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What Have Our Corrupt City Done with the Money???
Is District 10 The Only District that willing to do Something About The Corrupt Politicians at City Hall?
Key Newsom Ally Charged With Misuse of Public Funds
Randy Shaw
The Chronicle’s Sunday front-page expose on the channeling of illegal campaign donations from power-broker Julie Lee to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley missed a key point: Lee is a close advisor, major fundraiser and sitting Commissioner for Mayor Gavin Newsom. Only a few days after Newsom circumvented city ethics laws to free up a supervisor’s seat for a mayoral appointment, the mayor is now confronted with allegations of ethical and even criminal wrongdoing on the part of a close ally and member of his administration.
Credit the Chronicle for breaking the story of how Julie Lee set up a nonprofit—the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center-- that secured state funds for building a community center and then diverted the money to Kevin Shelley’s political campaign. But as is so often the case, the Chronicle focused on the wrong target and failed to connect the dots.
Kevin Shelley was the recipient of the illegal funds, but anyone familiar with the former Supervisor would know that he would never knowingly participate in an illegal scheme to launder campaign money. Despite the Chronicle’s focus on Shelley, the story provided no evidence that he even could have known that public money had been funneled to his campaign.
Shelley, like Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom, sought to build westside Asian-American political support by associating with the ethically-challenged Julie Lee. Brown appointed Lee to the Housing Authority Commission despite her not having supported him in either mayors race. While serving in the Assembly, Shelley secured the state funds for Lee’s nonprofit to construct the community center. Secretary of State Shelley now employs Andrew Lee, Julie Lee’s son.
Oddly, the name of Mayor Gavin Newsom never appears in the Chronicle story. Lee’s close relationship to the Mayor is omitted despite a story where space was certainly not limited: the piece took up half the front page, and was 63 paragraphs long.
On the night before Mayor-elect Newsom’s inauguration, Julie Lee organized a major fundraiser for the Mayor. Two days later she held another fundraiser to reduce the campaign debt of her close political ally, Gavin Newsom.
Newsom made campaign ethics the centerpiece of his campaign, and has repeatedly and publicly questioned the business practices of Walter Wong. The Chronicle has dutifully echoed Newsom’s attacks on Wong, who rebuffed requests by Julie Lee and others that he support Newsom in the Mayor’s race.
There are two rival political factions in the city’s Asian-American community, and Wong and Lee are on opposite sides. By attacking and seeking to undermine Wong, Newsom scores points with Lee and her allies.
Lee’s conservative westside Asian-American voter base strongly supported Newsom in the December runoff. Since many of these voters are angry at the Mayor over his support for gay marriage, the Mayor has been careful to maintain his close relationship with community power-broker Julie Lee.
According to the Chronicle, Lee’s nonprofit failed to use state funds for the purpose they were awarded and instead directed the funds to individuals who then donated the money to Shelley’s Secretary of State campaign. If someone without Lee’s powerful political friends engaged in such behavior, we would be looking at multiple felony counts and jail time.
But there’s much more to the Julie Lee story than simply the misuse of public funds and the violation of nonprofit laws.
Lee has been associated with a series of questionable real estate dealings involving illegal demolitions, wrongful evictions, and misrepresentations to the California Department of Real Estate. She has evaded public attention for these acts for the same reason that her newly-formed nonprofit got the state grant it misspent---because she raises money and gets votes for politicians and they take care of her in turn.
Mayor Newsom has said time and time again that the unethical practices of the past must stop. He has promised to end “business as usual” in the city and told the media that they should hold him accountable for failing to do so.
To this end the Mayor must start requiring his political allies and financial backers like Julie Lee to meet the same ethical standards he asks of his political adversaries.
Julie Lee is currently President of the San Francisco Housing Authority commission. Mayor Newsom should demand that she take a leave from the Commission pending resolution of the charges surrounding her nonprofit.
The Mayor should also audit all funds his campaign raised from Julie Lee fundraisers to ensure that her nonprofit was not engage in additional siphoning of public funds. A list of all those attending these fundraisers should be made public so that the city is reassured that no illegal donations occurred.
