Date: February 3, 2025
To: Members of the Ethics Commission
From: Patrick Ford, Executive Director
Subject: Agenda Item 3 – Executive Director’s Report
Summary and Action Requested
This report provides various programmatic and operational highlights since the last report.
No action is required by the Commission, as this item is for informational purposes only.
Hiring Updates
Recruitment has been a top priority for the department. Since the approval of the Commission’s FY25 budget in August, the department has successfully completed thirteen recruitments. I am excited to announce that the final two vacant positions have been filled.
Auditors – Audits Division:
The Commission completed the recruitments for the two remaining Auditor II (1684) positions to staff the Audits Division. Dennis Fiorentinos began work on Monday January 27, and Emma O’Donnell began Monday, February 3.
Dennis most recently worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an Experienced Audit Associate in San Francisco where he applied auditing and accounting standards in the assessment of clients’ revenues and internal controls. Dennis has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration concentrating in Accounting from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Dennis is also a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Emma also most recently worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Senior Audit Associate in San Franciso and Silicon Valley where she conducted audits of clients in the technology, media, and telecommunications sector and assessed compliance with professional standards and regulations. Emma has a Bachelor of Arts in Business concentrating in Accounting and Management from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.
Relatedly, January 24th was Manisha Lal and Robert Hodge’s last day with the Commission. We thank Manisha and Robb for their service to the Commission.
Engagement and Compliance Staffing Update:
January 31st was Ana De Carolis’s last day with the Commission. Ana joined the Commission in August 2022 as a Training & Outreach Specialist, and she has been an integral part of the agency’s training and education mission. Ana played a key role in developing and delivering training on Prop D changes and implementing the Departmental Gift Disclosure process. Additionally, Ana has provided support to the advice program by writing responses to requests and supported important work of the agency by serving as our ADA Coordinator and Language Access Liaison. Ana will be joining the City’s Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA).
As described in Agenda Item 8, the Mayor instituted a hiring freeze on January 9th. This will prevent the Commission from backfilling the vacant 1823 position following Ana’s departure.
Budget Analysis
A major area of focus at present is the analysis of the Commission’s budget and the preparation of budget proposals to present to the Mayor’s office. Agenda Item 8 contains a proposed budget for the Commission for FY26 and FY27.
Policy Updates
AB 1170
As reported in the November Executive Director’s report, the governor signed AB 1170 in September 2024. The bill went into effect January 1st, and it changed state laws governing how certain government officials are required to file the Form 700 Statement of Economic Interests. The new law requires that certain top local government officers begin filing the Form 700 with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) through that agency’s online filing system. In San Francisco, this will apply to 23 City officers (Mayor, members of the Board of Supervisors [11], District Attorney, City Administrator, City Attorney, Treasurer, and members of the Planning Commission [7]).
Importantly, this new state filing requirement is in addition to, and does not replace, San Francisco’s local requirement that those same officers file the Form 700 with the Ethics Commission using the Netfile system. This is important because the FPPC’s filing system is basic and lacks most of the features of the Commission’s system that allow the public to easily review and search within Form 700 filings. If City officials were to discontinue filing their Form 700s with the Commission and file exclusively with the FPPC, the data within the information within those Form 700s would be extremely difficult to access and much of San Francisco’s processes for preventing and detecting conflicts of interest would be severely compromised.
On January 30th, Staff met with the FPPC to discuss that agency’s implementation of AB 1170. In particular, the FPPC has elected to discontinue the state’s Form 700 data exchange, which was a longstanding mechanism for local agencies to automatically transmit the Form 700 filings of top level officials for inclusion in the FPPC’s database. Without a data exchange, the FPPC requires top local officials to file their Form 700s directly with the state, creating the current double filing requirement for 23 of San Francisco’s top officials. Staff will continue to urge the FPPC to consider the effects of AB 1170 on jurisdictions like San Francisco that have an advanced Form 700 e-filing system and a well-developed conflicts management process based on Form 700 data.
Audit Updates
Extensive work has been done already to prepare for the audits of the 2024 election campaigns. Details about this work are provided in Agenda Item 4.
Technology Updates
Agenda Item 5 contains updates about the various technology projects that have been completed in FY25 or are currently underway.
Engagement and Compliance Updates
The quarterly report of the Engagement and Compliance Division will be presented at the March meeting.