good morning. and welcome to the january 24th, 2024 regular meeting of the san francisco ethics commission. today's meeting is live cablecast on tv two and live streamed online at sec.gov. tv.org slash ethics live for public comment. members of the public may attend in person or may participate by phone or the webex platform, as explained in our agenda daca comment and mr. clerk, can you please explain how today's remote public comment will be handled? public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. each member of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak. for those attending in person, opportunities to speak during the public comment period will

be made available here in room 400, city hall for those attending remotely, public comment can can also be provided via phone call by calling. 14156550001. access code. is 26635581258, followed by a pound sign, and then press pound again to join as an attendee. when your item of interest comes up, please press star three to raise your hand to be added to the public comment line. public comment is also available via the via the webex client application. use the webex link on the agenda to connect and press the raise hand button to be added to the public comment line for detailed instructions on how to interact with the telephone system or webex client , please refer to the public comment section of the agenda document for this meeting. public comment may also be

submitted in writing and will be shared with the commission. after this meeting has concluded and will be included as part of the official meeting file. written comments should be sent to ethics commission at sf gov.org. members of the public who attend commission meetings, including remote attendance, are expected to behave responsibly and respectfully during public comment. please address your comments to the commission as a whole and not to individual members. persons who engage in name calling, shouting, interruptions or other distracting behavior may be excluded from participation. thank you. and now i call the meeting to order. uh, item number one. roll call, please. commissioners please verbally indicate your presence by saying i. after your name is called commissioner finley, i chair lee, present commissioner salahi. i commissioner sai i commissioner flores fang has an excused absence. chair lee with four members present and accounted for. you have a

quorum. okay agenda item number two. which is general public comment. it is the. can you check and see if there's anyone waiting in the queue. madam chair, we are checking to see if there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there are no no callers in the queue. okay. uh item number two is now closed . let us go to consent. i'm doing a sound check. can you hear me? yes yes, we can hear you after. great. thank you. uh, we're not okay now. let's go to

consent calendar items three, four and five. as noted, there will be no separate discussions on the consent calendar item unless a request is made by a commission member or member of the public in attendance, in which event the matter shall be removed from the consent calendar and considered as a separate item. uh, do i see any? we would like to remove item number five, please. the acting executive director's report. okay so item number five five is removed from consent calendar. so let us take a vote on, um consent calendars. item three and four. do i have a motion for approval? i move to approve those items. okay. uh, second. second. okay. uh let's go to public comment, please. madam chair, we're checking to see if

there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. okay. um. let us take a roll for items three and four. on the motion? yeah. sorry. on the motion. on the motion to adopt the consent calendar. commissioner finley, i chair lee, i commissioner salahi i commissioner ci i madam chair, with four votes in the affirmative and zero votes in the opposed the motion is approved unanimously. okay, let us go to item number five, which is the acting executive director's report. commissioner uh, sally, sir. salahi, you got it. thank you. chair. good morning. um, you wish to. yeah. thank you. chair lee. yeah. the reason i wanted to pull it was

to just give the acting executive director an opportunity to address some recent public news coverage of the commission's work on the audit update. um specifically, there was an article in mission local, uh, scrutiny using the commission's timeline for completing campaign audits. and i understand there may have been some inaccurate or incomplete information that the public might benefit from some clarification on. thank you. commissioner salahi. um, yes. i can provide some clarifying action. so in the acting director's report, i've provided an update on the 2020 campaign audits. and as commissioner mentioned last week, there was an article on mission local that talked about our audit backlog and delays. um and, you know, we certainly understand the concerns to complete these audits timely. we are taking that very seriously. and we have been actively working on it. but

one of the things i wanted to mention is that the article, um, talks about the controller's office having offered us assistance and that our office has not, uh, taken that assistance that is incorrect. um we have actually, um, sought their assistance going back to even august of 2021, uh, when we had asked if they can provide us contracting assistance, they had suggested that we work with the office of contract administration. but as we didn't have funding at that time, we had to go through the funding process to get a work order and start working with oca, which is your office of contract administration. so we followed their guidance. um, and that process, city process takes time to get funding and the necessary set up. so, um, the controller's office had offered, uh, their pre-qualified vendor list, um, to use for a contract, which is the list that we used. um, so we sought assistance from the controller's office, and oca worked with them, and we established a work order with a

contract with mco. so we did follow that process. so i just wanted to kind of clarify that, um, and i've also provided a brief update on the 2020 audits in the edd report. we plan a more we are planning a more detailed update in the february meeting, where we can provide the complete status of all of our audits, and we have been working with mco closely in getting information to them and getting, you know, initial, um, preliminary information on their timeline. so we hope to have all of that in the next meeting. thank you for this opportunity to provide more details. um, thank you, director, seconder. and also thank you, commissioners salahi, for raising this uh, for uh, the public's awareness. uh, do we have any other comments? if not, let's go to public comment. madam chair, we're checking to

see if there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. okay. let us go to the, uh. i think we need a motion to approve agenda item number five. do i have a motion? is this just for discussion? is there anything to approve? no, this is only information. all the acting directors, we did not that we approved this along with the consent calendar vote. i thought we only voted for three. and this particular item will not require approval as it's only informational. okay, good. okay. now let us go to agenda item number six which is proposed closed session. today's agenda item includes a proposed closed session item under for public employee employment hiring of the executive director. this item has been scheduled for the commission's discussion and possible action. let us proceed to public comment on item six, including whether to meet in closed session on. a motion

motion. do you think the public participation making a motion? assistant attorney general. attorney general, uh, city attorney. do we need a motion first or after the public comment? good morning. commissioners. deputy city attorney brad russell. yes. the commission needs to take action in order to go into closed session session. so you should take public comment before for making that motion. let's go to public comment then. we're checking to see if there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. the motion whether to go into closed session i move to go into closed session. second. so let us proceed to closed session in um. let us clear the

room and for those oh yeah. motion has been made and second seconded to proceed to closed session. i will now call the roll commissioner finley, chair lee, i commissioner salahi, i commissioner, say hi with four votes in the affirmative and zero votes opposed the motion is a unanimously approved unanimously. we will now move into closed session and for those who plan to come back, i would expect the closed session to last about 20. and for those who are watching online, uh, thank you for your continued patience. we will be back in about 20 to 30 minutes. i think

what a nice .

