In the
upcoming weeks, I will be visiting the members of the San Francisco Supervisors
and asking them to defund Baker Places. In over two years, I have tried to rid
Baker of Jonathan Vernick and have been met with one lie after another. Please
note that Vernick has lied to the public in two press releases about retiring
from Baker when, in fact, he remains there. See:
1) Press Release | Baker Places - San Francisco --In this press release, dated June 20, 2016 Jonathan Vernick agrees to step down by October 31, 2016.
2) [PDF]Jonathan Vernick Steps Down as Executive Director ... - San Francisco--In this press release, dated March 29, 2017 Jonathan Vernick agrees to step down by March 31, 2017.
The concern
is the mismanagement of public funds with estimates of $100 million stolen from
the taxpayers of San Francisco over the past 25 years. See “The Criminal Case
Against Jonathan Vernick” posted on this blog this past March 13, 2017: The Criminal Case Against Jonathan Vernick .
Theft of public funds at
Baker Places occurred in 2014 when Judith Stevenson, Baker's CFO , allegedly embezzled $3.4 million . To make for the loss, there has
been talk that Baker’s building at 120 Page Street will have to be sold and
employees will be forced to work out of a woodshed-like structure on 3rd
street. Clearly, this is unacceptable. [Editior's note posted on June 5, 2017: In the original post I misstated the fact that I was informed about this theft at Baker in the past few weeks; in fact, Ms. Stevenson was fired in 2014.]
Thus, I will
request the Supervisors (www.sfbos.org) to defund Baker Places. To
implement this plan I propose:
1. The
20 apartments Baker Places oversees can be given to “Community Housing Partnership." This nonprofit already has proved it can house
various populations. See: Home - Community Housing PartnershipCommunity Housing ...
2. The
employees who are under contract with local 1021 SEIU will continue to keep their
jobs. The existing contract will remain in force with the only change being
that they will work for Community Housing Partnership.
3. Baker
Places will lose its entire $12 million allotment for the Department of Public
Health as their contract with the City is eliminated.
4. The
Department of Public Health will give new contracts to various nonprofits to
oversee such programs as the “Joe Healy Detox” Center.
Last year there was a plan to merge Baker Places with Positive Resource Center--a merger which appears to be ill-conceived. While I like
Brett Andrews, the executive director of Positive Resource Center, he appears
to lack the specialized skill set necessary to run a vast multidimensional
organization such as Baker Places. Mr. Andrews is a prolific fundraiser for gay
causes and is well respected in the queer community where he has been a strong
advocate for HIV+ individuals. I hope he continues to be successful in this
role.
I invite
readers to contact their various members at www.sfbos.org and request them to defund Baker
Places. Sadly, this is necessary as the corruption at Baker Places is too vast
and has been going for too long for just one individual to depart. In
particular, I invite readers to contact Supervisors Jeff Sheehy, Aaron Peskin,
and Jane Kim as these three have a proven track record of supporting housing
programs funded by the City.
Finally, I
invite the news media to investigate Baker Places. In the post, Financial Documents and Information Prepared for Tom Mesa, a Representative of the Department of Public Health, I
give a list of 9 contact numbers at the end which might be a way for
investigators to find some leads.
I wish to
thank the readers of this blog for the support I have received in the past two
years. We need to end this bad
nightmare by June 30, 2017—the date in which the Supervisors are required to
approve the new fiscal year’s budget. Please do what you can as the
programs at Baker are designed to help protect the most vulnerable among us.
This editorial is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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