Watch on-demand now Around the Table: News hosts discuss Torrance shooter, bad actors in nonprofits, and lead story, ‘Connecting California: Resources You Should Know About'
- 5 days ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
California has a plethora resources for Californians for individuals and organizations
By ONME News
In this episode of Around the Table with Julia Dudley Najieb, Joquoya Murphy, and Brigitte Jones, news hosts review the latest stories happening in each region of California:
Southern California White House Correspondent Dinner shooter, Cole Tomas Allen 31, leaves manifesto letter, according to White House senior administration officials, although there has not been an official letter released to the media or public. According to NBC News, the Caltech-grad tutor and educator, Allen, was armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives when he rushed a security checkpoint and ran toward the ballroom where the black-tie dinner was being held, authorities said. He exchanged gunfire with law enforcement and was tackled to the ground, they said.
News hosts still question the missing pieces to this developing story.
California's collaborative law enforcement is catching some non-profit bad actors
News host then reviewed former nonprofit leaders who are bad actors.
In Central California, former Fresno Arts council employee fesses up to gambling millions of the Measure P Funds designated to Central Valley artists, art projects and art organizations. Fresnoland reported on the timeline of how the embezzlement was caught.
The criminal,
Suliana Caldwell, 46, of Fresno, pleaded guilty last month to wire fraud involving over $1.8 million in funds stolen from the Fresno Art Council, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced in a press conference at the end of April.
According to court documents, Caldwell worked as the Fresno Art Council’s operation’s manager from 2021 to February 2026. In this position, she managed the Fresno Arts Council’s bank accounts, payroll, grants, donations, and general finances. Her duties also included providing periodic financial updates and reports to the executive director, board members, and the City and County of Fresno.
Beginning in 2022, Caldwell began embezzling funds by making unauthorized withdrawals of money from the Fresno Arts Council’s bank accounts. In 2023, after the Fresno City Council designated the Fresno Arts Council to administer the Measure P grant money, Caldwell significantly increased the amount of money she withdrew from the Council’s accounts. Measure P is a tax initiative approved by Fresno voters in 2018 to provide funding for parks, trails, and the arts, among other things. In August 2023, the Fresno Arts Council received $9.4 million in Measure P funds, and in October 2024, it received an additional $5.7 million in a second round of funding.
Caldwell's sentencing is scheduled for August 10, 2026.
ONME News also reflected on its own personal account with local, Fresno-based organization, HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Excellence) run by CEO, Lynisha Senegal, (aka "Laneesha"). The ONME News media outlet, not knowing the extent of her severe gambling problem, mutually agreed to use the HOPE organization one-time as a fiscal agent for two Fresno community election forums in 2024. Unfortunately Senegal was dishonest about receiving the money from the giving media organization over several months; ONME News was told the delay was because the giving media organization had not paid HOPE yet; so, finally the ONME News had to front the money for both forums in October of 2024. Thereafter, ONME News received the money in pieces from the HOPE organization over a several-week period, as Senegal portrayed that some how the bank accidentally messed up her account,(till this day, she has never fully repaid back ONME News from the election forum.) Upon suspicion, ONME News began doing its research to find out the legitimacy of the information received from Senegal, to find out the information was false from Senegal, and that the money had been gambled, among other funds accordingly.
Several months later, ONME News executive and host Dudley N. found that Senegal was fraudulently collecting money from the same media organization using the ONME News media outlet's name without permission. By coincidence, Dudley N. was blindly confronted and questioned by a representative of the the media organization who was giving Senegal the money "on behalf of ONME News; they had questions about some missing project deliverables that Senegal told them ONME News was supposed to be completing under the HOPE organization--the giving media organization had given her money a couple of times under this fraudulent, false premise, using the media outlet, "ONME News." ONME News never received any of these proceeds.
Dudley Najieb explained how the CEO's gambling problem and prior embezzlement-related felonies has followed the CEO's track record of doing bad business with people throughout the community, and such bad behavior needs to be called out for the safety of others in the community.
