Santa Rosa Councilman Weaponized Power Via Appointees
Former Councilman Jack Tibbetts, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul, acted as a puppet master by appointing his nonprofit organization's employees & affiliates to City Boards & Commissions
Former Santa Rosa Councilman Jack Tibbetts, Executive Director of The Society Of St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Sonoma County, acted as a puppet master by appointing his nonprofit organization's employees and affiliates to Boards and Commissions for the City of Santa Rosa. Through various local agencies, the ‘puppets’ drove low-income housing projects which benefitted Tibbetts’ nonprofit.
Per the 2023 Form 990, Tibbetts earned a salary of $159k as Executive Director.
On January 31, 2017, Vice Mayor Tibbetts announced his appointment of Mr. Chris Grabill to the Board of Public Utilities.
The Board of Public Utilities (BPU), established by City Charter Section 25, is comprised of seven (7) members individually appointed by City Council members. The BPU has general policy authority and direction over the management and operation of the City's water and wastewater facilities. The Board also directs other water operations managed by the City and water facilities owned or operated by the City.
On February 23, 2021, Councilman Tibbetts reappointed Mr. Grabill to the Board of Public Utilities.
Grabill’s annual statement of economic interest (SEI) for the fiscal period of Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2019 indicated he was employed as a project consultant for building at St. Vincent de Paul.
Grabill’s 2021 SEI submitted for the 2020 fiscal year indicated that he was promoted to Director of Housing & Services at St. Vincent de Paul.
On November 18, 2021, the BPU was tasked with adopting the Water Demand Offset (WDO) Policy, the 2021 WDO Fee Study, and the WDO Fees and authorizing the WDO Fees to be adjusted on an annual basis to account for inflation at the beginning of the calendar year (January 1) starting in 2023, using the Engineering News Record’s 20-Cities CCI (20-cities CCI).
Board Members had a detailed discussion related to the proposed Water Demand Offset Fees and the balance of preserving water supply versus impacts to housing development. Board Member Walsh offered a friendly amendment to the proposed recommendation to include a request that the City Council consider a General Fund subsidy to offset the fee for affordable housing projects, which was accepted by the Board Members who made the original motion and second.
Grabill was the lone vote in opposition to the motion.
The Water Demand Offset Fee Study prepared by staff and dated Sept. 31, 2021 stated:
The Shortage Plan establishes that no water would be available to allocate to new demand created by development during water shortage emergencies that require water allocations (water rationing). However, the City acknowledges the severity of the housing shortage crisis and therefore the Shortage Plan allows development to continue during these water shortage stages so long as the new water demand created by new construction is offset.
The City wishes to establish a Water Demand Offset (WDO) Fee to be paid by developers whose projects increase demand for water during declared water shortage emergencies that require water allocations for existing customers. The WDO Fees would fund existing or new City demand management efforts, water supply projects, and/or water conservation programs to offset the new water demands. The City would determine the most cost-effective and appropriate ways to use the WDO Fee revenue. Developers wishing to add new or increased water demand during declared water shortage emergencies that require water allocations would be required to pay WDO Fees to ensure a net zero impact on water demand.
St. Vincent de Paul has worked in tandem with Generation Housing (Gen H), a project of the Tides Center, a local ‘nonprofit’ which endorses low-income housing projects.
The Board for Gen H has been routinely stacked with major real estate developers and political figures.
Per the Gen H website:
This 22-unit permanent supportive housing (PSH) project, proposed by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, will provide critical housing solutions for those in need. One of the units will be reserved for an onsite manager, while the remaining units will be deed-restricted for individuals earning 30 percent or less of the Area Median Income. Supportive services will be provided onsite, including employment counseling and placement.
The location of this project to nearby essential services and the fact that it is redeveloping an underutilized site for PSH housing aligns well with the mission, vision, and guiding principles of Generation Housing.
On February 23, 2021, during the simultaneous appointment of Mr. Grabill to the BPU, Tibbetts appointed Mr. Akash Kalia to the Planning Commission.
City records included SEIs for Mr. Kalia filed beginning in March 2020. I could not find record of his appointment in Council minutes prior to his 2021 appointment by Tibbetts. I have no idea how Mr. Kalia legally served on the Planning Commission prior to 2021.
Planning Commission minutes indicated Kalia served as a Commissioner as early as 2017.
Mr. Kalia is a long-time business partner to the Gen H Executive Director Jenni Klose. Akash Kalia and Jen Klose are the founding members of Functional Zero Partners who transformed The Palms Inn, a budget hotel in Santa Rosa, California, into permanent 'supportive' housing.
