Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby issued a whistleblower investigation report last week alleging that the director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Youth Development Department (OPRYD) circumvented city rules by hiring contractors without competitive bidding, improperly diverted money between the city and Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation to pay vendors and city staff, and hired his friends and associates without going through proper channels, including giving a friend of the city’s Housing and Community Development Department director $75,000 for work that was carried out without a contract. The parks department also improperly spent the majority of a $150,000 federal grant intended for the “Town Camp” children’s program on unrelated projects, according to Ruby’s report.
Ruby concluded that the series of improper payments in 2018 and 2019 “reveals either a systemic weakness in the training and competency of the department directors, or collusion by them to circumvent City rules to pay a consultant known to one of the directors, or both.”
The director of the parks department, J. Nicholas Williams, said this week in an interview with The Oaklandside that he strongly objects to the auditor’s characterization of his actions as “fraud” and welcomes the opportunity to tell his side of the story.
Williams accused Ruby of creating a “false narrative” by implying that he and others took city money to enrich themselves.
“The City Auditor used words like fraud and abuse....
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