The Matt Smith / Alioto-Pier $4 Million Mistake

Smith reached this conclusion, picked up without investigation by Alioto-Pier, by misreading the Clinic’s 990 form filed with the IRS. Instead of citing the total money the Clinic actually spent lobbying ---$728---Smith erroneously cited the maximum amount the Clinic was legally entitled to spend ($4.8 million.) That’s quite a difference. Alioto-Pier then compounded Smith’s error by using his erroneous statistics for political payback against the Clinic, introducing a measure calling for a hearing into the Clinic’s alleged misuse of city funds for lobbying.

I didn’t bother correcting the inaccuracies in Matt Smith’s 8000-word SF Weekly cover story attack on the Tenderloin Housing Clinic last month. Having written my own pre-publication analysis of Smith’s article, his personal vendetta against THC was clear

But there is at least one San Franciscan for whom Smith’s words are the Bible. That person is Michela Alioto-Pier, a Supervisor not known for her scintillating intellect or the long hours she spends in her office.

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