Gambling disorder (or compulsive gambling) is a treatable mental health condition characterized by the inability to control gambling despite severe financial, social, or personal consequences. Symptoms include chasing losses, lying about habits, and prioritizing betting over work or family. Get help immediately by calling 1-800-GAMBLER or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG)
In Northern California, Gwendolyn Westbrook, the former CEO of the San Francisco nonprofit United Council of Human Services (UCHS), was charged with nine felonies for allegedly misappropriating over $1.2 million and directly stealing $91,000 in public funds intended for the city's homeless population.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that Gwendolyn Westbrook (71), the former Chief Executive Officer of the United Council for Human Services (UCHS), was charged with multiple felonies following an investigation by the District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Task Force stemming from the alleged misuse and theft of public funds entrusted to UCHS, a nonprofit organization serving homeless and low-income individuals. Ms. Westbrook is accused of unlawfully misappropriating public money and grant funds on behalf of UCHS, while exercising near-exclusive financial control over the organization.
Also, in March 2026, Sheryl Davis, the former head of San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, was charged with 17 felonies. She is accused of funneling millions in city contracts to her own nonprofit, Collective Impact, and using funds for personal luxuries like her son's tuition and high-end travel.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that Sheryl Davis (57), former executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC), and James Spingola (65), the former executive director of Collective Impact, a San Francisco nonprofit, have been charged with multiple felonies following an 18 month criminal investigation by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Unit that involved the issuance of more than 50 search warrants as part of a comprehensive investigation into the full scope of the scheme.
Ms. Davis is charged with multiple felonies and two misdemeanors:13 felony counts of having a financial conflict of interest in a government contract, in violation of California Government Code §1090(a), one felony count of misappropriating public funds, in violation of California Penal Code §424(a), three felony counts of perjury, in violation of Penal Code §118, one misdemeanor count of receiving gifts from a restricted source, in violation of San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code §3.216(b), and one misdemeanor count of having a financial conflict of interest in a government decision, in violation of San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code §3.206.
Mr. Spingola is charged with four felonies counts of aiding and abetting Ms. Davis’s conflict of interest in four of the City contracts with Collective Impact in violation of Government Code §1090(b).
An affidavit filed with the Court in support of an arrest warrant describes a pervasive pattern of self-dealing by Ms. Davis when she was a City department head responsible for distributing tens of millions of dollars of City funds through the Dream Keeper Initiative.
First, Ms. Davis is alleged to have directed more than $4.5 million in Dream Keeper funds to Collective Impact. The affidavit describes that before Ms. Davis was appointed to lead HRC, she worked as the executive director of Collective Impact. But even after she no longer worked there and became the executive director of a City Department, the affidavit states, she remained a signatory on the Collective Impact bank account, raised funds for the organization, and helped steer its spending.
Ms. Davis also lived, traveled, and shared bank accounts and a car with Mr. Spingola, who was Collective Impact’s executive director, according to the affidavit filed with the court. This financial intermingling resulted in Ms. Davis having a direct financial interest in the contracts executed. Ms. Davis was funneling City money to Collective Impact, while also steering how Collective Impact spent its funds, both for HRC use and for her personal benefit. Her financial interest was not only that her personal and home life, including her rent, were partially funded by Mr. Spingola’s Collective Impact salary — a fact she never disclosed — but also that when Ms. Davis directed City money to Collective Impact, she had a stake in the outcome because Collective Impact’s funds were in part under her control and she could use them for HRC purposes or her own personal benefit.
Second, the affidavit states that Ms. Davis signed contracts granting more than $3.5 million of City money to an organization called Homeless Children’s Network. Meanwhile, Homeless Children’s Network paid Davis’s son nearly $140,000 that was deposited into a bank account Ms. Davis jointly owned and controlled.
Third, the affidavit explains that Ms. Davis signed contracts giving hundreds of thousands of dollars of City money to a public relations and branding firm that used some of those City funds to do public relations work for Ms. Davis personally and for Collective Impact.
Finally, according to the affidavit filed with the court, Ms. Davis improperly spent her department’s discretionary funds, failed to disclose gifts on forms she signed under penalty of perjury, accepted prohibited gifts from Collective Impact, and facilitated the sale of many copies of a book she wrote to the San Francisco Public Library, from which she made a profit.
This news story is a series of three, beginning with the legislative perspective of California Connects initiative
California Connects helps over 300 nonprofit organizations to distribute valuable resources to Californians throughout the state
News hosts discuss resources that people and organizations can tap into right now. The state of California endeavored in a four-year effort to connect trusted messengers with the information and resources available to Californians.
Here's a deeper explanation from the regional convening event attending news correspondent, Julia Ann Dudley Najieb.
