The investigation surrounding the San Francisco Parks Alliance, a once-influential nonprofit that shuttered this week amid allegations of financial impropriety, ramped up Wednesday when a city supervisor said he plans to subpoena the organization.
Supervisor Shamann Walton announced the investigatory step after the Parks Alliance abruptly folded Monday, capping off weeks of scandal as allegations surfaced that the nonprofit had misused millions of dollars to cover operating expenses.
The organization acted as a major fundraising body for the city’s parks, funneling millions toward projects such as murals and trail maintenance. Its former CEO, Drew Becher, quietly resigned in February and was replaced by Robert Ogilvie, who lasted just three months.
The Parks Alliance is working with a firm that will close down the nonprofit through an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors process.
Walton’s subpoena request will be introduced Thursday as a motion at the Board of Supervisors’ Government Audit and Oversight Committee and requires approval by its members. It calls for Ogilvie, Becher, and board treasurer Rick Hutchinson to testify.
The subpoena can compel the nonprofit to provide testimony and documents. If the summoned party does not comply with the subpoena, the city can go to court.
A hearing about the Parks Alliance’s alleged misuse of donor money that was set for Thursday will be postponed. However, Supervisor Jackie Fielder will introduce a motion to audit the relationship between the Parks Alliance and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, a move that will also require approval.
The probe comes as neighborhood organizations that used the Parks Alliance essentially as a bank account to store donations have expressed frustration about how their money was spent and whether they will be able to recoup anything.
In May, Mayor Daniel Lurie cut off the Parks Alliance from city funding after news broke that the district attorney was conducting a criminal investigation into the nonprofit.
For at least a year, the organization saw its finances crumble and failed to produce a mandatory audit of its finances for the city. Despite the nonprofit’s bad state of finances, top managers were paid bonuses.