District Attorney Kamala Harris has devoted extensive time to combating the scourge of lap dancing and prostitution in topless clubs. Now she can show she cares as much about political corruption. Harris should either file charges against the politically connected Ms. Lee or publicly explain why the facts raised by the Chronicle do not rise to criminal wrongdoing.
Newsom and Harris have skated for months on their youthful images and the carefully burnished “next generation” theme. But setting a strong tone against ethical violations by a political ally and fundraiser is a real test of leadership.
The city is watching how both will respond.
Send feedback to rshaw [at] beyondchron.org
"FOLLOW THE MONEY"
May 9, 2001
Press contact: Mark Westlund, 415/934-4814; pager: 415/739-6011
NEARLY $12 MILLION APPROVED FOR BAYVIEW, POTRERO HILL PROGRAMS
SAN FRANCISCO ‚ In an effort to get the money where it's needed most, the Commission on the Environment awarded grants totaling nearly $12 million to community environmental health and energy programs in Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill. The Finance Committee of the Board of Supervisors approved the Commission's award recommendations unanimously today, which frees the funds for distribution to the community.
In total, $8,614,393 has been approved for thirteen community projects, and an additional $3,000,000 has been earmarked to support priorities identified by the Mayor's Environmental Health and Energy task force. The task force, chaired by District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, was called together to identify solutions to ongoing environmental problems in Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill.
In a process that started with public hearings last September, the Commission on the Environment developed and oversaw a grant program open to both community groups and city departments. The grant funds were made available by the California Public Utilities Commission for projects intended to address neighborhood environmental issues arising from the sale and possible expansion of the Potrero Hill power plant, as well as the shut down of the Hunters Point power plant.
"Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill carry a heavy environmental burden for San Francisco," said Environment Commission vice president Parin Shah, who is also program director for the Bayview-located San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners. "It's great to be able to get a significant amount of money directly into the community to help."
The programs selected by the Commission on the Environment, and approved by the Board of Supervisors, are:
ARC Ecology: $396,911 for community info center, including on shipyard cleanup and emergency alerts.
Bayview Hunters Point Advocates and Hetch Hetchy Water & Power: $1,500,000 for design, installation and maintenance of alternative energy facilities.
Department of Public Health: $330,000 for environmental health outreach.
Greenaction: $150,000 to launch an education campaign pertaining to superfund site cleanup and power plant shutdown.
Health and Environmental Resource Center: $500,000 for planning expansion of existing center.
Literacy for Environmental Justice: $897,942 to create a "living classroom" at Heron's Head Park.
M. Cubed: $1,500,000 to train residents how to conduct energy audits and improve energy efficiency.
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House: $475,000 to conduct an energy retrofit of this neighborhood-serving building.
Strybing Arboretum: $1,500,000 to establish horticultural jobs training program.
Tetra Tech and Potrero Hill Middle School: $355,540 to install solar panels and windmills at the school.
Trust for Public Land: $300,000 for improvements to the waterfront recreational facility at India Basin Shoreline.
Young Community Developers: $409,000 for job training program on identifying and abating hazardous materials.
The Money Is For Any Project That Will Shut-Down The Hunters Point Power Plant, and The Sale Or Expansion of The Potreo Hill Power Plant. The Low-Income Community of Color Did Not Get One Dime Of This Money.
Randy Shaw
The Chronicle’s Sunday front-page expose on the channeling of illegal campaign donations from power-broker Julie Lee to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley missed a key point: Lee is a close advisor, major fundraiser and sitting Commissioner for Mayor Gavin Newsom. Only a few days after Newsom circumvented city ethics laws to free up a supervisor’s seat for a mayoral appointment, the mayor is now confronted with allegations of ethical and even criminal wrongdoing on the part of a close ally and member of his administration.
Credit the Chronicle for breaking the story of how Julie Lee set up a nonprofit—the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center-- that secured state funds for building a community center and then diverted the money to Kevin Shelley’s political campaign. But as is so often the case, the Chronicle focused on the wrong target and failed to connect the dots.