yeah, yeah. we're ready. charlie we're back in public session. we are now back in public session, and i want to thank the members of the public for your patience and engagement as we now resume our open session meeting. uh, now, i want to turn it over to our assistant city attorney, miss rossi. uh, to make a disclosure here. good morning again, commissioners. deputy city attorney brad rossi. um, the commission has asked me to make the disclosure under item six e the, uh, concerning the

action that was taken in closed session. this disclosure is required. um by the provision of the government code and administrative code referenced on the agenda in the closed session by a vote of 4 to 0, with um commissioner, excise commissioner. c lee finley and salahi voting in favor and um commissioner flores fang absent. the commission voted to appoint um mr. pat ford as the next executive director of the ethics commission. congratulations as i think. would you like to say a few words? thank you, chair lee. thank you. commissioners. um incredibly grateful for the trust and confidence that you've placed in me. um, so excited to get to do the critical work that we do as an agency. and work

just as hard as our great staff. um, setting a high bar for, um, for our office for the rest of the city, for ethics and transparency. um, i look forward to your leadership, your guidance, uh, your patience. as i learned the ins and outs of this new role. um, and. yeah, can't wait to get to know you all better work with you very closely. um, and. yeah, thank you so much to all the staff in our office and everybody shows up every day. um it's a hard job. it's kind of a thankless job in a lot of ways, but so important for the city. and i know that although folks don't come to our meetings as much as we wish they would, i know that when i talk to people that when i tell them what we do, that they're always very thankful. um, so yeah, we definitely want to maintain that in our office that we're doing important work and even though the going can be tough sometimes that, uh, you know, we all really feel that. so i want to always center that in our work. so thank you again. and yeah, so excited to get started. i understand you will

be starting, um, january 29th. great great. and the first item of business for you will be dealing with the budget. great great. now let us go to agenda item number seven, which is the presentation on public hearing and possible action on ethics commission budget commissioner. uh, sorry to interrupt, but you do need to take a vote under six f whether to disclose or not disclose the discussions in closed session. okay. pardon me. i'm jumping over. okay do i have a motion? i move to not disclose the discussion during the closed session. second, we need to take public comment. let's do a public comment. you don't need to take public comment. the

comment on this item was all taken in the beginning. already taken care of. okay, so let's take a vote, please. on the motion to not disclose. closed session deliberations. i will now call the roll commissioner in-love high chair lee high commissioner salahi i commissioner ursi high. with four votes in the affirmative and zero votes opposed, the motion is approved unanimously. okay thank you. now, let us go to agenda item number seven, which is presentation, public hearing and possible action on ethics commission's budget priorities for the fiscal year 20 2425 and fiscal year 2526. uh, i like to first ask our acting executive director, gayatri dagnino, to use the item

. um, thank you, chair lee. i'm just going to set up our presentation here on the screen. um, hello, commissioners. um in the agenda, you will see a memo and a presentation that describes the upcoming budget process for our fiscal years. 25 and 26. so the period that is covered by fy 25 is july 1st of this year, 2024 through june 30th of 2025. and the period covering 20 fy 26 is july 1st of 2025. and through june 30th of 2026. so the city's uh, budgeting process is typically for uh, two years. um, so just to give you an overview of the general, um, timeline for the

budget process, um, we received the budget instructions from the mayor's office in december. um, and the budget deadline submission is due february 21st. um before that deadline in a city, departments are required to, uh, get public input on their budget priorities and budget proposals. um, and the commission typically has conducted these, uh, hearings as a part of the regular commission meeting. so this meeting, this hearing represents the first public hearing where we will discuss the budget priorities for these years. um, we have a hearing planned for the february ninth regular meeting, uh, where we will talk about the specific or a few options for the budget proposal before we submit it. um, uh, to the mayor's office. so, um, a few other dates to keep in mind. once the department submit the budget, um, proposals by february 21st. uh, the mayor's office will look

at the different proposals and work with the departments and come up with the mayor's proposed budget by june first, which they will submit to the board of supervisors and the board of supervisors will then review and make changes to the proposal and send the budget back to the mayor by august first. and typically, the budget gets fully adopted soon after that. um now to give you, uh, you know, an overview of our, um, funding snapshot. um, so you see here there are three columns. the first column is for our current fiscal year's approved budget. uh, and then you see the baseline budget for fy 25 and 26. so currently we have 7 million, uh, approved with uh funded positions, 30 uh, 30.5. and then the point, the decimals there represent the specific funding amounts in the in the budget allocated. um, if you look at our org chart, you will see the 34 positions. however the, um, the way in which city's budgeting process

works departments are required to keep a certain number of funds aside to account for attrition. so the understanding is that, you know, as a part of normal, um, attrition, employees may move to other departments or move out of the city, and there could be salary savings during those types of vacancies. so that's why you see the total position shows 34. but then the funded position shows 30.5, because we are accounting for that. um in the next few years, you'll see that the budget, the starting point, which is a baseline budget, goes down a little bit. um, in specifically, you will see that there are two positions. we are down by two positions. that's because, um, as a part of the prior year's budgeting process, we had two positions that we were not able to get continued funding. so those positions funding expired june of this year. so that's why you see a drop between fy 24, which shows 34 and fy 25. again, 32. um, and just to give you an idea, currently we have 25 positions filled. um we also

administer an election campaign fund, which is not accounted for as a part of our regular operating budget. it's a special it's like a special project fund. um this fund is used to provide partial public financing for candidates for mayor and board of supervisors who choose to participate in the program. uh, currently, the fund has 4 million, and it is capped at 7 million. so typically we provide our projections and estimates to the mayor's budget office, and they determine the allocations to this fund. and currently the baseline budget shows that they have planned an allocation of about 446,000 each year. um, wanted to give you a high level idea of our budget distribution. you'll see here that majority of our budget is allocated for staffing, salaries and, um, benefits of 87. we also have some allocation for services of other departments. these are services from departments like department of air for personnel and um recruitment type services, um services from