Kalia’s 2020 SEI for the 2019 fiscal year indicated he was employed as the CFO to Functional Zero Partners, and as a Managing Member to Casbar Entrepreneurs LLC.
Casbar itemized the City of Santa Rosa, Catholic Charities and the Sonoma County Housing Authority as clients generating over $10k in annual income for permanent supportive housing for formally homeless veterans and civilians.
Why the f*ck would Tibbetts appoint Kalia to the Planning Commission with full awareness that his client portfolio included the City of Santa Rosa? The City Attorney receives all SEIs but was clueless?
Kalia left the Planning Commission in September 2021.
Just three months later, in December 2021, The Press Democrat published the following article:
Councilman Jack Tibbetts announced Tuesday he will resign from Santa Rosa City Council effective Dec. 21.
His departure will leave the six remaining council members to decide how to seat a replacement who will represent a district that includes the eastern-most Santa Rosa hills and spans out as far as Oakmont.
In a short speech in which he appeared to choke back tears, Tibbetts said he felt unable to be a dedicated public servant and a dedicated father and husband at the same time.
“The public deserves 100%, but so does my wife and child,“ he said. Tibbetts, 31, and his wife, Ali, have a nine-month-old son.
Reelected to a second term in November 2020, Tibbetts’ current term ends Dec. 2024.
The council, during Tuesday’s meeting, did not discuss when and how it would fill Tibbetts’ seat. Such replacements can happen by appointment or a special election.
“I’m very sorry to leave you with the selection process ahead having been through it myself,” Tibbetts said.
In a brief interview, Mayor Chris Rogers said he would call for a Dec. 20 special meeting to discuss replacing Tibbetts.
The council could hold a special election in June but would have to decide during that meeting, the mayor said, citing research by the city attorney. The council could also appoint a resident of Tibbetts’ district to serve until a June or November election.
A five-year City Council veteran, Tibbetts comes from a politically involved family — his father, Nick Tibbetts, is a longtime Sonoma County political consultant.
A graduate of Montgomery High School, he was a student at UC Berkeley in 2013 when he became involved with a push to add a tax on oil extraction in California, campaign that led to legislation authored by then-state Sen. Noreen Evans. The tax was envisioned to support higher education funding, state parks and health and human services, but it did not advance in the Legislature.
Tibbetts won a council seat in 2016 at just 26 years old, which prompted some Sonoma County politicos to predict higher offices were likely in his future.
He remains the youngest person to be elected to Santa Rosa City Council.
Tibbetts is not considering seeking another elected office anytime soon, he said Tuesday, adding that if he chose to run again it would be once his son went to college. In a text message after this story initially published online, Tibbetts sought to clarify his answer.
“If I ever got motivated by an issue enough, mad enough, and got a blessing from my family, I’d jump in again,” he said.
Following his announcement, his fellow council members saluted Tibbetts’ consistent advocacy on housing issues, particularly the development of more housing for low-income families.
The council has “never had a more dedicated advocate on housing and homelessness,” Rogers said.
In a Facebook post announcing his resignation, Tibbetts expressed pride that he voted to advance every affordable housing project that came before the council.
Such building projects most often were considered by council following appeals by concerned neighbors or neighborhood groups.
Tibbetts serves as the executive director of the nonprofit St. Vincent De Paul for which he earns an annual salary of over $100,000, according to a financial disclosure form he filed with the city in March.
In February 2020 during Tibbetts’ first term, The Press Democrat compared his attendance record to that of other members of Santa Rosa City Council and found he had missed a high number of votes, often because of his work leading the nonprofit.
In order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, he has often recused himself from council votes on issues involving homelessness.
In his Facebook statement Tuesday, he described those recusals as one of the “biggest frustrations” of his time in office.
“I do hope the California Fair Political Practices Commission will one day reexamine its conflict of interest policies and lean more towards flexibility in a time of unrivaled transparency, brought about by the digital age,” he said.
He wrote with pride of St. Vincent De Paul’s growth in recent years, singling out the Los Guilicos Village project, a campus of tiny homes that serves as transitional housing.
Tibbetts said that though his family drove his decision to resign, the nonprofit’s growth and its increasing demands on his time also played a role.
It appears that The Press Democrat commenters were not buying the B.S. Tibbetts tried to sell.
A February 2022 article by Northern California Public Media, “Sonoma County’s chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is firing back at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, accusing two of the paper’s reporters of painting a misleading picture of a run-down motel slated for reconstruction into affordable housing.”
