How Newsom Makes Funds for Fire Victims Disappear

Tens of thousands of California fire victims still await compensation for their losses, and struggle to rebuild their homes as settlement money appears to be scarce.  The distribution of local funds has been held up, and locals want to know why it is taking so long and if this delay ties back to California Governor Gavin Newsom and political friends.

As referenced in recent Globe articles, Governor Newsom’s ties within the County of Sonoma are deeply rooted. Following the tragic Tubbs Fire in 2017, a Sonoma County based “nonprofit,” Rebuild North Bay, was founded by Darius Anderson. As indicated in the articles of incorporation for this 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, the premise was to support economic recovery and workforce development. But rather than supporting the initial mission and vision proposed, the organization spent approximately $2 million to lobby for PG&E in Washington D.C. alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to the Pacific Sun, “the day after Christmas 2017, PG&E cut Rebuild North Bay a check for $2 million; the utility’s largesse accounted for 75 percent of the foundation’s contributions in the ensuing months.” Per the IRS’ regulations, “in general, no organization may qualify for section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying).”

Rebuild North Bay’s Founder Darius Anderson, is a close colleague of Governor Newsom, owner of Platinum Advisors, “California’s premier government relations and lobbying firm,” and owner of Sonoma Media Investments, the parent company of the Press Democrat, Sonoma County Gazette, Sonoma Index-Tribune, North Bay Business Journal.

Sonoma County residents have reason to wonder why there was previously little mention of this matter in the media. This is because Mr. Anderson’s lobbying firm, Platinum Advisors, is working concurrently with the media, local, state and federal governments to control the Democrat narrative, as figureheads for Governor Newsom.

The roster of Board Members and staff for Rebuild North Bay is concerning. For instance, Darius Anderson initially appointed Elizabeth Gore, first Resident Entrepreneur of the United Nations, as President of the nonprofit. You may recall that Ms. Gore’s name was published recently in a Globe article, as she is co-founder and President/CEO of First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s California Partners Project. Ms. Gore is also the Founder of Hello Alice, an organization which offers minority grant assistance and has been previously funded by former Board Member John China, President of Silicon Valley Bank. Her spouse, James Gore is a former Obama appointee as Assistant Chief to the USDA who has recently been under scrutiny by the Fair Political Practices Commission over ongoing financial omissions.

Rebuild North Bay appears to have recently launched a new initiative titled “After the Fire USA LLC” which was incorporated with the California Secretary of State in January 2023. According to Rebuild North Bay’s website, “After the Fire USA is the most trusted, effective and transformative organization for wildfire recovery and resiliency in the American West. Rebuild NorthBay Foundation is our partner non-profit 501c3 organization that oversees our wildland management programs and provides support for wildfire communities to connect, convene, and share best practices. We collaborate with public officials (regional, state and federal), private sector, nonprofit community, and most importantly, we connect friends and neighbors who have lost everything but possess a resilient community spirit.” Although Jennifer Gray Thompson of Sonoma, CA is listed as the registered agent with the California Secretary of State database, we were unable to locate records of a fictitious business name filing for After the Fire USA within the County of Sonoma. Ms. Thompson is the former District Aide to Susan Gorin, current District 1 Board Supervisor for the County of Sonoma.

The Globe sent Ms. Gray Thompson an email asking:

“could you kindly provide me with copies of the FBN filing and business license for your organization?”

Ms. Gray Thompson emailed back with:

I assume you are requesting compliance and EIN assignment. After the Fire is an initiative of RNBF, as also disclosed publicly.

The Globe replied and asked:

I see that After the Fire USA was registered with the state as its own LLC in January 2023. Could you please advise?

Ms. Gray Thompson replied:

Ms. Thompson included a link to an article at Philanthropy.com and to a podcast.

The Partnerships working with Rebuild North Bay also stand out. Ironically, the organization is directly partnered with the USDA, Mr. Gore’s former employer in Washington D.C. While connections are made from previous work experiences, another donor, the Ashbritt Foundation, is the philanthropic arm of the AshBritt organization. According to the Pacific Sun, “two contracting companies that cleared fire debris in the North Bay last year have been defrauding the federal government on contracts across the country since at least 2015” as indicated in a lawsuit. “AshBritt Environmental, one of the two companies named in the suit, recently hired local media magnate Darius Anderson to lobby for its interests in Sacramento.”

“The federal government’s 2017 North Bay cleanup cost an average of $280,000 per house compared with $77,000 during the state-managed 2015 Valley fire cleanup, according to ananalysis by KQED,” the Pacific Sun continued. “AshBritt invoiced the Army Corps for $320 million for its work in California from October 2017 through June of 2018, according to federal records.”

Following the 2019 Kincade Fire, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”) entered into a Stipulated Judgment to resolve pending criminal and civil charges as declared by the Honorable Patrick Broderick. The funding recipients as directed by Judge Broderick and the County of Sonoma Board of Supervisors once again incite skepticism. An allocation of $500k was given to the charitable organization Nuestra Comunidad for outreach on disaster preparedness. Nuestra Comunidad only has an Executive Director, Alma Bowen and Treasurer, Darnell Bowen who are husband and wife. The IRS requires that public charities have at least 51% of the voting members of the board of directors be unrelated. The IRS also requires a minimum of three board members. The organization’s own Bylaws state “the authorized number of directors of the Corporation (“Directors”) shall be not less than 3 or more than 5; the exact authorized number to be fixed, within these limits, by resolution of the Board”. Therefore, the organization is in violation of their own Bylaws and federal law.

Interestingly, Mr. Darnell Bowen is also the Controller for Hello Alice, Elizabeth Gore’s company. According to this 2020 article published by the Sonoma Index-Tribune, Judge Broderick is an immediate relative of the late Earl Broderick, President and CEO of Broderick General Engineering, which has directly contracted with the County of Sonoma for many years. One could inquire how Judge Broderick may remain neutral within litigation matters directly involving the County. The circle of conflicts of interests raise questions of intent and quite possibly malfeasance rather than coincidence.