Former San Francisco Parks Alliance CEOs, board treasurer subpoenaed after missing committee hearing

CBS News

2 days ago

The San Francisco Government Audit and Oversight Committee subpoenaed the former CEOs and the board treasurer of the San Francisco Parks Alliance after they did not show up to the committee hearing Thursday morning.
More than a dozen community members from various nonprofit organizations that relied financially on the SF Parks Alliance publicly commented on their lack of trust.
"Sutro Stewards in particular had close to $200,000 in reserves that is now gone," Ildiko Polony, the executive director of Sutro Stewards, told CBS News Bay Area.
The SF Parks Alliance has been fiscally sponsoring groups like Sutro Stewards for nearly two decades. The alliance helps fund communities to revitalize and maintain public parks through money raised in part by these nonprofits' fundraisers.
"It's enraging, it's incredibly sad. It's scary, we were all laid off as of Monday. So, currently I'm scrambling as the executive director to find a new fiscal sponsor and I'm working for free," Polony said.
A recent probe alleges that SF Parks Alliance misspent $3.8 million of donation funds. Additionally, the city is investigating allegations that the alliance failed to reimburse smaller nonprofits for their projects.
"The Parks Alliance holds tens of thousands of dollars of ours, including over $10,000 in money that we've either promised to other people or that we've spent already," Matthew Blain, the chair of SF Urban Riders, told CBS News Bay Area.
Blain said his community of biker volunteers works on trails and habitats throughout the city. But with everything in limbo, their operations have come to a halt.
"Right now, we need a structure so that the functions the Parks Alliance provided continues, for us and other park partners and other community networks throughout the city," Blain said.
"The city needs to step up because we are in a crisis that impacts every San Franciscan's quality of life," Polony added.
This isn't the first red flag with the SF Parks Alliance.
San Francisco District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton said the board had approved a $3.25 million grant for the Port of San Francisco and the Parks Alliance. But he added that the port had only received $975,000 of those funds.
Walton said this is about accountability.
"Report to this committee, tell us where the resources are, how they were spent, who owes what, so we could get to the bottom of this," Walton told CBS News Bay Area.
He has pushed for the subpoena to the former heads of the alliance and has called for them to testify.
"They'll have the answer in terms of how to get resources back into the hands of these nonprofits, but most certainly, we will work together to try to come up with solutions. And we still have to know what assets the Parks Alliance has, what resources they have on hand, what they may be able to repay, what they may not be able to repay," he added.
While no meeting date is set just yet, city leaders and community members hope to get more answers on where their money is and when they're getting it back.
CBS News Bay Area reached out to the SF Parks Alliance for comment and has not yet heard back.