A former San Francisco human rights boss accused of squandering metropolis funds to pay for private tasks and her son’s tuition continues to be accumulating a taxpayer-backed test as she faces a battery of legal fees in courtroom.
Sheryl Davis — 57-year-old former head of the San Francisco Human Rights Fee who resigned in September 2024 after she was accused of conflicts of curiosity — is receiving a retirement advantage of $4,952.23 per 30 days, in accordance with the San Francisco Staff’ Retirement system.
Davis was employed in 2018 to guide the troubled Human Rights Fee and earned near $340,000 in complete comp in her remaining full 12 months of employment.
She left eight years later after revelations that she steered contracts in direction of Collective Impression, a nonprofit run by her live-in accomplice James Spingola that raked in $8.5 million by way of the Dream Keeper Initiative, a flagship metropolis program meant to assist San Francisco’s black communities after the George Floyd police homicide in 2020.
A subsequent metropolis audit and ethics probe alleged that Davis — as head of the Human Rights Fee and later the Dream Keeper Initiative — burned taxpayer {dollars} in “frivolous” and “unethical” methods and skimmed funds for private use.
Prosecutors have accused Davis of utilizing Collective Impression as a “slush fund” to assist pay for events and private tasks — such a premium flight upgrades, wine tastings, live shows, tables and admissions at VIP occasions in Beverly Hills, Martha’s Winery and New York Metropolis, and “a number of PR corporations” to advertise her youngsters’s guide, “Free to Sing,” and private web site.
An audit revealed in 2025 by the Controller’s Workplace detailed hundreds of thousands in “misused” metropolis funds, together with greater than $685,000 on sports activities tickets, flight upgrades, resorts and occasions, $350,000 on restaurant buyouts and catering, and $80,000 for a home rental and different bills in Martha’s Winery.
Davis was accused in one other metropolis probe of utilizing $19,000 for her son’s graduate faculty tuition at UCLA.
Spingola is going through 4 felony counts of aiding Davis’ alleged self-dealing schemes. Davis is going through 17 felony counts and two misdemeanor fees of misusing public funds and conflicts of curiosity.
Davis’ legal professional, Tony Brass, has denied the legal allegations and stated she had begged for assist in managing her division’s funds.
She has cooperated with the investigations, he stated.
“She’s not a criminal, she’s not hiding something,” Brass informed reporters after Davis’ arraignment final week.
Davis pled not responsible to 19 counts of self-dealing and misusing taxpayer funds stemming from her time in command of the Dream Keeper Initiative.
“She was the one asking for accountability. If she was benefiting from the system, why would she have ever finished that?” Brass added.
Metropolis pensions are usually a mixture of worker and metropolis contributions, however Davis may have her advantages revoked if she discovered to have engaged in “ethical turpitude,” in accordance with the retirement system.
“Beneath the San Francisco Constitution, if Ms. Davis is convicted of against the law of ethical turpitude in connection along with her employment, she’s going to forfeit entitlement to obtain advantages from the Metropolis,” a spokesperson wrote in an electronic mail.
It’s comparatively uncommon for former metropolis staff to lose their pensions attributable to legal convictions.
One other former division head, ex-Public Utilities Fee director Harlan Kelly, was stripped of his $22,000 annual pension after he was convicted of fraud in a long-running federal probe of San Francisco Metropolis Corridor officers.