department of technology for license aces. you know, basic infrastructure, communications, phones, tv support, etc. um, and we also have a small allocation for non personnel, uh, funds. um, this represents um allocation such as training for staff and maybe any services that are not supported directly by department of technology. like there are certain software licenses that are contracted at the city level. some of them that departments may need to fund on their own. so those types of services fall under this category. so i think the main thing to note here is that we are a very lean organization when it comes to just general operational expenses. a majority of our funds are allocated for staffing. um, here you'll see a distribution of our um, staff in terms of our functional areas, we have six division currently divisions currently. um, the engagement compliance division is focused on providing assistance to filers, providing

advice and guidance, providing training. um, they are also responsible for reviewing, reviewing all of the filings that come in for various programs. um, they also provide administrative support in certain parts of our departmental needs, such as, for example, assisting with the commission meetings, as we don't have dedicated staff for those types of functions. um, the audit division is responsible for conducting campaign audits and lobbying audits at the moment, um enforcement division, as you may have seen, more of their work through investigations, they're investigators and their team conducting that work. um, policy division, of course, working on commissions policy efforts as well as providing day to day support to our staff in terms of advice, clarity on how to interpret laws. um, also engaging with media, uh, the ethics at work division is a brand new program that we had built out a couple of years ago. um, we had seen the need to provide greater outreach to city departments beyond the standard trainings that we offer to, you

know, city staff. uh, so this team has been working with departments individually to identify their resource needs and training needs and providing customized support to them. and that work has been progressing well and is underway for, uh, last year when we had staffing shortages, this team also stepped in to help the compliance team because we had we did not have enough staffing in that team. so this team has been working well with our compliance division as well and assisting as needed. um, and lastly, the electronic disclosure and data analysis, this is essentially our it team in charge of handling all of our technology needs, including, um, providing assistance for conducting meetings. um devices, software licenses and working with pt, making sure we have the right technology policies, cybersecurity policies, and other policies. so, um, providing core support for our departmental day to day needs as well as our supporting our electronic disclosure systems.

so that's a general overview of how we are organized functions. um, the next slide gives you a deeper look in how our staffing is allocated per functional area. um, so here i just want to point out some color coding here. you'll see that some of the positions are highlighted in red. um, that is because those are the positions over the recent years we had to leave vacant to meet attrition. so the sort of represents the dip in, um, you know, the allocated positions versus funded positions. we haven't been able to fill them. we had to leave them vacant. but based on funds that were approved in this year, now, i've marked a couple of positions with the 1844 engagement and compliance officer role and the junior management assistant, which would be 1840. they're actually, um, a small correction. so the 1840 and 1844, um, these were positions that were planning to we were planning to fill this year because we do have funding.

however um, as these vacancies happened right around october, time frame, that that overlapped with when the mayor's office was looking at, um, conducting a mid-year cut. so we had to hold off on immediate recruitment, um, to wait until they completed their analysis and gave us the okay at and, you know, they did approve our request to fill these positions, but by then, um, the mayor's office had announced the instructions for the next fiscal year, and it was clear that we may need to hold these, uh, positions. also vacant. um, we may be able to fill them until june, but we're not sure if we have funding beyond then. so that's why even though they are, we have funding right now. and the plan was to fill them. we currently at the moment, we have to leave them vacant. um, you'll also note that there are two positions that i mentioned earlier that expire in june. um, the 1823 senior administrative analyst and also a senior investigator position. so this these are the two positions that will expire at the end of june this year.

um, the next chart gives you just another view of our staffing distribution. i think the key thing to note here are where which areas we have vacancies. so you'll see that, you know, on the administrative side, we don't have a lot of positions. uh, to begin with. and there are various vacancies. and this is sort of the challenges that we typically talk about when it comes to the assistance with our contracting, procurement or general administration. we don't have a lot of staffing there. um, also, we currently have vacancies in the engagement compliance division, policy and enforcement . um, and we've also identified the vacancies that are expiring as well. so it just gives you a different view of the same information. now moving on to the instructions that we have received from the mayor's office . here are the priorities that the mayor has established for the city for the upcoming years. improving public safety and street conditions. citywide economic vitality. reducing homelessness and transforming mental health service delivery. accountability and equity and

services and spending. um, and the instructions they provided with regards to cuts. um, we, the city departments are are expected to propose a budget that represents 10% cut. uh, plus a 5% as a contingency in case the economic situation of the city is much worse than what they were initially anticipating . um, so the. 10% and 5% basically is the same amount that needs to be maintained in both years. so it's not an additional ten in the following year. so it's essentially we have to present a budget that represents 15% cut in both years . um, now the 10% amount translated to $680,000 and 5% is $340,000. um, we're also told that we cannot ask for new positions, uh, and to prioritize these, uh, filling positions based on core, uh, needs of the department. um so if you look at, um, generally if you look at our current, the total positions

in our org chart, which are 34 positions, this is what would we would ideally need if we were to fill all of those positions that is 7.9 million total in the first year in fy 25. and 8.1 million in the second year. and you'll see at the top of this table that what is allocated, though, is, uh, 6.8 million and seven. so there is that huge gap in terms of all of the positions that currently show up in our org chart and in terms of what has been funded. um, now, looking at the 10% budget cut, i just wanted to give you an idea of what that translates to in total, in terms of number. um, i had, you know, talked about attrition savings that departments are required to maintain. so you'll see those numbers here for both the fiscal years. we, you know, as a starting point, we have to make sure we allocate. 644,000 and 646,000, aside from our salary, uh, accounts, as a starting point. and then on top of that, we have to identify a 10% budget cuts so that represents about

