S.F. topped border counties for crime grant

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, April 5, 2008

District Attorney Kamala Harris hasn't spoken publicly ab...

San Francisco's $3.7 million federal grant to help fight border crime in 2006 was the largest awarded to any county in four states bordering Mexico, according to a federal audit that found the city was not entitled to any of the funds.

City officials have not explained why a city 500 miles from the state's southern border would have prosecuted more than 2,000 cases for the federal government that were related to drug gangs and crimes near the border in a three-year period.

The audit, which was released this week and challenged all $5.4 million that the city received from 2004 to 2006, raises questions about the basis for the city's request for funding under the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative.

Federal officials who challenged San Francisco's grants were told that the city simply made an "estimate" of the number of cases it handled on behalf of the federal government, the audit found. In a footnote, the audit quoted city officials as saying that the grant requests were not based on "actual cases."

Federal officials also suggested in the audit that San Francisco's apparently inflated grant requests robbed other jurisdictions of money that was supposed to help them fight drugs and crime on the federal government's behalf.

In the 2006 fiscal year, smaller amounts were awarded to compensate much larger counties close to the border, including San Diego, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, the audit found.

The offices of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Mayor Gavin Newsom have not responded publicly to questions raised by the federal audit, saying only that they are cooperating with the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Federal authorities have declined to release detailed findings or correspondence associated with the audit, citing the ongoing nature of the case. Federal officials say they will ask San Francisco to repay the $5.4 million the city has received as part of the program, but they have not determined how to go about it.

The program, launched in 2000, is designed to help local jurisdictions pay for prosecuting cases they were saddled with as part of federal efforts to combat crime in states bordering Mexico.

The program requires applicants to keep three years of records on file to show that they were handling local prosecutions referred to them by federal prosecutors or agencies, a requirement that San Francisco did not comply with, according to the audit.

The audit also said the city increased its grant request from $40,000 in 2004 to $1.7 million the next year and $3.7 million in 2006. The city's grant was more than San Diego's $2.5 million, San Bernardino's $2.5 million or Los Angeles' $1.9 million under the program that fiscal year.

Alameda County received $10,000 that year, Contra Costa County $60,000, San Mateo County $86,000 and Santa Clara County $13,000, according to the audit.

The grant requirements indicate that the federal government need only receive an e-mail each quarter of the year that details how long the cases were taking to handle. The longer the case was in the system, the more the agency could seek, up to $10,000 for each case that languished longer than 90 days.

Erica Derryck, a spokeswoman for Harris, said the cases San Francisco cited in seeking grant money were legitimate.

"The cases submitted for reimbursement were actual prosecuted cases," she said. "What is in question is whether or not the prosecuted cases submitted were eligible for reimbursement under the federal program guidelines."

The program requires that for a county to get money to house and prosecute offenders, the agency must have some sort of referral from federal authorities and be handling them on behalf of the authorities.

After checking a sample of the lists and finding no referrals, the auditors concluded that all of the money San Francisco had taken in was not justified.

Kevin Ryan, who was the U.S. attorney in San Francisco in 2006, the year San Francisco asked for and got $3.7 million from the program, did not return calls seeking comment. He currently heads Newsom's Office of Criminal Justice.

Earlier this week, the city controller's office sent an e-mail to the Police Department's fiscal division seeking records of all arrests made between January 2003 and December 2006 by San Francisco officers participating in federal task forces. The office set a deadline of April 25 and asked that the information be forwarded to the district attorney's office.
San Francisco tops Southern California

In 2006, San Francisco received more money from a federal program to fight border crime than any of more than 60 counties in California and three other states that share borders with Mexico. The five California counties that received the most money were:

San Francisco

$3.7 million

San Diego

$2.5 million

San Bernardino

$2.5 million

Los Angeles

$1.9 million

Riverside

$1 million

Source: U.S. Office of Justice Programs

Chronicle staff writer Cecilia M. Vega contributed to this story. E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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