Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, who earlier this year charged that San Francisco Mayor London Breed was secretly operating an illicit drug consumption site said this week that the operator of the city’s supervised drug-use site fabricated the number of people the site allegedly served.
In a piece published Thursday on Substack that Shellenberger coauthored with writer and documentary filmmaker Leighton Woodhouse, the operator is identified as Gary McCoy, an employee of city contractor HealthRight360, which is one of the private sector operators of the Tenderloin Linkage Center, created as part of the city’s crackdown on the open drug market in downtown San Francisco.
Shellenberger also posted an extensive Twitter thread detailing their reporting, which included plenty of documentation.
He tweeted: “San Francisco Mayor @LondonBreed promised to send addicts into treatment, but just 18 people out of 23,367 visits to a city ‘Linkage Center’ went into rehab. Now, new emails show that a city contractor fabricated data and city officials lied about it.”
More from Substack:
“I think Gary is just making up random #s,” wrote Dr. Rob Hoffman, Special Project Manager with the San Francisco Department of Health, in a February 8 email to other city employees including ones with the Department of Emergency Management and city homeless service agencies.
Gina McDonald, co-founder of Mothers Against Drug Deaths, filed the public records request, and was the first to report that of the 23,367 drug users who have visited the Tenderloin Linkage Center, just 18 have received drug treatment.
Emails released through California Public Records Act produced the evidence detailed in their reporting, as seen here:
The same email says Hoffman had “concerns about the hr360 metrics. I think they are reporting interactions as meaningful engagements… I observed the HR360 staff and did not see anything that can account for the high numbers… I think Gary is just making up random #s” pic.twitter.com/2uCJnlMHvJ
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 7, 2022
The possibility of double counting was also mentioned in their reporting: “On February 15, an executive with the Department of Emergency Management, Kay Vasilyeva, wrote, ‘Adrienne had some concerns about the FEST [Felton Institute Street Team] metrics… Only 229 total encounters but over 200 for both health referrals and linkage center referrals? This must mean there is double counting, which is problematic.'”
On February 23, another Department of Public Health employee, Dr. Matthew Goldman, wrote an email to colleagues saying, “After the second & third week there were concerns with HR360’s data, but Gary from HR360 insisted it was valid.”
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 7, 2022
There was also the aforementioned allegation that the San Francisco Department of Public Health “lied about data that had been fabricated.”
In a separate email the same day, Hawkes re-wrote a public statement written by Goldman. “Part-way through the most recent reporting period (OP10),” wrote Goldman in his draft, “the TLC metrics team discovered that one of the CBOs was inaccurately recording data on engagements.”
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 7, 2022
Again, documentation was provided to support the claim:
Hawkes re-wrote the statement to read, Part-way through the most recent reporting period (OP10) the TLC metrics team discovered that one of the providers at the site was defining engagements in a way inconsistent with other teams on the site.” pic.twitter.com/clqNCntg6N
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 7, 2022
as that has been an internal term, and not (as far as I know) a publicly used description. see below. I do think we need to define meaningful engagement – I don’t have that.”
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 7, 2022
Shellenberger and Woodhouse concluded, “The emails offer a glimpse into the shared culture of the Department of Public Health and its contractors,” adding: “One senior Department executive, Deborah Borne, wrote in an email to an employee with the Department of Emergency Management, ‘I would love to do a real tarot reading for the new year for you!'”
Here’s a sampling of the responses to the story from Twitter:
@ShellenbergerMD is exposing more than just the issues challenging a city and state he clearly loves. He’s exposing the lack of real journalism by the so called professionals. While they write puff pieces, he’s on the street asking the question they haven’t. It shows.
— FDA Rapid Test Scandal (@SciFly_SaltLife) April 7, 2022
Curious on response .@rgarymccoy. Anything incorrect? What are we missing? #drugs #SanFrancisco
— John Smith (@JohnSmi17828195) April 7, 2022
It’s pretty clear that none of this matters to the mayor. The fact that she was able to award a city contract to an aid of Nancy Pelosi, is an issue that seems to have been completely ignored. I can’t think of one non profit that is held accountable in SF.
— Stevo SR (@Stevo_SR) April 7, 2022
Mike, I love you. You are smacking a lot of hornets nests. I am afraid you might be too effective. Be safe.
— MatteOnlyShinier (@MatteButShiny) April 8, 2022
Corruption killing people in genocidal war against our citizens by likes of Hezbolah, CCP, their partners that import these poisons to USA. I am told corruption happens often in that local party’s team. Well, this matches that explaination. What am I to think? They pro-murder?
— Brad Allen (@Ulmo_Space) April 7, 2022
Are these the same people on the megaphone about Donald Trump?
— Emmerdeuse (@davantagedupain) April 7, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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