1.3 million in both years. so if at the end of this funding process, if the city were to decide to do the 10% cut, that would mean a 1.3 million impact to us as of now. um, now with the requirement to propose an additional 5% contingency, that total comes up to 1.6 million in both years. so you can see that addition there. now so in order to identify savings for the budget process, we've been looking at all of our budget accounts and how we've allocated funds. we've been looking to see if there are areas where we can, um, find savings. um, and it is clear that one of the major areas where we'll need to use savings are from salary. so essentially, most of the positions that i've identified as vacant will likely need to be left vacant in addition, i wanted to point out a couple of areas where we have identified savings. one of them is our net file maintenance costs. so right

now we pay about 130 or so thousand dollars, uh, maybe off on the exact number, but somewhere in that range for. net file. this is the vendor that provides the e-filing disclosure systems that are campaign filers use form seven and filers use and many other filers use um and right now all of those maintenance charges go directly to our operating budget, our charge to our operating budget. however, we've had a lobbyist project fund that was allocated through a ballot measure some years ago, which was specifically can be used only for lobbying related, uh, uh, programmatic work. so we were able to identify a portion of that particular cost. um, and, you know, we can direct it to that particular fund, which would be about $59,000. so that's one area where, um, we can, you know, rework how the funds are allocated. now we have not in the past used that fund because we were thinking at some

point we may want to redesign the lobbyist system. so that's what we were saving that that fund for. so the impact of this reallocation would be that we may have lesser amounts of funds if in the future, we choose to redesign that system that, you know, we've identified areas where that system can be improved. so that's why we have the fund. we haven't touched it until now, but this may be the time when we could use that fund. also, we've been working with the department of human resources and identified savings there. um, we learned that, you know, our the services they provide, um, they were originally the goal was to allocate a full time person from hr to our office, but over time, that has reduced in terms of percentage of allocation from that office. so we wanted to make sure that the budget reflected the percentage of the actual service that we were getting, which is why the 50% cut would still allow us to perform the work that we need to do in the coming years. so those are all the areas that we've identified. and this next slide gives you a snapshot of what the

impact looks like. so for the 10% scenario, we will have to use the savings set on the non salary side that i talked about just now netfile and the work order leave um five of the staffers. the vacancies open. um and i'm not of course including the ed vacancy that we've had up until now. um, and, and um, that would allow us to meet the 10% scenario now, if we were to look at the additional 5, what that would mean is we have to leave all of our existing positions vacant, and there is a gap in terms of the funds that we need to cover so that will also mean we need to identify a position that that may need to be potentially laid off. so we have indicated this to the mayor's office. you know, i know that that's something that they're certainly looking at. you know, across the city. um, so at the moment we don't know, um, you know what kind of cut we will be asked to make in the coming months? um, but i wanted to go a little bit more deeper here

before that. just here are the positions that are impacted. just so you know, again, um, the vacancies that we currently have in our department, um, represent, you know, services in the areas of compliance policy, enforcement and administrative work. so we're already challenged in some of those areas. and that that strain will continue to happen in the next few years. um and again, going a little deeper into what the 10% cut will mean for us. again, continued reduction in all of those areas where we can't fill staff, continued reduction, our enforcement capacity, um, policy , um, advice, guidance, compliance, and of course, insufficient staffing for admin work. and this is you know, work, um, by providing services to our, um, for, for to the public through our office, front office service commission meeting support um hr contracting, procurement. so all of those areas again, these are

all the areas where we don't have enough staffing and that will continue. one other thing i want to mention in the previous slide is, um, when you look at the 10% and 15% scenario that i've identified, we won't know until end of may what level of cuts that we will be asked to make. so even though under 10% scenario, we may be able to fill the 1844 position that i've identified in reality as we don't know if you know that is the likely scenario, we may not be able to actually proceed with filling that position, because we wouldn't want to go through that process and then later on realize that the cut needed is much larger. so this represents in terms of just budget, what the impact looks like. but in reality we will end up having to leave all the positions vacant until we have clarity on this. um and moving on to what this will look like for 15% cut. of course. um, here i do want to emphasize that the 1844 engagement and compliance officer position, this is the

senior position that that provides support for all forms, 700 filers and also other ethics related compliance requirements. so this is a key gap currently in place in our office. we do have other staff who are helping out, but this this is a key role that in the past has provided direct support to departments and filers so that again is a huge impact. uh and of course, you know, the impact of having to identify a position to, to, you know, to lay off is going to have a huge impact on whichever area that falls under. plus the impact on staff morale or retention. so these are extremely concerning issues for us. um and just high level idea of key priorities is, um, you know, we want to make sure that we can retain all of our existing staff, uh, especially, you know, we're tracking the march election. uh, if the ballot measure were to pass, then there's going to be a lot of work in really making sure that we have all of the necessary, uh, resources and materials and, and programmatic

bandwidth in place to support departments in the public on that. um, and of course, we want to fill all of the positions that are current operational gaps, um, and be able to maintain all of the technology services that our filers use in the public use to be able to access disclosures and, you know, to fulfill the transparency. uh goal. now, separately, i will say that i'm hoping to hear any, uh, feedback from all of you and the public to see if there are any specific areas that are top priorities for you. and i'll also be working with the new ed to see if he has any other priorities or vision for how the next few years will need to be planned. uh, so this may evolve in the coming weeks, but the goal is to provide, uh, more detailed proposal for the february meeting. so with that, i'll stop here and, um, see if you have any feedback or questions. thank you. thank you. director. any questions or comments from my colleagues? i don't have any

questions. i just wanna say that i thought the graphics were really helpful in understanding the situation, especially the chart on page 16. so whoever. kudos to whoever prepared those, made it really easy to absorb the situation. thank you. thank you. um, let's move to public comment first and a couple of follow ups. madam chair, we're checking to see if there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. okay. um director. uh i have a question regarding the specific, um, impact on the policy division. um, it's always been very small. uh, it's always been a personal one. and i think it took a lot of, um, support from our, um, state holders as well as the board of supervisors

to, uh, um, have an additional position. and it's currently vacant. and i know that it's more easy to not fill the position instead of just having to let go. and existing staff member, but i think policy has always been one of the least appreciative work of the commission. but it's the most vital, especially as we look long terme on where, um, clean government accountability goes. so i don't know how, um, we can really put push to protect that position, but i think that, um, while it's easier not to leave some of the, uh, positions vacant, um, but i think the

policy position on, uh, because we're looking at a 50% reduction, um, of a really vital component component of the commission's work. so so i would like to see us come up with some , um, um, creative strategies, um, to, to really fulfill that position because it's, i know the support is there, the need is there. the, um, i know the budget is tight, but it's. no one can step in to do that job. uh, so that's one comment. the second comment i have is the senior officer position. for 700 compliance. um, we've just made a huge, um, um, accomplishment the last year we had a great,

great, uh, response rate. and, um, i think this largely due to the staff's professionalism, its outreach, its engagement with the folks who are involved. and it's very unfortunate that we lost this person. um, and it if we lose this position, i'm afraid that it's going to redress back, regress back to where we were, which was a much lower, uh, compliance rate and just when the public is really looking to us, um, in terms of keeping the, the city honest, um, we need to find ways to, to have that position filled with the qualified ad, um, person. so those are the two positions that specifically jumped up to me. um, i know that, you know, there

are positions as left unfilled. uh, there all important, but i think that looking for forward to the commission's future, uh, relative science. uh, and, and engagement and needs. those are my two top concerns. and i hope that we'll find a way to work with the mayor's office. um, and again, the board of supervisors approved the these, uh, additional staffing. so. so those are my comments. thank you. sir. we'll certainly take that into consideration as we plan our options for our proposal. thank you. if not, uh, i think the next public hearing on the budget is february 9th. yeah. okay. we'll have a budget. uh agenda published by february