Kevin Shelley was the recipient of the illegal funds, but anyone familiar with the former Supervisor would know that he would never knowingly participate in an illegal scheme to launder campaign money. Despite the Chronicle’s focus on Shelley, the story provided no evidence that he even could have known that public money had been funneled to his campaign.
Shelley, like Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom, sought to build westside Asian-American political support by associating with the ethically-challenged Julie Lee. Brown appointed Lee to the Housing Authority Commission despite her not having supported him in either mayors race. While serving in the Assembly, Shelley secured the state funds for Lee’s nonprofit to construct the community center. Secretary of State Shelley now employs Andrew Lee, Julie Lee’s son.
Oddly, the name of Mayor Gavin Newsom never appears in the Chronicle story. Lee’s close relationship to the Mayor is omitted despite a story where space was certainly not limited: the piece took up half the front page, and was 63 paragraphs long.
On the night before Mayor-elect Newsom’s inauguration, Julie Lee organized a major fundraiser for the Mayor. Two days later she held another fundraiser to reduce the campaign debt of her close political ally, Gavin Newsom.
Newsom made campaign ethics the centerpiece of his campaign, and has repeatedly and publicly questioned the business practices of Walter Wong. The Chronicle has dutifully echoed Newsom’s attacks on Wong, who rebuffed requests by Julie Lee and others that he support Newsom in the Mayor’s race.
There are two rival political factions in the city’s Asian-American community, and Wong and Lee are on opposite sides. By attacking and seeking to undermine Wong, Newsom scores points with Lee and her allies.
Lee’s conservative westside Asian-American voter base strongly supported Newsom in the December runoff. Since many of these voters are angry at the Mayor over his support for gay marriage, the Mayor has been careful to maintain his close relationship with community power-broker Julie Lee.
According to the Chronicle, Lee’s nonprofit failed to use state funds for the purpose they were awarded and instead directed the funds to individuals who then donated the money to Shelley’s Secretary of State campaign. If someone without Lee’s powerful political friends engaged in such behavior, we would be looking at multiple felony counts and jail time.
But there’s much more to the Julie Lee story than simply the misuse of public funds and the violation of nonprofit laws.
Lee has been associated with a series of questionable real estate dealings involving illegal demolitions, wrongful evictions, and misrepresentations to the California Department of Real Estate. She has evaded public attention for these acts for the same reason that her newly-formed nonprofit got the state grant it misspent---because she raises money and gets votes for politicians and they take care of her in turn.
Mayor Newsom has said time and time again that the unethical practices of the past must stop. He has promised to end “business as usual” in the city and told the media that they should hold him accountable for failing to do so.
To this end the Mayor must start requiring his political allies and financial backers like Julie Lee to meet the same ethical standards he asks of his political adversaries.
Julie Lee is currently President of the San Francisco Housing Authority commission. Mayor Newsom should demand that she take a leave from the Commission pending resolution of the charges surrounding her nonprofit.
The Mayor should also audit all funds his campaign raised from Julie Lee fundraisers to ensure that her nonprofit was not engage in additional siphoning of public funds. A list of all those attending these fundraisers should be made public so that the city is reassured that no illegal donations occurred.
District Attorney Kamala Harris has devoted extensive time to combating the scourge of lap dancing and prostitution in topless clubs. Now she can show she cares as much about political corruption. Harris should either file charges against the politically connected Ms. Lee or publicly explain why the facts raised by the Chronicle do not rise to criminal wrongdoing.
Newsom and Harris have skated for months on their youthful images and the carefully burnished “next generation” theme. But setting a strong tone against ethical violations by a political ally and fundraiser is a real test of leadership.
The city is watching how both will respond.
Send feedback to rshaw [at] beyondchron.org
"FOLLOW THE MONEY"
May 9, 2001
Press contact: Mark Westlund, 415/934-4814; pager: 415/739-6011
NEARLY $12 MILLION APPROVED FOR BAYVIEW, POTRERO HILL PROGRAMS
SAN FRANCISCO ‚ In an effort to get the money where it's needed most, the Commission on the Environment awarded grants totaling nearly $12 million to community environmental health and energy programs in Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill. The Finance Committee of the Board of Supervisors approved the Commission's award recommendations unanimously today, which frees the funds for distribution to the community.
