The former Community Challenge Grant (CCG) Program director now faces misconduct accusations, which have prompted City Administrator Carmen Chu of San Francisco to push for changes in the program's operations. The charges led to an independent investigation, conducted with the City Attorney and Controller, following which, Chu has pledged immediate action to instate transparency and fairness in the CCG grantmaking process, per the City and County of San Francisco news report.
Yesterday, Chu announced her intention to implement new measures recommended by the Controller and City Attorney's Office to strengthen the program. This move followed a report exposing egregious misrepresentations in the evaluation and scoring methods by the former program head.
District Attorney filed criminal charges against ex-program director Lanita Henriquez and city contractor Dwayne Jones, the founder and head of RDJ Enterprises. Claims included Jones allegedly bribing Henriquez to influence city grants and contracts to favor RDJ Enterprises and his other enterprises. Responding to the charges, Chu, City Attorney David Chiu, and Controller Ben Rosenfield took steps to upkeep accountability in the Community Challenge Grant Program.
To rectify this situation, the City will reevaluate the Administrator's Office's 2023 grant cycle applications with a new scoring panel and additional controls. Chu emphasized the need for honesty in the grantmaking process, stressing that the city will not condone any attempts to exploit the taxpayers.
The District Attorney's charges led Chu to seek a Public Integrity Review of CCG's grantmaking procedures from the Controller and City Attorney. Henriquez was placed on leave while Jones and his businesses were banned from bidding on or obtaining city contracts or grants. On September 7, a suspension order was issued, and after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, the city plans for debarment—a method to exclude contractors from city contracts or grants for up to five years.
The City Administrator's Office, concurrently managing this misconduct issue, initiated steps in February to enhance the transparency and accountability of its programs. An internal effort began to revise the FPPC Form 700 filing requirements for staff, working closely with the City Attorney's Office, and mandatory ethics training was rolled out for all staff in May, extending the requirement scope to Department Heads, Deputy Directors, and contracting and purchasing involved employees.
In July, as reported by the City and County of San Francisco news, the department initiated a multi-division review of disclosure and conflicts-of-interest practices pertaining to grantmaking and contracting functions. The review is expected to reveal department-wide policy this fall that identifies and prevents conflicts of interest. This policy is set to include clear disclosure processes for those involved in public grantmaking functions and will see the introduction of new tools for implementation.
