Castro Community on Patrol is still seeking public financial support after allegedly being stuck with over $10,000 in unpaid bills by its nonprofit sponsor — the disgraced former head of which was indicted July 30 on 34 felony counts.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, CCOP had been fiscally sponsored by nonprofit SF SAFE. A city controller's report found that SF SAFE spent $80,000 of public money from the police department on expenses not eligible to be reimbursed, including a trip to Lake Tahoe and limousine service. The nonprofit's executive director, Kyra Worthy, was subsequently fired.
Worthy was arrested July 30.
Mission Local reported that SF SAFE — which has ceased operations, according to prosecutors — owes half a million dollars to its landlord at an expansive space in the Mission neighborhood. Former workers at the nonprofit filed a labor complaint to try and get some of their unpaid wages.
In November 2023, weeks before the scandal broke, SF SAFE ended its affiliation with CCOP, the longtime volunteer safety group, without explanation, according to Greg Carey, a gay man who is CCOP's chief of patrol.
Carey told the B.A.R. July 31 that "we had been informed in August 2023 that we had $82,000 in prior funds that had accumulated through the pandemic."
But when SF SAFE cut ties with CCOP, "we found ourselves with nearly $11,000 in unpaid bills," he said.
"We have no idea whether the larger funds had been spent without our knowledge or whether the city pulled them back," Carey stated. "We have repaid the inherited debt, but have much higher costs to cover. The biggest new expense is insurance, which had been covered by SF SAFE when they were our sponsor."
Accordingly, CCOP is still seeking assistance through a GoFundMe, which has raised $3,385 of a $22,000 goal as of press time.
"Castro Patrol has since become a stand-alone 501(c)(3) corporation and has been building a budget based on private donations and charging for some services, such as training, that we were able to provide at no cost when we had access to city funds," Carey continued.
Carey stated CCOP is "pleased" that Worthy has been arrested. The 49-year-old Richmond city resident is accused of misusing $700,000 in total, according to a news release from the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Jenkins did not give a statement as part of the release because she has recused herself from the case.
"During the course of this investigation, district attorney investigators determined that at least some of the money allegedly stolen by Ms. Worthy was derived from a substantial donation to SF SAFE made by a person with a professional relationship with District Attorney Brooke Jenkins," the release states. "Accordingly, out of an abundance of caution and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, DA Jenkins recused herself from the investigation and potential prosecution of this matter in February of this year."
The complaint alleges that more than a half million dollars from the Office of Employment and Workforce Development didn't get to contract subgrantees Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) and the Calle 24 Latino District (Calle 24), which are part of the Latino Task Force.
Further, Worthy is charged with a count of grand theft by embezzlement, with the DA's office alleging she used over $100,000 for her personal use.
Twenty-four of the 34 counts are for wage theft, allegedly committed between September 2023 and January 2024.
An affidavit in support of the arrest warrant "describes a pattern of activity over several years in which Ms. Worthy both stole and grossly misspent the nonprofit's funds, culminating with a series of crimes in 2023 when SF SAFE was unable to meet its financial obligations," the DA's office stated. "The affidavit states that when Ms. Worthy was hired at the beginning of 2018, SF SAFE had cash reserves in excess of three hundred thousand dollars. Despite SF SAFE receiving millions of dollars in public and private funds over the next five years, Ms. Worthy's theft and mismanagement resulted in the 48-year-old charity having no assets and ceasing operations in January of 2024."
Worthy also paid rent using SF SAFE cashier's checks, the release stated, and spent "$20,000 for desserts and ice cream; $15,000 for a taco truck; $19,000 for a petting zoo, face painting, bouncy houses, carnival games, and a climbing wall; $20,000 for event planners; and $7,000 for 'mobile luxury restrooms.' The affidavit also describes an SF SAFE holiday party — which was not a fundraiser — for which she spent $6,000 on an event planner and nearly $50,000 on catering. The event featured a champagne greeting, open bar, and prime rib carving station."
Daniel Lurie, a former nonprofit executive and founder of Tipping Point Community and Levi's heir who is running for mayor, blasted "City Hall insiders that got us into this mess" and "continuing to rubber-stamp funding year after year."
"Ironic that a nonprofit head dedicated to keeping us safe is now facing 34 felony counts," he said. "Bigger budgets, worse outcomes, more corruption. It's unacceptable some of the candidates I'm running against now talk about holding all the nonprofits accountable and auditing them on day one. Well, they've all been in office for nearly a decade or more and this is what we get."
Lurie is running against incumbent Mayor London Breed; former mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell; Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí. The B.A.R. contacted all the campaigns to respond to Lurie.
A spokesperson for Farrell pointed out Worthy was hired the same month Farrell left the Board of Supervisors for his brief time as mayor, and that SF SAFE had been upstanding in its relationship with the city before that time.
Safaí called the situation "disappointing but not at all surprising."
"Breed has allowed a pervasive culture of corruption at City Hall, and as a result, San Francisco voters are becoming desensitized to the severity of scandal after scandal, while taxpayers continue to foot the bill for corruption," he stated. "We can't keep giving this mayor a free pass every time yet another example of her administration's unbridled corruption becomes public. It's well beyond time for change."
Safaí continued that "from establishing tough, mandatory audits on homelessness spending to strengthening accountability on nonprofits that receive city funding, and now putting forward a ballot measure to create an inspector general position to go after corruption, I have been consistent in fighting for a more ethical and transparent city government. As mayor, I will clean house and bring this shocking and embarrassing period in our city's history to a close."
Peskin stated "I was the one who called for the audit and held the public hearing on this matter and uncovered the fraud!"
Peskin continued that [Police] "Chief [William] Scott needs to explain why he resisted my request for an audit of SF SAFE for over a year and why he opposed my attempts to eliminate funding for SF SAFE from the budget."
Evan Sernoffsky, the San Francisco Police Department's director of strategic communications, told the B.A.R. that there'd been talks during the budget season, some months earlier.
"In hindsight, things obviously look different but that budget talk was before the controller's report," Sernoffsky said, adding that the SFPD requested the report "immediately after" officials had heard murmurings of impropriety.
"I'm not sure with Aaron, if he'd independently heard something," Sernoffsky said.
Breed's campaign spokesperson defended the mayor's record.
"Mayor Breed has initiated a series of good government reforms to increase accountability and has established ethical leadership for city departments that needed reforms," stated Joe Arellano, Breed's campaign spokesperson. "Daniel Lurie has never run an organization that is responsible for any level of operations. His organization, Tipping Point, has 50 employees. San Francisco is a city with a $14 billion budget and 34,000 employees. Do we really believe someone with a morsel of experience is going to solve San Francisco's biggest and most pressing issues? Daniel Lurie is barely qualified to run a small city department."
Arellano also pointed out that Scott initiated the audit that led to the arrest.
Anyone with knowledge that might be useful to the investigation into Worthy and SF SAFE is urged to call the city's Public Integrity Task Force tip line at (628) 652-4444. Tipsters may remain anonymous.
Updated, 7/31/24: This article has been updated with comments from mayoral candidate Ahsha Safaí and Mayor Breed's campaign spokesperson.
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