Gang-Thwarting Church Sues City of San Diego

The San Diego Union Tribune reports that the Metro United Methodist Urban Ministry has sued the City of San Diego.  The suit alleges that the church is due $43,000 by the San Diego police department, which in 2007 hired the church to mentor children at risk of joining gangs.  Additional details follow:

The department used a state grant to pay Metro United $5,000 a month for consulting services until December 2012, when police requested payroll and other records they had not previously sought, the complaint says.

 

“All of a sudden, the city says we need documentation,” attorney Peter Polischuk said. “We’ve been absolutely pulling our hair out trying to figure out what’s going on.”

 

Metro United filed suit in July. The city filed a cross-complaint in February, seeking more than $17,000 it claims police wrongly paid to the church, which refuses to return the money.

According to the story, the “police department has had other problems with grant administration,” though city attorneys deny that the case is about the police department’s “accounting practices.”

JRB