Date: April 6, 2026
To: Members of the Ethics Commission
From: Patrick Ford, Executive Director
Subject: Agenda Item 4 – 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.
Annual Form 700 and Ethics Training Deadline
The Commission has been working since January to administer the City’s annual Form 700, ethics training, and Sunshine Ordinance training process. The annual deadline was April 1. The Technical Assistance Unit (TAU) within the EDDA Division is responsible for providing support to filers and filing officers, primarily on the use of the Commission’s online filing system, NetFile. The Engagement and Compliance Division assists filers with compliance questions, including answering filer questions about what financial interests must be included on the Form 700. The Operations Unit helped to plan the overall compliance program and to coordinate efforts across divisions.
TAU held two training sessions for departmental filing officers on February 4 and 6, to provide information, answer questions, and ensure filing officers are well equipped to successfully support filers with administrative support within their respective departments. Additionally, TAU held two information sessions for filers on February 19 and 26.
TAU also implemented a robust communication plan to ensure filers received sufficient reminders of their filing requirements. Reminders were sent to filers who had not completed their requirements on February 10, February 16, February 23, March 2, March 16, March 23, and March 31. Staff notified departmental filing officers of their noncompliant filers on April 2. Staff also proactively reached out to Commission Secretaries on April 2 to inform them if any commissioners had not yet completed their requirements and were therefore disqualified from meeting participation. Staff notified all delinquent filers on April 2 that they had not yet completed their filing obligations. Additional non-filing notices will be sent on April 8 and April 22.
As of April 1, 92.7% of Form 700 had timely fled the Form 700, and 89.6% had timely completed the annual ethics training. As of April 6, those numbers had increased to 94.9% Form 700 compliance and 92.7% annual ethics training compliance.
The Commission is now implementing the post-deadline procedures, including non-filer notices and supporting the work of Filing Officers as they try to increase compliance within their departments. Staff will hold two additional training sessions for Filing Officers on April 14 and April 16 focused on their requirement to conduct basic reviews on 20% of on-time filings and 100% of late filings. The sessions will cover how the reviews should be conducted, methods for pulling random samples to review, and tools they can use to help complete and track their reviews more easily. On May 4, Staff will post the public list of names of non-filers to the Ethics Commission website. At that time, the Enforcement Division will begin the process of contacting certain non-compliant filers to initiate the enforcement process.
Additional information about these processes will be provided in forthcoming reports from the Engagement and Compliance Division (May) and Enforcement Division (June).
Launch of New Data Dashboards
The EDDA Division completed major updates to the Commission’s campaign finance dashboards for the 2026 election cycle. The June and November 2026 dashboards are now live and accessible on the Commission’s website.
The dashboards help the public see who is funding San Francisco campaigns and how that money is spent. They provide up-to-date campaign finance information as new disclosure filings are received and present that information in an interactive, user-friendly format. San Francisco law requires campaign advertisements to direct voters to the Ethics Commission’s website for detailed financial disclosures. By simplifying complex disclosure data, the dashboards provide a more intuitive way to explore relationships among candidates, committees, and contributors influencing local elections.
Through the updated dashboards, users can learn:
- Who the largest contributors are to different candidates and ballot measures,
- How much is being raised and spent across different contests,
- The proportion of funds being raised from local San Francisco contributions,
- Who is contributing to each committee and how that money is being spent,
- Which third-party organizations are spending to influence elections and their funding sources, and
- How to access copies of complete campaign finance disclosures and datasets.
The Policy Division conducted extensive user testing with journalists prior to the launch of the new dashboards. The EDDA Division was able to use several key pieces of feedback to improve the product’s user experience. On April 6, the SF Standard covered the launch of the new dashboards, which will help to spread awareness of the new tool.
Language Access Ordinance Compliance
The San Francisco Language Access Ordinance requires certain City communications and online content to be translated into multiple languages to ensure access by San Franciscans. In February, the City certified Vietnamese as the fifth required language (in addition to English, Chinese, Spanish, and Filipino). By June 23, the Commission’s key webpages will need to be translated into Vietnamese. The EDDA Division and Operations Division will coordinate this work.