5th. that's what we're targeting. okay so let us, uh, there is no motion necessary. so let us go to agenda item number eight, which is the update and discussion regarding the march 2020 fourth ethics commission ballot measure focused on gifts, training and the other city ethics laws. uh mr. kenny, would you like to give us an update? yes, discussion on. uh thank you, chair lee. commissioners um, the staff memo on this item provides a brief update on the status of the ballot measure the commission placed on the march 2024 ballot. back in august, uh, which has since been designated as proposition d, uh, the memo also provides an overview of draft regulations as developed

for section 3.218 of the campaign, and governmental conduct code, as it may be amended by property. i'd like to briefly provide an overview of the regulation development process, the regulations as drafted and discuss potential next steps. uh as with the earlier set of regulations approved by the commission in august, when it voted on the ballot measure, these regulations per section 3.218, will only be applicable if prop d is approved by voters, and would only be going into effect at the same time as prop d, which would be a little more than six months after the march 2024 election. uh section 3.218 currently or currently contains rules governing the city's statements of incompatible activities, or sias, which are documents that each city department currently has. prop d would replace those individual documents with a standardized set of rules, which would be located in section 3.218 and be applied uniformly across the city. if amended by property section 3.218 would contain

rules for city officials regarding activities that are considered incompatible with their city service, such as engaging in activities that are subject to their department's jurisdiction in, uh, offering selective assistance, uh, or using city resources for private gain or advantage. a full list of the rules in section 3.218 is available in attachment one, which is an excerpt of prop d showing what changes property would make to the campaign and governmental conduct code. the intent of the proposed draft regulations is to clarify terms and specify the scope of section 3.218. uh, having this additional clarity in place well before any changes that will potentially be made by property go into effect is intended to insist to assist the implementation of those potential changes. uh, to develop and refine these draft regulations with feedback from stakeholders, staff held two interested persons meetings on this subject last year. uh staff has also had multiple meetings with officials from the

department of public health to identify their concerns and discuss how these proposed regulations could address their concerns. uh, following changes to earlier drafts, uh proposed um file uh, following changes to earlier drafts based on feedback from dph officials, uh, the officials have relayed to staff that the current version addresses their concerns and that while still promoting strong conflict of interest rules. uh, now, i'll briefly review the five proposed regulations in order. all of the proposed regulations deal with section 3.218, a one which generally prohibits city officers and employees from engaging in activities that are subject to their department's jurisdiction, which means activities that are subject to quote, the control inspection review, audit, permitting, enforcement, and contracting or otherwise within the responsibility of their department. section. 3.2 18a1

allows for city officials to be a party to a matter before their department or commission on behalf of themselves or their immediate family. the first proposed regulation specifies that this is allowed, but that the city official must also not participate in and must fully abstain from any involvement in such matters as part of their city duties. the second proposed regulation specifies that merely being employed by an entity that engages in activities subject to a department's jurisdiction is not prohibited if certain conditions are met. uh, specifically, that one the city official does not personally and substantially engage in such activities on behalf of their non city employer, and that they do not participate in and fully abstain from matters explicitly involving their non city employer or as part of their city duties. the third regulation is similar to the second, except that instead of applying to employment, it specifies that owning or exercising management or control over an entity is also not

prohibited. if certain conditions are met. uh specifically, that the city official does not personally and substantially engage in activities for the non city entity in such activities for the non city entity. uh two, that they do not participate in and fully abstain from matters explicitly involving the non city entity as part of their city duties and three, that the outside entity is not contracting with the city officials department as contracting with one's own department is already explicitly prohibited by section 3.218. the fourth regulation regards the exception that exists in section 3.218, a one that allows city officials to engage in non compensated volunteer activity for nonprofit organizations. the proposed regulation specifies that this exception include those serving on the board of directors of a nonprofit organization, as long as again, specific conditions are met, specifically that in their capacity as a city official,

they do not participate in and fully abstain from any involvement in any matters explicitly involving the nonprofit organization in which they're a board member and that the nonprofit organization does not contract with their department. the last regulation proposes a proposed specified that contracting with one's own department includes being an officer or exercising management or control over an entity that contracts with the officials department. this is similar to a standard that's used in the city's existing prohibition against officers contracting with the city. uh staff believes that these regulations are important for implementing section 3.218, as they maintain the strong rules found in that section, while also allowing city officials to engage in certain outside activities that may be valuable, but with specific guardrails in place to limit the risk of those activities causing conflicts of interest, either real or perceived. uh, regarding potential next steps, if following any discussion on the item today, the commission feels comfortable with these draft

regulations as the next step would be for staff to begin working with the department of human resources to satisfy any meet and confer obligation the city may have. uh staff can also make revisions based on feedback from the commission or other stakeholders prior to moving forward to that step. uh, or if the commission has significant concerns about the status of these regulations. um, um, we can also return back with revised drafts before moving ahead with dr. on that process. uh, regards of the next steps over the next immediate step, these regulations will need to come back before the commission for their final notice and approval before being voted on and potentially enacted. uh, and with that, i'm happy to take any questions the commission has or do elaborate on any of the specific proposed regulations. thank you. thank you very much. the summary was really helpful. yeah, yeah. i'm curious. um, mr. canning, what are the kind of specific timing issues that we need to be thinking about in the event that we do want to make

