San Francisco Supervisors pass two ordinances on conduct of elected officials

By Angela Hokanson, Bay City News Service

June 13, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Two separate ordinances that make changes to San Francisco's Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code passed on second readings at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors today.

The first ordinance requires certain municipal elected officials to disclose information on who funds any out-of-state gifts of travel bestowed on the officials.

Elected officials would need to file forms with the city's ethics commission reporting the name of the organization funding the trip and the total amount to be paid by the organization. Officials would be required to report the name of any person who contributed more than $500 to the organization funding the trip if the contribution was used in part to finance the trip.

Elected officials would also need to describe the purpose and the itinerary of the travel, and to disclose the names of any people accompanying them on the trip under certain circumstances -- such as if that person is a city employee or a lobbyist.

These requirements would be in effect for any out-of-state trip funded in part by any entity other than the city of San Francisco, another governmental body, or an educational institution.

Elected officials would also need to disclose the same sort of information for any out-of-state trip funded in whole or in part by the city of San Francisco when the funds are given to the city by any group other than another governmental body or an educational institution.

"Private interests should not be secretly funding trips by elected officials," Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, who co-sponsored the legislation, said in a statement after the legislation had passed on its first reading.

"We've learned from the Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay scandal in Washington that secret trips are a recipe for corruption," Sandoval said.

The elected officials who will be required to report this information on travel include the mayor, the members of the board of supervisors, the city attorney, the district attorney, public defenders, the assessor-recorder, the treasurer, and the sheriff.

A second ordinance passed today would prohibit both for-profit and non-profit corporations from contributing money to candidates for city elective office.

Corporations could still establish separate funds and donate money from those funds to municipal political candidates.

According to the legislative digest for the ordinance, the legislation, which was introduced by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, seeks to prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption by preventing corporations from using large quantities of money to unduly influence elected officials.

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