This isn’t the first time the Parks Alliance has found itself under the microscope. “We also found that there was no requirement for how the contractor was selected in this case.”Ī memorandum of understanding between the city and the Parks Alliance lays down some requirements for how they operate, and was retooled to strengthen some reporting requirements in 2020 in the wake of the citywide corruption scandal, but the Budget and Legislative Analyst still recommended it be strengthened. “What we found is that the had a high-level preliminary budget but no detail as to what the costs were going to be for the design contractor, for example, that was being paid for by the Parks Alliance,” he told the supervisors at Thursday’s hearing. The lack of transparency may also allow the Parks Alliance to circumvent good government practices developed by the city, the Budget and Legislative Analyst wrote, including compliance with prevailing wage requirements for contractors and competitive bidding to find lower costs.įor a Richmond neighborhood playground, for instance, the $3 million budget was completely opaque, said Fred Brousseau, from the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office.
What are the names of their anonymous donors? How are the contractors who build out our green spaces chosen? How does the group use city funding it’s granted? When the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department pitches in its own money, are they getting the most bang for their buck?
But that leaves some of their methodologies in the dark, the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s report found. The Parks Alliance serves a unique role in this, raising money for some projects and selecting contractors, a role often served by government agencies. The money is used to renovate the city’s treasured green spaces large and small - for example, erecting a towering Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park and laying down AstroTurf at Merced Heights Playground. The report’s authors came away with more questions than answers.Įvery year, millions of dollars flow into the San Francisco Parks Alliance. “Adequate controls against the possibility of corruption and financial transparency were found lacking in our review of key agreements between the two organizations from recent years,” the report reads. The lack of transparency in those finances leaves the possibility of a pay-to-play culture to flourish in the shadows, the supervisors said Thursday. But the supervisors were concerned that the public simply doesn’t have enough information from the Parks Alliance to verify that fact on their own.Ī report issued just this month from the San Francisco Budget and Legislative Analyst, an arm of the city tasked with researching questions posed by the Board of Supervisors, took a look at the Parks Alliance’s financial relationship with SF Rec and Parks.
0 kommentar(er)
