The San Francisco firefighters union is accusing a top Fire Department official, Adrienne Sims, of mishandling funds and plans to report the activity to the authorities, The Standard has learned.

Sims, 54, who serves as chief of staff to SFFD Chief Dean Crispen, has been with the department since 2001. She was a board member of SF Firefighters Local 798 for eight years from 2014 to 2022, serving as treasurer for the last two.

How Sims allegedly misused money from Local 798, one of the city’s most powerful labor groups, or how much was involved, is not known. It appears the allegations involve expenses Sims charged to the union in 2023.

Local 798 President Sam Gebler said the union “recently identified potential irregularities involving union finances.”

“This matter involves union funds — not taxpayer dollars,” he said in a statement. “As Local 798 is a private entity, this is being addressed through appropriate internal processes and, where necessary, outside authorities. Local 798 is committed to accountability and safeguarding the finances and integrity of our union. While we are limited in what we can discuss during an active review, we are taking this matter seriously and will ensure it is handled properly.”

Sims, in a call with The Standard, denied any wrongdoing. Crispen and the district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Standard obtained a video of a Zoom meeting, recorded Friday, in which Sims addresses the accusations with union officials. In the roughly four-and-a-half-minute clip, Sims denies the allegations, saying that in certain cases, there are no records of charges she made to the union. She says she intends to pay back some of her expenses.

“The BFA gala that happened three years ago, I paid for because it was going to sell out,” she says in the clip, likely referring to the Black Firefighters Association. “It’s in the minutes, and it is reimbursable. I don’t have a receipt for that BFA gala, so I am having to pay the $2,500 back. There is also a golf tournament that never made it into the minutes. I was not the [union’s] treasurer at the time, and it didn’t make it into the minutes, so that’s $3,500.”

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In the video, Sims says she had refused to sign a letter Gebler drafted stating that she “participated in misconduct.”

“I have hired my own legal counsel to represent me, because dragging my reputation through the mud is unnecessary,” she says.

Sims told The Standard she has not yet hired a lawyer and did not know how much money she was accused of mishandling.

Gebler declined to comment on the video.

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When asked if Sims has been put on leave by the SFFD, a spokesperson declined to comment. In the Zoom video and in the call with The Standard, Sims said she has been taking time off since April 1 because of “anxiety and PTSD.” She said her absence was unrelated to the allegations.

“As a previous treasurer of Local 798, I do understand the responsibility of President Gebler to be transparent to the members,” Sims said. “It is really not as salacious as people would like it to be.” 

An SFFD spokesperson said the agency “has not been notified of any criminal or civil charges toward any employee by San Francisco Firefighters Local 798. As information becomes available, the SFFD will work with the city attorney’s office.”

Local 798 represents 1,600 firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs. It’s considered one of the most influential labor groups in the city, along with the police union, and politicians eagerly seek out its endorsement.

Sims is a native of San Francisco, according to an online biography from the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee. In a March 2025 interview (opens in new tab) with KRON4, she said she was recruited to the department via a female firefighter from Station 18 in the Sunset.

Sims said she had faced challenges being a female firefighter in a field dominated by men.

“I’m a woman. I’m a Black woman,” she said in the interview. “There’s not a lot of us. Sometimes you do feel, and maybe it’s more self-pressure that you put on yourself, to give 110%, 120%, 200% on this job. It’s not a job that’s necessarily catered toward women.”

In 2022, Mayor London Breed posted an online tribute (opens in new tab)to Sims, whom she described as a “San Francisco native and a woman of many firsts.”

“Sims helps recruit the next generation of first responders through her work with the San Francisco Black Firefighters and by teaching classes nationwide as a certified firefighting instructor. She continues to be a leader and inspiration for so many of our young people,” Breed wrote.