attorney. “It was a breach of the trust placed in him by the citizens of San Francisco, his co-workers, and his friends. In the public’s mind, it will overshadow any of the good he did in his life as a public servant, and perhaps Mr. Nuru knows deep down, it should.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ehrlich also argued that Nuru deserved a lighter sentence, citing Nuru’s poor health from diabetes, a recent heart attack and two surgeries for heart problems.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, U.S. Attorney Alexandra Shepard argued that Nuru lied and laundered money for years. When he was caught, he spent days, almost a week, sabotaging the investigation by notifying people under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is who he is,” said Shepard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office sought a particularly harsh sentence for Nuru since, after the FBI quietly arrested him in January 2020, Nuru leaked the investigation to multiple people. In doing so he “caused incalculable damage to the investigation,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a sentencing memo a week before Nuru’s sentencing date, saying the leak tipped off potential targets and jeopardized the FBI’s ability to obtain evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“A substantial sentence would send a message to other public officials that using their office for their own personal benefit will result in significant jail time,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In response, Nuru’s attorney wrote that Nuru regrets his wrongdoing, and “Mohammed Nuru apologizes to the people of San Francisco, to this Court, and to his family and friends for violating the public trust.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His corrupt acts don’t represent “the whole of him,” they argued, adding that Nuru has taught marginalized and incarcerated youth how to farm, and provided education and training jobs in his role at the Public Works department. They also argued Nuru raised five children as a single parent after his ex-wife became addicted to drugs, and that he helps financially support them and his elderly parents.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued Nuru did not commit these crimes out of financial hardship, citing his $278,586 annual salary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the FBI’s revelations, Nuru’s nickname of “Mr. Clean,” so-given for his department’s efforts to spit shine the city, proved to be the height of irony. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The U.S. Attorney’s Office described Nuru’s scheme as “a tale of greed as old as time.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They said Nuru “shook down” contractors for more then a million dollars in cash, goods and services over a 12-year period. Much of those ill-gotten gains went to paying for his ranch in Stonyford, California. That ranch was a cash cow for contractors seeking to influence Nuru: He gave them favorable treatment in city contracts after they custom-built and furnished it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru also often sought the help of contractors to buttress his San Francisco home; a city contractor did such work for free in 2008, when Nuru was a deputy director of the Department of Public Works. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Nuru was the quintessential grifter, using his position at DPW to enrich himself in a multitude of ways,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru was far from alone in his crimes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed their explosive allegations against Nuru in January 2020, one by one new San Francisco officials were accused of taking bribes, and prominent community members well-known to San Francisco politicos for their charitable good deeds were revealed to be in on the scheme. Most have already pled guilty. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since Nuru was first taken in, the federal government has indicted the former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Harlan Kelly, and the head of the Mayor’s Office’s “fix-it team,” Sandra Zuniga, in related bribery schemes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nuru, Kelly and Zuniga all worked under Mayor London Breed, and Breed counted Nuru, Kelly and Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, as long-time friends and allies for years. Naomi Kelly resigned as city administrator following her husband’s arrest, although she wasn’t charged; Carmen Chu took her place.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Breed publicly revealed she once counted Nuru as a romantic partner, and a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> few weeks after Nuru was charged by the FBI, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11883654/sf-mayor-london-breed-agrees-to-23k-fine-for-ethics-breach\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">she acknowledged in a statement that Nuru had paid for expenses involving repairs to her car in 2019\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Last year she agreed to pay an $8,292 fine for accepting that gift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since Nuru’s arrest, Breed has sought to distance herself from Nuru. Breed and the City Controller’s Office also have sought to plug the holes in city law that allowed much of the bribery under their noses to take place. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Co-conspirators of Nuru, construction contractor Walter Wong and Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant owner Nick Bovis, also were indicted by the federal government. Wong helped connect now-indicted officials to a luxury developer who sought to bribe them, and Wong himself admitted to bribing officials for contracts. Bovis set up a fake baseball charity that funneled bribes to Nuru so he could shower his employees with extravagant parties. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other city contractors also were indicted for bribing Nuru: Balmore Hernandez, Alan Varela and Bill Gilmartin all provided workers and equipment to help build or improve Nuru’s ranch. Hernandez, Varela and Gilmartin gifted Nuru with a John Deere tractor worth $40,000. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paul Fredrick Giusti, working for waste management company Recology, gave Nuru a “continuous stream” of money and benefits. He allegedly funneled over $1 million in bribes from Recology, through restaurateur Nick Bovis’ baseball charity, to Nuru. Giusti also found jobs for Nuru’s son. In return, Nuru allegedly gave Recology favorable treatment in setting garbage rates and securing millions of dollars in city contracts. City Attorney Dennis Herrera reached an agreement with Recology in March 2021 to reimburse $95 million in improperly charged garbage bills set under Nuru’s purview.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All have pled guilty, save Kelly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lastly, in an effort related to the federal investigation, the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office also accused former San Francisco Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui of taking an inappropriate dinner with a luxury housing developer who wished to curry favor with the department. Hui resigned after the allegations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Associated Press contributed to this report. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Mohammed Nuru to Plead Guilty in SF City Hall Corruption Probe, Admits Taking Bribes",
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"content": "\u003cp>Mohammed Nuru, the former director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, agreed Friday to plead guilty to wire fraud in a federal investigation into public corruption at City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">who was arrested in January 2020 and lost his job\u003c/a>, faces up to nine years in prison as part of the plea agreement announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds — although a judge could sentence him to up to 20 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges against him, including money laundering and lying to the FBI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is next scheduled in court on Jan. 14 to formally enter the plea and, in the meantime, remains out of custody on a $2 million bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Coverage on the Nuru Scandal' tag='mohammed-nuru']As part of the plea agreement, Nuru, 59, admitted to widespread corruption, including taking bribes from developers, a restaurant owner and the city’s garbage company, Recology, as part of what prosecutors called “a long-running scheme involving multiple bribes and kickbacks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, Nuru held a powerful and well-paid public leadership position at San Francisco City Hall, but instead of serving the public, Nuru served himself,” Hinds said, calling the degree of corruption “staggering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He took continuous bribes from the contractors, developers and entities he regulated,” she added. “He now faces a prison sentence for enriching himself at the expense of the public as he sat in high office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru admits in the plea agreement to a litany of transgressions, in which he offered city contractors and developers preferential treatment in exchange for cash, jewelry, international trips and a slew of other goods and favors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mohammed is ready to accept responsibility in this matter and begin to put it behind him,” his attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a statement. “He has learned a lot from his past mistakes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru’s guilty plea does not mark the end of the long-running investigation into public corruption in San Francisco, federal authorities said in a statement released Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will persist in our commitment to protect the integrity of the institutions that serve the people of San Francisco,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twelve people have been charged in the City Hall corruption probe that began in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than two months after Nuru’s arrest, Tom Hui, former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. He has since \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-City-Hall-scandal-Harlan-Kelly-pleads-not-16549329.php\">pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges\u003c/a>. