Two investigations converged Tuesday as a nonprofit whose founder is facing bribery charges was given special treatment by the Human Rights Commission, a city department embroiled in scandal over questionable spending practices that surfaced last year.
Urban Ed Academy — founded by Dwayne Jones, who was charged in 2023 on felony counts related to misappropriation of public funds and bribery — was awarded grants by HRC despite having “significantly lower evaluation scores” than other organizations competing for funding, the controller’s office said.
A similar arrangement occurred with the Office of Economic Workforce and Development, which increased Urban Ed Academy’s grant from $437,000 to $1.2 million even though it had been notified that the nonprofit was not meeting performance metrics.
“The City’s competitive solicitation processes were seemingly manipulated or disregarded with respect to Urban Ed Academy, which resulted in irregularities in the award to and oversight of grants” to the nonprofit by the two city departments, the controller said in a Tuesday press release.
Jones pleaded not guilty to the felony counts in August 2023 and is awaiting trial. All city grants with Urban Ed Academy, which works to increase representation of Black teachers in classrooms, have either expired or been terminated.
Investigators also found what appeared to be ethical breaches between Urban Ed Academy and the Human Rights Commission, along with its former director Sheryl Davis, who resigned in September 2024 after The Standard reported she had approved grants to a nonprofit led by a man with whom she shared a home.
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Davis received a portrait worth $5,500 from Urban Ed Academy less than a month before she awarded the nonprofit a $270,000 grant, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle this month.
The city also discovered that HRC approved stipends for members of a committee connected to the Dream Keeper Initiative — a project founded by former Mayor London Breed that directed community funding to the city’s Black residents — without the legal authority of the Board of Supervisors.
Those stipends, paid to the Dream Keeper Initiative’s Community Accountability Committee, were sent through a nonprofit that received HRC funding. It was not immediately clear whether that nonprofit was Urban Ed Academy or a different organization.
Randal Seriguchi Jr., Urban Ed Academy’s executive director until January 2024, was sitting on the Community Accountability Committee while his nonprofit was receiving HRC funding, the controller said.
“The misuse of public dollars is a disservice to the many people and programs that do critical work every day to support our marginalized communities and the people who depend on City resources,” Controller Greg Wagner said in a statement.
City Attorney David Chiu added, “To provide grant funding to those who need it most, we must weed out self-dealing and favoritism. The community deserves grant programs that are monitored effectively and operated transparently.”
The controller’s office is auditing activities related to HRC, including bookkeeping and an assessment of its services.
The city is also looking into grant agreements with Collective Impact, which is led by James Spingola, the individual who shared a home with Davis. In December, the city pulled grants from Collective Impact, citing concerns of conflict of interest.
In a statement, the Human Rights Commission said it has cooperated fully with ongoing investigations.
“The Human Rights Commission is committed to transparency, accountability, and meaningful reforms to strengthen our operations allowing us to better serve San Francisco’s diverse communities and most vulnerable residents,” said a spokesperson.