An SF bill designed to help preempt scandals and inefficiencies among nonprofits is set to be signed by the mayor. It will impose audits and performance goals on 600 orgs taking over a billion dollars every year from taxpayers. And of all the scandals to highlight, SF Examiner’s Adam Shanks selects one associated with law enforcement. Still, here’s hoping?
Read MoreFollowing a California state audit which found that SJ's homeless programs were disorganized, untransparent, and wasteful, CM's Arjun Batra and Bien Doan propose that the City conduct its own audit. Market Urbanist's Scott Beyer unpacks what has to happen to ensure that this audit actually overhauls the city's current flawed system of expenditure and impact to create ongoing accountability on the metrics that really matter. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreTracey Enfantino, chair of the Silicon Valley Business PAC--the leading group advocating for local small and medium businesses--is thumbs up on the Doan/Batra city homelessness audit. The main reason? According to Enfantino, the City Housing Dept has ignored basic business logic and ethics for decades, and the bill is way past due.
Read MoreContinuing the bipartisan support for the proposed audit of SJ's homelessness expenditures, SCCAOR Gov't Affairs Director Gina Zari urges much greater transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in how the city addresses its homelessness crisis--which is clearly the #1 issue for residents. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreMayor Mahan underscores calls from CMs Doan and Batra for greatly improved transparency and efficacy re: city homelessness services, urges public dashboards to daylight program costs and impacts.
Read MoreSix old supportive housing buildings can’t seem to find a home after both Los Angeles and the buyer walked away from a deal last month. The nonprofit set to take on the properties didn’t have a plan for addressing social services and code violations, said the city. The nonprofit for its part balked at millions of dollars in repairs, and major operating losses. Liam Dillon writes via California Political Review.
Read MoreMomentum grows for implementing a comprehensive audit of how City of SJ spends millions upon millions of local taxpayer dollars on homelessness programs--spends that appear to have zip impact on solving the problem. Shane Patrick Connolly of the Santa Clara County GOP and Tobin Gilman, board member of Families and Homes SJ, chime in. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreConcerns about unaccountable spending by the SJ Housing Dept. go back years--even decades. Johnny Khamis and Pierluigi Oliverio, the two SJ CM's who sounded the klaxon most urgently about ineffective and misguided homelessness programs back in the day--give thumbs up to the Doan/Batra audit proposal. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MorePat Waite of Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility (CFR) responds to State and Doan/Batra homelessness audit proposals with a call for an independent, non partisan, metrics-based committee untethered from past mistakes. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreFamilies and Homes, SJ's leading grass-roots community group, gives thumbs up to the Doan/Batra homelessness audit proposal, noting the need for an independent, accountable, and transparent process. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreThe State homelessness audit which found shocking levels of ineffectiveness and unaccountability in SJ's homelessness programs was the direct result of the governance direction of State Senator Dave Cortese, who championed the audit, beginning in 2022. SJ CM's Doan and Batra, who are calling to extend the audit to city programs and spend, acknowledged Cortese's leadership in their call for a city of SJ audit.
Read MoreEven though SJ's City Manager and staff tried to wave away the blistering, devastating critique of the city's hugely expensive and ineffective homelessness programs by the State Auditor, SJ CM's Doan and Batra follow the path of fiscal responsibility by demanding an audit of the city's homelessness spend. Their press release excerpted below.
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