A new piece of evidence suggests that Mayor London Breed may have received an undisclosed gift from local restaurateur Nick Bovis, the alleged co-conspirator who was indicted by the feds last month along with former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru.
If an invoice from 2015 turns out to be legit, it provides an intriguing puzzle piece connecting Breed directly with Bovis, who until now had only been connected by investigators to Nuru. As the Examiner reports, after obtaining the invoice from an anonymous source, a parade float company called East West ("The Parade Guys") was apparently told to invoice Bovis for $1250 for Breed's float in the SF Pride Parade in 2015, when she was still on the Board of Supervisors. The company confirmed that they had made floats for Breed in the past, without confirming details of the invoice.
The Examiner asked Breed who had paid for the parade float that year, and Breed said she paid for all of her floats. But while the paper was able to locate records of Breed using campaign funds to pay for floats in other years, the same records couldn't be found for the Pride float in June 2015.
This report follows on last week's big news, from the mayor herself, about her longtime close personal friendship with Nuru, and a gift he made to her last year, spending $5600 of his own money to have her car repaired. It seems that the friendship might have made the gift permissible under the law, but some in City Hall including Supervisors Gordon Mar and Hillary Ronen have called it improper and called for the mayor to resign or step aside.
News of this invoice to Bovis adds to growing evidence of Bovis's longtime symbiotic relationship with city figures — and it follows on last week's news, via the City Attorney's new investigation, that Bovis may have been helping city contractors like Recology and Webcor "funnel" money to the Department of Public Works by paying for their holiday parties.
It remains to be seen if the alleged Bovis parade float invoice will now bubble up into the City Attorney's Office or federal investigations as well.
Update: The Mayor's Office has responded and said that because participating in the Pride parade is a "governmental purpose," the contribution from Bovis constitutes a "behest payment," and therefore it didn't violate any rules.
The Mayor's Office is claiming this was a "behest payment."
— Joe Fitz Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) February 19, 2020
Below I've screwn shorted their statement.
Behest payments are often criticized as legalized bribery, but still, are legal. Essentially, it's when an official calls on a third party to pay someone, usually a chairty. pic.twitter.com/m0sb34SbuJ
Previously: Mayor Breed Admits Relationship With Nuru, As Well As a $5600 'Gift' From Him
Photo: London Breed/Instagram