some suggestions? i'm looking for kind of specific deadlines and maybe there aren't any, um, there are no specific deadlines. i think the benefit of moving sooner on these rather than later is that there is the potential that, um, there will be a meet and confer process that could take some time. and while the rules, if prop d is approved, the rules wouldn't go into effect until more than six months after the march election, uh, there will be a lot of training and implementation that would happen over the summer. um, so if you know these rules were more solidified by that time, it would allow our ethics at work team, for example, to reflect those interpretations more clearly in training materials that will be being conducted prior to the rules going into effect. thank you. that's i have a follow up on that. so um, regardless of well, in anticipation of one way or another, the, uh, the result of the march election, uh, i would

suggest that you and your team put together a specific plan for action, which is included. what you had said already in terms of next steps, but more concretely, um, that they or a couple of days after the election, um, you know, people are going to contact the ethics commission and regardless, you want to reach out to our, uh, community partners. so it would be great if you can put together a sustained one page analysis of what's the next step, what are the roles of the, the, the ethics commission and members of the public so that we can really establish the, the need to really continue to engage with the folks you mentioned six months, uh, but six months go by really fast, and it would be great if you and your team of

you probably, um, put together that, that that plan, the action plan that day after the election , how do you roll out and the role that the ethics commission will play? so that would be very, very helpful. yes, i'm happy to work on that. julie. we've also been meeting internally and implementing property. if it is approved by voters, would definitely be a department wide, um, project. and we've been meeting across divisions to plan trainings and materials and, and what the rollout and implementation needs would be already and i know that i've said this from the first day i got here, uh, we really need to recognize the emerging, diverse, not even emerging, but the diverse communities and most of them had not been, um, actively engaged with us. and i think that we really need to, uh, use this opportunity to really engage with them because,

um, this initiative really, really impacts everybody. and, and those are the folks who are the least likely to get the accurate information. so i would suggest strongly be, um, um, focus efforts to reach out to that community. we would be a top priority. in language and in culture. okay okay. uh, let's open up for public comment on this item. madam chair, we're checking to see if there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there's one caller. welcome. good morning. commissioners. good morning. this is debbie lerman from the san francisco human services network. um, we appreciate the changes that have been made in the regulations so far, but still feel that some of these regulations are overly broad regarding rule two about employment. it is overly broad

for non-decision makers like front line workers, case managers, child care workers and specialists like nurses and psychiatrists. nonprofits are facing a staffing crisis, and this regulation undermines the ability to achieve outcomes under city contracts and also has an impact on entry level employees with multiple jobs. we object to the requirement that the position can't be majority funded by the employees department, because these workers don't participate in decision making or represent the nonprofit in discussions with the city, the regulations should allow front line workers to engage in part time employee at employment at a city funded nonprofit, but the part on contributing to documents and materials is also vague. for example, how would it would apply to a caseworker worker who's preparing data for a compliance report under the contract? we also are concerned that the provisions about serving on nonprofit boards is

still overly broad. for example, the regulation would prohibit hundreds of staff from sharing their expertise as board members with dozens of health care nonprofits that contract with dph. even if the service area isn't part of their job, such as a substance use employee serving with an aids nonprofit. again, the issue is with non managerial staff who don't participate in contracting decisions. ions the regulations should allow city staff to serve on a nonprofit board, even if the nonprofit has a contract with that department, it is a sufficient guardrail to ensure that the city employee does not participate in matters involving the nonprofit. as part of their city duties and approval could be required by the department on a case by case basis with criteria to guide that decision. i wanted to distinguish nonprofit arts and for profits regarding the boards of directors, nonprofit boards and board members have no personal gain arising from services and uncompensated

volunteer, and there is a negligible risk of corrupting influence. it serves the public interest for the commission to acknowledge those differences and regulate them accordingly. i recognize that this is in the ballot measure, but the six month implementation period would allow the commission and the board to consider this change. thank you for your consideration. um, and also, congratulations to commissioner lee on completing your service. thank you for listening to us. best thank you. madam chair. there are no more callers. okay let us go to the agenda item number nine, which is. to acknowledge my outgoing firm. so let's keep this short and sweet.

so we can go home before noon. um, gives us half an hour. madam chair, if i may add a few comments on this item. okay thank you. charlie. uh, this item is on the agenda, as we wanted to have an opportunity to show our appreciation for your work on the occasion of your six year tum coming to an end on february 1st. and this is going to be your last meeting. um, on behalf of staff, i want to share our deepest gratitude with you for your vision. strong leadership and commitment for the commission's work. um we thank you for the support, encouragement, and inspiration that you have provided to us. um, on a daily basis. um, and, and to really, you know, keep us motivated to do this important work for the public. so we appreciate all your contributions and we wish you the best. we also have a plaque that we want to present to you.

and when we conclude this item, uh, maybe after the public comment, um, that i'll stop there, but just wanted to share a general appreciation for all of your work. and yeah, we wish you well. thank you. um i'd like to make a few comments as well, but i don't want to get in front of you. if you were about to say something. no. go ahead, go ahead. i just, um, mr. ford mentioned earlier that his job or the job of staff is sometimes thankless. and that goes for commissioners as well. and i know you spend countless hours outside of these meetings working on the commission's priorities. um, and you don't get paid for it. so it's not only thankless, it's also not remunerative. um, since i've been there, there are, i think, three issues in particular where i think you've been a real driving force. the ballot measure, the budget issues we dealt with some months back, which will be an ongoing issue. and the executive director search, i want to thank you for really pushing those forward. um and i think under your chairmanship chair person ship meetings have been professional,

convivial, focused on what really matters, which is how it should be. but it's not always a given in local politics. i think city government would not function. but for dedicated members of the community like you doing what you do. so i want to thank you for all that. so much. um. today is a very, um, uh, um. bittersweet day. uh, i remember, uh, my first, um, meeting here at and throughout the last six years. i can say that, um, i've benefited a lot from learning from the three chairs that i served with under, um, the chairs. foreign. um knowing ambrose and being chair.

