A city oversight body has removed the director of the Department on the Status of Women after a wave of questionable spending at the agency surfaced over the past month.
Kimberly Ellis — once a rising star in the state Democratic Party who was appointed by former Mayor London Breed in 2020 to lead the department — was ordered to leave her post after a unanimous vote Wednesday evening by the seven-member San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women.
Ellis was suspended in March pending a city investigation into her department’s spending on events and on contracts provided to close associates.
In 2023, an $85,000 contract for a behavioral coaching company was approved to Ellis’ “dear friend.”
The following year, the agency spent more than $600,000 on a one-day conference, with money going toward massages, hotels, and a fashion show.
Documents from the conference show that Sophia Andary, president of the department’s oversight commission, received a $1,000 speaker’s stipend. The Standard also discovered a $30,000 overpayment to the organization that received a no-bid contract to put on the conference.
There is also scrutiny over Ellis’ failure to disclose nearly $20,000 in payments she received in 2023 through a personal consulting firm from Power PAC, a progressive political action committee. Power PAC’s nonprofit affiliate received $120,000 in contracts from Ellis’ department in 2022.
In April, Ellis sued the city, claiming she was silenced for reporting sexual misconduct at a city-run foster care program. City officials have called her assertions untrue.
The Department on the Status of Women was created in 1994 to advocate for the positive treatment of women and girls in the city. Last year, the department’s budget totaled $11.7 million, with the vast majority of the funds going toward outside grants.
Ellis and her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Wednesday’s commission meeting.
Human resources official Linda Yeung is currently serving as the department’s chief.