In total, $8,614,393 has been approved for thirteen community projects, and an additional $3,000,000 has been earmarked to support priorities identified by the Mayor's Environmental Health and Energy task force. The task force, chaired by District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, was called together to identify solutions to ongoing environmental problems in Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill.
In a process that started with public hearings last September, the Commission on the Environment developed and oversaw a grant program open to both community groups and city departments. The grant funds were made available by the California Public Utilities Commission for projects intended to address neighborhood environmental issues arising from the sale and possible expansion of the Potrero Hill power plant, as well as the shut down of the Hunters Point power plant.
"Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill carry a heavy environmental burden for San Francisco," said Environment Commission vice president Parin Shah, who is also program director for the Bayview-located San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners. "It's great to be able to get a significant amount of money directly into the community to help."
The programs selected by the Commission on the Environment, and approved by the Board of Supervisors, are:
ARC Ecology: $396,911 for community info center, including on shipyard cleanup and emergency alerts.
Bayview Hunters Point Advocates and Hetch Hetchy Water & Power: $1,500,000 for design, installation and maintenance of alternative energy facilities.
Department of Public Health: $330,000 for environmental health outreach.
Greenaction: $150,000 to launch an education campaign pertaining to superfund site cleanup and power plant shutdown.
Health and Environmental Resource Center: $500,000 for planning expansion of existing center.
Literacy for Environmental Justice: $897,942 to create a "living classroom" at Heron's Head Park.
M. Cubed: $1,500,000 to train residents how to conduct energy audits and improve energy efficiency.
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House: $475,000 to conduct an energy retrofit of this neighborhood-serving building.
Strybing Arboretum: $1,500,000 to establish horticultural jobs training program.
Tetra Tech and Potrero Hill Middle School: $355,540 to install solar panels and windmills at the school.
Trust for Public Land: $300,000 for improvements to the waterfront recreational facility at India Basin Shoreline.
Young Community Developers: $409,000 for job training program on identifying and abating hazardous materials.
The Money Is For Any Project That Will Shut-Down The Hunters Point Power Plant, and The Sale Or Expansion of The Potreo Hill Power Plant. The Low-Income Community of Color Did Not Get One Dime Of This Money.
For more information:
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$200,000 from city, but center rarely open
Vanessa Hua, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, August 12, 2004
The San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center received nearly $200,000 in city funds to provide services to immigrants, in addition to a state grant to build a community center, but the nonprofit group's office was rarely open and few services were provided, a Chronicle investigation has found.
The organization, founded by Housing Authority commission President Julie Lee, was given the money over the past five years to provide multilingual information services to immigrants at a Sunset District community center, city records show.
But classes were offered infrequently at the center, and two programs the center claimed to have provided or to be developing were not offered at all, according to interviews and a review of the group's federal tax forms.
The center's telephone hot line averaged just 25 calls a month, records show. When the office was closed, calls to the hot line were routed to Lee's real estate office, according to Quyen Le, a former employee of the center.
"That center was phony from the get-go," said former Supervisor Tony Hall, who defeated Mabel Teng in the 2002 supervisorial race. Hall said constituents in the district that he formerly represented complained that the center was never open.
"A lot of them, especially the Asians, felt they were getting the short end of the stick," said Hall, who was selected recently by Mayor Gavin Newsom to oversee the Treasure Island redevelopment project.
Julie Lee did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Her attorney was unavailable for comment.
Lee planned to build a $2.5 million community center on city-owned property at 2350 19th Ave., but she never obtained approval from the city. Now the property is for sale to help balance the city's budget.
In 2001, San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center received a $500,000 grant from the state to build the center, arranged by then-Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, a Democrat. Of the grant, $168,750 was paid to associates of Lee who contributed $125,000 to Shelley's 2002 campaign for secretary of state.
Those transactions -- reported this week in The Chronicle -- are the subject of investigations by the FBI, the state attorney general, the state controller and the state Fair Political Practices Commission. Shelley has placed the contributions in an escrow account until the investigations are completed.
In August 1999, Lee incorporated the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center.