um they have set a really great example, uh, for what this commission really stands for. and i am just humbled to be able to continue on the path that they and previous, um, commission has set out. um it's been a very, uh, um, um. enjoyable and learning six years and yes, you know, like pat and other folks have said, this is a very difficult job. the commission, the commission is not one of those, um, government bodies that people can really realize and touch the positive results of the work that the department does. and, um, the ethics commission is really, um,

blessed to have, um, not just professionals, but professionals who are dedicated and committed and feel the passion to do, um, to carry out the mission, which is really, um, um, really a rare find in public service. uh, nowadays you don't come to work just for the paycheck. every one of you come, uh, every day to do the hard work because you want to believe. and you have, uh, made the difference. even though it's not something that we can really touch and realize at. and i, i am humbled by the, the staff because, uh, it's been said that this is one of the smaller, um, public agencies in not only the city, but in the bay area, but the impact that

you have made is tremendous. um how many people can say that you can still get emails at 1:00 in the morning and at 5:00 in the morning, uh, from the previous executive director and from the current acting executive director and possibly from the next executive director, because it's never a, uh, 9 to 7 job. and your passion, your commitment, um, and your belief that, um. it serves all of us well to have accountable, transparent, open and engaging government. and that's what drives me. and i will miss all of you. i know that, um, uh, you will do really well under the new leadership on the commission , as well as, um, the administration. and this is a

great time for the commission with the upcoming election, with the new year. um, there are a lot of challenges, but i want to wish you nothing but the best moving forward with the most, um, uh, strong resolve. um, and commitment and i will be sitting on the other side of this room, uh, often, uh, just to keep all of us, um, honest and pushing forward. and what why? we have this commission, uh, to begin with. so thank you very much. okay um. let's go to agenda item number ten. um shirley, um, we wanted to present the plaque to you and also public comment as well on this, so. okay. and i assume it's under the allowable

gift rules, right? why don't we do the presentation first, then before public comment? okay. that'd be okay. okay okay. yeah. yeah oh, you want to take a picture with all the commissioners? maybe you want. to. give someone the .

thank you. please okay. okay. thank you. okay let us now go to the. agenda item number ten, which is items for future meetings. uh, certainly. we had the public comment on this item as well, so. oh i told my friend not to call in. so we're going to drinks afterwards tonight. okay, madam chair, we're checking to see if there are callers in the queue. there's one caller. welcome. caller you have your

three minutes. begins now. hi. thank you for this time. um, in addition to the commission chairman, uh, personally, there's someone else needs to be recognized today, and that's acting director dietary deal for over a year since the previous director's departure is city police has both the duties of acting director always acting in the best interests of the public and the ethics commission that the ethics commission or the ethics commissions priorities moving forward during an uncertain time and i implore the commissioners to recognize and applaud her dedication and perceptiveness. thank you. thank you. okay. okay madam chair, there are no more callers. okay. let's go to agenda number nine, which is. no i don't agenda item

number ten. items for future meetings. public comment on that , madam chair. we're checking to see if there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there are no callers. okay. item number 11, additional opportunity for general public comment. madam chair, we're checking to see if there are callers in the queue. madam chair, there are no callers. okay. let's go to agenda item number 12, which is adjournment. no public comment. thank you all and have a blessed rest of the week.

[music] san francisco has a fascinate and complex network of governmental and community organizations. this often over limited partner in their missions and collaborate rit on solving today's challenges. often used for good, there are insubstances the relationships have created conflict. unduly influenced city policies

or services or circumvented procedures. torous issue policies restricting officials ability to solicit behested payments were created. but what is i behested payment? a behested payment made to a nonprofit at the request, suggestion or direction of a city officer or employee. a payment can be cash, goods and/or services. these rules have no impact on your ability to donate to a charity or other organizations. the rules only apply to officers or designated employees on the city and county of san francisco. these city officers and designate nited employees make considerations with some limited

exception. this vo will explain who interested parties are and the types of solicitations not allowed and what exceptions allow for certain solicitations. fortunately, no actual partying is restricted boy these rules. simple low put an interested per can be anyone with an interest in your department's work. including, anyone seek to influence your department. lobbying. over the past 12 months. permit consultants registered with the ethic's commission and reported contacts with the officers or employees department during the past 12 months. or anyone speak enforcement i license, permit or other entitlement from your department. considering this, if someone is

seeking a favorable decision from you or your office and you ask them to do nit to a charity, they might think if they do donate they will get better treatment. this is when we want to avoid. the real or perceived conflict of interest. there are some exceptions to these rules to help city agency and programs collaborate with nonprofits and donation. solicitations made urn authorized city programs for donations to nonprofits or public schools through competitive procured contracts are allowed by an ordinance. in connection with the negotiation or administration of i city contract, which are directly related to the terms of or perform under the contract;

public appeals med through television, radio, bill board, a public message on an online platform. the distribution of 200 or more identical pieces of printed material, the distribution of a single e mill to 200 or more recipients or a speech to a group. 20 or more people. these exceptions work. because these solicitations are broad enough to not target a narrow audience. let's look at examples. an elected official in san francisco. know this is a food bank operating in her district is in need of in kind donations to make holiday meals for families in need. abc inc. is a client of a registers will be lobbyist can

she accept i donation from abc inc. on behalf of the food bank in her district. >> in she can cannot ask for a do nigz to the food bank because likely an interested per for her. she cannot ask a lobbyist for a donation either. she may however make a public appeal for donations through mass media or a garthing of 20 or more people. let's try another. jordan is a receive who volunteers for a nonprofit. acme inc. is a contractor with their department. can jordan asked ceo to make a corporate donation to the nonprofit? no. this request is prohibited buzz acme inc. is contractor with their department interested

party. let's try one more. city employee madison, received i noticer in the mail soliciting do nigz for the local animal shelter can immediate son donate to the shelter? now this we got the green light there is nothing in the behested rowel that restrict their choice to make a personal charity donation from their personal funds. hopeful low you now have a clearer 70's behested payment rules. but every situation is unique. we encourage to you build upon when you learned and roach out to the ethic's commission any time for advice. for specific questions condition tact the ethic's commission at 415-252-3100. or ethics. commission @sfgov.org

thank you for your service and ticking the time to learn more about behested payments. in case there is is a discrepancy with this sum row and the law >> you are watching san francisco rising. [music] today's special guest is mano raju. hi. i'm chris and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting and rebuilding and reimagineings our city. our guest is mano raju san francisco's public defender great you could be here. actual at this time us about yourself how you became the public defend and why it is important to provide legal representtation to people that can't afford council.

