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On October 3, 2023, the Richmond City Council awarded contracts totaling over $10 million to two organizations, Rich City Rides and Urban Tilth. Both contracts were actually awarded to Urban Tilth because Urban Tilth is the fiscal sponsor of Rich City Rides.
Urban tilth was at the time and remains suspended by the California Department of Justice and not allowed to do business.
Sole-Source Contracts with Urban Tilth and Urban Tilth as fiscal Sponsor of Rich City Rides for Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Round 4 Implementation Grant. APPROVE two sole-source contracts with named grant co-applicants: 1) $7,042,833.41 with Urban Tilth and 2) $3,680,656.75 with Rich City Rides, operating with fiscal sponsorship by Urban Tilth, to implement certain subprojects funded by the $35 Million Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Round 4 Richmond Rising Project focused on serving the Iron Triangle, Santa Fe, and Coronado neighborhoods, with a term ending December 31, 2028 – Community Development Department(Lina Velasco 510-620-6706/Samantha Carr 510-620-5407).
Also, see City Council Member Gets over $10 million in Grants from City of Richmond, October 2, 2023.
In the story Richmond Confidential story of October 30, 2023, “City shares millions in climate grant money with local nonprofits, including one marked ‘delinquent,’” City Attorney Dave Aleshire was quoted, “The city can still distribute funds to Urban Tilth.” On September 30, 2023, Doria Robinson wrote: “ “Urban Tilth has been in direct contact with the State and has secured an extension, filed requested documents and are near completion on all audits now required” and “It seems that the City has also been in direct contact with the State / DOJ as well and has clarified Urban Tilth’s status in writing and that it is in fact legal for UT to operate and solicit donations during this time given all the steps UT has taken and is continuing to take to remedy our temporarily delinquent status.”
It turns out that both Aleshire and Robinson were wrong. The City Attorney’s Office had apparently received erroneous information from the DOJ Department of Charitable Trusts, which was corrected in emails of October 12, 2023, obtained by a California Public Records Act request and shown below:
I have contacted both the Strategic Growth Council and the Department of Justice about this issue numerous times but never received a response from either.
All parties, including powerful politicians have been unusually protective of Urban Tilth and Ms. Robinson on the conflict of interest issue since before the 2022 election. The City Attorney's Office and Supervisor John Gioia repeatedly assured the public and the other two D3 candidates, Oscar Garcia and Corky Booze, that there would be no conflict of interest should the City of Richmond receive the grant AND if Ms. Robinson was elected in D3. In fact, Supervisor John Gioia communicated on Facebook that he had provided her legal advice and interpreted government code.
When AB 1234 was passed in 2005, it required City Council members to take and pass a two-hour ethics course every two years. That means I have taken over 16 hours of mandatory ethics training over the years. According to what I learned in those hours of ethics training is that Doria Robinson, who is executive director of Urban Tilth with a salary of over $100,000, not only has a legal conflict of interest but has also rebuffed the attorney general’s advice to avoid even a perceived conflict of interest. As far as I know, the Urban Tilth contract is the first time in Richmond history that a sitting City Council member has become the significant financial beneficiary of a City contract – in this case, a contract involving over $10 million.
City shares millions in climate grant money with local nonprofits, including one marked ‘delinquent’
Alicia Chiang on October 30, 2023
Richmond has received a $35 million state grant for climate-related projects that will be put to use by the city and local organizations, including one whose nonprofit status is in jeopardy.
This month, the City Council unanimously approved contracts with the five groups that will share the Transformative Climate Communities grant. Councilmember Doria Robinson was absent for the vote. She is executive director of Urban Tilth, which will control 30% of the grant money and, as of Monday, was listed as “delinquent” on the California Attorney General’s Office’s Registry of Charitable Trusts.
Under the city’s distribution of the money: GRID Alternatives will receive $7.7 million; Urban Tilth, $7 million; Trust for Public Land, $4.8 million; Rich City Rides, $3.7 million; and Groundwork Richmond, $1 million. The city will use the remaining money to make biking, walking and transit improvements as well as to implement the grant projects.
Urban Tilth is the fiscal sponsor of Rich City Rides. A fiscal sponsor receives and manages money on behalf of a sponsored project, allowing that project to access the benefits of nonprofit status, explained Des Lafleur, a business attorney at UC Berkeley, School of Law.
Former Mayor Tom Butt questioned in his e-forum whether Urban Tilth was even eligible to receive the funds, noting its delinquent status with the California Justice Department.
The Attorney General’s Office marked Urban Tilth delinquent because the nonprofit had failed to file independent audits in 2020 and 2021, public records show. The Attorney General’s Office notified Urban Tilth in July and October that it could lose its tax-exempt status if it didn’t complete an audit.
“Are we doing our annual audit? Yes,” Robinson told Richmond Confidential, adding that the state had extended the organization’s deadline to Monday.
At the Oct. 3 council meeting, City Attorney Dave Aleshire cited an email from the Registry of Charitable Trusts that said “Urban Tilth can still solicit and receive contributions and/or otherwise conduct its day-to-day operations during this period.”
Aleshire added, “The city can still distribute funds to Urban Tilth.”
According to Lina Velasco, the director of Community Development, which oversees the Transformative Climate Communities projects, the city’s application was submitted in 2020. Robinson took office this year.
“I’m not working on any city-related projects right now while I’m a councilperson,” Robinson said. She said any city-related projects would be handled by others at her organization.
Here is what each group will do with the Transformative Climate Communities grant.
The beginnings of an accessible garden in Unity Park. (Alicia Chiang photos)
Urban Tilth
Urban Tilth will be expanding the reach of its food programs, including orchards for all and Veggie RX, a grocery prescription for people with chronic diseases. They will also install water recycling systems for income-qualified residents.
Marcia Vallier, senior architect at CSW |ST2, which is designing an accessible garden at Unity Park, said residents with wheelchairs will be able to roll up to garden beds. There also will be plants at standing height for those who find it difficult to bend. There will be sensory plants with sweet smells and chimes to help visually impaired people navigate the orchard. Interpretive and multilingual signage will be used, “so that anybody can use that garden,” Vallier said.
Rich City Rides
Najari Smith, executive director of Rich City Rides, said 40 electric bikes will be available for people to borrow at an E-bike lending library owned by the city and operated by the organization.
“They’ll have the option to leave their car at home, reducing emissions, reducing traffic, and allowing for there to be a lot more parking spaces,” Smith said.
Groundwork Richmond
Lorena Castillo, executive director of Groundwork Richmond, said the group will be planting 500 trees in the Santa Fe, Iron Triangle and Coronado neighborhoods. The plantings will be in parks, sidewalks and other public areas, as well as on people’s properties if requested.
GRID Alternatives
GRID Alternatives will provide and install solar panels and electric vehicle charging ports for up to 250 low-income families. Arthur Bart-Williams, GRID Alternative’s executive director of the Bay Area Office, said his team also work with MCE and Franklin Energy on energy efficiency measures.
Trust for Public Land
To make transportation more accessible, the city will expand its bike share program with Charleston Mobility and improve Harbour Way, Ohio Avenue, and some AC Transit bus stops for bicyclists and walkers. Trust for Public Land also will be working on the Richmond Wellness Trail, connecting the Richmond BART station and downtown and the waterfront, according to public records. The Trust for Public Land did not reply to calls and emails for comment.
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