Hey Dennis,

We understand your detectives are investigating the monumentally dysfunctional San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department. Cool. Seems like there's a lot to check out there. We've already written some stories about the department – how officials apparently forged time sheets at Log Cabin Ranch School and scammed workers out of overtime pay (see "Dollars and Sentences," 9/1/04), how they were forced to return $900,000 in state funding (see "Selling Out Kids," 8/25/04), etc., etc.

But as freelance servants to the community, we'd like to humbly suggest a few more areas of inquiry.

For starters, what's up with the Youth Guidance Center Improvement Committee? The Youth Guidance Center, as you know, is the city's juvenile hall, a dark, ancient, prisonlike structure located on Twin Peaks. The YGCIC – yeah, it's a mouthful – is a nonprofit organization that provides educational programs, including computer classes, at juvenile hall.

Here's where it gets weird: some whistle-blowers say employees of the Juvenile Probation Department are, in fact, running this nonprofit, whose 2003 budget was more than $500,000, according to tax records.

That raises the possibility that department employees may be double-dipping, doing work for the nonprofit while on the clock for the city. Juvie Probation swears that's not happening. Liz Jackson-Simpson, the department's head of community programs, told us, "no department staff" are paid by the YGCIC.

Still, department employee John Knox is listed on 2003 city documents as the "company contact person" for the YGCIC. And we looked at some old contracts between the department and the YGCIC and discovered that in 2000 and 2001 Knox signed those papers on behalf of the YGCIC.

Under the terms of those contracts, the nonprofit received more than $330,000 directly from the department. It all seems a little fishy to us.

Asked about Knox's dual roles, Jackson-Simpson said, "That happened prior to me being on board, and it's since been rectified."

Then there are the horses.

We got a hold of a police report filed in June 2003 by a former department employee who charged former chief probation officer Gwendolyn Tucker and her predecessor, Jesse Williams, as well as several other city officials linked to the department, with misappropriating public money.

One of the allegations involves a former juvenile probation commissioner, Rev. Tim Dupre. While sitting on the Juvenile Probation Commission, Dupre allegedly used his position to house his personal horses at a department facility at taxpayer expense. As you know, the commission is supposed to be an independent body overseeing the department.

It looks a little sketchy for a commissioner to get a free home for his horses, especially since commercial stables in the Bay Area typically charge $250 to $500 a month to feed and board a single horse.

The six-page police report might seem wacky if not for the fact that Dupre admits he kept a couple of horses at the Log Cabin Ranch School – the city's decaying long-term facility for felonious teenage boys – without paying the city.

Dupre, who has since left the commission, told us he owned a mare and a colt that he leased to a man named Richard Bougere, who stabled the horses at Log Cabin and was planning to run an equestrian program there for the kids. Dupre said that no money changed hands and that Bougere promised to care for the horses and cover all of the program's expenses.

"My intent was not to keep my horses down at city property for no cost," Dupre said, noting he owned several horses elsewhere in the Bay Area and paid full cost for their care. "I was performing a service to [Mr. Bougere]."

We couldn't reach Bougere for comment.

The horse deal ran off the rails in February 2002 when a probation staffer alerted authorities to what she saw as mistreatment of the animals, prompting visits from the San Mateo Humane Society and the San Mateo Environmental Service Agency. (No violation was ever recorded.)

A department insider said the horse program operated in a stealth manner for about six months without a formal agreement between any of the parties involved. "At one point there were 14 horses there. They outnumbered the kids," the source said.

(Just so you know, we gave ex-chief Williams a ring at his current gig as an exec with a private corrections firm in Florida; he didn't want to talk to us, and neither did Gregg Adam, ex-chief Tucker's lawyer. But we have a feeling your investigators might be able to convince these folks to chat.)

Last, but far from least, we wanted to mention the audit released in June by City Controller Ed Harrington. Harrington's people looked at a $500 "revolving fund" – essentially a petty cash pot – kept by the department. According to the audit, "Juvenile Probation did not process revolving fund transactions according to City policies and procedures." The department used the fund "to make purchases not allowed" under city rules, specifically, gifts for employees.

In a written response to the audit, then-chief Tucker disputed the findings.

However, Nicole Shaw-Owens, a former senior analyst in the department's finance division, insists the department had a real propensity for misspending taxpayer money – she says she saw it all the time while looking over the numbers for Log Cabin. "There was inaccurate [financial] reporting," she said. "They didn't spend their budget the way it was allocated."

Yeah, we know, as far the audit goes, we're talking about a lousy $500 bucks. But after everything we've come across, it's one more indication that somebody should do a real thorough forensic examination of Juvie. Don't take our word for it. Call any of the local juvenile justice experts who follow the goings-on at the agency and they'll tell you this is a department that, as a whole, has been a study in bad behavior and ineptitude for eons, despite the epic hours put in by some truly dedicated employees.

It's well past time to send in a subpoena-brandishing clean-up crew. We're hoping you're the guy to do that, Dennis.

Sincerely,

A.C. Thompson and Matthew Hirsch

E-mail A.C. Thompson and Matthew Hirsch