Shortly thereafter, Lee was able to rent city-owned property for $1 per year to house the center.
Within the year, she obtained a $30,000 planning grant from the Mayor's Office of Community Development, which she used to obtain the group's nonprofit status, according to Eugene Coleman, who works in the office. The center used only half the grant, according to the city controller's office.
Lee then lined up $50,000 per year from the city's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families to run a multilingual telephone information referral service for Asian immigrants, according to interviews, grant applications and contracts at DCYF. She installed her son Andrew as the unpaid executive director.
But the 19th Avenue center was rarely open, say those who live and work near the site. They recall environmental fairs in 2001 and 2002 and use of the property as a Christmas tree lot around the holidays.
Nikki San, 19, has lived next door to the center for about a year with her aunt, whose kitchen overlooks the center.
"I never see anything. The garage is empty. Before Christmas, someone sells trees," said San.
Since 2000, the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families paid nearly $170,000 to the center to staff a referral hot line for immigrants, according to records at the city controller's office and invoices submitted by the nonprofit to the city agency.
Most of the money was spent on employee salaries and benefits.
For example, in fiscal year 2002-03, the center paid $40,485.57 in salaries and benefits -- the majority of its $50,000 annual grant. And $5, 430 was spent on administrative costs such as insurance and telephone, $1,421. 44 on supplies and $2,400 for other expenses.
Among those on the center's payroll at times were Quyen Le, project coordinator, who is an ex-girlfriend of Andrew Lee; Louisa Chan, an outreach and clerical worker, who also is a longtime employee at the Lees' financial and real estate businesses at 1327 Taraval St.; and Ken Wong, who co-hosted Lee's Cantonese language radio program.
The city contract also helped pay for Lee's radio program, which airs weeknights and Thursdays at midday. In its 2002 grant application, the center said it would pay $5,000 for air time for Lee's radio program. However, the center's multilingual information hot line received an average of just 25 calls per month, according to the center's monthly invoices and board meeting minutes, and city officials began to ask questions about the center's operations.
In July 2003, the Board of Supervisors' Budget Committee placed $37,500 of the center's yearly funding on reserve, pending a request for detailed information about the center's operations.
Winna Davis, head of the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, which provided funding for the center, defended the group in a memo to the Board of Supervisors. She said the center not only "provided information and referral via telephone line, but also conducted outreach via community fairs, radio announcements and visits to other nonprofit organizations ... and community service opportunities for young people to gain leadership skills."
But the department never heard back from the Board of Supervisors, Davis said, and in January told the center it no longer had funding.
"They didn't give me good answers," said Supervisor Chris Daly, former chair of the Budget Committee.
Also in question are services the center claimed to have provided on the nonprofit's 2001 and 2002 federal tax forms.
On its 2001 tax form, the center listed a program being developed with the San Francisco Mission Chinese Business Improvement Association to provide youth referral services and training.
Maisie Wong, the group's former executive director, said she agreed to collaborate with Lee's center on the program, but "later on, we didn't hear from her at all."
On the center's 2002 tax form, the nonprofit group stated that the Asian Women's Resource Center held four English classes at the center.
But Director Gloria Tan said her organization holds all its English classes in Chinatown.
"I was shocked to hear they included us on their income tax form," Tan said.
The center did provide some services to the community.
From 2001 to mid-2003, the Chinese Newcomers Service Center, a Chinatown organization that provides services to help immigrants, held Tuesday afternoon drop-in sessions at Lee's center, said Director Julia Ling.
But Newcomers found the offices at Lee's center to be small and rundown, Ling said. Newcomers' outreach workers could meet with only a handful of clients at a time. Workshops provided by Newcomers were held several times a year and were attended by no more than 10 people.
Ling said her volunteers had to drop by Lee's real estate office a few blocks away at 1327 Taraval St. each time to pick up keys to go into the center because no one was ever there in the afternoon.
Earlier this summer, following new questions about the center, Lee began advertising citizenship classes to be held at the center on her radio program.
In July, the center held three one-hour Saturday morning classes with about 15 students per session and will hold another three classes starting this Saturday.