>> i started in contra costa county graduated from berkeley and a liven deputy for you a number of years special jeff recruited me to san francisco the former elected public defender of san francisco and i began as a line department here and then asked me to be training direct and the managers of the felony unit the unit most serious case. after he passed away, i was appointed to be the public defend and electd and recently reelected. but you know what i think about what you know the story of public to the office i like to start with my parents. they come from a farming village in india and dad was the first in family to finish high school. there were a couple people in his village who saw him and encouraged his parentses to pursue studies and move in the country when i think of what public defenders dot most person

thing is to see our clients so than i can hopefully realize their full potential that is important to me and to our office and the cult usual of our office. >> you know the right to a public defender was developed in 1963 in gideon case ensuring the right to a public defender. we take this very seriously in our office. my vision is that anyone in our office should be representing the people represent the same way they want their love 1s to representd and people think if you have a public defender representing you in san francisco you will bet better than a private attorney. we will leave no stone unturned no motion unfiled and try to perform the highest level for clients >> that's fantastic >> often when people think public defenders they jump to the idea of somebody defending somebody in court your office does more than courtroom

representation. >> i'm an elected public dem felonieder i campaigned on that it is important we break the mold of what is public for our office on accomplish. fiercely defending is the core of what we do and that will never go, way. as the only elected public defender there is an elected da and sheriff in every county. in the state but one elected public defender. it is important our office pushed envelope and engage in the national and state wide and local policy that will impact community how public safety and our clients. we have local policy directors, state policy director. we are active in sacramento in trying to make the law change in order to be more humane system for our clients. we are believer in advocating for community power.

we have two 501c3's in bayview and fillmore that are be more magic under the umbrelast public defender's office. these are youth empowerment organizations that do programming throughout the summers. which back pack give, ways to kid school sflois start the school year and believe engaging youth will prevent them from become clients. and put people on the path to thrive. we have a program, end of cycle program. culturally competent social workers going to the jails and finding out what the individual needs. we'll fight for their best legal outcome in the case. and the position of trust the fifth amendment protects the conversations that our clients can have with us. we can use that to really encourage a trusting rep and telling us what they need and be

frank and connect that individual with the substance abuse or mentor or housing or employment and educational opportunities hamp that individual needs to thrive and reach their full potential. that is another piece behalf we do. 17 units across our department and you know we take collaborating across units something we try to do every tail to meet our mission, vision and values >>. a part is ensuring recidivism does not reoccur >> of course the left thing we want to see is a client to return to be a client again. we work intentionally from the moment we start representing a client with our skilled staff and other members of our team to try to figure out what is that future going to be for the client when they leave our care? >> now, some critics argue public defenders have a heavy case load. how is your office mechanicing this and what issues are most

important to you. why we have a heavy case load. unfortunately, this is a problem across the country, public defenders are not funds equal low to da offices our fund suggest 61% of the da office. and the police department has 14 time the our budget. and there is the sheriff's department and any time the entities are detaining our cloinlt in i way it is up to us to defend this is manage we are working on locally. and alsoination wide to change that. we need more staff and every wing of our office. the logo is greater than one. so we know that we need to be greater twhoon individual in the office and use our teams effectively and strategically and skillfully and put in more hours to make sure we reveal truth and make justice happen in courtrooms. greater than one also symbolizes

the fact we are collaborating with other communities organizations to try to support and help our client and move policies that will help our clients. an example of this is the pretextual stop campaign we collaborated with 110 organizations throughout the city to convince the police commission to pass the general order that stops some of the stops traffic stops for things that don't impact public safety and lead to often con41ational interactions with the police and civil yens and. we wanted to minimize that mostly the shootings we read about and the the violence of inneraction gets in car and tragic occurrence that can happen. by collaborating we can be powerful than the sheer numbers in our organization. >> sure.

so you know like cities cross the country san francisco struggling with fentanyl and homelessness, how can our office contribute to help mitigate or solve those problems? >> one thing we can do, again often times with community based organizations; is to really try and figure out how we address the demand. you know. treatment on demand. again. finding people opportunity with housing or employment opportunity. you know mitigation or just any form of counciling that helps people. move in more positive direction in a way more inviting oppose to co hearsive. now we don't have enough beds for everyone who needs that intensive treatment. contributing to staffers to get more funding for people to get treatment they need. because the reality is there will always be someone to fill

the need. we work on the demand, which evidence based there was fee of dealing with addiction will move in a more positive direction. >> then, finally, what else would you like residents of san francisco to know about you and your office? >> i think what i like the san francisco residents to know is how muchow important it is that the public defender be aggressive. right now we had a huge backlog of cases in san francisco. there were over a housand passed the last day. a right to a speedy try and have case passed the last day. we had to plaintiff and against the court t. is important this we have an independent public defend 30 is willing to do that. and we got a good decision from the court of appeal and now the courts move quick and are

honoring this and the effort from policy team to 850 bryant the courthouse is to draw attention to this issue it is important we have an aggressive public defender. had someone gets convicted for something they did not do it impacts their family. clients are greater than one, it is important we fierce low defend. the same time because when someone gets convicted of something they did not do they are less likely to access the j.w. they need for stability or housing and then will impability a lot of people and lead to more issues on the streets and affect public safety. also to realize we are a public safety organization. we have social workers and take this social worker mentality or support facilitative prop and

get cloinlts to a better place. when our clients get to a better place we are all safer >> thank you mr. raju. we appreciate the work. thank you for your interest in the development. you know i wanted to say if anyone wants to know more about a lot of the initiatives and unit in our department they can go to you tube we have a dairy defender series. and people should look at that to learn more about the different units. also we talked about the dibilltating impact of convictions we have a clean slate program exsponging hundreds of records every year. and people can go to our website sfpublicdefender. org and move their live in a positive direction >> thank you very much. >> thank you >> that's it for this episode we will be back shortly for

government government i'm chris manners, t t t t t t t t t t t t >> good morning, the meeting will come to order and welcome to the february 1, government audit and oversight committee, i'm supervisor dean preston chair of the committee. joined by supervisor matt doresey our clerk is and thank you for staffing this meeting. and before we get into business, understand that some recognition of my colleagues