The San Francisco Ethics Commission has now formally accused former Human Rights Commission Executive Director Sheryl Davis of a range of ethics violations that may also amount to illegal acts involving improper gifts and conflicts of interest.

Embattled former city commissioner Sheryl Davis, whom former Mayor London Breed also tapped to lead her Dream Keeper Initiative, has been slapped with a 31-page charging document from the city's Ethics Commission. As the Chronicle reports, Davis has yet to respond to the commission, which presented her with its evidence against her on September 9, giving her a chance to settle the violations behind closed doors. That means that a mini-trial may now take place to make a determination of wrongdoing, and the amount of the fine owed to the city, which could be hefty.

Davis stands accused of three sets of ethics violations, as the Chronicle explains, the majority of which pertain to gifts she received from two nonprofits that she awarded city contracts and grants to, Collective Impact and Urban Ed Academy.

Davis herself was previously the executive director of Collective Impact, which runs a community center in the Western Addition, and her romantic partner, James Spingola, whom she has lived with since 2015, runs the organization now. A city audit released in September found this to be a clear conflict of interest, with Davis giving $1.5 million in city grants to Collective Impact as HRC director.

(It should be noted that an administrative hearing officer last month found Collective Impact was not culpable for "willful misconduct," in a case brought by the city to debar the organization from bidding on city contracts. The city intends to appeal the decision.)

The Ethics Commission found that Davis accepted or solicited around $39,000 in improper gifts from Collective Impact alone, including flight upgrades, and expenses relating to an August 2024 Martha's Vineyard trip that also figured largely in the city audit.

Additionally, Davis is charged with accepting a portrait of herself, valued at $5,000, from Urban Ed Academy, right before she awarded the organization a $270,000 grant from the city.

Under city rules, city commissioners and officials are barred from awarding city funds or contracts to organizations or businesses that have given them gifts over a certain dollar amount in the prior 12 months.

Another set of ethics charges pertains to conflicts of interest in the awarding of city payments to both of the nonprofits, as well the University of San Francisco, where Davis had a second job as a professor.

Davis stands to potentially face a fine in the tens of thousands of dollars, if not even six figures — the total amount is unclear. Each conflict of interest or gift violation comes with a potential $5,000 fine, and if she is not cleared of wrongdoing in the receiving of the gifts, she could be asked to pay back three times the amount of each gift received.

The SF District Attorney's Office is also investigating possible criminal charges against Davis, but has not yet filed any. The city audit earlier found that the misuse of city funds under Davis's watch for often frivolous expenses amounted to approximately $4.6 million.

Davis has called herself merely a "failed bureaucrat," and has said that while serving the city, "I was too focused on the people, but not on the rules."

Her attorney, Tony Brass, who also briefly represented former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao in her bribery case, gave a statement to the Chronicle saying that his client "never made any decisions to personally enrich herself and others at the expense of public resources."

Previously: City Audit Further Details $4.6M In Misspent Dollars By Former SF Human Rights Commission Chief

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