The center's board of directors appears to have asked few questions about the center's operations. Board meeting minutes show the board reviewed balance sheets and also listened to updates about the information referral program and the nonprofit's attempts to construct a new center.
Among the center's board members are Daniel Sullivan, former assistant deputy chief of the San Francisco Fire Department and chair of the citizens commission that advises the Mayor's Office of Community Development; the Rev. Arnold Townsend, an assistant pastor at Bread of Life Ministries and president of the San Francisco Elections Commission; and family friend Phil Chang.
Jeffrey Chen, a former member of the board, is an attorney who was appointed by former Mayor Willie Brown to head the city's Public Utilities Commission. Chen resigned from the commission last fall and from the center's board about a year ago, he said.
Lee's husband, Shing-Kit, also sits on the board as vice president.
The board of directors is supposed to make sure the charity is fulfilling its promises to donors over how money collected is spent, said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a national charity watchdog.
"The buck stops with the board," Weiner said.
In April, the center hired Tony Wong, whose wife is a friend of Lee's, to be its new project coordinator. In recent weeks, Wong has been busy pulling weeds and painting the center.
The two Wongs are not related.
"I know the property is being fought over," Wong said. "If we can utilize it for whatever time we can make good out of it, then I'm satisfied I tried the best I could."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center board of directors and city grants
In addition to the state grant to construct a community center, the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center received nearly $200,000 in city funds to provide multilingual services to immigrants.
For the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center, founder and board President Julie Lee signed up family, friends and politically well-connected individuals to the board. Past and present members of the board of directors include:
Daniel Sullivan, past director of the city Emergency Communications Department and former assistant deputy chief of the Fire Department. He also chairs the citizens committee that advises the Mayor's Office of Community Development, which awards to organizations in low-income neighborhoods grants totaling millions of dollars.
Rev. Arnold Townsend, assistant pastor to Bread of Life Ministries and president of the Elections Commission, which sets general policies of the Department of Elections and supervises the director of the department.
John Barry, real estate agent in the Sunset District and community activist who becametreasurer of the neighborhood center late last year.
Jeffrey A. Chen, an attorney and former commissioner on the city Public Utilities Commission. Former chief financial officer of the neighborhood center. Chen resigned from the board in mid-2003.
Shing-Kit Lee, Julie Lee's husband and business partner, is vice president of the board.
Phil Chang, family friend
Andrew Lee, Julie's son and former executive director of the center. Lee left the board late in 2003. He is now on leave from his job at Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's office.
- Vanessa Hua
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$30,000 from Mayor's Office of Community Development In 2000, the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center was awarded a $30,000 planning grant from the Mayor's Office ofCommunity Development. The group spent $15,000 of the grant to obtain its nonprofit status and to develop an information referral program, before closing the account.
$167,998 from the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families
From 2000 through the end of 2003, the Department of Children, Youth and Their Familiespaid the center $50,000 per year - for a total of $167,998.23 - before the Board of Supervisors suspended funding to the nonprofit.
$1,000 from the Department of Building Inspection
In 2001, the Department of Building Inspection gave the center $1,000, for its Westside Energy Fair.
Source: MOCD, DCYF, San Francisco controller's office
E-mail Vanessa Hua at vahua [at] sfchronicle.com.
Page A - 1
Vanessa Hua, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, August 12, 2004
The San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center received nearly $200,000 in city funds to provide services to immigrants, in addition to a state grant to build a community center, but the nonprofit group's office was rarely open and few services were provided, a Chronicle investigation has found.
The organization, founded by Housing Authority commission President Julie Lee, was given the money over the past five years to provide multilingual information services to immigrants at a Sunset District community center, city records show.
But classes were offered infrequently at the center, and two programs the center claimed to have provided or to be developing were not offered at all, according to interviews and a review of the group's federal tax forms.
The center's telephone hot line averaged just 25 calls a month, records show. When the office was closed, calls to the hot line were routed to Lee's real estate office, according to Quyen Le, a former employee of the center.
"That center was phony from the get-go," said former Supervisor Tony Hall, who defeated Mabel Teng in the 2002 supervisorial race. Hall said constituents in the district that he formerly represented complained that the center was never open.
