Incompatible Activities – City Officers and Employees

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All officers and employees of the City are subject to the provisions of their department, board or commission’s Statement of Incompatible Activities (SIA). The SIA identifies activities that are deemed incompatible with your duties as a City officer or employee. Please take time to review your SIA completely.

By April 1 of each year, every department, board, commission or agency must annually provide to its officers and employees a copy of its Statement of Incompatible Activities (SIA). Departments, boards, commissions and agencies of the City and County may satisfy this requirement by doing all of the following:

(1) posting the SIA on the department, board, commission or agency’s web page;

(2) posting the SIA statement within the department, board, commission or agency’s offices in the same place that other legal notices are posted; and

(3) either distributing a paper copy of the SIA to each officer or employee or distributing an electronic copy of the SIA to each officer or employee either (a) by sending an email that contains the SIA or an electronic link to the SIA to each officer or employee, or (b) if the department, board, commission or agency does not have the officer or employee’s email address, by providing a handout to the officer or employee that references the SIA, provides the address of the SIA on the website of the department, board, commission or agency or the Ethics Commission, and directs the officer or employee to review the SIA in its entirety.

To ensure that new officers and employees are notified of the SIA, each department, board, commission and agency must provide a copy of its SIA to the each new officer at the time of appointment or each new employee at the time of hire in the manner described above.

City officers and employees may obtain a paper or electronic copy of the SIA that governs you from your department head. The SIA is also posted on your department’s website. In addition, the SIAs of all departments, boards and commission are posted below.

Approval of and Amendments to SIAs

All statements of incompatible activities as well as any amendments to previously adopted statements must be approved by the Ethics Commission in accordance with regulation 3.218-1. When submitting an amended SIA to the Ethics Commission for approval, departments should provide a redlined version which identifies all proposed changes. Amendments may be submitted by email to ethics.commission@sfgov.org.

Regulations Regarding SIAs

Memos Regarding SIAs

Department Specific Statement of Incompatible Activities (SIAs)

Advance Written Determination

Under section 3.218 of the San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code, each Department, Board, or Commission has adopted a Statement of Incompatible Activities (“SIA”) that lists those outside activities that are inconsistent or incompatible with the duties of the officers and employees of the Department, Board, or Commission. Section III.C of the SIA permits an officer or employee to seek an Advance Written Determination (“AWD”) as to whether a proposed outside activity is prohibited because it is inconsistent or otherwise in conflict with the officer’s or employee’s duties. Each department’s SIA specifies who the decision maker must be for any Advance Written Determination requested by an officer or employee of that department. To obtain an Advance Written Determination, please consult your department’s SIA to see who the decision maker for your AWD is. Fill out Sections A-E of the Request for Advance Written Determination legibly and completely, and submit this form to the decision maker identified in Section C of your SIA. Please note that the decision maker may require you to provide additional information.

An Advance Written Determination by the decision maker that an activity is not incompatible with the SIA provides the requestor with immunity from any subsequent enforcement action for a violation of the SIA, if the material facts are as presented in the requestor’s written submission. An Advance Written Determination does not provide immunity from any other laws that prohibit the proposed activity. At any time, the decision maker may revoke the Advance Written Determination, by providing written notice to you specifying the changed facts, circumstances or other good cause that warrants the revocation.

The requester and decision maker should retain a copy of the Advance Written Determination for their records.

File Request for Advance Written Determination or Revocation of Determination

DBI/Planning SIA Disclosure

Under the Statements of Incompatible Activities for the Department of Building Inspection (“DBI”) and Building Inspection Commission, and the Planning Department (“Planning”) and Planning Commission, all officers (except those on the Access Appeals Commission, the Board of Examiners or the Unreinforced Masonry Building Appeals Board) must disclose all permit applications and other matters pertaining to their official business before the DBI or Planning to the Ethics Commission within 15 days of such application or action. Officers who sit on the Access Appeals Commission (“AAC”), the Board of Examiners (“BOE”) or the Unreinforced Masonry Building Appeals Board (“UMBAB”) must disclose such information within 15 days of the end of each quarter, or at the end of September, December, March and June. All officers must also disclose, within the same time schedules listed above, all permit applications and other matters pertaining to their official business before the DBI or Planning submitted by secondary parties such as their clients, limited liability companies, partnerships, limited partnerships corporations or any other entity in which the officer has an ownership or controlling interest of at least ten percent or from which the officer has received income exceeding $500 in the past 12 months.

View DBI/Planning SIA Disclosures