A person qualifies as a contact lobbyist if they are paid to contact a city officer to influence a local legislative or administrative action either five times in a calendar month on behalf of an employer or one time in a calendar month on behalf of a client.
Contact lobbyists must register with the Ethics Commission within five business days of qualifying. Contact lobbyists may not make additional contacts until they register.
Key Terms
Contact – Any communication, oral or written, including through an agent with an officer of the City made for the purpose of influencing local legislative or administrative action
Client – Any person for whom lobbyist services are performed.
Employer – any person required to provide an Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 to an employee who performs lobbyist services, or an entity owned by a lobbyist and which performs and charges clients for lobbyist services, even if the person is not required to provide an Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 to an employee who performs Lobbyist Services.
Lobbyist services – Services rendered for the purpose of influencing local legislative or administrative action. This includes but is not limited to contacting, preparing for such contacts, as well as conducting analysis, performing research, providing advice and recommending strategy with respect to any pending, proposed or potential local legislative or administrative action.
Local legislative or administrative action – Includes the drafting, introduction, consideration, modification, enactment, defeat, approval, veto, granting or denial by any Officers of the City and County of any resolution, motion, appeal, application, petition, nomination, ordinance, amendment, approval, referral, permit, license, entitlement to use or contract.
Officers of the City and County – Elected officials, appointed officials, and job titled named staff.
How to Count Contacts
- A meeting with an officer regarding a single local legislative or administrative action constitutes one contact, a meeting regarding two local legislative or administrative action constitutes two contacts.
- A meeting with an officer and a member of that officer’s staff regarding a single local legislative or administrative action constitutes one contact with that officer.
- A meeting with two officers regarding a single local legislative or administrative action constitutes two contacts.
- Meeting or otherwise communicating multiple times in the same day with an officer to discuss the same local legislative or administrative action discussed earlier in the day constitutes one contact.
- Each letter, fax, e-mail, text message, or similar communication, or copies sent to other recipients, related to a single local legislative or administrative action constitutes a separate contact even if other communications sent are identical or substantially similar. However, multiple copies of the same communication sent from the same individual to the same officer shall constitute only one contact.
Important rule for real estate projects: Notwithstanding the above rules, various matters concerning a single real estate project are considered a local legislative or administrative action, and contacts regarding these matters shall be reported by referencing that single project.
Examples
Counting Contacts Example #1: A lobbyist sends an e-mail on behalf of a client to four of the seven members of the SFMTA Board urging them to vote in support of a particular agenda item. The lobbyist copies the Executive Director of the SFMTA on the e-mail. The lobbyist has made five Contacts.
Counting Contacts Example #2: A lobbyist sends a text message on behalf of his employer to a member of the Board of Supervisors and to her legislative aide urging the Board member to vote in favor of a proposed Ordinance. The lobbyist has made one contact.
Counting Contacts Example #3: A lobbyist sends an e-mail on behalf of a client to a member of the Board of Supervisors urging them to vote in favor of a proposed ordinance. The same day, the lobbyist sends the same e-mail to the supervisor’s legislative aide regarding the same ordinance. The lobbyist has made one contact.
Disclosing a Contact via an Intermediary:
When it is understood, or could be reasonably expected, that a staff member will transmit the terms of the communication to an officer, you have made a disclosable contact. Such staff members include, but are not limited to, the legislative aides of members of the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, and Deputy Directors of City departments.
Contact with these staff members should be reported as a contact with the relevant Officers of the City. E.g., a contact with the legislative aide of a member of the Board of Supervisors should be reported as a contact with that Supervisor.
Example #1: A lobbyist meets with the legislative aide of a member of the Board of Supervisors to advocate on behalf of a client for an amendment of pending legislation sponsored by the Supervisor. Although the Supervisor does not attend the meeting, the lobbyist should presume that the aide will convey the substance of that meeting to the Supervisor and thus the lobbyist has made a contact.
Example #2: Paid representatives of a real estate developer meet with staff at the Planning Department to discuss possible modifications to the draft Environmental Impact Report for the developer’s project. The staff members do not state or otherwise indicate, and the representatives have no reason to believe, that they will have the substance of their conversation conveyed to either the Planning Director or the Zoning Administrator. The representatives have not made a lobbying contact.