“Tibbetts is executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Sonoma County. Until December, he also held a seat on Santa Rosa’s city council. In a post on Tibbett’s Facebook page, he accused the newspaper of ‘dishonest, biased, and unethical’ practices in a story focused on living conditions at a defunct motel slated to permanently house 54 homeless families.”
As a reaction to the negative attention in the press, Mr. Tibbetts drafted a lengthy rebuttal on the SVdP Commons website.
“Friends,
I am embarrassed and disheartened to have to write this today, but as you can imagine, those of us at St. Vincent de Paul were outraged and hurt by the article our local newspaper, The Press Democrat, chose to run, despite megabytes of information and documented evidence sent to their journalists, Ethan Varian and Andrew Graham, to explain our position and directly dispel claims made by some of our residents at the Gold Coin Motel, which we purchased a few years ago to renovate and turn into permanent supportive housing.
We were disheartened because we chose to take the hard road by taking these tenants on. It was not planned for, financially or programmatically. We did it because we knew the alternative was much, much worse. Since then, we’ve spent hundreds of thousands of unplanned dollars to make the units better than they were before, we reduced rent, we gave people jobs who couldn’t afford to pay, and our staff cleared back rent by pairing tenants with the County’s rental assistance program. I share this not to be self-aggrandizing, but to share a side of the story the Press Democrat willingly chose not to share with you.
When we received notice from the city over ten days ago that they would be conducting inspections, we were not surprised. The city has done this roughly twice per year since we acquired the property. Just prior to our purchasing it, the motel had just been moved into red tagged status. We invested over $125,000 right away to bring it up to code so the tenants could stay, and we have spent over $400,000 to date to keep it in occupiable status. Following these efforts, the city deemed the units safe for occupancy and have done so five times since then. All this documentation and more was provided to the Press Democrat. For every claim that was made against us, we provided documented evidence that directly countered and debunked those claims.
When a newspaper, or any media outlet, launches an investigative piece, you would think these important details would make it into the article. However, in our case, they did not. Andrew and Ethan blatantly disregarded and omitted the information we provided them. Already, SVdP has formally requested two retractions, based on recorded evidence captured by Ethan and Andrew, which was changed after notifying Press Democrat management.
I knew that when we got hit with this inquiry from the Press Democrat it wasn’t going to be good for us, but I wholeheartedly believed that if I took the time to walk Ethan and Andrew through all our documentation of steps taken and issues addressed, they would be ethically bound to report those facts. What I read in the online edition of yesterday’s paper did anything but. It was dishonest, biased, and unethical journalism. Flat out.
But I am not just going to light a fire to watch things burn. I want anyone who is interested in this story, or doubts the efforts made by St. Vincent de Paul, to see for themselves. Below are explanations and links to just a snippet of the information provided to the Press Democrat to back up every single claim we made, as well as directly counter claims that were made against our staff. It’s all there for you to see, just as they’ve seen it. The only change is that I have redacted the names of the tenants for their privacy. There is more documentation, also. Should anyone wish to see it, I will eagerly provide it.
In this day and age, it is no wonder why a recent Gallup poll found that more than 80% of Americans have a distrust of media. Only 16% said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of trust in media. This article contributes to that problem.
From now on, I will use my professional and public position to hold the newspaper and its journalists to a higher standard. There is no hypocrisy more egregious than a journalist “holding people accountable” by willingly omitting the facts to elicit a very intentional response. Going forward, we will be joining the growing number of individuals and organizations that will not cooperate with the Press Democrat until there is a culture shift, nor will we share any information with them. A dishonest paper has not earned the privilege that is the responsibility of reporting the truth.
Below is a point-by-point rebuttal to the Press Democrat’s claims, with evidence to counter their narrative. If anyone has any questions for me or about the job we do at SVdP, I hope you will reach out.
-Jack
(Phone number redacted)
jtibbetts@redacted”
Within the rebuttal, Mr. Tibbetts issued the following statement: “Andrew has written things in previous articles that have been patently untrue. For example, in one article he wrote that I have taken financial contracts from the City of Santa Rosa for St. Vincent de Paul. Of course, I’ve never done such a thing. Doing so would violate Penal Code 1090 and land me in jail. SVdP partners with a separate jurisdiction on homeless shelters, and that is the County of Sonoma. It is a separate government entity, with separate funds.”
The Fair Political Practices Commission provides further guidance pertaining to Government Code Section 1090: Government Code Section 1090 prohibits an officer, employee, or agency from participating in making government contracts in which the official or employee within the agency has a financial interest. Section 1090 applies to virtually all state and local officers, employees, and multimember bodies, whether elected or appointed, at both the state and local level.