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11859677 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/SF_corruption_BG_featured001.png']The scandal has also brought down former Recology executive Paul Giusti, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882955/sf-corruption-saga-continues-trash-company-official-to-plead-guilty-to-bribing-city-official\">who was charged last November with bribing Nuru\u003c/a>, as well as for money laundering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At roughly the same time that Giusti was allegedly handing bribes to Nuru in 2017, Recology’s service rates were going up. In March 2020, the City Attorney’s Office announced that the garbage company had overcharged rate payers by $94.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a settlement city officials reached with Recology, the garbage company has since agreed to pay back some $95 million to the roughly 160,000 San Francisco ratepayers affected by the improper increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from Bay City News and KQED’s Alex Emslie and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Mohammed Nuru, the former director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, agreed Friday to plead guilty to wire fraud in a federal investigation into public corruption at City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">who was arrested in January 2020 and lost his job\u003c/a>, faces up to nine years in prison as part of the plea agreement announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds — although a judge could sentence him to up to 20 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges against him, including money laundering and lying to the FBI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is next scheduled in court on Jan. 14 to formally enter the plea and, in the meantime, remains out of custody on a $2 million bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As part of the plea agreement, Nuru, 59, admitted to widespread corruption, including taking bribes from developers, a restaurant owner and the city’s garbage company, Recology, as part of what prosecutors called “a long-running scheme involving multiple bribes and kickbacks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, Nuru held a powerful and well-paid public leadership position at San Francisco City Hall, but instead of serving the public, Nuru served himself,” Hinds said, calling the degree of corruption “staggering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He took continuous bribes from the contractors, developers and entities he regulated,” she added. “He now faces a prison sentence for enriching himself at the expense of the public as he sat in high office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru admits in the plea agreement to a litany of transgressions, in which he offered city contractors and developers preferential treatment in exchange for cash, jewelry, international trips and a slew of other goods and favors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mohammed is ready to accept responsibility in this matter and begin to put it behind him,” his attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a statement. “He has learned a lot from his past mistakes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru’s guilty plea does not mark the end of the long-running investigation into public corruption in San Francisco, federal authorities said in a statement released Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will persist in our commitment to protect the integrity of the institutions that serve the people of San Francisco,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twelve people have been charged in the City Hall corruption probe that began in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than two months after Nuru’s arrest, Tom Hui, former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. He has since \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-City-Hall-scandal-Harlan-Kelly-pleads-not-16549329.php\">pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges\u003c/a>. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The scandal has also brought down former Recology executive Paul Giusti, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882955/sf-corruption-saga-continues-trash-company-official-to-plead-guilty-to-bribing-city-official\">who was charged last November with bribing Nuru\u003c/a>, as well as for money laundering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At roughly the same time that Giusti was allegedly handing bribes to Nuru in 2017, Recology’s service rates were going up. In March 2020, the City Attorney’s Office announced that the garbage company had overcharged rate payers by $94.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a settlement city officials reached with Recology, the garbage company has since agreed to pay back some $95 million to the roughly 160,000 San Francisco ratepayers affected by the improper increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from Bay City News and KQED’s Alex Emslie and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors issued a subpoena Thursday to obtain financial records between a parks-supporting nonprofit, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Parks Alliance raises money to build park infrastructure across the city in a private-public partnership, it’s usually primarily interested in one type of green — planting trees, for instance. But the board says more transparency is necessary to ensure \u003cem>another\u003c/em> type of green — money — isn’t changing hands improperly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Supervisor Connie Chan, District 1\"]‘Are we now setting ourselves up for a two-tier parks system for those who can pay to play, literally, and for those who cannot afford access to our public space?’[/pullquote]While no formal accusations have been made, Chan’s subpoena comes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\">in the wake of an ever-unfolding corruption scandal that has ensnared four city department heads since early 2020\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan said she was worried the influence of money could determine exactly who gets to have parks built in the city, and where, citing equitable access as a key priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a city of riches,” she said during Thursday’s committee hearing. “We receive so much donations and so much money to renovate and improve our parks, and we can see those results. And yet there is lack of equity, lack of access for those who cannot pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In this case, are we now setting ourselves up for a two-tier parks system for those who can pay to play, literally, and for those who cannot afford access to our public space?”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nAlso, notably, this is the first-ever use of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/supes-to-boost-subpoena-power-in-wake-of-city-hall-corruption-scandal/\">a new subpoena power the board crafted for itself in 2020\u003c/a>, in a law written by Supervisor Aaron Peskin. 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Recreation and Parks Department spokesperson told the supervisors that the agency follows all codes and laws. And Parks Alliance Board Chair Liz Farrell said, “I want to also just to be clear on the record, and say that the Parks Alliance has not been accused or found to be involved in any wrongdoing as part of the investigation into the government corruption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Liz Farrell, board chair of the Parks Alliance\"]‘The Parks Alliance has not been accused or found to be involved in any wrongdoing as part of the investigation into the government corruption.’[/pullquote]But the supervisors were concerned that the public simply doesn’t have enough information from the Parks Alliance to verify that fact on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/BLA.Rec%20Parks%20Parks%20Alliance.111221.pdf\">A report issued just this month\u003c/a> 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report’s authors came away with more questions than answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, millions of dollars flow into the San Francisco Parks Alliance. The money is used to renovate the city’s treasured green spaces large and small — for example, erecting a towering Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park and laying down AstroTurf at Merced Heights Playground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11894359\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Josh-Withers-1020x680.jpg\"]The Parks Alliance serves a unique role in this, raising money for some projects and selecting contractors, a role often served by government agencies. But that leaves some of their methodologies in the dark, the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are the names of their anonymous donors? How are the contractors who build out our green spaces chosen? How does the group use city funding it’s granted? When the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department pitches in its own money, are they getting the most bang for their buck?