April 8, 2024
To: Members of the Ethics Commission
From: Tyler Field, Senior IS Engineer
Subject: AGENDA ITEM 8: Campaign Finance Dashboards Presentation
Summary
The Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance seeks, among other things, to “[m]ake it easier for the public, the media and election officials to efficiently review and compare campaign statements” and to “[a]ssist voters in making informed electoral decisions.” The campaign finance dashboards on the Ethics Commission’s website represent one of the ways that the Commission is attempting to further these goals. These dashboards represent a simplified way for interested members of the public to understand how campaign committees are funded and how they spend money. The dashboards distill a varied number of filings into a set of charts and graphs designed to answer the most common questions while allowing the public to dive deeper into the information that interests them.
Prominently featured on the sfethics.org homepage, the dashboards webpage (https://www.sfethics.org/dashboards) has become the go-to place for the public and press to access this information.
For the 2024 election cycle, the Ethics Commission expanded the dashboard offerings to include two additional dashboards; an automatically updating simplified view of committee contributions and expenses, and a view of the financials of local general purpose committees and committees which file with the California Secretary of State but have participated financially with local San Francisco elections.
Staff will present an overview of these online dashboard tools.