News Article: Client Tells Executive Director "It's Time To Retire"

A client of a mental health program told the executive director "it's time to retire"  in public postings such as stoplight poles, in coffee shops, and online on his blog, www.defundbakerplaces.blogspot.com. The client, Harry Petersen, alleges that the executive director of Baker Places, in San Francisco cheated him out of his studio apartment.

“I was treated very kindly by Baker Places employees for several years and was happy to help out when Baker had a tax problem,” Petersen said. But things quickly went awry when he vacated and moved into a new studio apartment: “All I have received for the past six months are eviction threats; no good deed goes unpunished, I suppose” he said.

The ‘tax problem’ is $1.6 million Baker Places owed to the IRS, according to the 2014, 990 form. $825,000 in back taxes were paid on February 12, 2015 after the Baker-owned building was sold. An addition $729,000 is still owed to the IRS.

As a result of this case, Baker Places was nearly defunded from the nearly $12 million it receives from the City and County of San Francisco annually as a nonprofit. “Fancher Larson of the Clients’ Rights Group was about to file fraud charges against Baker, but I refused to allow her to do so,” Petersen said. The public scandal surrounding fraud would have likely defunded Baker Places, according legal experts.

Both Jonathan Vernick, the executive director of Baker Places and Fancher Larson, a client rights’ advocate at 1663 Mission did not respond to requests from a reporter for comment.

In Petersen’s public postings and on his blog he alleges a litany of charges against Jonathan Vernick: Fraud, mismanagement of funds, corrupting his employees to engage in unlawful conduct, exposing Baker Places to civil charges which would have defunded it, among other things. “Although Baker Places employees are the true heroes of our society by caring for its outcasts, its executive director is a bad actor who needs to resign,” Petersen said. As of press time, this public confrontation has not been resolved.