“Making” a contract includes final approval of the agreement, as well as involvement in preliminary discussion, planning, negation, and solicitation of bids.
A broad range of agreements are considered a contract under Section 1090. Generally, there is a contract when an offer is made and accepted and there is something of value bargained for and exchanged by each party. This includes written contracts, purchase of goods or services, employment agreements, leases, development agreements, etc.
An official can have a “financial interest” in a contract in a variety of ways and it is not limited by the amount of the interest or how closely connected the official’s interest is to the contract.
Several exceptions to Section 1090’s general prohibition also exist and, when applicable, officials may be considered to have no financial interest or a “remote” financial interest, so that a contract, or the official’s participation in the contracting process, is not prohibited under Section 1090.
Violations of Section 1090 can result in the voiding of contracts, criminal, civil, and administrative penalties, as well as a ban on holding public office.
Although Mr. Tibbetts blatantly denied any contractual agreements between his nonprofit and the City of Santa Rosa, the Council minutes indicate otherwise. Even though Mr. Tibbetts recused himself on relevant agenda items, did he play a role in establishing the government contracts? If so, this would be considered a violation of Section 1090.
St. Vincent de Paul Sonoma County’s Treasurer Melissa Fanning presents a questionable past as a certified public accountant (CPA). As a CPA, Ms. Fanning appears to possess a nearly $125,000 federal tax lien in relation to a small business. Being that Ms. Fanning eludes to being a resident of Clearlake, CA, her ties to a Sonoma County based charitable organization are intriguing.
The Lake County Record-Bee published a 2018 article which discusses Ms. Fanning’s probation, implemented by The California Board of Accountancy. “Melissa Fanning, a certified public accountant in Clearlake, was disciplined by the California Board of Accountancy for multiple alleged negligent acts, each resulting in a violation of professional standards.
The board placed Fanning on three years’ probation, during which she will maintain an active license.
The action stems from Fanning’s work for the Lake County Community Action Agency, a nonprofit organization. She was retained by the agency”s board beginning in November 2005, according to CBA documents.
In 2010, Fanning reportedly began providing financial statements to the board. These statements “did not contain compilation reports with required elements,” the documents alleges. She also failed to issue draft statements in non-draft form and did not respond completely to inquiries made by the CBA, according to investigators.”
A 2011 article from The Lake County Record-Bee further discusses financial issues regarding the Lake County Community Action Agency Board of Directors. “Employees present for the meeting expressed a breakdown in communication and response to inquiries from the agency”s accountant, Melissa Fanning, CPA. One employee said while her paycheck reflects deductions for child support payments, those payments were not made and she now faces legal and financial consequences, including payments due on interest incurred for delinquent child support. Another employee said she has worked hard to clear her credit and now finds herself in financial crisis because of similar accounting deficiencies.
Board member Joyce Overton indicated that bills have not been getting paid either. “There are checks that Georgina (Lehne, executive director) has signed that have not been sent to the vendors,” she said. Overton said that notices were recently received informing the agency that a phone line will be shut off as well as the electricity at the main office in Clearlake. She said clients at the TLC House were consistently being forced to pay utilities at the facility as well.”
Yelp reviews from the public in reference to Ms. Fanning’s CPA firm incite further inquiries as to if she was the ideal choice for the position as treasurer to a charity holding millions of dollars in funding.
Yesterday, I sent the following media request to the City of Santa Rosa. I have not received a response.
Good Afternoon,
I am writing a follow-up article regarding Mr. Chris Grabill. Could the City kindly advise why it was appropriate for Councilmember Jack Tibbetts to appoint his own employee to the Board of Public Utilities? Joint meetings were held between the City Council & the Board of Public Utilities periodically.
I have attached Mr. Grabill's 2022 SEI for the financial reporting period of January 1 - December 31, 2021, and the 2021 SEI for the financial reporting period of January 1 - December 31, 2020. Grabill's SEI confirms his employment as Director of Emergency Housing and Shelter Services for St Vincent De Paul during the time he was appointed by Tibbetts.
I find this to be a conflict of interest which will be reported to the FPPC. Do you find this to be a conflict, or not?
Until Supervisor Gore, Judge Patrick Broderick & friends drop the fraudulent lawsuit filed against me by BGCSV, I will continue to dismantle political campaigns before the 2026 elections even begin.
Thanks so much & God Bless.
--
Kindest Regards,
Adina Flores