The California Complete Count Census 2020 was a revived, every-10-year process experiment that proved one thing: trusted messengers were the key to reaching "hard-to-count" populations throughout California. That is why the state invested over $187 million in that effort that panned out. The state stayed away from federal top-down messaging as well as going beyond legacy media. Ethnic media played an even stronger roll in reaching niche communities and neighborhoods throughout California.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, California used the same strategy to reach fearful residents about the covid-19 vaccinations through its "Vaccinate All 58" campaign. CBOs and local staff shared information through door-to-door canvassing, neighborhood, and ethnic media, which was tailored culturally and linguistically to the local population. Local youth used the power of social media, and their followings to connect with younger generations about the COVID-19 updates and vaccination information. At that time, the state of California campaing analyzed regional data (ZIP codes/census tracts) to target areas with the lowest vaccination rates and highest inequities.
That brings us to the California Connects Regional Convenings where an 8-city statewide tour launched in late 2025 by the Office of Community Partnerships & Strategic Communications (OCPSC) to connect local leaders, nonprofits, and community partners directly with state agencies. These events were aimed to strengthen regional networks and provide tools for community resilience. Using trusted messengers has been the most successful route for the state, who intended to bridge gaps in under-served communities regarding healthcare, education, and social programs, serving as a vital lifeline.
In 2022, as part of the "California Blueprint," Governor Gavin Newsom created a new Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications (OCPSC) to take on the critical role of managing priority public education and community engagement efforts and provide ongoing support to community-based organizations (CBOs).
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and during the 2020 Census, our community partners on the ground have played a major role in reaching Californians – especially our most marginalized communities,” said Governor Gavin Newsom then.
“These organizations are committed to creating more resilient, healthy, and safe communities, and the new Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications will formalize support for these partners and catalyze the social infrastructure necessary to build a California for All.”
Although services and resources are beginning to integrate between participating organizations, ethnic media outlets, and most importantly, the community, the California Connects initiative faces potential instability. As of early 2026, the program faces funding uncertainty in the proposed state budget, which means the sustaining the momentum created by the regional convenings may subside or be subdued. However, OCPSC administrators see the momentum sustainable amongst the organizations themselves.
The April 23 regional convening in Sacramento, CA gave over 300 nonprofit groups, and organizations who attended guidance toward resources for their organizations and for the people they serve. Participants also were able to network, engage, and share or learn tips and tools from one another and from the state of California to help keep organizations healthy.
District 31 Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula addressed the nonprofits in the room; in an after interview with ONME News, Assemblymember Arambula reiterated the importance of the California Connects-type initiative from a legislative point of view.
"Too often when we're working in government, we're not connected to the community that we have the honor of being able to serve," said Assemblymember Arambula. "In particular, our youth voices and those who are on the front lines working in nonprofits, don't have the ability to influence and to allow governments to get out of their silos. But convenings like California Connects (April 23) where we hear from the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, allows us an opportunity to get together, to listen and also to be able to speak about some of the challenges that we had ahead. It was an honor to be able to address that crowd that day, and to see all the work they have done over the last several years, and I look forward to how we can uplift them and, have them be a part of success for our state going forward."
Sacramento mayor, Kevin McCarty also reiterated the need for a connection from the legislative process to the community. Mayor McCarty also previously served in the California State Assembly from 2014 to 2024, representing the 6th Assembly District, which encompasses a portion of the Sacramento metropolitan area and most of the city of Sacramento.
"Government can't solve all the problems and figure out the needs on our own," said Mayor McCarty in reference to the importance of the California Connects regional convening. "California is a big state, Sacramento is the capitol, and we have 40 million people. And we have programs that are not always connecting the dots to communities. Case and point is this CalKIDS Program, which is free money for families to put for kids for college funds, for little kids. I worked to write this law a couple of years ago. And when we first announced it--there's three to four million eligible kids we thought would sign up, and only a few thousand signed up because there was this lack of information, culturally irrelevant information, language barriers. So that was just kind of an eye-opener as far as, you can't just write a law or pass a law in California or any city and think it's going to work its way out. You need bridges to the community to help make these things happen."
Karina Talamantes, Vice Mayor of Sacramento, Calif. also saw the connection between community and government as an essential collaboration.
"The most important thing that we can do to support the people of California is work together as a family, as a community. And that means bringing religious-faith based, that means community-based organizations, union, business, government, politicians and the community-based organizations that are here in Sacramento right now to connect. Because the community-based organizations are the ones that are on the ground, they are doing the work."
In part two of this news story series, OCPSC administrators remark on how the momentum will continue and the available resources for individuals and communities from the state of California.
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