The Santa Clara Family Health Foundation was created to help raise money to pay for poor children’s health insurance premiums. In recent years, however, the tax-exempt organization has also acted as a political entity, helping the South Bay Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA fund local tax measures through year-round planning and coordination. While there are some allowances for tax-exempt organizations to get involved in issue campaigns, nonprofits and public agencies cannot play a role in individual candidate campaigns. Kathleen King, executive director of the Health Foundation, has not always followed this rule.

County supervisor candidate and labor organizer Cindy Chavez has not always been the biggest fan of San Jose Inside and Metro‘s coverage of local politics. In fact, she was so perturbed by a report in March about the political activities of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, on which she was previously a board member, that she suggested a lawsuit.

Push polls are a common occurrence in campaign season. They are designed to leave voters with a more positive or negative reaction to topics and/or individuals after answering questions. Political consultant Rich Robinson recently wrote a column on San Jose Inside about his distate for the leading questions, which are often asked without proper context, he argued. Based on email records obtained through a court order last week, it can be said that Kathleen King, executive director of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, does not share this opinion about push polls.

Kathleen King expressed concern earlier this year to Working Partnerships USA policy director Bob Brownstein that the city of San Jose would stop funding the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) after Measure A passed in the 2012 election. As executive director of the the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, King realized this would have an adverse effect on the foundation’s ability to continue operations. A plan was then set in motion to tap trusted elected officials.

Local sports fans and businesses celebrated Tuesday’s announcement that the San Francisco 49ers will host Super Bowl 2016 at their new stadium in Santa Clara. But not everyone has always been a supporter of the club.

A public agency created the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation more than a decade ago to fund the county’s groundbreaking children’s health care initiative, one that would guarantee that every child who needed a doctor’s attention would be seen. For the past three years, however, low income kids’ health insurance premiums have taken a backseat to personal ambition as Health Foundation officers ran for office, funded their $200k annual compensation packages and diverted money to pay for political consultants, mailings, public opinion polls, phone banks and ballot initiatives. All this transpired behind a shroud of secrecy that was lifted last week by Judge Carol Overton, who rejected SCFHF’s hard-fought legal battle to keep its activities out of the public’s view. Documents obtained as a result of last Friday’s superior court ruling show clearly that the Health Foundation repeatedly broke state laws by using a public agency’s funds and property to operate political campaigns in close coordination with local labor leaders.

Metro and San Jose Inside scored a legal victory Friday with Judge Carol Overton’s ruling that the County of Santa Clara must release documents on the political activities of the nonprofit Santa Clara Family Health Foundation. The documents, handed over to Metro on Friday, shed new light on how a recent ballot initiative was passed, and how the South Bay Labor Council interacts with local nonprofits to advance its agenda.

Former South Bay Labor Council head Amy Dean has sent out a national appeal to labor supporters, asking for financial support for supervisor candidate Cindy Chavez, according to an email forwarded to San Jose Inside. Dean, who formed Working Partnerships USA and mentored Chavez before moving to Chicago, writes that “The people of Santa Clara County need Cindy to have their back,” and asks recipients to “like” Chavez’s Facebook page if they can’t donate money.

UPDATE: A ruling is expected by 5pm Friday. Check back for a breakdown of Thursday’s court proceedings and the judge’s decision.—Editor

The Santa Clara Family Health Foundation has sued the County of Santa Clara to stop it from releasing documents about its financial transactions. The documents were requested by Metro Newspapers 30 days ago under the California Public Records Act. The foundation’s request for a temporary restraining order goes to court this morning.

Three years ago, San Jose adopted a policy that allows for the disclosure of elected officials’ text messages and emails regarding city business when sent from personal devices. However,  this week City Council voted unanimously in closed session to appeal a judge’s ruling that would make the policy apply to all city employees.

Nonprofit law specialist David A. Levitt of the San Francisco-based Adler and Colvin law firm writes on behalf of Working Partnerships USA behalf that “no director financial interest was involved” when Cindy Chavez voted on budgets at the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation that funded contracts to her employers because “Ms. Chavez’s compensation is not contingent on Working Partnerships receiving Foundation funding …Working Partnerships had sufficient resources to cover Ms. Chavez’s compensation, even if it had not received any funds from the Foundation.”

District 2 county supervisor candidate Teresa Alvarado kicked off her campaign Wednesday. Alvarado is the first to announce a government reform agenda which includes a county sunshine ordinance, public posting of officials’ calendars, 10-day public notice on items coming before the Board of Supervisors, evening board meetings and a fully-funded Government Integrity Unit at the District Attorney’s office. There are five other candidates in the race. Three have websites up, but none have posted a platform yet.

Mayor Chuck Reed has sent a blunt letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig asking for a conversation regarding a prospective A’s move to San Jose. The letter expresses frustration with the years of delays, reveals that there is not currently direct high level communication between the city and Major League Baseball and mentions the “L” word: litigation.

San Jose-based branding firm Liquid Agency has been tapped to update the Vatican’s marketing strategy. Rome officials are looking to the Silicon Valley agency to provide a contemporary and technology-friendly identity for the Church’s global outreach efforts. The papal rebranding will replace the current identity, which has been used since 1929, when Pope Pius IX signed the Lateran Treaty, creating the newly independent Vatican City. Liquid, located in downtown San Jose’s SoFA district, is expected to produce a more iconic, streamlined look that will better enable the Church to hold its own against competing theologies.

On March 24, Metro/San Jose Inside reported that Santa Clara Family Health Foundation (SCFHF) executive board member and officer Cindy Chavez participated in a board decision to provide $250,000 in funding to the Yes on A committee, on which she and Kathleen King—CEO of SCFHF—constituted a majority of the three-member committee. The committee subsequently turned over a large portion of the funds to the South Bay Labor Council Issues PAC and Democratic Central Committee’s PAC. Because of Chavez’s obvious conflicts of interest—she headed up the SBLC at the time—and the importance of a countywide sales tax increase, which will be paid by all residents, Metro/San Jose Inside felt this was a matter of public interest.

On Friday, nine nonprofit executives wrote a letter to express their thoughts on recent articles. They worry that investigative reporting could make nonprofits “the target of unfounded accusations and public reproach.” Because we feel this is a useful debate to have, and because we want to give differing points of view the proper attention they deserve, we are running below the letter in full, in addition to its appearance in the comments section where it was submitted. —Editor

While on its executive committee, prospective county supervisor candidate Cindy Chavez helped move hundreds of thousands of dollars out of a local health nonprofit, according to copies of board minutes obtained by San Jose Inside. At a pivotal meeting last June, Chavez voted to approve a budget that included a line item in which one of her employers, Working Partnerships USA, had a financial interest—and to fund a political campaign that was largely run by her other employer, the South Bay Labor Council. The two transactions totaled $400,000, more than a quarter of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation’s budget.