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of transparency may also allow the Parks Alliance to circumvent good government practices developed by the city, the Budget and Legislative Analyst wrote, including compliance with prevailing wage requirements for contractors and competitive bidding to find lower costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a Richmond neighborhood playground, for instance, the $3 million budget was completely opaque, said Fred Brousseau, from the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we found is that the [memorandum of understanding] had a high-level preliminary budget but no detail as to what the costs were going to be for the design contractor, for example, that was being paid for by the Parks Alliance,” he told the supervisors at Thursday’s hearing. “We also found that there was no requirement for how the contractor was selected in this case.”[aside postID=\"news_11883654\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS50017_013_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-1020x679.jpg\"]While the city’s Recreation and Park Commission approved a use permit in December 2019 between the Parks Alliance and SF Rec and Parks for Golden Gate Park’s 150th celebration, “there wasn’t a draft agreement at that time,” Brousseau said, “or an agreement that we felt should have been put into place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No budget was presented to the commission providing the details of what would be spent before the agreement got commission approval, Brousseau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what about the Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park? 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. That’s a standard practice governments use to ensure they get the best deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have issue with the way the vendor was selected. It was a sole-source selection, there’s no competitive bidding by the department,” Brousseau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Fred Brousseau, Budget and Legislative Analyst's Office\"]‘We have issue with the way the vendor was selected … there’s no competitive bidding by the department.’[/pullquote]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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time the Parks Alliance has found itself under the microscope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco City Controller’s Office found,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\"> in a September 2020 report\u003c/a>, that the San Francisco Parks Alliance took roughly $1 million in donations from a number of city contractors that were under investigation by the City Attorney’s Office for funneling money to the Public Works Department for lavish parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was at the behest of former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who was arrested by the FBI in 2020 on corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former City Attorney Dennis Herrera\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2020/02/12/city-attorney-subpoenas-8-organizations-in-widening-public-corruption-investigation/\"> first issued subpoenas investigating the Parks Alliance in early 2020\u003c/a>, also in connection with the ongoing corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='nuru-scandal']It also isn’t the first time the Parks Alliance and Supervisor Chan have clashed in public. The Parks Alliance wrote a letter to Chan earlier this year\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/S-F-Parks-Alliance-threatens-to-pull-funding-for-16037113.php\"> threatening to pull $2 million in funding for a Richmond District playground \u003c/a>in response to her statements about their alleged wrongdoing. During the Thursday hearing, Farrell from the Parks Alliance said they have already apologized for that spat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the end of the hearing, Chan said the driving force behind her line of questioning was to ensure that anyone, regardless of the amount of money they can donate to a nonprofit, gets their say in how parks across San Francisco are shaped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco ranks No. 1 in its park investments in the nation, dollars per capita,” Chan said. “When it comes to equity in our public parks, San Francisco doesn’t even rank top ten. That’s the problem we are talking about here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors issued a subpoena Thursday to obtain financial records between a parks-supporting nonprofit, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Parks Alliance raises money to build park infrastructure across the city in a private-public partnership, it’s usually primarily interested in one type of green — planting trees, for instance. But the board says more transparency is necessary to ensure \u003cem>another\u003c/em> type of green — money — isn’t changing hands improperly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While no formal accusations have been made, Chan’s subpoena comes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\">in the wake of an ever-unfolding corruption scandal that has ensnared four city department heads since early 2020\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan said she was worried the influence of money could determine exactly who gets to have parks built in the city, and where, citing equitable access as a key priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a city of riches,” she said during Thursday’s committee hearing. “We receive so much donations and so much money to renovate and improve our parks, and we can see those results. And yet there is lack of equity, lack of access for those who cannot pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In this case, are we now setting ourselves up for a two-tier parks system for those who can pay to play, literally, and for those who cannot afford access to our public space?”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nAlso, notably, this is the first-ever use of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/supes-to-boost-subpoena-power-in-wake-of-city-hall-corruption-scandal/\">a new subpoena power the board crafted for itself in 2020\u003c/a>, in a law written by Supervisor Aaron Peskin. 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Recreation and Parks Department spokesperson told the supervisors that the agency follows all codes and laws. And Parks Alliance Board Chair Liz Farrell said, “I want to also just to be clear on the record, and say that the Parks Alliance has not been accused or found to be involved in any wrongdoing as part of the investigation into the government corruption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But the supervisors were concerned that the public simply doesn’t have enough information from the Parks Alliance to verify that fact on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/BLA.Rec%20Parks%20Parks%20Alliance.111221.pdf\">A report issued just this month\u003c/a> 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report’s authors came away with more questions than answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, millions of dollars flow into the San Francisco Parks Alliance. The money is used to renovate the city’s treasured green spaces large and small — for example, erecting a towering Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park and laying down AstroTurf at Merced Heights Playground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Parks Alliance serves a unique role in this, raising money for some projects and selecting contractors, a role often served by government agencies. But that leaves some of their methodologies in the dark, the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are the names of their anonymous donors? How are the contractors who build out our green spaces chosen? How does the group use city funding it’s granted? When the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department pitches in its own money, are they getting the most bang for their buck?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of transparency may also allow the Parks Alliance to circumvent good government practices developed by the city, the Budget and Legislative Analyst wrote, including compliance with prevailing wage requirements for contractors and competitive bidding to find lower costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a Richmond neighborhood playground, for instance, the $3 million budget was completely opaque, said Fred Brousseau, from the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we found is that the [memorandum of understanding] had a high-level preliminary budget but no detail as to what the costs were going to be for the design contractor, for example, that was being paid for by the Parks Alliance,” he told the supervisors at Thursday’s hearing. “We also found that there was no requirement for how the contractor was selected in this case.