Richie Greenberg, Founder of the Recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin movement, community advocate and vocal critic of the Plan for San Francisco Reparations, served a Cease & Desist demand on the offices of the Board of Supervisors Monday. Greenberg said this in response to deliberations currently underway by the supervisors considering approval of the plan, as well as consideration of a recent request by San Francisco County Supervisor Shamann Walton for an advance allocation of $50 million toward setting up and staffing an Office of Reparations.
The Globe talked with Greenberg Tuesday. Greenberg said city residents are dismayed or are giving up and moving out of San Francisco. “They withdraw from fighting,” he said. “If too many people do that then those in City Hall who control our budget… our money gets wasted. It just brings this city down even further.”
“It’s just getting to be too much,” he added.
Greenberg warned that while many feel the monstrous reparations plan will eventually go down in flames, local politicians are picking out parts of it for implementation. “The $600 million homeless plan has the hallmark of the reparations plan,” Greenberg said.
“And now three members of the Board of Supervisors want $50 million up front, to use this year to open a Reparations office and staff up in time for next year,” Greenberg said. The Globe asked why the office needs $50 million?
That is just one reason Greenberg filed the cease and desist demand. And Greenberg has a legal team in place.
Greenberg said California Civil Procedure Code § 526a allows any taxpayer in the City and County of San Francisco to bring a taxpayer lawsuit or citizen lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco for the violation of the United States and California Constitutions should the Plan be enacted.
He noted that even more importantly, California Civil Procedure Code §526a also allows taxpayers to bring an action for the waste of public funds. All of the necessary case law is cited in his cease and desist demand.
“This is a transfer of wealth,” Greenberg said.
“Our Mayor has a race problem,” he added. “She’s creating a race problem – it is unlawful and unconstitutional.” Greenberg said Mayor Breed took tens of millions of city dollars out of the city budget earmarked for police, and used it in her “Dream Keeper” program.
“The Dream Keeper Initiative is a citywide effort launched in 2021 to reinvest $60 million annually into San Francisco’s diverse Black communities,” Mayor Breed’s Dream Keeper website says. “This Initiative is part of Mayor London N. Breed’s roadmap for reforming public safety and addressing structural inequities in San Francisco.”
“The Dream Keeper Initiative seeks to address and remedy racially disparate policies…”
“Now they want this $50 million right now. It’s a transfer of wealth,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg’s Cease and Desist demand also says:
“Wasting taxpayers money is something City Hall officials are expert at. The time has come to demand they cease such wasteful spending on Reparations as the plan is unlawful, unconstitutional and violates several provisions of state and federal constitutions, the Civil Rights Act and therefore can never be lawfully implemented. Fortunately, taxpayers in this state have recourse to sue, for courts to enjoin the egregious waste of our hard-earned money on wasteful, illegal purposes. With this Cease & Desist served on the Board today, the message will be received loud and clear: the Supervisors cannot lawfully proceed any further without legal ramifications.”
Greenberg additionally demands a full accounting of all expenditures related to the Reparations plan between Jan 2020 through present day. The city has 10 days to respond to the Cease & Desist notice.
Greenberg’s Cease and Desist demand explains:
“The appropriation of $50 million of taxpayer money by the City and County of San Francisco to establish an office of reparations for a program that is unconstitutional and will be unable to legally meet its objectives, is clearly a waste of public funds. Thus, I demand that the Board of Supervisors cease and desist from implementing any allocation of public funds for determining recipient eligibility under the Plan.”
Greenberg provides extensive analysis of the Reparations Plan at RejectThePlan.com , and a copy of the Cease & Desist is available on that site as well.
richie-greenberg-cease-desist-supervisors-4.17.2023
View Comments (3)
Go get 'em. This is a total waste of money and obviously illegal for so many reasons.
Good news, glad to hear it.
Since 1965 taxpayers in the US have put $27 trillion dollars into the Black communities. THAT IS MORE THAN ENOUGH REPARATIONS! If any further reparations are to be paid it should be the Democratic Party that pays them. The Democrats, the party of racism, slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, segregation, and racists like, George Wallace, Robert Byrd, Joe Biden, and countless others.