Investigative Report: Neglect taints a star's legacy

A pungent, sickly sweet odor punctuates the breeze on 33rd Street in Oak Park. Ramon and Jennifer Nickelberry grimace as they stand in their front yard and gesture toward the vacant lot next door.

More dead things, they say.

For months, the remains of animals -- sheep and goats that neighbors suspect were dumped by someone butchering them for meat -- have turned up with gut-churning frequency on the empty weed patch.

Neglected lots attract problems, especially in lower-income areas. On the 33rd Street parcel, the animal remains molder alongside garbage, discarded construction materials and jagged bike parts as children play nearby.

"I guess somebody high-ranking, a high-up figure owns it," Jennifer Nickelberry said. "At the least, they should be keeping it maintained and cleaned up."

The "high-up figure" behind the lot is Kevin Johnson, 41, the former NBA All-Star and local philanthropist. Johnson's for-profit company, Kynship Development, also owns two rental homes nearby. One has had sewage bubbling up in the backyard and waste backing up in the washing machine, while the other is infested with mice, according to tenants and a city report.

Within a two-mile radius, a Bee investigation found, half of the 37 parcels owned by Johnson or companies and organizations he founded have been cited by the city in the past decade, some multiple times. The 73 violations at those Oak Park properties resulted in 42 fines or fees totaling at least $32,080.

At speaking engagements across the country, Johnson touts his success in helping Oak Park. Top officials in his organization and at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency sing his praises, saying no one has done more to improve the struggling area.

"We maintain the properties better, if not the best of anyone in the community," said Tom Bratkovich, the chief financial officer for St. HOPE Academy and part of the development team. "We're making sure they look good and we're taking care of matters. Do we hit every single thing? I'm not sure."

Chris Pahule, who oversees Oak Park projects for the redevelopment agency, said Kynship Development and the nonprofit St. HOPE (Help Our People Excel) Development Co. have made a difference in Oak Park. The SHRA has given St. HOPE Development almost $3 million in grants and loans.

"We believe they've done quite a bit of investment in Oak Park, and that they're committed to the community," Pahule said.

But Johnson's organizations, whose combined holdings rank them among Oak Park's largest private property owners, also are one of the neighborhood's most frequent city code offenders, said Max Fernandez, Sacramento's code enforcement chief.

"It's unfortunate that these particular properties that we've had problems with are owned by one person," Fernandez said.

In its investigation, The Bee reviewed property records, code enforcement files, permits, and police and fire reports. Reporters visited every property affiliated with Johnson and interviewed dozens of Oak Park residents.

Shown the results, Kynship and St. HOPE officials acknowledged they lack the employees or funds to do the revitalization projects long-promised to the community. Plans for a pediatrics building, lofts and shops to transform Oak Park's central core all have been sidelined, they said.

St. HOPE Development is struggling with "no money and a lot of debt," said Kynship's attorney, Kevin Hiestand. Based on its most recent tax forms, by mid-2006 the nonprofit was more than $900,000 in the red and carried debt of $6.2 million.

Hiestand told The Bee that Kynship, which owns a majority of the Oak Park properties, has only one other employee -- an administrative assistant who doubles as an office manager on St. HOPE Academy's staff -- and no one with development expertise.

It takes a thorough document search to sort out responsibility for and ownership of the 37 properties, but all have strong ties to Johnson.

Johnson is CEO of the Kevin Johnson Corp., the sole general partner of Kynship, according to the California secretary of state's office. Johnson also founded and is president of St. HOPE Academy, according to federal tax forms filed by the agency. The academy is his umbrella group and it owns a headquarters building and three school-related properties.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Terri Hardy can be reached at (916) 321-1073 or thardy@sacbee.com. Phillip Reese can be reached at (916) 321-1137 or preese@sacbee.com.