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time the Parks Alliance has found itself under the microscope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco City Controller’s Office found,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\"> in a September 2020 report\u003c/a>, that the San Francisco Parks Alliance took roughly $1 million in donations from a number of city contractors that were under investigation by the City Attorney’s Office for funneling money to the Public Works Department for lavish parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was at the behest of former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who was arrested by the FBI in 2020 on corruption charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former City Attorney Dennis Herrera\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2020/02/12/city-attorney-subpoenas-8-organizations-in-widening-public-corruption-investigation/\"> first issued subpoenas investigating the Parks Alliance in early 2020\u003c/a>, also in connection with the ongoing corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It also isn’t the first time the Parks Alliance and Supervisor Chan have clashed in public. The Parks Alliance wrote a letter to Chan earlier this year\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/S-F-Parks-Alliance-threatens-to-pull-funding-for-16037113.php\"> threatening to pull $2 million in funding for a Richmond District playground \u003c/a>in response to her statements about their alleged wrongdoing. During the Thursday hearing, Farrell from the Parks Alliance said they have already apologized for that spat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the end of the hearing, Chan said the driving force behind her line of questioning was to ensure that anyone, regardless of the amount of money they can donate to a nonprofit, gets their say in how parks across San Francisco are shaped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco ranks No. 1 in its park investments in the nation, dollars per capita,” Chan said. “When it comes to equity in our public parks, San Francisco doesn’t even rank top ten. That’s the problem we are talking about here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "SF Real Estate Investor Joins Embattled Former Public Utilities Chief in Pleading Not Guilty to Federal Bank Fraud Charges",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:00 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco real estate investor Victor Makras pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday to two bank fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charges were unveiled by the U.S. Department of Justice last month against Makras and Harlan Kelly, the former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager, who similarly pleaded not guilty two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison or a $1 million fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras are accused of defrauding Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage and lying about his level of debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras’s next court date is scheduled for Dec. 16, the same day Kelly is set to appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley\u003cbr>\nalso placed travel restrictions on Makras, who must now obtain permission to leave the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post, Oct. 20\u003c/strong>: Harlan Kelly, a former general manager of San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission already accused of accepting bribes from a city contractor, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">new bank fraud charges\u003c/a> leveled against him by federal prosecutors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged Tuesday with two new counts — bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud — alongside local real estate investor and former city commissioner Victor Makras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Kelly and Makras defrauded Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage — to qualify for a lower-interest refinance loan. The complaint also alleges that Kelly and Makras lied to the lender about debt owed by Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictments are part of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation that has led to charges against 12 people and the resignation or ousting of four city department heads, including Kelly and Kelly’s wife, former City Administrator Naomi Kelly. Naomi Kelly has not been charged with any crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First charged last year was Mohammed Nuru, the longtime director of San Francisco Public Works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">Nuru was arrested in January 2020.\u003c/a> Federal prosecutors have \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-trash-company-executive-charged-bribing-company-s-chief-san-francisco\">accused him of taking more than $1 million\u003c/a> in bribes from people doing business with the city, and of attempting, unsuccessfully, to bribe a San Francisco airport commissioner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Kelly was arrested in November 2020\u003c/a> and stepped down from his role as head of the city’s PUC. The U.S. attorney’s office charged him with five counts related to an alleged bribery scheme, saying he accepted thousands of dollars in international trips, meals and other gifts from city contractor Walter Wong, in exchange for providing Wong with information meant to help him win a multimillion-dollar contract from the SFPUC for a citywide LED lighting contract. Wong’s son was bidding on the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong, who is cooperating with federal investigators, is identified only as “Contractor #1” in court documents. In a statement this week, the U.S. attorney’s office wrote that the indictment against Kelly alleges “that Kelly provided confidential internal PUC documents and information to Contractor #1 to give Contractor #1 competitive advantages during public contract bidding competitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11871191,news_11849113,news_11859677\" label=\"Related Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In exchange,” the statement continues, “Contractor #1 lavished Kelly with personal financial benefits, including discounted construction work on Kelly’s residence and an international vacation for Kelly and his family that included Contractor #1 paying for hotel charges, hundreds of dollars for meals, and jewelry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest charges stem from a complicated financial scheme federal prosecutors are accusing Kelly and Makras of conducting, to conceal the Kellys’ debt to secure a more favorable loan from Quicken Loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint states that Kelly first took out a $715,000 loan in 2012 from Makras’s real estate company, Makras Investors, to pay for a home remodel — which was being done by Wong. Then, in 2013, Kelly allegedly asked Makras for a personal loan of $70,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Makras then texted Kelly:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After thinking about it a bit, I recommend that I pay your credit cards directly. This will avoid a large check going into your account, Then needing to explain it to the bank. Banks do not like seeing anything unusual about the flow of cash in and out of checking savings accounts. This will make the loan process go easy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras then allegedly paid off $70,000 in credit card debt owed by the Kellys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictment goes on to allege that Makras and Kelly inflated the amount of the Makras Investors loan to secure a lower interest rate on a home refinance from Quicken Loans. That $1.3 million loan was used to pay off the Makras Investors loan as well as the Kellys’ first mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors say Makras then paid Wong for the nearly $90,000 worth of construction work on the Kelly home conducted between 2013 and 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted of all seven counts, Kelly could face more than 160 years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Harlan Kelly was charged on Oct. 20 with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Two weeks later, on Nov. 4, local real estate investor and former city commissioner Victor Makras was similarly charged. Both men pleaded not guilty. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:00 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco real estate investor Victor Makras pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday to two bank fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charges were unveiled by the U.S. Department of Justice last month against Makras and Harlan Kelly, the former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager, who similarly pleaded not guilty two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison or a $1 million fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras are accused of defrauding Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage and lying about his level of debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras’s next court date is scheduled for Dec. 16, the same day Kelly is set to appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley\u003cbr>\nalso placed travel restrictions on Makras, who must now obtain permission to leave the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post, Oct. 20\u003c/strong>: Harlan Kelly, a former general manager of San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission already accused of accepting bribes from a city contractor, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">new bank fraud charges\u003c/a> leveled against him by federal prosecutors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged Tuesday with two new counts — bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud — alongside local real estate investor and former city commissioner Victor Makras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Kelly and Makras defrauded Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage — to qualify for a lower-interest refinance loan. The complaint also alleges that Kelly and Makras lied to the lender about debt owed by Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictments are part of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation that has led to charges against 12 people and the resignation or ousting of four city department heads, including Kelly and Kelly’s wife, former City Administrator Naomi Kelly. Naomi Kelly has not been charged with any crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First charged last year was Mohammed Nuru, the longtime director of San Francisco Public Works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">Nuru was arrested in January 2020.