San Francisco has barred a politically connected consultant from getting any more money from the city pending the outcome of his prosecution in an alleged kickback scheme.
A week after the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office charged Rudolph Dwayne Jones with bribery, misappropriation of taxpayer money and financial conflicts, the city said Thursday it will stop doing business with him and a handful of affiliated entities.
That means terminating existing contracts and preventing bids for any new ones, officials explained. The banned organizations run by Jones include:
- RDJ Enterprises LLC
- RDJ-Project Complete LLC
- The Southeast Consortium for Equitable Partnerships
- Urban Equity LLC
- 20ROC Holdings LLC
Jones—who worked for six years at City Hall under Gavin Newsom before breaking into the consulting business—was arraigned Sept. 1 on 29 felony and corruption charges but delayed entering a plea until his next court date later this month.
His ex-girlfriend, Lanita Henriquez, pleaded not guilty last week to allegations of using her position as head of San Francisco’s Community Challenge Grant Program to steer a combined $1.4 million in public dollars his way from 2016 to 2020 in exchange for about $190,000 in kickbacks.
Henriquez has been placed on leave as the case against her wends its way through court.
Once the criminal proceedings wrap up, City Attorney David Chiu said his office plans to debar Jones from receiving city contracts or grants for up to five years.
Meanwhile, Chiu, Mayor London Breed, City Administrator Carmen Chu and City Controller Ben Rosenfield penned a directive for all departments to end all contracts and subcontracts with Jones and his organizations—at least where legally feasible and “absent any extraordinary circumstances.”
“After our announcement of a public integrity review to ensure transparency and the integrity of the city’s grant-making process, we are following through with suspension orders so that the individuals charged can no longer profit from our city,” Chiu wrote in a prepared statement Thursday evening. “The city will not tolerate corrupt actors trying to undermine our contracting and grant-making processes at the expense of taxpayers.”
The city also plans to examine the community grant program Henriquez ran to identify policies and procedures to update in hopes of preventing wrongdoing going forward.
“I want to thank the city attorney for working swiftly to identify affiliated organizations for suspension,” City Administrator Chu said in a news release about the suspension order. “Our actions today and our request for an independent public integrity review of the Community Challenge Grant Program are important first steps for restoring the public trust in an invaluable community program.”