Readers: Please contact Mayor Lee at: Contact Mayor Edwin M. Lee | Office
of the Mayor and request that he fire Barbara Garcia.
June 8, 2017
Dear Mayor Lee:I am writing to you to request that you fire one of your employees, Barbara Garcia, the Director of Public Health. According to a request for a criminal indictment with the district attorney’s office (see: Criminal Indictments Against Jonathan Vernick, Judith Stevenson, and Barbara Garcia ), Ms. Garcia has allowed the taxpayer’s funds to be mismanaged.
According to the criminal indictment, in 2014 the CFO at Baker Places, Judith Stevenson, had embezzled an estimated $3.4 million over a ten-year period. When Jonathan Vernick, the executive director of Baker Places, was notified of this theft of public funds (Baker Places receives nearly all of its annual allotment of $12 million from DPH) he covered it up and did not duly notify either the police or the public. By late 2014, Ms. Garcia had been notified of the theft of public funds and she also covered it up. An attorney stated that this act combined with subsequent acts constitutes grounds for Barbara Garcia to be criminally charged with the violation of public corruption statures.
In addition, in an interview on April 7, 2016 with Tom Mesa, (see: Financial Documents and Information Prepared for Tom Mesa, a Representative of the Department of Public Health ), an employee of DPH, Mr. Mesa acknowledged that there has been mismanagement of taxpayer’s funds at Baker Places. Mr. Mesa indicated that there was a long-standing “cat-and-mouse” game between Jonathan Vernick and DPH such that Vernick would be caught mismanaging public funds and then be put on a “payback” installment plan to cover his theft. Then shortly after this, Vernick would be caught again mismanaging public funds, only to be put on new “payback” installment plan to cover the latest theft.
Please note that during the 7 years of Barbara Garcia’s tenure, from 2010-2017, Baker Places has lost over $2 million per IRS 999s, which nonprofits file each year. Staff at your office can verify this claim by going to www.citizenaudit.org. Clearly, Ms. Garcia has shown she has poor oversight of the taxpayer’s money. [Readers: See: Baker Places Inc - GuideStar Profile].
The last time Baker Places was audited by the Controller’s Office was in 2008. Ben Rosenfield, the Controller, directed the audit which you can view at:
His findings included that Baker Places had mismanage funds. For
example, in the "Highlight" section on page 2, he states Baker
Places "miscategorized expenditures in more than half of the cost
reimbursement invoices we selected for review."
Sadly, things at Baker have not improved in the past 9 years; in fact, I believe the mismanagement of public funds have gotten worse.
Because the mismanage of public funds at Baker Places has been
going on for many years and because it appears to involve all officials in
upper management such as Nick Lederer, the CEO of Baker Places, I am recommending that you: 1) Request
in your upcoming budget due June 30, 2017 that Baker Places be defunded and 2)
You contact your City Attorney, Dennis Herrara, and ask him for legal advice on
how to proceed. [ Readers: See: Home - City Attorney of San Francisco.]Sadly, things at Baker have not improved in the past 9 years; in fact, I believe the mismanagement of public funds have gotten worse.
Based upon the foregoing evidence, I respectfully request that
you fire Barbara Garcia. I will be posing this letter on www.defundbakerplaces.blogspot.com and asking my readers to contact you. While I realize that you
are presently working with the Supervisors on a $10.1 billion budget and that
the theft of $3.4 million is only a small fraction of this sum, as public
servants one is required to make sure every penny counts. Thank you for your
kind attention to this matter. In passing, I want to praise you for your
insightful observations at the “Walk to Work” Day, conducted this past April 6,
2017 which I attended (See: Celebrate Walk
to Work Day This Thursday | SFMTA - San Francisco ... ) in which you
encouraged all City employees to walk to work. Please contact me at safeway7354@gmail.com if I can be of further service.
Sincerely Yours,
Harry Petersen
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