Spending on San Francisco elections, much of it by billionaires, has reached its apex in recent years. But the city\u2019s ethics watchdogs, meant to regulate that money, are thinning out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The San Francisco Ethics Commission has in recent years seen a steady decrease in staff, which receives corruption complaints and keeps officials and candidates compliant with local campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n
Mayor Daniel Lurie, who vowed to support the commission<\/a> and root out corruption during his 2024 campaign, is continuing that trend: This year, the commission is losing two staff members<\/a> under Lurie\u2019s proposed budget and expects to drop to 23 positions next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n By 2027, the commission\u2019s workforce will be 25 percent lower than at its peak of 31 staff members in 2023, according to a June report<\/a> from Executive Director Patrick Ford. The city\u2019s total workforce, many of whom will continue to file ethics reports with the commission, has dropped by less than 5 percent over the same period, the report noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe commission has at least the same level of work to do, with drastically fewer staff,\u201d Ford told Mission Local.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s torrent of political cash isn\u2019t waiting for his agency to catch up.\u00a0<\/p>\n Total spending across all candidate and ballot measure campaigns went from $20 million in 2020 to $29 million in 2022, and then to $76 million in 2024, according to an analysis by Mission Local.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Ethics Commission deemed 2024 a \u201crecord year\u201d<\/a> for total spending on the city\u2019s mayoral and supervisor elections at $26.8 million\u2014and that excluded ballot measures, which typically see much larger sums. That year, a notable cadre of ultra-wealthy venture capitalists and CEOs including Michael Bloomberg, Michael Moritz, William Oberndorf, Chris Larsen and Mayor Daniel Lurie, heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune, pumped a combined $17 million<\/a> into local races.\u00a0<\/p>\n The amount of third-party spending from political action committees in San Francisco elections has also risen sharply, from $13 million in 2020 to $25 million in 2022 to $43 million in 2024, according to a Mission Local analysis.<\/p>\n Mayor Lurie has proposed cutting the Ethics Commission\u2019s total operating budget from $7 million to $6 million this year. That forces the commission to cut two roles: a payroll clerk and a program administrator, the latter role currently vacant. An inability to fill that role would mean downsizing in-person ethics trainings and longer wait times for candidates and city employees seeking advice, Ford said in his report. He added that two out of five of the workers who help city officials comply with ethics rules have been cut in the last two budget cycles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Mayor Lurie\u2019s proposed cuts would make an already overburdened staff absorb more work, Ford said, making it harder to address ongoing campaign malfeasance.\u00a0<\/p>\n The commission has handed out record fines in recent years. In 2024, it found mayoral contender Mark Farrell<\/a> failed to report payments, misreported spending and didn\u2019t properly log donations, in breach of state and local campaign finance laws \u2014 it fined him $108,000<\/a>. The commission also fined Neighbors for a Better San Francisco<\/a>, a wealthy public pressure group and one of the highest spenders in local elections, $54,000 for several violations<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city watchdogs are also expected to deliberate<\/a> on whether Lurie violated city and state law by refusing to show records of his October 2025 call with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Ford said the cuts would also require the rollback of a program that helped public officials, like department heads and city commissioners, with filing state-mandated conflict-of-interest forms. He said that program led to over 99 percent compliance as of his June report. City officials routinely missed the required deadlines<\/a> as of 2024, Mission Local previously reported.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office argues the commission\u2019s budget is actually going up to $9 million, compared to $6 million last year. That increase comes from $3 million Lurie has proposed for the commission\u2019s Election Campaign Fund, which is distributed to candidates and got zero dollars in the last cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Commission staff, however, said the Election Campaign Fund doesn\u2019t fund operations \u2014 it just provides public financing money to local candidates running for office. The organizational budget, they say, is going down.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Mayor Lurie makes government more accountable so it works for San Franciscans instead of insiders, we\u2019re proud to have increased the Ethics Commission\u2019s budget by 42% this year\u2014especially after the last administration tried to defund the commission<\/a>,\u201d Lurie spokesperson Charles Lutvak told Mission Local.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery candidate for office should be held to the same high legal and ethical standards, and we will continue working with the Board of Supervisors to ensure the Ethics Commission has the resources to enforce them.\u201d<\/p>\n Lurie is expected to sign the budget, which includes the commission\u2019s cuts, by Aug. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would we be reducing the commission\u2019s staff when there\u2019s far more money being poured into local campaigns, rather than less?\u201d Paul Melbostad, who served on the Ethics Commission from 1995 to 2003 and helped establish public campaign financing for city candidates. \u201cIf there are fewer staff, then ethics complaints are investigated and presented to the commission well after they\u2019re relevant to the given election, and the public loses confidence and thinks the process is worthless.\u201d<\/p>\n