The San Francisco Ethics Commission is a public agency tasked with maintaining city bylaws [clarification needed, there is no "city" bylaws, each Board or Commission or policy body has its own bylaws] in San Francisco, California. [1] The commission specifically files and audits campaign finance disclosure statements, handles campaign consultant registration and regulation. [2] They also handle lobbyist registration and regulation along with the filing of officer for statements of economic interest and the administration of the Whistleblower program. [2] Lastly, they mitigate[ clarification needed ] investigations of ethics complaints, enforce education and training and provide advice and statistical reporting. [2]
The San Francisco Ethics Commission oversees multiple good governance policies for the City & County of San Francisco. Issues covered include oversight and public reporting of campaign finance; the registration of campaign consultants, lobbyists, and permit expeditors; and conflicts of interest reporting. [3]
It also enforces these issues, including by issuing fines. The Commission can also issue policy recommendations and directly place relevant measures on the ballot. The Commission appoints an Executive Director who, in turn, hires staff to carry out the agency’s day-to-day work. [4]
The Ethics Commission was placed on the ballot by seven members of the Board of Supervisors. Supervisors Angela Alioto, Sue Bierman, Terrance Hallinan, Kaufman, Susan Leal, Carol Migden, and Kevin Shelly supported it. Supervisors Conroy, Hsieh, Willie B. Kennedy, and Bill Maher opposed it.
The measure was placed on the November 1993 ballot, known as Proposition K.
The measure was supported by the county Democratic Party, the Chamber of Commerce, the Labor Council, Common Cause, and many other political leaders.
It was opposed by a committee named Citizens Against Putting the Foxes in Charge of the Hen Coop and the San Francisco Taxpayers Association. The latter included future Ethics Commissioner Quentin Kopp, then a State Senator, who authored the ballot handbook’s paid argument against Proposition K. Regardless, the measure passed. [5]
Kamala Harris faced a campaign finance ethics violation in 2003 when she broke a voluntary $211,000 spending cap for the San Francisco district attorney's race. The Ethics Commission found that the violations appeared to be unintentional and levied a penalty of $34,000, reduced from the potential maximum penalty of $65,000. [6] [7]
The commission conducted an extensive investigation into official misconduct charges against Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi stemming from a domestic violence incident with his wife Eliana Lopez in 2012. The commission held multiple hearings, reviewed evidence, and heard testimony from both sides over several months. [8] [9]
In August 2012, after lengthy deliberations, the commission found by a 4-1 vote that Mirkarimi had engaged in official misconduct by inflicting physical violence on his wife and pleading guilty to false imprisonment charges. However, the commission rejected other allegations leveled by Mayor Ed Lee, who had suspended Mirkarimi from office. [10]
The commission's findings were forwarded to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who had the ultimate authority to decide whether to permanently remove Mirkarimi as sheriff. [10] After further review and public hearings, including Mirkarimi's own testimony asking for redemption, [11] the Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 in October 2012 to reinstate him as sheriff, allowing him to keep his job. [12]
In 2014, then-Supervisor (and future Interim Mayor) Mark Farrell was fined $190,903.04 for illegal coordination between his campaign committee and another third party. [13]
Former Supervisor Eric Mar was fined for accepting tickets to events in public lands in his District. [14] He later admitted to not understanding the rules. [15]
Mayor London Breed was fined $22,792 for a series of ethics violations, including misusing her title as mayor for personal gain and violating laws on accepting gifts and campaign contributions. [16] Breed agreed to pay fines for these violations, acknowledging responsibility for her actions. [17] This case marked the first time a sitting mayor in San Francisco settled such a matter, highlighting the significance of the penalties imposed by the Ethics Commission.
The specific ethics violations that led to Breed's fine included three incidents: [18] [19]
Jeffrey Gordon Adachi was an American attorney, pension reform advocate, and politician who served as the Public Defender of San Francisco from 2003 to 2019.
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Carmen Chu is an American politician serving as City Administrator of the City and County of San Francisco. She previously served as the city's assessor-recorder, where she was the only Asian-American assessor elected to serve among the 58 counties in the State of California. Prior to being elected assessor-recorder, Chu served as a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors, where she served two terms as the chair of the board's budget and finance committee, and was a board director of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. Before joining the board of supervisors, Chu served as deputy budget director in the mayor's office of public policy and finance. In July 2022, she was appointed to the Regents of the University of California by Governor Gavin Newsom.
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Vicki Hennessy was the sheriff of San Francisco and the city's first female sheriff. She was appointed interim sheriff by Mayor Ed Lee pending an ethics investigation of the elected sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi, who was charged with domestic violence battery and later agreed to a plea bargain in which he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment. She is not related to former San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey.
London Nicole Breed is an American politician who is the 45th mayor of San Francisco, serving since 2018. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018.
Rostam Mirkarimi is an American politician and the former sheriff of San Francisco. Prior to being sheriff, he served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he represented District 5.
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