SFLDC Rejects SFDCCC’s “Process Failure” Explanation and Calls for Leadership Accountability

SFLDC Rejects SFDCCC’s “Process Failure” Explanation and Calls for Leadership Accountability

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Latino Democratic Club rejects Chair Nancy Tung’s attempt to characterize the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee’s handling of misconduct allegations involving former District 8 candidate Manny Yekutiel as merely a “process failure.”

This was not an unforeseeable implementation error. It was the result of political decisions that produced different standards for political allies and opponents - undermining survivor dignity, due process, and public confidence.

When allegations arose within SFLDC’s political community in 2024, club leadership voluntarily and immediately recused itself from operational authority. Interim leaders established independent oversight and conducted a months-long investigative review with outside experts - a direct contrast to the SFDCCC, which built procedural walls to protect its preferred candidates.

For more than two years, community representatives (including SFLDC), violence-prevention professionals, restorative-justice practitioners warned party leaders that their proposed misconduct framework contained serious conflicts of interest, excessive executive discretion, and inadequate independent oversight. We proposed solutions developed with sexual-violence-prevention organizations. Those warnings were disregarded by Tung, Lily Ho, Trevor Chandler, Bilal Mahmood, and others who designed, administered, and defended the DCCC’s framework. They all must be held fully accountable.

Tung’s responsibility is most serious. As the managing attorney of the Vulnerable Victims Unit overseeing special investigations at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, including matters involving sexual violence - Tung cannot credibly claim unfamiliarity with the importance of survivor protection and due process. Instead, Tung preached performative survivor rhetoric that did not also accompany the professional infrastructure required to actually support survivors and uphold due process. In the end, it was made clear that the Special Committee on Sexual Assault - at its core - was designed and weaponized to target perceived political enemies under the guise of protecting survivors, under Tung’s direction.

SFLDC has consistently maintained that protecting survivors and protecting due process are not competing principles: a credible misconduct system requires both. Those principles cannot change depending on who is accused or which political faction benefits. DCCC members (named below) endorsed Yekutiel despite public knowledge of the allegations. Describing the resulting controversy as a technical policy defect obscures the deliberate choices by Tung, therefore SFLDC rejects any attempt to rewrite history. Tung made it clear they only believe allegations of some, and only when it is politically advantageous. Selective justice is profoundly damaging to survivors, the accused, and public confidence alike.

For SFLDC, these events only validate why trust in the existing DCCC structure deteriorated. Our objections were never that misconduct should be ignored, but should be handled with the same equal standards as others. The DCCC leadership made it clear they did not care about equal standards for Latinos as they did for others. And we warned that a politically administered misconduct regime could ultimately harm the very people it claimed to protect. And it did exactly that. We stand by our decision to reject the kangaroo court that is now the San Francisco Democratic Party under Tung’s helm.

SFLDC therefore calls for:

The resignation of Nancy Tung over her blatant corruption and other leaders substantially responsible for this framework, including Lily Ho, Trevor Chandler, and Bilal Mahmood.
All current candidates and elected officials to reject endorsements from these individuals if they refuse to resign, including: Cedric Akbar Michela Alioto-Pier, Joshua Arce Patrick Boileau Trevor Chandler Lanier Coles Matt Dorsey Lily Ho Fiona Ma Marjan Philhour, Joe Sangirardi, and Nancy Tung
A genuinely independent review of the framework’s development, jurisdiction, conflicts-of-interest rules, complaint procedures, confidentiality standards, adjudication structure, and treatment of survivor testimony.
A replacement process grounded in professional independence, consistent standards, transparency, survivor support, and meaningful due process.

The officials who created and defended this system cannot be permitted to rewrite the history of its failure. SFLDC will continue advocating for equal treatment for Latinos and every San Franciscan, regardless of political affiliation or faction. Anything less will reproduce the same injustice under a different name.