San Francisco Trophies

While Public Good Project (PGP) is well-known for its work in the Seattle region, some of PGPs finest hours have been in San Francisco. At one point, PGP had twice as many operatives in San Francisco as it ever did in Seattle. Listed below are some of our high-profile Bay Area targets and their offenses, and in case you’re wondering, they lost—we won.

SAN FRANCISCO TROPHIES:

Peter Gabel, New College trustee (money-laundering and fraud)

Leona Helmsley, real estate magnate (repealing rent control)

Keith Jackson, political consultant (racketeering and corruption)

Craig Newmark, Craigslist (sex-trafficking)

Margo St. James, brothel owner (legalizing prostitution)

The Keith Jackson Saga

Former San Francisco school board president, Keith Jackson, in 2014 pleaded guilty to federal charges of racketeering and corruption, gun-running, and conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Yesterday, Jackson was additionally hit with four counts of bribery, money-laundering, and grand theft of public money.

In 2007, Jackson — a consultant hired by New College of California president Martin Hamilton — threatened former San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, when Britt called for a criminal investigation of the New College board of trustees. As editor of the New College independent alumni association website, I immediately phoned the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.

Soon after, I published an account of the incident, and sent word to Jackson he was being watched.

San Francisco Bizarre

Public Good Project played a pivotal role in three San Francisco political conflicts: the landlord v tenant electoral battle of 2000, the 2007 trustees v faculty battle at New College of California, and the 2008 organized crime v Mayor Newsom battle over legalizing prostitution. Our consult to ParkMerced Tenants Association, intervention on behalf of the New College Independent Alumni Association, and support to Prostitution Research and Education to defeat the organized crime proposition were some of our finer moments.

The intervention at New College revealed some of the unsavory aspects of poverty-pimping in the Bay Area. People like Keith Jackson on the payroll of the crooked trustees was more than disturbing. Now, Keith is in the news again.

Keith Jackson’s arrest for gun-running, drug trafficking and murder for hire reminded me of his role in the demise of New College.