SAN FRANCISCO – The former chancellor at the City College of San Francisco has been charged with making illegal campaign contributions and steering public funds to a secret account used in part to buy liquor and pay parking tickets, prosecutors said Wednesday.
District Attorney Kamala Harris’ office said it filed eight felony counts Tuesday against former chancellor Philip Day Jr., including conspiracy, grand theft, misappropriation of public funds and using college funds to support a political campaign.
Two associate vice chancellors currently employed by City College Stephen Herman, 61, and James Blomquist, 62, also face charges.
Day, 63, was chancellor of the 110,000-student college from 1998 to 2008 and now heads the National Association of Student Aid Administrators in Washington.
Prosecutors allege that Day and Herman directed vendors who owed money to City College to make contributions totaling $70,000 to campaign committees for San Francisco community college bond measures in 2001 and 2005. They are also accused of diverting $28,000 to a committee promoting a statewide community college bond measure in 2006.
In addition, the men are accused of steering $45,000 in City College funds to a slush fund at the college’s foundation that allegedly paid for alcohol at parties Day hosted, parking tickets run up by wealthy donors, and a private club membership for the former chancellor.
Prosecutors say Blomquist asked a vendor to pay $10,000 owed to City College to the 2005 San Francisco bond campaign committee.
