A taxpayer-funded youth hashish program and a politically related subcontractor in Berkeley burned by way of $607,000, but nonetheless got here up empty-handed.
Town shelled out funds from a $1 million state grant between 2022 and 2024 to Berkeley Youth Alternate options and its subcontractor, Upline Options, led by Patricia Brooks — now chief of workers to Oakland Metropolis Councilmember Kevin Jenkins.
Upline was tapped to launch a hashish advert marketing campaign, however the effort fizzled earlier than it started. The corporate was additionally tasked with organizing a group process power, which lastly began in early 2024 — virtually two years after the grant kicked in and a 12 months and a half after funds began flowing.
The non-profit — Berkeley Youth Alternate options — educated teenagers for a peer-led hashish schooling effort aimed toward reaching 1,000 college students by way of at the least 10 displays. The teenagers obtained coaching, however the displays had been a no-go, in keeping with an April 2025 Alameda County analysis cited by the San Francisco Chronicle.
This system’s ambitions additionally fell quick. Early plans known as for counseling and providers for 75 to 180 center and highschool college students. That was later minimize to 25-60 new contributors. Over three years, the nonprofit reported serving 48 shoppers, however evaluators stated it was unclear what number of had been new.
Brooks pointed to COVID-19 disruptions and metropolis staffing shakeups, including that the advert marketing campaign was dropped due to a change in hashish coverage, although she provided no additional particulars.
“Not each contract works out tremendous effectively…it was a tough contract,” she informed the Chronicle.
In the meantime, state filings present Upline Options was integrated by Brooks and Yelda Bartlett — the spouse of Ben Bartlett — lawyer and Metropolis Councilmember for South Berkeley. One other submitting listed Jenkins as a registered agent.
Brooks stated neither Yelda nor Ben Bartlett financially benefited.
Jenkins stated he had no monetary involvement and didn’t work on the Berkeley contract.
Nonetheless, Bartlett admitted he was each disillusioned and troubled that BYA and Upline had left a lot of their contracted work unfinished.
“Perhaps there’s a world the place they might nonetheless fulfill the lacking components,” he stated.
Davina Harm, who directs the federal government ethics program on the Markkula Middle for Utilized Ethics at Santa Clara College, informed the outlet that “the buck stops with town.”
“It breaks the general public’s belief that their cash isn’t being effectively spent,” she stated. “It’s upon town to make sure that they deal with issues appropriately by both stopping funds, retrieving their a reimbursement, or demanding that the contract be fulfilled.”
Of the unique $1 million grant, about $235,000 was returned to the state. Town additionally spent roughly $125,000 by itself workers overseeing this system.
Regardless of the failures, Berkeley Youth Alternate options has continued to obtain metropolis funding by way of different contracts and initiatives.