\u003c/a> Federal prosecutors have \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-trash-company-executive-charged-bribing-company-s-chief-san-francisco\">accused him of taking more than $1 million\u003c/a> in bribes from people doing business with the city, and of attempting, unsuccessfully, to bribe a San Francisco airport commissioner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Kelly was arrested in November 2020\u003c/a> and stepped down from his role as head of the city’s PUC. The U.S. attorney’s office charged him with five counts related to an alleged bribery scheme, saying he accepted thousands of dollars in international trips, meals and other gifts from city contractor Walter Wong, in exchange for providing Wong with information meant to help him win a multimillion-dollar contract from the SFPUC for a citywide LED lighting contract. Wong’s son was bidding on the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong, who is cooperating with federal investigators, is identified only as “Contractor #1” in court documents. In a statement this week, the U.S. attorney’s office wrote that the indictment against Kelly alleges “that Kelly provided confidential internal PUC documents and information to Contractor #1 to give Contractor #1 competitive advantages during public contract bidding competitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In exchange,” the statement continues, “Contractor #1 lavished Kelly with personal financial benefits, including discounted construction work on Kelly’s residence and an international vacation for Kelly and his family that included Contractor #1 paying for hotel charges, hundreds of dollars for meals, and jewelry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest charges stem from a complicated financial scheme federal prosecutors are accusing Kelly and Makras of conducting, to conceal the Kellys’ debt to secure a more favorable loan from Quicken Loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint states that Kelly first took out a $715,000 loan in 2012 from Makras’s real estate company, Makras Investors, to pay for a home remodel — which was being done by Wong. Then, in 2013, Kelly allegedly asked Makras for a personal loan of $70,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Makras then texted Kelly:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After thinking about it a bit, I recommend that I pay your credit cards directly. This will avoid a large check going into your account, Then needing to explain it to the bank. Banks do not like seeing anything unusual about the flow of cash in and out of checking savings accounts. This will make the loan process go easy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras then allegedly paid off $70,000 in credit card debt owed by the Kellys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictment goes on to allege that Makras and Kelly inflated the amount of the Makras Investors loan to secure a lower interest rate on a home refinance from Quicken Loans. That $1.3 million loan was used to pay off the Makras Investors loan as well as the Kellys’ first mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors say Makras then paid Wong for the nearly $90,000 worth of construction work on the Kelly home conducted between 2013 and 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted of all seven counts, Kelly could face more than 160 years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "City Report: SF Officials Got Free Tickets to Pricey Outside Lands Fest Through Ethically Questionable Loophole",
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"headTitle": "City Report: SF Officials Got Free Tickets to Pricey Outside Lands Fest Through Ethically Questionable Loophole | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>After a two-year hiatus, Outside Lands is returning to Golden Gate Park this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with the massive outdoor festival come some certainties: Neighbors will complain about the noise and Uber cars will clog the surrounding streets, while many avid \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfoutsidelands.com/tickets/\">concertgoers have shelled out more than $900\u003c/a> to attend the three-day music bash that includes headliners like Lizzo and The Strokes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for some San Francisco city officials, those tickets will be something of a fringe benefit, gratis. In other words: free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca href=\"https://sfethics.org/ethics/2021/09/report-on-gift-laws-part-b-gifts-to-city-departments.html\">San Francisco Ethics Commission report released in late September\u003c/a>, city officials have been gifted at least $430,950 in free tickets to the festival through a loophole that, although technically legal, is ethically dubious, according to the report’s authors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the city’s Recreation and Parks Department — which is the agency accepting the tickets from Another Planet Entertainment, which puts on the festival — is also in charge of the contract for the event space. That makes them a “restricted source” for officials involved in the contract, which means that accepting any gifts from entities they are doing business with poses a potential conflict of interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in this case, the Recreation and Parks Department is acting like a go-between, accepting the tickets in bulk from Another Planet and distributing them among its staff — so staff members needn’t accept them directly from the vendor. That, the report says, is effectively a loophole in the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Department officials would clearly be prohibited from accepting free tickets provided to them directly by Another Planet. Yet, \u003ca href=\"https://sfethics.org/ethics/2021/09/report-on-gift-laws-part-b-gifts-to-city-departments.html\">Rec and Parks nonetheless regularly distributes tickets provided for free by Another Planet to its employees and officers\u003c/a>, effectively resulting in the same outcome,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894444\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 779px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11894444\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1.png\" alt=\"A graphic shows the Outside Lands vendor on the left, with an arrow to the Parks Department, and another arrow to officials. Another arrow directly from the Outside Lands vendor to city officials is crossed out.\" width=\"779\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1.png 779w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1-160x83.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graphic from San Francisco Ethics Commission report\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement in response, the Recreation and Parks Department said they follow “all local and state rules and reporting requirements” and that their contract, which includes a provision for free tickets in writing, was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Recreation and Parks Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg declined an interview request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Ethics Commission report acknowledges the truth in that response (with the exception of some missing reporting going back to 2009, which it also dinged Rec and Parks for). But the report essentially makes the case that while the practice follows the letter of the law, it most certainly flouts the spirit of the law, particularly given the sheer number of free tickets doled out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2015 and 2019 — the last year the festival took place — the department distributed some 1,855 free tickets to public officials across the city, including department staffers and employees in other city departments, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of those known Outside Lands tickets handed to Rec and Parks between 2015 and 2019, more than 1,200 went to staffers and other officials in the departments. The report does not include ticket data from this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes Public Works, whose former director, Mohammed Nuru, was ousted last year after being indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly taking bribes to award city contracts. He was one of four city department heads to step down or otherwise be ousted during the ensuing ethics scandal, which alleges many instances of bribery and corruption in San Francisco city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ethics disclosure documents obtained by KQED in a records request also \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/outside-lands-tickets-205461/\">detail other city officials who obtained those tickets\u003c/a> originally given to Rec and Parks in 2019 (at least two tickets each, and often more): Human Rights Commission Executive Director Sheryl Davis, former Homelessness Department Director Jeff Kositsky, Manny Yekutiel (who was appointed to an SFMTA commission in 2021), and San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors Chair Gwyneth Borden, among others. Former Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who died in February 2019, also netted free Outside Lands tickets in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(\u003cem>Disclosure: KQED was given six free Outside Lands tickets in 2019, according to city filings. These were not related to news coverage. Another Planet Entertainment is also a sponsor of KQED.\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, Ken Garcia, a former San Francisco Examiner columnist and then-de Young Museum staffer, netted free tickets from Rec and Parks. So did City Attorney Dennis Herrera (who netted six tickets), and former Assessor-Recorder (now City Administrator) Carmen Chu (who netted nine VIP tickets). Board of Supervisors staff netted 24 Outside Lands tickets among themselves in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restriction on accepting gifts is “designed to limit the potential for pay-to-play and avoid the appearance of preferential treatment,” the report notes. “Acting as an intermediary for a high volume of such gifts gravely undermines the restricted source rule,” according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894446\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 613px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11894446\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2.jpg\" alt=\"A chart describes dollar amounts in tickets distributed by the Rec and Park department.