City & County of San Francisco
San FranciscoEthics Commission

The Ethics Commission’s Blueprint for Accountability was developed in January 2016 to identify the budget priorities that will guide the Commission’s work for the next two fiscal years. The Blueprint identified core investments needed to equip the Ethics Commission with resources required to fully achieve the broad voter mandate it has been given the responsibility to achieve.

Embraced in full by the Mayor and adopted by the Board of Supervisors with the City budget adopted in mid-2016, the Commission’s FY 2017 operating budget established a focus on four key areas designed to move the Ethics Commission’s work to the next level of effectiveness, accomplishment, and public trust: organizational efficiencies; effective enforcement; enhanced compliance guidance; and a strengthened policy focus. Strategically focused on new initiatives, renewed priorities and key programs, it reflected a renewal of the Commission’s agency-wide commitment to working creatively, collaboratively, and energetically in support of transparent and accountable government, City-wide.

At its January 23, 2017 regular meeting, the Ethics Commission adopted a budget framework to guide Staff in preparation of the next budget proposal the Commission is required to submit in February 2017. In adopting that framework, the Commission directed Staff to prepare a budget for the coming two fiscal years that continues to build on its 2016 Blueprint and:

1. better align personnel resources with the changing nature of the Commission’s work by adding two new staff positions to improve daily oversight of its expanded program responsibilities;
2. correct a historic under-funding of staff tools, and staff training and development by creating and funding line items necessary for: technology to implement laws with new public disclosure requirements; translation resources to improve multi-lingual outreach; and improved efficiencies with new training and tools for continuing program and organizational innovation.
3. ensure appropriate workspace for the expanded training it plans to conduct and to match actual 2017 staff levels;
4. extend use of performance indicators across all Ethics Commission program areas to strengthen transparency and accountability for the public dollars invested in the Commission’s work.

FY18 Budget Updates

On May 30, 2017, the Ethics Commission communicated its support for the Mayor’s proposed FY18 budget for the Ethics Commission in a transmittal to the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Analyst.

On June 8, 2017, the Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee held a hearing on proposed budgets for a number of departments, including the Ethics Commission. View the Commission’s presentation to the Budget and Finance Committee.

The full Board of Supervisors is expected to consider the Ethics Commission’s budget on Friday, June 16, 2017.

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