Sordid details continue to emerge in the ongoing investigation of SFPD nonprofit contractor SF SAFE, which was recently found to have spent almost $80,000 in taxpayer money on limo services, hotels in Tahoe, and luxury gift boxes, among other ineligible expenses. The nonprofit’s board has now fired its executive director, Kyra Worthy, after employees found evidence of check forgery and noticed several of the organization’s bank accounts had balances close to or below zero. Elsewhere, Ripple CEO Chris Larsen, who donated $1.8 million to the nonprofit, called for an audit of how his donation was spent, while another nonprofit — Mission-based “Latino Task Force” — accused SF SAFE of failing to reimburse it for $625,000 worth of services provided. Supervisors have been united in their condemnation of the malfeasance. “Speaks to a very unfortunate and cozy relationship between the police department and SF SAFE,” Peskin said, “all on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Unfortunate, indeed. But far from unique in a city that spends $1.7 billion a year on contracts with over 600 nonprofits and has no standardized system for monitoring the performance of these contracts. Nonprofits in SF abuse taxpayer money in every way imaginable, from expensing ineligible or wasteful spending (as is the case of SF SAFE), to laundering money (as was the case of the “Clean City Coalition,” a nonprofit used by Recology to bribe DPW officials), to actively funding illegal “protest” tactics (as occurred with AROC and the recent Bay Bridge protest). For every one scandal that surfaces, dozens go unreported.

One way to start addressing this flagrant mismanagement is to mandate frequent audits of all nonprofits and institute standardized, department-wide metrics for evaluating performance. This is exactly what Supervisor Stefani proposed in September, when she introduced an ordinance requiring nonprofits receiving more than $750,000 in city funds submit audited financial statements and comply with regular reviews by the Controller. (The ordinance has since stalled in committee.) Of course, audits can't uncover all bad behavior. But the SF SAFE case shows how they can begin unraveling webs of corruption.