\" width=\"613\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2.jpg 613w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2-160x60.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 613px) 100vw, 613px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From San Francisco Ethics Commission report\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another Planet Entertainment declined to be interviewed and instead directed comments to the Recreation and Parks Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"san-francisco-corruption\"]The issue is hardly limited to Outside Lands. The same report also details the widespread legal, but ethically questionable, distribution of free tickets to city officials for events in various public venues, from the War Memorial Opera House to the San Francisco Symphony — cumulatively valued at more than $500,000 between 2009 and 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This flow of personal benefits to City officers and employees is significant,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rec and Parks Commission President Mark Buell did not return requests for comment. But a former commissioner and vice president, Allan Low, who stepped down in June, acknowledged that he had received free Outside Lands tickets in previous years, saying it was useful to attend the festival and see, firsthand, how his department’s work was being carried out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could see the event and appreciate the event, plus observe the crowd control, the parking. There was always something coming up either immediately before or after Outside Lands where there were complaints about traffic, noise,” Low said. “Shutting down the park, or restoration of the park.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rec and Parks made similar arguments in its communications with Ethics Commission staff in a series of exchanges that KQED obtained using open records laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We rely on requests [for tickets] because different circumstances create an interest for different people,” Rec and Parks spokesperson Sarah Madland wrote to Ethics Commission staff in an email sent on Sept. 14, 2021. “For example, this year, Outside Lands will be one of the first large events locally during COVID. This could create a subset of people with a desire to understand how the protocols are working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Ethics Commission report also pokes holes in that argument, noting that city officials don’t need tickets for entry if they have a work-related reason to be on-site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s fair criticism,” former Commissioner Low conceded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rec and Parks gave its own commissioners free tickets to Outside Lands in both 2017 and 2019, at least, the agency disclosed to Ethics Commission staff. In 2017, six commissioners received a total of 12 tickets worth a combined value of $9,540, and in 2019, two commissioners received a total of four tickets worth a combined value of $3,140.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing loopholes in ticket gifting would likely require new legislation from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. But Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond District — which borders the Outside Lands festival — told KQED that corruption is so widespread in the city that lawmakers may need to first concentrate on broader ethics reform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we take a step back, we have to look at our city government as a whole, and have to look at the changes we need to make to root out corruption,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 18 to probe the broader relationship between outside philanthropic entities and the Recreation and Parks Department, and examine the various ethics concerns that relationship has raised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, if you’re still looking for Outside Lands tickets for this weekend, you’re out of luck: It’s sold out across the board.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Between 2015 and 2019, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, which is in charge of the contract for the event space, distributed more than 1,800 free tickets to its staffers and other city officials, according to a recent San Francisco Ethics Commission report.",
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"title": "City Report: SF Officials Got Free Tickets to Pricey Outside Lands Fest Through Ethically Questionable Loophole | KQED",
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"headline": "City Report: SF Officials Got Free Tickets to Pricey Outside Lands Fest Through Ethically Questionable Loophole",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After a two-year hiatus, Outside Lands is returning to Golden Gate Park this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with the massive outdoor festival come some certainties: Neighbors will complain about the noise and Uber cars will clog the surrounding streets, while many avid \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfoutsidelands.com/tickets/\">concertgoers have shelled out more than $900\u003c/a> to attend the three-day music bash that includes headliners like Lizzo and The Strokes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for some San Francisco city officials, those tickets will be something of a fringe benefit, gratis. In other words: free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca href=\"https://sfethics.org/ethics/2021/09/report-on-gift-laws-part-b-gifts-to-city-departments.html\">San Francisco Ethics Commission report released in late September\u003c/a>, city officials have been gifted at least $430,950 in free tickets to the festival through a loophole that, although technically legal, is ethically dubious, according to the report’s authors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the city’s Recreation and Parks Department — which is the agency accepting the tickets from Another Planet Entertainment, which puts on the festival — is also in charge of the contract for the event space. That makes them a “restricted source” for officials involved in the contract, which means that accepting any gifts from entities they are doing business with poses a potential conflict of interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in this case, the Recreation and Parks Department is acting like a go-between, accepting the tickets in bulk from Another Planet and distributing them among its staff — so staff members needn’t accept them directly from the vendor. That, the report says, is effectively a loophole in the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Department officials would clearly be prohibited from accepting free tickets provided to them directly by Another Planet. Yet, \u003ca href=\"https://sfethics.org/ethics/2021/09/report-on-gift-laws-part-b-gifts-to-city-departments.html\">Rec and Parks nonetheless regularly distributes tickets provided for free by Another Planet to its employees and officers\u003c/a>, effectively resulting in the same outcome,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894444\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 779px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11894444\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1.png\" alt=\"A graphic shows the Outside Lands vendor on the left, with an arrow to the Parks Department, and another arrow to officials. Another arrow directly from the Outside Lands vendor to city officials is crossed out.\" width=\"779\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1.png 779w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark_1-160x83.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graphic from San Francisco Ethics Commission report\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement in response, the Recreation and Parks Department said they follow “all local and state rules and reporting requirements” and that their contract, which includes a provision for free tickets in writing, was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Recreation and Parks Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg declined an interview request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Ethics Commission report acknowledges the truth in that response (with the exception of some missing reporting going back to 2009, which it also dinged Rec and Parks for). But the report essentially makes the case that while the practice follows the letter of the law, it most certainly flouts the spirit of the law, particularly given the sheer number of free tickets doled out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2015 and 2019 — the last year the festival took place — the department distributed some 1,855 free tickets to public officials across the city, including department staffers and employees in other city departments, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of those known Outside Lands tickets handed to Rec and Parks between 2015 and 2019, more than 1,200 went to staffers and other officials in the departments. The report does not include ticket data from this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes Public Works, whose former director, Mohammed Nuru, was ousted last year after being indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly taking bribes to award city contracts. He was one of four city department heads to step down or otherwise be ousted during the ensuing ethics scandal, which alleges many instances of bribery and corruption in San Francisco city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ethics disclosure documents obtained by KQED in a records request also \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/outside-lands-tickets-205461/\">detail other city officials who obtained those tickets\u003c/a> originally given to Rec and Parks in 2019 (at least two tickets each, and often more): Human Rights Commission Executive Director Sheryl Davis, former Homelessness Department Director Jeff Kositsky, Manny Yekutiel (who was appointed to an SFMTA commission in 2021), and San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors Chair Gwyneth Borden, among others. Former Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who died in February 2019, also netted free Outside Lands tickets in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(\u003cem>Disclosure: KQED was given six free Outside Lands tickets in 2019, according to city filings. These were not related to news coverage. Another Planet Entertainment is also a sponsor of KQED.