Leland Yee's Plan for an Independent City Hall

By Leland Yee

Released directly to the people of San Francisco via email, Facebook, and Twitter, Leland Yee's open government plan includes 21 specific actions he will take to increase transparency and independence at City Hall.

Ethics commission staff work very hard and are well intentioned, but structural and funding problems have plagued the agency since its inception, essentially setting it up for failure. Both need to be fixed in order to allow the Commission and its staff to do their jobs and effectively carry out their core mission--to practice and promote the highest standards of ethical behavior in government.

1. TAKE ETHICS COMMISSION OUT OF THE HANDS OF POLITICIANS


The entire San Francisco Ethics Commission is appointed by elected officials + the very officials the commission is supposed to regulate. The public perception is of the fox guarding the hen house. Yee will work with the community to draft a charter amendment that restructures the way the Ethics Commission is appointed to make a truly citizen-appointed commission. Reforms to be considered will include an appointment process modeled after the voter-enacted selection process for the State Citizen Redistricting Commission, where a pool of citizen applicants are narrowed based on qualifications and independence, and are then selected largely at random. The Ethics Commission must be selected with the same integrity and independence as the open government laws it is entrusted to enforce.

2. TAKE THE COMMISSION'S BUDGET OUT OF THE MAYOR'S HANDS


Since the Commission was created in 1993, it has never been fully funded, so it has never been given the resources to fully carry out its important mission to enforce the Fair Political Practices Act. Just as those policed by the agency shouldn't be appointing its members, they shouldn't be granted the power to fund (or underfund) it either. The Commission should determine its required funding levels independently rather than being crafted by the Mayor's office; it will still go through the normal budget process, but will be subject to less political influence.

INCREASE ETHICS COMMISSION ENFORCEMENT AND EFFECTIVENESS

Without sufficient enforcement, shadowy outside groups break campaign rules without fear of punishment, hurt our democracy and impact key policy decisions. As mayor, Yee will beef up enforcement of open government laws--to do that, San Francisco needs:

1. REQUIRE OPEN HEARINGS


The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force hears cases brought by citizens who've been denied public records, and then refers certain cases on to the Ethics Commission for action. That's happened 14 times since 2004, and the Ethics Commission has always sided with the city official over the citizen filing the complaint--and each was dismissed or sent into the bureaucratic ether without ever being granted a hearing. The refusal to enforce the law is unacceptable; the refusal to live by the law's spirit of transparency is downright bewildering. As recommended by the Grand Jury report, all Sunshine Ordinance Task Force requests sent to the Commission for action deserve a timely public hearing.

2. REQUIRE A FULL REVIEW AND VOTE IN ORDER TO DISMISS CASES


The commission staff currently has too much power to push members to dismiss these items behind closed doors--and this current practice arguably violates open meeting laws. As recommended by the Grand Jury, the Commission's regulations should be amended to require review and vote on investigations recommended for dismissal.

3. PUBLICLY POST ALL COMPLAINTS AND PENDING CASES


The commission should post information regarding pending enforcement cases on its website. The Oakland Ethics Commission provides periodic public updates of enforcement cases and the FPPC posts proposed settlements on its website before the Commission acts on them. San Francisco should follow suit.

4. ELIMINATE INVESTIGATION AND HEARING DELAYS


The commission waits far too long to start investigation--sometimes up to nine months, if at all--and hearings can be delayed for years. The commission should be required to start investigation promptly after the required 14-waiting period. To reduce hearing delays, San Francisco should consider a tool used by San Diego's Ethics Commission--by contracting with the State's Office of Administrative Hearings to use local administrative law judges to preside over commission hearings on an as-needed basis, current counsel could be free to handle other enforcement-related duties and hearing backlogs could be cut down or eliminated.

5. MORE ETHICS INVESTIGATORS


With only three investigators for the entire department, the investigation delays come as no surprise. The commission needs the resources to carry out its mission. More investigators are a key part of that, and the commission should be granted the budget to bring this up to adequate levels.

6. SHIFT FROM COMPLAINT-DRIVEN TO PROACTIVE INVESTIGATION


With so few resources, the commission relies solely on complaints--which opens it up to political manipulation, and causes enforcement of only small campaign clerical errors while large corporate forces with deep legal teams outmaneuver the understaffed commission and go unchecked. The Los Angeles Ethics Commission takes a proactive approach to enforcement, issuing "public accusation" documents rather than waiting for complaints to be filed.

7. REQUIRE ENFORCEMENT OF FINES

Fines are too often arbitrarily enforced or reduced to a mere fraction of the original penalty--sometimes as low as 1%. As recommended by the Grand Jury, the Commission should establish a fixed fine structure or apply the maximum allowed fine. If the respondent disagrees with a fine, a public hearing should be granted.

IMPROVE OPEN GOVERNMENT AND SUNSHINE ORDINANCES

San Franciscans have a fundamental right to know what their government is doing. As mayor, Yee will implement the following policies to improve the city's compliance with open government laws:

1. REQUIRE TELEVISED AND WEBCAST HEARINGS

Ironically, the Ethics Commission is not among those that televise and webcast their hearings. In the Yee administration, every hearing for every board, commission, or other body will be televised, webcast, or both--and all should be archived and searchable for later reference. The Ethics Commission should lead by example.

