Sheryl Davis, the disgraced city official who led San Francisco’s once-in-a-generation effort to invest tens of millions of dollars in Black communities, is under criminal investigation, The Standard has learned.
Davis resigned in September as head of the Human Rights Commission in the wake of allegations of financial misconduct and conflicts of interest involving an executive at a nonprofit that received department funding.
The exact nature of the criminal investigation by the district attorney is not known. However, Davis faces a slew of separate charges from the city attorney’s office, which has accused her of enriching herself through a scheme of bribes and illegal gifts involving public money.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office would not confirm whether it has launched an investigation. Tony Brass, Davis’ attorney, said in a statement that his client had made “multiple” requests to the city attorney’s office seeking guidance to avoid “any perceived, direct, or potential” conflicts of interest in her role.
“Despite these best-faith efforts to be proactive with outreach to the city attorney and lack of clear guidance subsequently, Dr. Davis never made any decisions to personally enrich herself and others at the expense of public resources, and any other narrative peddled by the city attorney’s office attempts to absolve their own responsibility of providing adequate counsel to a dedicated public servant,” said Brass.
The investigation was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, which noted that Davis continues to be seen at city events, including those attended by Mayor Daniel Lurie and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Davis joined the Human Rights Commission in 2016 and quickly became an important figure in the city’s efforts to economically bolster Black communities. Her role became more prominent when Mayor London Breed launched the Dream Keeper Initiative in 2021, in response to George Floyd’s murder, as a program that dedicated city money to Black-focused nonprofits and programs. The Dream Keeper Initiative was placed under the command of the Human Rights Commission.
Davis’ tenure there ended in September, when The Standard reported that she had signed off on city contracts worth at least $1.5 million to a nonprofit leader, James Spingola, while the two were living together. Davis resigned in response to the revelations, and Breed later acknowledged that she knew about the relationship between Davis and Spingola.
Spingola, who leads the Western Addition-based nonprofit Collective Impact, is fighting for that organization’s financial survival after the city cut its public funding in March.
A city attorney’s office investigation has also alleged that Davis used Collective Impact funding to pay for her son’s UCLA tuition and to benefit her personal business ventures.
Last week, the city and Collective Impact engaged in hearings as the nonprofit seeks to again become eligible for public funding. The hearings will continue next week.
Collective Impact’s attorneys have denied any wrongdoing and have warned that the organization may fold by October if it isn’t found eligible for public funding. The city is seeking to bar the nonprofit from receiving funding until 2030.
The city attorney’s office this month released records that allege additional financial entanglements between Davis and Spingola, including that Davis had signed off on official state nonprofit forms for Collective Impact while she was a city employee. Davis also remains a signatory on the nonprofit’s bank account, according to the city attorney’s office, and the organization maintains a credit card with her name.
Since Davis’ resignation, the city has increased scrutiny over Dream Keeper Initiative grants. Several nonprofits and other grant recipients have seen their budgets decrease by millions of dollars without that funding.
In his first budget, signed this summer, Lurie combined the Human Rights Commission and another scandal-plagued agency, the Department on the Status of Women, into a single entity “to improve coordination across departments where mission and function are aligned.”