By admin 
The city of Sacramento is considering moving its Office of Violence Prevention out from under the police department.
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While discussing the city’s overall youth violence prevention strategy Tuesday night, council members Lisa Kaplan and Mai Vang both suggested reassessing oversight of the program to create more cohesion with other departments doing similar work.
“I think it’s time that OVP finds a different house,” Kaplan said.
City spokesperson Julie Hall confirmed that a consultant tasked with evaluating the efficacy of the department will also assess the question of where it fits on the city’s organizational chart.
The Office of Violence Prevention, which manages the city’s efforts to prevent gun violence among teens and young adults, was put under the Sacramento Police Department’s purview in 2022. This move was unfavored by local violence prevention activists who said that the relationship with law enforcement could undermine their efforts to reach at-risk teens who are distrustful of police.
A recent Sacramento Bee investigation revealed oversight issues within the Office of Violence Prevention and the nonprofits it funds through grants. The Bee’s reporting found that two of the largest recipients of grant funds through OVP received millions with little and sometimes no oversight from the city or the police department.
“Accountability” was one of the key words in Tuesday night’s council discussion of the city’s youth violence plan, as OVP director Nicole Clavo defended her department against claims that grantees weren’t appropriately vetted or monitored, saying that she has a “very high degree of confidence” that grantees have complied with their contractual terms respective to their grants.
She also said that grant oversight has notably improved since OVP was placed under the police department.
“Right, wrong or indifferent, one of the pluses about being in the police department is it allowed me to build those accountability practices because their practices are far and beyond anyone else’s practices in the city,” Clavo said.
Several council members acknowledged the need to regain the public trust amid allegations of poor oversight.
“I think we should evaluate the oversight of these programs,” Mayor Kevin McCarty said. “I’m not sure it’s going to change the actual delivery of these (services) but it would certainly change the view of the community and the trust.”
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Leaders of Brother 2 Brother and Impact Sac respond to criticism
At Tuesday’s meeting residents called on the city to audit the department while local nonprofit leaders defended their organizations.
The Bee’s reporting found that two violence prevention nonprofits, Impact Sac and Brother 2 Brother, failed to file required tax returns which legally prohibited them from soliciting charitable donations, but the city paid them anyway.
“I will never apologize for using the suite,” Impact Sac Executive Director Nicole Dye said to the City Council Tuesday.
Dye was publicly responding to Bee reporting which showed that Impact Sac received 783 tickets to the city’s suite at Golden 1 Center through the program between 2018-2026, more than any other nonprofit by nearly 300. Clavo, the director of the city department which issues grant money to Impact Sac, used some of the tickets obtained by the nonprofit.
“I’ll never apologize for being aggressive for asking,” Dye said. “I’ve told people all the time — all you’ve got to do is apply, check the box that says you can fill the suite and then fill it. Chris Brown was an amazing concert. They gave me 25 tickets, and I used the SacTown Youth Night funding to buy another 25 tickets at full price.”
Mervin Brookins, director of Brother 2 Brother, addressed the council to acknowledge his organization’s past poor accounting practices and to promise that he was committed to “getting it right.”
“We were good at the work, not the paper work, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So over the years of doing this and working with different people, I’ve learned and I retain people to help us get things right,” Brookins said.
“I just want to assure this council that your trust and faith in Brother 2 Brother is taken seriously.”
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