"A lot of them, especially the Asians, felt they were getting the short end of the stick," said Hall, who was selected recently by Mayor Gavin Newsom to oversee the Treasure Island redevelopment project.
Julie Lee did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Her attorney was unavailable for comment.
Lee planned to build a $2.5 million community center on city-owned property at 2350 19th Ave., but she never obtained approval from the city. Now the property is for sale to help balance the city's budget.
In 2001, San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center received a $500,000 grant from the state to build the center, arranged by then-Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, a Democrat. Of the grant, $168,750 was paid to associates of Lee who contributed $125,000 to Shelley's 2002 campaign for secretary of state.
Those transactions -- reported this week in The Chronicle -- are the subject of investigations by the FBI, the state attorney general, the state controller and the state Fair Political Practices Commission. Shelley has placed the contributions in an escrow account until the investigations are completed.
In August 1999, Lee incorporated the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center.
Shortly thereafter, Lee was able to rent city-owned property for $1 per year to house the center.
Within the year, she obtained a $30,000 planning grant from the Mayor's Office of Community Development, which she used to obtain the group's nonprofit status, according to Eugene Coleman, who works in the office. The center used only half the grant, according to the city controller's office.
Lee then lined up $50,000 per year from the city's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families to run a multilingual telephone information referral service for Asian immigrants, according to interviews, grant applications and contracts at DCYF. She installed her son Andrew as the unpaid executive director.
But the 19th Avenue center was rarely open, say those who live and work near the site. They recall environmental fairs in 2001 and 2002 and use of the property as a Christmas tree lot around the holidays.
Nikki San, 19, has lived next door to the center for about a year with her aunt, whose kitchen overlooks the center.
"I never see anything. The garage is empty. Before Christmas, someone sells trees," said San.
Since 2000, the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families paid nearly $170,000 to the center to staff a referral hot line for immigrants, according to records at the city controller's office and invoices submitted by the nonprofit to the city agency.
Most of the money was spent on employee salaries and benefits.
For example, in fiscal year 2002-03, the center paid $40,485.57 in salaries and benefits -- the majority of its $50,000 annual grant. And $5, 430 was spent on administrative costs such as insurance and telephone, $1,421. 44 on supplies and $2,400 for other expenses.
Among those on the center's payroll at times were Quyen Le, project coordinator, who is an ex-girlfriend of Andrew Lee; Louisa Chan, an outreach and clerical worker, who also is a longtime employee at the Lees' financial and real estate businesses at 1327 Taraval St.; and Ken Wong, who co-hosted Lee's Cantonese language radio program.
The city contract also helped pay for Lee's radio program, which airs weeknights and Thursdays at midday. In its 2002 grant application, the center said it would pay $5,000 for air time for Lee's radio program. However, the center's multilingual information hot line received an average of just 25 calls per month, according to the center's monthly invoices and board meeting minutes, and city officials began to ask questions about the center's operations.
In July 2003, the Board of Supervisors' Budget Committee placed $37,500 of the center's yearly funding on reserve, pending a request for detailed information about the center's operations.
Winna Davis, head of the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, which provided funding for the center, defended the group in a memo to the Board of Supervisors. She said the center not only "provided information and referral via telephone line, but also conducted outreach via community fairs, radio announcements and visits to other nonprofit organizations ... and community service opportunities for young people to gain leadership skills."
But the department never heard back from the Board of Supervisors, Davis said, and in January told the center it no longer had funding.
"They didn't give me good answers," said Supervisor Chris Daly, former chair of the Budget Committee.
Also in question are services the center claimed to have provided on the nonprofit's 2001 and 2002 federal tax forms.
On its 2001 tax form, the center listed a program being developed with the San Francisco Mission Chinese Business Improvement Association to provide youth referral services and training.
Maisie Wong, the group's former executive director, said she agreed to collaborate with Lee's center on the program, but "later on, we didn't hear from her at all."
On the center's 2002 tax form, the nonprofit group stated that the Asian Women's Resource Center held four English classes at the center.
But Director Gloria Tan said her organization holds all its English classes in Chinatown.
"I was shocked to hear they included us on their income tax form," Tan said.
