The biggest-spending political group in SF, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, was hit with a $54,000 fine for failing to disclose payments in the Boudin recall campaign, and now we learn that Brooke Jenkins got $175,000 for her “volunteer” work in the recall campaign.
A big-spending political action committee (PAC) known as Neighbors for a Better San Francisco has been described by Mission Local as the “800-pound gorilla of SF politics,” in an analysis this past April that found the group had poured about $9 million into moderate SF political campaigns since 2020. (Though as we’ve reported, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco is actually based in San Rafael.) That total makes them by far the largest political donor in town, and notably, they put up more than half of the money that went into the Recall Chesa Boudin campaign. They also famously paid now-DA Brooke Jankins at least $150,000 for work she described at the time as “volunteer” work for the recall campaign.
We are now learning that they actually paid Jenkins $175,770 for that “volunteer” work. And we learn this as the Chronicle reports that the SF Ethics Commission is set to fine Neighbors for a Better San Francisco about $54,000 for failing to disclose payments made to a PR firm called Riff City Strategies, who were effectively coordinating Jenkins’s public interviews where she trashed Boudin in the press after quitting her job at his office.
The Chronicle’s July 2022 Heather Knight profile of Jenkins, which launched Jenkins’s political career, figures large in the Ethics Commission’s investigation. The full Ethics Commission ruling notes that Riff City Strategies and Neighbors for a Better SF “in part arranged these interviews,” “drafted talking points for Jenkins,” and “conducted interview prep sessions with Jenkins.” So in retrospect, it sure seems like the Chronicle and many in the local media got played like a banjo at the Bluegrass Festival when doing these Jenkins interviews coordinated by a paid PR firm.
And Riff City Strategies was certainly paid well. The firm did an odd mix of recall campaign political work and promotional work for SF cannabis dispensaries. And in the Recall Boudin campaign, the Ethics Commission document says Riff City was paid $7,000 a month prior to October 2021, which was jacked up to $15,000 a month, and eventually to $20,000 a month. The total amount of payments that were not properly reported added up to just over $100,000.
“In this case, the respondents failed to make the required disclosures, which prevented voters from having a full and accurate picture of who was supporting the DA recall effort,” Ethics Commission executive director Pat Ford said in the ruling.
As Mission Local explains, the $54,000 fine is not yet final. But it’s agreed-upon arrangement between Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and the Ethics Commission, and set for approval by the Ethics Commission at their August 9 meeting.
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco is still a very large donor in this year’s elections, having contributed nearly $1 million to a Mark Farrell-affiliated PAC that’s also facing a number of ethical questions. (Riff City Strategies president Jess Montejano is now the spokesperson for the Mark Farrell for Mayor campaign.)
Meanwhile, Neighbors for a Better SF president Jay Cheng is also dealing with some 14-year-old sexual assault allegations that recently resurfaced, though still seems to have some influence among multiple mayoral campaigns. Mission Local recently unearthed a series of texts where Cheng seemed to be recruiting for the Mark Farrell campaign. While a Chronicle report from late April noted that "In an April 2023 email, Cheng connected [mayoral candidate Daniel] Lurie — whom Cheng called a 'good friend' — with a political consultant whom Lurie eventually hired to help run the campaign he began five months later."
This post has been updated with additional detail from the SF Chronicle.
Image: Screenshot via Youtube
