Nonprofit director arrested

Immigration officers have arrested the Nigerian-born executive director of the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, the beleaguered nonprofit group already facing allegations that it pressured its street cleaners to campaign and vote for Mayor Gavin Newsom during the November election.

Jonathan Gomwalk, 43, was arrested April 19 when four Immigration and Naturalization Services officers arrived at SLUG's offices at 2088 Oakdale Ave. in the Bayview District. A detention hearing is scheduled for May 3, at which time bail will be determined, according to Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman for the INS.

Gomwalk originally arrived in the United States with a student visa in 1982, according to his attorney, Frank Tse. As a student, Gomwalk obtained a legal social security card, which was not unusual in the 1980s. He then overstayed his visa, continuing to work and pay taxes as if he were a legal alien, when he was in fact illegal. Gomwalk, whose father and uncle were assassinated by the current Nigerian leadership, is expected to file for political asylum.

In 1994, Gomwalk was also arrested twice for check-fraud, although the cases were dismissed.

The arrest comes as the City Attorney's Office investigates SLUG and its former director, Mohammed Nuru -- now second in command at the Public Works Department -- for public corruption. Nuru and Gomwalk worked together at SLUG for five years and transformed the organization from a sleepy community garden group into a street sweeping and "greening" agency employing dozens of ex-convicts and recovering drug addicts.

Over the past four months, investigators from City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office have repeatedly questioned dozens of current and former SLUG workers about whether Nuru pressured or coerced them into campaigning or voting for Newsom, according to SLUG's Hector Guerra, who currently oversees the organization's 28 workers.

"Investigators have been here off and on for the past four months," Guerra said. "Crew members have been feeling like they are getting harassed."

In particular, Gomwalk felt the investigators were squeezing him for information about Nuru's alleged wrongdoings, according to Roger Gordon, chairman of SLUG's board of directors.

"He said that 'they are trying to get to Mohammed through me, but what they don't realize is that I don't have anything to give them,'" Gordon said.

Matt Dorsey, spokesman for the City Attorney's Office, confirmed that investigators are looking into SLUG but refused comment on the details.

Nuru said he could not comment on the investigation or on Gomwalk's arrest; both Nuru and Gordon said they were unaware of Gomwalk's status as an illegal alien prior to his arrest.

Tse, Gomwalk's immigration attorney, said the "complaint" against the SLUG director was unusually detailed and well researched.

"When you look at the complaint it's clear that someone with a vendetta against Jonathan dug up a lot of things and fed it to immigration services," said Tse.

Meanwhile, SLUG is struggling to hold onto its $1.2 million city contract for transitional employment. In addition to the investigation, the organization has come under attack by the community gardeners who feel Gomwalk and Nuru subverted SLUG by adding the welfare-to-work component.

Two weeks ago, Gomwalk appeared before the Recreation and Park Commission, where community gardener Pam Pierce chastised SLUG.

"SLUG has not paid enough attention to community gardens for a number of years," she said.

At the meeting, Gomwalk argued that SLUG "has a broader mission."

"We continue to employ low-income adults in making the city cleaner," he said.

Gordon defended the dual missions of the organization, crediting Gomwalk for creating the first environmental "welfare-to-work" program in the country.

"We clean the streets and we build gardens at the same time as providing job training and self-respect to people who we know have strayed off the straight and narrow," Gordon said. "The question needs to be asked: Are all these allegations part of a larger agenda to end SLUG? I don't understand where this is coming from."

More than 300 workers have graduated to full-time jobs through the street cleaning program during Gomwalk's tenure, he said. "Jonathan is outstanding," Gordon said. "He doesn't cut them any slack. He holds them accountable. He talks straight, and they respect him."

Gomwalk is also president of the Board of the San Francisco Clean City Coalition and has cleaned streets with district supervisors and mayors Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown, Gordon said.