2. EXPAND SUNSHINE ORDINANCE TO APPOINTED COMMISSIONERS


The Sunshine Ordinance contains a very large loophole--the Ethics Commission recently determined that although they found a city-appointed commissioner to have violated the sunshine ordinance, they didn't actually have the authority to levy any penalty. The city's 112 commissions aren't captured in the Sunshine Ordinance, but they should be just as subject to the law as elected officials, department heads and managerial employees. The law should be amended to fix this loophole.

3. REQUIRE OPEN GOVERNMENT & SUNSHINE ORDINANCE TRAINING FOR ALL CITY EMPLOYEES


Misunderstanding of the city's open government laws is an oft-cited reason for violations. The city should require regular training for all employees, not just high level employees and department heads, to ensure compliance and instill a culture of openness and transparency.

USE TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE TRANSPARENCY

A few simple steps will go a long way to making government more accessible to the people it serves in a way that keeps pace with the tech-savvy culture of San Francisco.

1. ONLINE PUBLIC COMMENT


In addition to all hearings and meetings being webcast, online public comment via youtube, Ustream, or crowdsourcing will improve government's accountability and communication with the citizens it serves.

2. POST ALL REPORTS AND OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

Many department websites haven't updated their reports sections in years and those that have are still limited in the amount of searchable data. The Controller's website includes a searchable database of reports, but it's not all-inclusive and the search function is confusing. All city departments should be required to use digital documents and post their records into an all-inclusive real-time digital warehouse. By archiving records and forms digitally, the city can respond to public records requests in a fraction of the time it takes currently. And all public records will be publicly accessible in real-time and available in standardized open data streams.

3. LAUNCH THE OVERDUE LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH CENTER

The Board of Supervisors' website has indicated the legislative research center is "coming soon" for years. It's time to make this a reality and allow citizens to easily search for, track, and comment on current and past legislation at the Board.

4. CREATE A CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER TO OVERSEE TRANSPARENCY & TECHNOLOGY

It is important to have staff with a dedicated mission to set a technology vision for the city. Yee will create the Chief Technology Officer within the mayor's office whose focus will be to ensure all technology initiatives within the city are planned and executed with an emphasis on transparency and open data standards. The CTO will work in coordination with the Department of Technology CIO to advance all city departments toward standardized open data and technology, foster a culture of openness among all city employees, and ensure a consistent, easy experience for engaged citizens and Gov2.0 developers.

NO MORE GOLDEN PARACHUTES

When insider appointees get special treatment, it's not fair to the taxpayers and it's bad for the city. The most recent SFMTA President received a golden parachute for walking off the job 6 months after he signed a new contract--to the tune of $384,000. This isn't the first time--outgoing heads of the SF Public Utilities Commission and the San Francisco Unified School District have gotten similar deals in the past, all upwards of $300,000, when they left the job. There is no evidence these excessive severance packages produce any benefits for taxpayers. They simply erode the public trust. Yee will put a stop to these egregious compensation practices by taking the following steps:

1. CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE REPORT OF DEPARTMENT HEAD CONTRACT PROVISIONS

Some department heads have special contract provisions that guarantee severance payments, and some do not--without any apparent design or reason for the disparity. Yee will ask the budget analyst for a report to determine which department heads and commissioners have special contracts, which of those include excessive severance provisions, and how they compare with rank-and-file employees.

2. DEVELOP A UNIFORM CITY POLICY TO LIMIT EXCESSIVE SEVERANCE PACKAGES

Some other state and local jurisdictions (FL, NC) have reacted to similar abuses by limiting the use of severance packages in public employment contracts as "recruiting tools," and California law limits certain local government bodies--the Santa Clara Valley Water Agency is one--from including severance packages in their contracts. San Francisco should look at these as options and develop a uniform policy that boards, commissions, and departments must follow when hiring new executive directors or agency heads. Commissions and boards should not have unchecked power to insert excessive payout schemes into contracts that tie the city's hands later and waste taxpayers' money.

CRACKDOWN ON UNREGISTERED LOBBYISTS

The public has a right to know who's trying to influence whom at City Hall. That's why we have a Lobbyist Ordinance that requires registration and reporting of lobbying activity and campaign contributions. But power brokers continue to evade the law--and San Francisco deserves better.

1. REVISIT THE DEFINITION OF LOBBYIST

Despite just being updated in 2009, San Francisco's lobbyist ordinance still does not effectively capture some of the most influential power brokers in the city.

2. ENFORCE VIOLATIONS OF THE LOBBYIST ORDINANCE

San Diego's budget is less than half the size of San Francisco's, yet they have twice the number of registered lobbyists. Los Angeles has four times as many registered lobbyists. Many in San Francisco openly defy the ordinance because they can--and they won't get caught. That needs to stop. The Ethics Commission should proactively cross check lobbyist filings with campaign contributions to find discrepancies, and failure to register should trigger an investigation and public hearing. And all violations should come with a price that fits the offense.

3. ELIMINATE LOOPHOLES AND ABUSES

In addition to enforcing the ordinance more effectively, we also need to eliminate loopholes and abuses not covered by the current law. Lobbying reforms to be considered will include requiring lobbying reports from public officials in addition to lobbyists, and requiring sole use and full disclosure of electeds' official calendar and email (as opposed to using "ghost" systems to avoid public disclosure laws).