Mayor Breed Taps New SF Human Rights Director as Misspending Scrutiny Intensifies

Updated 4:30 p.m. Friday

Mayor London Breed has tapped Mawuli Tugbenyoh to serve as the acting executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission after former head Sheryl Davis resigned from the position on Friday morning following reports of potential misspending of public money.

In addition to announcing the appointment, Breed said that the city will expand oversight into the city’s Dream Keeper Initiative, which Davis oversaw in her position with the HRC.

“I am dedicated to upholding the highest standards of integrity as we advance the department’s mission,” said Tugbenyoh, who previously was the deputy director of the city’s Human Resources Department. “My focus will be on rebuilding the community’s trust through transparent, accountable actions that allow us to advance the transformative work of the Human Rights Commission.”

The Dream Keeper Initiative aims to support the Black community with homeownership opportunities, launch new small businesses and provide workforce training and more. Currently, in San Francisco, 30% of the Black population lives below the poverty level and the lowest rate of homeownership among the city’s racial demographics, at 31%.

Breed emphasized the importance of continuing the program despite pausing funding for it while investigations are underway.

“Dream Keeper has led to unprecedented support for the Black community, and that work must continue,” Breed said. “Supporting this program means committing to strengthening transparency and accountability around how any and all organizations are being funded and how the funding is being used. It means leaving no questions unanswered.”

Original story, 1:30 p.m., Sept. 3

The head of San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, who led a multimillion-dollar initiative meant to steer city funds to programs benefiting the Black community, is on leave amid questions surrounding her department’s handling of the money.

It’s the latest example of a city department head coming under scrutiny over their spending, an issue that candidates running for mayor this November have latched onto as they aim to prove to voters that they can clean up corruption in City Hall.

San Francisco’s city attorney is now investigating grants and contracts awarded by Sheryl Davis, the former HRC executive director whose office administers Mayor London Breed’s Dream Keeper Initiative that launched in 2021. This comes after a city audit found several instances of problematic spending at the department, including a lack of documentation and overpaying in some cases by tens of thousands of dollars.

“Questions have been raised around Dream Keeper spending and Mayor Breed is committed to ensuring the integrity of the program and continuing the good that it does with full transparency,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said. “The Mayor has already put in place stronger budget controls over the initiative during her most recent budget signed in August.”

Breed introduced the Dream Keeper Initiative amid the nationwide push for police reform in 2020, billing it as a way to redirect law enforcement funding to the Black community. More recently, concerns have been raised over whether the city is tracking how the funds are spent.

According to a report published Thursday by the San Francisco Chronicle, Davis signed off on payments of nearly $10,000 for a house rental on Martha’s Vineyard for Dream Keeper interns to stay during a conference without undergoing a competitive bidding process or signing a formal contract. A nonprofit director who filed a whistleblower complaint over the rental said Davis asked her to book the house and to split the invoice into two separate payments, the Chronicle reported.

San Francisco’s Proposition Q allows such no-bid payments under a certain limit and bars departments from splitting invoices to meet that limit.

The San Francisco Standard also reported Thursday that Davis approved up to $1.5 million in contracts for Collective Impact, a local nonprofit run by a man with whom she has a close relationship. Davis and James Spingola shared a home address and acknowledged their relationship in interviews, the Standard reported, but she has not formally disclosed it to the city.

KQED reached out to Davis for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

Breed’s opponents for mayor wasted no time criticizing her administration for enabling nepotism and improper spending and bookkeeping.

“In a matter of hours these two insiders have eroded public trust for years to come,” nonprofit executive Daniel Lurie said in a statement. “It’s time to turn the page on corruption in San Francisco. Our residents and taxpayers deserve accountable, effective leadership — no more backroom deals, conflicts of interest, or pay-to-play schemes.”

Lurie’s recently proposed anti-corruption plan includes removing campaign fundraising loopholes, raising filing fees for candidates who have records of ethics misconduct, fully funding the Ethics Commission, and creating an ethics enforcement dashboard to track financial reports and other potential conflicts of interest.

It also takes a direct swing at fellow mayoral candidate Mark Farrell, a former supervisor and interim mayor, who has come under scrutiny over committees that have raised millions of dollars backing a ballot measure he supports. Individual contributions to candidate campaigns are limited to $500, but Farrell’s opponents say he has been able to benefit from money raised for the ballot measure to slash the number of city commissions, which is supported by TogetherSF Action, a moderate political organizing group that has endorsed Farrell.

Meanwhile, Farrell said Breed should fire Davis “immediately” and called for federal authorities to investigate the mayor’s ties to the scandal. He has put forward his own anti-corruption plans, which include centralizing all third-party nonprofit contacts under the mayor’s office.

“It’s all too telling that one of Mayor Breed’s signature initiatives is rife with scandal, systemic misspending, and clear mismanagement. San Francisco taxpayers should not be left holding the bill for Mayor Breed’s failures,” Farrell said in a statement. “Our City needs leadership that will confront corruption head-on and ensure every taxpayer dollar spent delivers results for San Franciscans.”

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, also running for mayor, is backing Proposition C, which would create an inspector general whose job would be to monitor for conflicts of interest and financial misconduct and hold city officials accountable.

“The allegations that were made today are deeply disturbing and troubling,” said Peskin, who plans to call for a full investigation into the Human Rights Commission spending at the Board of Supervisors. “The number of corruption scandals under this mayor have shaken my confidence in her administration.”

The latest questions surrounding city spending come after the former leader of the nonprofit SF SAFE was arrested in July and charged with 34 felonies over accusations that she misused public funds and donations intended for crime-prevention programs. Prosecutors allege that Kyra Worthy submitted fake invoices, stopped paying employees’ payroll taxes and misused over $700,000 on lavish spending, parties and personal use.

That followed one of the city’s largest corruption scandals in recent years after a sprawling FBI investigation targeting bribery and fraud at City Hall. That case led to prison sentences for Mohammed Nuru, former head of the Department of Public Works, and Harlan Kelly, former general manager of the Public Utilities Commission.

Earlier this month, Breed ordered city officials and staff who work with any outside contractors or grantees to improve financial tracking and reporting and ordered the city administrator and city attorney to create a set of policies to better prevent conflicts of interest in City Hall.

KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara and Julie Small contributed to this report.