Sacramento funds youth violence prevention with little oversight. What to know

Sacramento’s Office of Violence Prevention has funneled more than $6 million to a network of nonprofits over five years, and two of the largest recipients operated with little to no oversight. Records show leaders profited from grants, funneled money to family members and failed to document hundreds of thousands in expenses.

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Here is the full story: “Are millions spent on Sacramento’s youth violence prevention with little oversight?”

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Here are key takeaways:

• Impact Sac has received $1.26 million from the city since 2020, while Brother 2 Brother Mentoring and a related organization founded by Mervin Brookins have received $2.5 million from 2020 to 2025.
• Both nonprofits were found delinquent by the California Attorney General for failing to file required tax returns — a status that legally prohibited them from soliciting or disbursing charitable funds — yet the city kept paying them.
• Former City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela described contracts engineered to stay just below the $250,000 threshold requiring a public City Council vote as “ghost contracts,” including one amended to subtract a single dollar.
• Brother 2 Brother reported $199,999 in revenue that year — one dollar below the threshold requiring full disclosure — though the city had paid it $604,490.
• Liberty Towers, the church associated with Impact Sac, collected monthly fees up to $9,400.45 for “mentoring, case management and consulting” — and as a church, files no public tax return, so the money can’t be traced. Records show it also holds more than $600,000 in Sacramento County social services contracts and four state contracts worth over $1.4 million.
• Police spokesperson Anthony Gamble said verifying nonprofit tax standing “falls outside of OVP’s oversight,” while OVP Director Nicole Clavo, whose daughter’s catering business was paid from an Impact Sac city grant, declined to comment.