Ethics: Hiding the Facts on Lobbyists Spending

By Milkcluber

November 6, 2008

For the first time since City Hall lobbyists were required to tell the public how much money they poured into local campaigns, San Franciscans have been denied the right to review the records before the election.

Indications are that lobbyists spent more money in this election than at any time in city political history. Major lobbyists like the San Francisco Association of Realtors slung  mud at progressive supervisor candidates in mailers and on television, PG&E spent over $10 million on one ballot measure with untold amounts poured into political clubs and front groups, and the Chamber of Commerce may have been behind using a ballot measure committee as a vehicle to run smear campaigns to blacken the reputations of candidates it opposed while lauding those it supported.

How could such a Fort Knox of campaign money by lobbyists stay hidden?

It was actually easy. All that needed to happen was for the city’s Ethics Commission to put the quarterly lobbyists reports in a drawer, out of public view, until the election was over.

When each quarter’s reports are filed – most recently, on October 15 – the Ethics Commission is supposed to post them online to provide a means for the public to follow the money.

That information is especially critical on the eve of an election, when lobbyists contribute to candidates who, if elected, can then return the favor when votes are tallied on legislation, contracts and permits.

But, as of November 6 – three weeks after the reports were due to be filed and days after the election itself – the San Francisco Ethics Commission has still not posted the lobbyists reports.

Stupidity or cupidity, what does it matter? Recently, an Ethics Commission staffer blew the whistle on Ethics Commission director and the commission’s top leadership for failing to seek information from top donors. For a year, indications that criminal money-laundering were shoved to the bottom drawer by Ethics Director John St. Croix, who relented after the San Francisco Chronicle broke the story. Now there is a criminal investigation underway raising questions about money laundering at the Community College district, but St. Croix continues to deny resources to follow up on other major donor money trails.

Ethics Commission Executive Director John St. Croix.

Now St. Croix’s bottom drawer is overflowing with yet more reports hidden from public view under his “leadership.” Reports from over 40 registered lobbyists who hope to win millions of dollars in favors for their clients are locked away, hidden during the critical election period and now, days after the election, still locked away.

There is no indication on the Ethics Commission’s website (www.sfgov.org/ethics) as to when the reports will be posted. Perhaps St. Croix is waiting until after all the votes have been counted?

FCJ Editor

More Posts