We heard from several small organizations Thursday about how much of their money the SF Parks Alliance blew through before that group dissolved this week, but it sure looks like there will be subpoenas issued, and audits to autopsy what all went wrong.

One way to avoid the discomfort of having the SF Board of Supervisors publicly grill you over how much of other people’s money your organization lost is to simply shut your organization down before the hearing. That’s what the SF Parks Alliance did, after Supervisor Shamann Walton called for hearings on the Parks Alliance's apparent mismanagement of nearly $4 million in other smaller groups’ money, but then the Parks Alliance declared they were closing permanently earlier this week.

Those hearings still happened at Thursday’s SF Board of Supervisors Government Audit & Oversight Committee meeting. And dozens of smaller groups who held their money in the Parks Alliance’s bank account — money that is now gone — lined up to detail how badly this has hurt their parks groups.

One member of a Stern Grove-affiliated group noted Thursday that “currently, we’re in the arrears of about $35,000 from Parks Alliance for the work that we’ve done on Stern Grove, and another $20,000 that’s in the contract. This is potentially like a $50,000 hit on our company, who knows if we’ll ever see it.”

“These are not just numbers on paper,” Supervisor Walton added Thursday. “These are funds raised and entrusted by community members, volunteers, and nonprofit staff who are now scrambling to recover from this betrayal.”

Supervisor Jackie Fielder has been calling for further audits. “There are nonprofits doing amazing work, but some nonprofits are able to sour public opinion for all nonprofits that are contracted with the city to serve their communities,” Fielder said Thursday. “I’m seeing so many community members here today who have unanswered questions about the management and how they can recoup their funds.”

And this is no longer just a left-wing flank issue for the supervisors. “What has recently transpired with the Parks Alliance is nothing short of outrageous,” moderate Supervisor Stephen Sherrill added. “So many park advocate groups who rely on their services have lost all of their fundraising options. This frankly just makes me incredibly, incredibly angry.”

Dozens of smaller groups who parked their money in the SF Parks Alliance bank account lined up to vent over how much of their money has vanished, and to question why this all wasn't noticed earlier.

“We have $22,000 probably lost, this represents 20 years of Russian Hill neighbors contributing to the maintenance of this park,” Fay Park Citizens Advisory Committee member Janet Crane told the committee. “I’m also a co-founder of another nonprofit under the Department of Disability and Aging. They review us every year. One couldn’t put a postage stamp in the wrong column without them finding out. So how can a group of this size get away with this, with no one bringing it to anyone’s attention earlier?”

We mentioned that Fielder has called for further audits, including one of the SF Rec and Parks Department, to determine what the department knew and when. And curiously, several speakers went to great lengths to praise and exonerate Rec and Parks general manager Phil Ginsburg, a potential target of those audits.

“I’ve found Phil and his team to be nothing but professional and rigorous,” Stern Grove Festival executive director Bob Fiedler said Thursday. “In my experience as someone who has run multiple nonprofit organizations in my career, I don't see how there would be any way that Phil would have access to see inside the Parks Alliance’s overall or specific finances.”

The result of the hearing is that the committee voted to subpoena three people: the most recent SF Parks Alliance CEO Robert Ogilvie, recently resigned CEO Drew Becher, and the organization's treasurer Rick Hutchinson.

“I have ideas of others who could be subpoenaed,” Sutro Stewards executive director Ildiko Polony told the committee before the vote.

That committee also unanimously voted to recommend a "performance audit” of the Rec and Parks Department to see if they had any knowledge of or role in all of this. That proposal would have to go to the full Board of Supervisors next week for approval.

But this scandal is shaping up to where both the moderate and progressive wings of the board are united in their outrage. That’s not good news for anyone who served on the SF Parks Alliance, and may be ominous for the SF Rec and Parks Department too.

Related: SF’s 10 Wildest Nonprofit Spending Scandals of the Last Five Years, Ranked [SFist]

Image: SFGovTV