San Francisco, CA – Today, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that Sheryl Davis (57), former executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC), and James Spingola (65), the former executive director of Collective Impact, a San Francisco nonprofit, have been charged with multiple felonies following an 18 month criminal investigation by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Unit that involved the issuance of more than 50 search warrants as part of a comprehensive investigation into the full scope of the scheme.

Ms. Davis is charged with multiple felonies and two misdemeanors:13 felony counts of having a financial conflict of interest in a government contract, in violation of California Government Code §1090(a), one felony count of misappropriating public funds, in violation of California Penal Code §424(a), three felony counts of perjury, in violation of Penal Code §118, one misdemeanor count of receiving gifts from a restricted source, in violation of San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code §3.216(b), and one misdemeanor count of having a financial conflict of interest in a government decision, in violation of San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code §3.206.

Mr. Spingola is charged with four felonies counts of aiding and abetting Ms. Davis’s conflict of interest in four of the City contracts with Collective Impact in violation of Government Code §1090(b).

An affidavit filed with the Court in support of an arrest warrant describes a pervasive pattern of self-dealing by Ms. Davis when she was a City department head responsible for distributing tens of millions of dollars of City funds through the Dream Keeper Initiative.

First, Ms. Davis is alleged to have directed more than $4.5 million in Dream Keeper funds to Collective Impact. The affidavit describes that before Ms. Davis was appointed to lead HRC, she worked as the executive director of Collective Impact. But even after she no longer worked there and became the executive director of a City Department, the affidavit states, she remained a signatory on the Collective Impact bank account, raised funds for the organization, and helped steer its spending.

Ms. Davis also lived, traveled, and shared bank accounts and a car with Mr. Spingola, who was Collective Impact’s executive director, according to the affidavit filed with the court. This financial intermingling resulted in Ms. Davis having a direct financial interest in the contracts executed. Ms. Davis was funneling City money to Collective Impact, while also steering how Collective Impact spent its funds, both for HRC use and for her personal benefit. Her financial interest was not only that her personal and home life, including her rent, were partially funded by Mr. Spingola’s Collective Impact salary — a fact she never disclosed — but also that when Ms. Davis directed City money to Collective Impact, she had a stake in the outcome because Collective Impact’s funds were in part under her control and she could use them for HRC purposes or her own personal benefit.

Second, the affidavit states that Ms. Davis signed contracts granting more than $3.5 million of City money to an organization called Homeless Children’s Network. Meanwhile, Homeless Children’s Network paid Davis’s son nearly $140,000 that was deposited into a bank account Ms. Davis jointly owned and controlled.

Third, the affidavit explains that Ms. Davis signed contracts giving hundreds of thousands of dollars of City money to a public relations and branding firm that used some of those City funds to do public relations work for Ms. Davis personally and for Collective Impact.

Finally, according to the affidavit filed with the court, Ms. Davis improperly spent her department’s discretionary funds, failed to disclose gifts on forms she signed under penalty of perjury, accepted prohibited gifts from Collective Impact, and facilitated the sale of many copies of a book she wrote to the San Francisco Public Library, from which she made a profit.

Ms. Davis and Mr. Spingola surrendered on the arrest warrants this morning and have been booked into San Francisco County jail. They are expected to post bail. The court will schedule their arraignment date.

Although charges have been filed, the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Task Force continues to investigate this matter along with other pending criminal investigations. Anyone with information is asked to call the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office’s Public Integrity Tip Line at 1-628-652-4444. You may remain anonymous. For information on how to file a whistleblower report, please visit: https://www.sf.gov/how-file-whistleblower-report. You may remain anonymous.

Court Numbers: Davis, 26007118, Spingola, 26007115

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