\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, Ken Garcia, a former San Francisco Examiner columnist and then-de Young Museum staffer, netted free tickets from Rec and Parks. So did City Attorney Dennis Herrera (who netted six tickets), and former Assessor-Recorder (now City Administrator) Carmen Chu (who netted nine VIP tickets). Board of Supervisors staff netted 24 Outside Lands tickets among themselves in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restriction on accepting gifts is “designed to limit the potential for pay-to-play and avoid the appearance of preferential treatment,” the report notes. “Acting as an intermediary for a high volume of such gifts gravely undermines the restricted source rule,” according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894446\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 613px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11894446\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2.jpg\" alt=\"A chart describes dollar amounts in tickets distributed by the Rec and Park department.\" width=\"613\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2.jpg 613w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ethics_recpark2-160x60.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 613px) 100vw, 613px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From San Francisco Ethics Commission report\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another Planet Entertainment declined to be interviewed and instead directed comments to the Recreation and Parks Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The issue is hardly limited to Outside Lands. The same report also details the widespread legal, but ethically questionable, distribution of free tickets to city officials for events in various public venues, from the War Memorial Opera House to the San Francisco Symphony — cumulatively valued at more than $500,000 between 2009 and 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This flow of personal benefits to City officers and employees is significant,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rec and Parks Commission President Mark Buell did not return requests for comment. But a former commissioner and vice president, Allan Low, who stepped down in June, acknowledged that he had received free Outside Lands tickets in previous years, saying it was useful to attend the festival and see, firsthand, how his department’s work was being carried out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could see the event and appreciate the event, plus observe the crowd control, the parking. There was always something coming up either immediately before or after Outside Lands where there were complaints about traffic, noise,” Low said. “Shutting down the park, or restoration of the park.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rec and Parks made similar arguments in its communications with Ethics Commission staff in a series of exchanges that KQED obtained using open records laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We rely on requests [for tickets] because different circumstances create an interest for different people,” Rec and Parks spokesperson Sarah Madland wrote to Ethics Commission staff in an email sent on Sept. 14, 2021. “For example, this year, Outside Lands will be one of the first large events locally during COVID. This could create a subset of people with a desire to understand how the protocols are working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Ethics Commission report also pokes holes in that argument, noting that city officials don’t need tickets for entry if they have a work-related reason to be on-site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s fair criticism,” former Commissioner Low conceded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rec and Parks gave its own commissioners free tickets to Outside Lands in both 2017 and 2019, at least, the agency disclosed to Ethics Commission staff. In 2017, six commissioners received a total of 12 tickets worth a combined value of $9,540, and in 2019, two commissioners received a total of four tickets worth a combined value of $3,140.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing loopholes in ticket gifting would likely require new legislation from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. But Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond District — which borders the Outside Lands festival — told KQED that corruption is so widespread in the city that lawmakers may need to first concentrate on broader ethics reform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we take a step back, we have to look at our city government as a whole, and have to look at the changes we need to make to root out corruption,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 18 to probe the broader relationship between outside philanthropic entities and the Recreation and Parks Department, and examine the various ethics concerns that relationship has raised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, if you’re still looking for Outside Lands tickets for this weekend, you’re out of luck: It’s sold out across the board.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Monday agreed to pay nearly $23,000 in fines to the city for a series of ethics violations while in office, including asking a former governor to release her brother from prison and allowing the former head of Public Works, who's now embroiled in a corruption scandal, to pay her car repair bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed agreement from the city’s Ethics Commission also fines Breed for failing to properly report a 2015 campaign contribution while running for reelection to the Board of Supervisors. If approved by the Ethics Commission at its next meeting on Aug. 13, the mayor will personally pay the fine, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Mayor-Breed-fined-22-000-for-series-of-16360994.php\">the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission found Breed’s violations are “significant” and involve the misuse of her title as mayor for personal gain and violated the city’s rules on accepting gifts from subordinates and campaign contributions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed said in a statement Tuesday that the fines are “fair” and she took responsibility for her actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"london-breed\"]“I’ve learned a lot over the last two years since the most recent of these events took place, and I’ve learned from this process,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed agreed to pay $8,292 for accepting a gift in 2019 from Mohammed Nuru, the former Public Works director whom federal officials charged with fraud. A few weeks after Nuru was charged by the FBI, Breed acknowledged in a statement that Nuru paid for expenses involving repairs to her car in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Breed joined other members of her family in a letter to outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown requesting an early release from prison for her older brother who has served nearly two decades of a 44-year sentence on a manslaughter conviction. The governor ultimately did not pardon Breed’s brother, who remains in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She will be fined $2,500 for the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, when Breed was a member of the city's Board of Supervisors, and running for reelection, she sought to have a float created to ride in during the annual San Francisco Pride Parade. According to the stipulation, Breed asked two restaurateurs to each pay $1,250 directly to the float manufacturer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]According to the stipulation, the contributions were not properly recorded in campaign finance disclosures and also exceeded the $500-per-person contribution limit established for city candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor will be fined $7,500 for failing to disclose the contributions and $4,500 for accepting contributions over the legal limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Monday agreed to pay nearly $23,000 in fines to the city for a series of ethics violations while in office, including asking a former governor to release her brother from prison and allowing the former head of Public Works, who's now embroiled in a corruption scandal, to pay her car repair bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed agreement from the city’s Ethics Commission also fines Breed for failing to properly report a 2015 campaign contribution while running for reelection to the Board of Supervisors. If approved by the Ethics Commission at its next meeting on Aug. 13, the mayor will personally pay the fine, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Mayor-Breed-fined-22-000-for-series-of-16360994.php\">the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission found