Flanked by co-defense counsel David Waggoner (right) and Peter Bagatelos (left),
Former District 7 Supervisor Tony Hall breaks a smile
when the San Francisco Ethics Commission finds him guilty
on two minor counts of campaign finance violations.
Photos by Luke Thomas

By Luke Thomas

December 8, 2008

After a four-year investigation costing taxpayers over $1 million, the San Francisco Ethics Commission today found former District 7 Supervisor Tony Hall guilty on two of six counts of alleged campaign finance violations.

Hall was levied a staff-recommended $6,000 fine for failing to keep adequate auto-expenditure records and using a campaign credit card to purchase personal items during his 2004 supervisoral re-election bid.

The most serious allegation, that Hall used campaign funds to repay a $12,000 personal loan to District 7 Supervisor Sean Elsbernd aide Olivia Scanlon, did not meet the burden of proof, the commission said. That count alone carried a maximum $240,000 fine.

Charges related to the use of campaign funds for meal expenditures following Hall’s withdrawal from the 2004 race for supervisor were also dropped.

In closing, the commission rejected defense attorney David Waggoner’s claim that the investigation against Hall was politically motivated.

“The commission rejects respondent’s suggestions that this was in anyway a ‘travesty,’ or that the investigation was ‘politically motivated,’” commissioner Jamienne Studley said.

Ethics Commissioner Jamienne Studley

Hall maintains the investigation against him was conspired by Mayor Gavin Newsom, Supervisor Elsbernd and attorney Jim Sutton to prevent Hall from running against Newsom in 2007 and Elsbernd in 2008.

“Anybody who has ever opposed Gavin Newsom, or his policies, has been investigated and fined by this ethics commission,” Hall said following the hearing. “This whole thing has been a setup from the word go…to inflict as much political damage as they could do.”