The center did provide some services to the community.
From 2001 to mid-2003, the Chinese Newcomers Service Center, a Chinatown organization that provides services to help immigrants, held Tuesday afternoon drop-in sessions at Lee's center, said Director Julia Ling.
But Newcomers found the offices at Lee's center to be small and rundown, Ling said. Newcomers' outreach workers could meet with only a handful of clients at a time. Workshops provided by Newcomers were held several times a year and were attended by no more than 10 people.
Ling said her volunteers had to drop by Lee's real estate office a few blocks away at 1327 Taraval St. each time to pick up keys to go into the center because no one was ever there in the afternoon.
Earlier this summer, following new questions about the center, Lee began advertising citizenship classes to be held at the center on her radio program.
In July, the center held three one-hour Saturday morning classes with about 15 students per session and will hold another three classes starting this Saturday.
The center's board of directors appears to have asked few questions about the center's operations. Board meeting minutes show the board reviewed balance sheets and also listened to updates about the information referral program and the nonprofit's attempts to construct a new center.
Among the center's board members are Daniel Sullivan, former assistant deputy chief of the San Francisco Fire Department and chair of the citizens commission that advises the Mayor's Office of Community Development; the Rev. Arnold Townsend, an assistant pastor at Bread of Life Ministries and president of the San Francisco Elections Commission; and family friend Phil Chang.
Jeffrey Chen, a former member of the board, is an attorney who was appointed by former Mayor Willie Brown to head the city's Public Utilities Commission. Chen resigned from the commission last fall and from the center's board about a year ago, he said.
Lee's husband, Shing-Kit, also sits on the board as vice president.
The board of directors is supposed to make sure the charity is fulfilling its promises to donors over how money collected is spent, said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a national charity watchdog.
"The buck stops with the board," Weiner said.
In April, the center hired Tony Wong, whose wife is a friend of Lee's, to be its new project coordinator. In recent weeks, Wong has been busy pulling weeds and painting the center.
The two Wongs are not related.
"I know the property is being fought over," Wong said. "If we can utilize it for whatever time we can make good out of it, then I'm satisfied I tried the best I could."
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San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center board of directors and city grants
In addition to the state grant to construct a community center, the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center received nearly $200,000 in city funds to provide multilingual services to immigrants.
For the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center, founder and board President Julie Lee signed up family, friends and politically well-connected individuals to the board. Past and present members of the board of directors include:
Daniel Sullivan, past director of the city Emergency Communications Department and former assistant deputy chief of the Fire Department. He also chairs the citizens committee that advises the Mayor's Office of Community Development, which awards to organizations in low-income neighborhoods grants totaling millions of dollars.
Rev. Arnold Townsend, assistant pastor to Bread of Life Ministries and president of the Elections Commission, which sets general policies of the Department of Elections and supervises the director of the department.
John Barry, real estate agent in the Sunset District and community activist who becametreasurer of the neighborhood center late last year.
Jeffrey A. Chen, an attorney and former commissioner on the city Public Utilities Commission. Former chief financial officer of the neighborhood center. Chen resigned from the board in mid-2003.
Shing-Kit Lee, Julie Lee's husband and business partner, is vice president of the board.
Phil Chang, family friend
Andrew Lee, Julie's son and former executive director of the center. Lee left the board late in 2003. He is now on leave from his job at Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's office.
- Vanessa Hua
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$30,000 from Mayor's Office of Community Development In 2000, the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center was awarded a $30,000 planning grant from the Mayor's Office ofCommunity Development. The group spent $15,000 of the grant to obtain its nonprofit status and to develop an information referral program, before closing the account.
$167,998 from the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families
From 2000 through the end of 2003, the Department of Children, Youth and Their Familiespaid the center $50,000 per year - for a total of $167,998.23 - before the Board of Supervisors suspended funding to the nonprofit.
$1,000 from the Department of Building Inspection
In 2001, the Department of Building Inspection gave the center $1,000, for its Westside Energy Fair.
Source: MOCD, DCYF, San Francisco controller's office
E-mail Vanessa Hua at vahua [at] sfchronicle.com.
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