Breed’s violations are “significant” and involve the misuse of her title as mayor for personal gain and violated the city’s rules on accepting gifts from subordinates and campaign contributions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed said in a statement Tuesday that the fines are “fair” and she took responsibility for her actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco is making one man tied to an ongoing corruption scandal pay back every penny he bilked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walter Wong, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-permit-consultant-Walter-Wong-charged-with-15363780.php\">admittedly crooked\u003c/a> permit expediter and contractor who helped facilitate alleged bribes for former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and other city officials, will pay San Francisco $1.45 million in ill-gotten gains he was improperly awarded for city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong’s restitution to the city, part of a settlement with San Francisco announced by City Attorney Dennis Herrera on Thursday, will also see Wong pay $317,650 in penalties and late fees for ethics violations, mostly for unlawful meals Wong provided to city department heads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco will not tolerate bribery and insider dealing,” Herrera said in a statement. “This settlement ensures that taxpayers are made whole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong and his numerous companies, including W. Wong Construction Co., had 10 non-competitive procurements with the city — including contracts and purchase orders — where he was set to provide services to help homeless people, provide holiday lights and a pilot program to convert city streetlamps to LED lighting technology, among others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the settlement, Wong will repay the city for those non-competitive procurements, which were granted by Nuru and former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly, two men facing corruption charges from the U.S. attorney’s office who lie at the center of an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-corruption/\">unfolding scandal\u003c/a> that has seen five department heads either drummed out of city government or resigning on their own. Kelly has denied wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11859677 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/SF_corruption_BG_featured001-1038x576.png']So why does Wong owe the city? He didn’t win these contracts by being the best bidder, the city argues – instead, they were given to him while he was bribing city officials. No one else had a chance to get these contracts. Wong did have some other contracts with the city which were awarded in a competitive process that were deemed lawful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the federal government continues its criminal investigation, Herrera’s office continued its civil investigation, issuing more than two dozen subpoenas. That investigation found Wong hadn’t just netted illicit contracts from Kelly and Nuru, but set up a dinner between a billionaire housing developer and the former Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui, an ethics violation. Hui \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Mayor-Breed-looks-to-fire-SF-building-inspection-15120965.php\">stepped down\u003c/a> after Mayor London Breed urged that he be removed when the investigation was made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera’s announcement of Wong’s settlement lays bare the threads between all of the men in the scandal so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Documents made public in the investigations of Nuru, Hui and Kelly revealed that Wong’s connection to all three related back to his close relationship with former Mayor Ed Lee,” the announcement reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, in one of the federal charging documents, Wong and Kelly discuss one of Wong’s permits and mention a meeting with “35,” a reference to Ed Lee’s initials on a phone keypad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his indictment in June 2020, Wong has pleaded guilty for his crimes. He agreed to cooperate with the federal government’s investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='SF Corruption Coverage' tag='san-francisco-corruption']The settlement agreement needs a vote of approval by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to be finalized. Funds will be disbursed to the city from $1 million already seized by the federal government from Wong when a conviction is reached, according to the settlement agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong will be barred from doing business with San Francisco for five years under legislation passed just last year by the Board of Supervisors and proposed by Herrera in August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that law, Herrera has barred other contractors who were also embroiled in the corruption scandal, mostly for alleged bribery: Nick Bovis (the owner of Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant), Alan Varela and William Gilmartin of ProVen Management, and Florence Kong, as well as her companies SFR Recovery Inc. and Kwan Wo Ironworks Inc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the corruption scandal emerged, the city attorney’s office and the city controller have conducted a public integrity investigation to identify the systems and practices that allowed corruption to flourish in several San Francisco government departments. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A report they released in June last year revealed Nuru \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">was given unprecedented independence in awarding contracts\u003c/a> without oversight by the mayor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Breed immediately instituted new practices recommended by that report to institute tighter contracting oversight.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>So why does Wong owe the city? He didn’t win these contracts by being the best bidder, the city argues – instead, they were given to him while he was bribing city officials. No one else had a chance to get these contracts. Wong did have some other contracts with the city which were awarded in a competitive process that were deemed lawful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the federal government continues its criminal investigation, Herrera’s office continued its civil investigation, issuing more than two dozen subpoenas. That investigation found Wong hadn’t just netted illicit contracts from Kelly and Nuru, but set up a dinner between a billionaire housing developer and the former Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui, an ethics violation. Hui \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Mayor-Breed-looks-to-fire-SF-building-inspection-15120965.php\">stepped down\u003c/a> after Mayor London Breed urged that he be removed when the investigation was made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera’s announcement of Wong’s settlement lays bare the threads between all of the men in the scandal so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Documents made public in the investigations of Nuru, Hui and Kelly revealed that Wong’s connection to all three related back to his close relationship with former Mayor Ed Lee,” the announcement reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, in one of the federal charging documents, Wong and Kelly discuss one of Wong’s permits and mention a meeting with “35,” a reference to Ed Lee’s initials on a phone keypad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his indictment in June 2020, Wong has pleaded guilty for his crimes. He agreed to cooperate with the federal government’s investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The settlement agreement needs a vote of approval by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to be finalized. Funds will be disbursed to the city from $1 million already seized by the federal government from Wong when a conviction is reached, according to the settlement agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong will be barred from doing business with San Francisco for five years under legislation passed just last year by the Board of Supervisors and proposed by Herrera in August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that law, Herrera has barred other contractors who were also embroiled in the corruption scandal, mostly for alleged bribery: Nick Bovis (the owner of Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant), Alan Varela and William Gilmartin of ProVen Management, and Florence Kong, as well as her companies SFR Recovery Inc. and Kwan Wo Ironworks Inc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the corruption scandal emerged, the city attorney’s office and the city controller have conducted a public integrity investigation to identify the systems and practices that allowed corruption to flourish in several San Francisco government departments. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A report they released in June last year revealed Nuru \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">was given unprecedented independence in awarding contracts\u003c/a> without oversight by the mayor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Breed immediately instituted new practices recommended by that report to institute tighter contracting oversight.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"meta": {
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
},
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},
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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"meta": {
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
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"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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