Thursday, April 18, 2013

SFPD: Gifts Disclosure Web Page Coming . . . When?

(Chief Greg Suhr at the June 2012 announcement with Sf.citi that Conway was allegedly making a six-figure donation to the department. Credit: Sf.citi.)

For a city agency that accepted sixty top-of-the-line laptops from Hewlett Packard to improve communication, a gift arranged by tech mogul Ron Conway's Sf.citi nonprofit advocacy group that also received much praise from the city for a $100,000 donation that never materialized, one would expect more robust communication. After all, the laptops were given in the hope of improving collection and sharing of information.

Maureen Conefrey of the police force's legal division has been sharing the tersest of emails with me in response to simple questions for lots of more details about Conway's gifts, real and alleged, and proper legal disclosure for them and all gifts to the agency. Conefrey made this announcement today, one that should finally bring much-needed sunshine compliance:

The San Francisco Police Department is in the process of setting up a link on the SFPD Website for Gift/Donation Disclosure.

Local law via Proposition G passed in November 1999, which the department has not been following, is clear about online disclosure, emphasis added:

Sec. 67.29-6: Sources Of Outside Funding. No official or employee or agent of the city shall accept, allow to be collected, or direct or influence the spending of, any money, or any goods or services worth more than one hundred dollars in aggregate, for the purpose of carrying out or assisting any City function unless the amount and source of all such funds is disclosed as a public record and made available on the website for the department to which the funds are directed

I found the following instances of donations (all were approved) in minutes from the Police Commission's meetings going back to the start of January 2012 through February 2013:

January 04, 2012 
Request of the Chief of Police to accept donation for the SFPD Mounted Unit of $200.00, from Maloney Security Inc. 

April 25, 2012 
Request of the Chief of Police to accept donation of $300.00 from the Asian Peace Officer Association for use by the SFPD Wilderness Program 

May 16, 2012 
Request of the Chief of Police to accept donation of $1,000.00 from Ms. Karen Fireman for the use of the SFPD Mounted Unit  

June 20, 2012 
RESOLVED, that the Police Commission hereby approves the request of Captain John Garrity to accept gift of 60 T‐shirts from Macy’s Corp to the Tenderloin Police Station to be donated towards the Tenderloin Station National Night‐Out Event, valued at $480.00.  

July 11, 2012 
RESOLVED, that the Police Commission hereby approves the request of the Chief of Police to accept donation for the SFPD Mounted Unit of $4,000.00 from Ms. Karen Fireman. [...] 
RESOLVED, that the Police Commission hereby recommends that the Board of Supervisors accept a gift from Hewlett Packard to the San Francisco Police Department of sixty (60) laptops, valued at approximately $59,400.00. 

November 7, 2012 
RESOLVED, that the Police Commission hereby approves the request of Captain David Lazar to accept gifts of seven (7) Puma bags, 7 belts, 7 lanyards, 7 water bottles, and 7 hats, from Khiron Security, valued at approximately $875.00, for use of the SF Police Activities League Law Enforcement Cadet Program. 

The police should look to the City Attorney's gifts disclosure page to learn how they should be making this info transparent on the SFPD site.

Unfortunately, none of the many police officials, including the Chief, who I asked easy questions - name of the officer in charge of tracking all gifts, officer who will establish and maintain disclosure page, when will it be set up, how many years of gifts to be disclosed - responded today. I hope that changes tomorrow.

As I await further communication, all of this info is being passed along to the Office of Citizens Complaints to bolster my outstanding complaint against the Chief over adherence to all applicable sunshine laws.

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