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San Francisco Ethics Commission grants limited compensated-advocacy waiver to architect Hans Baldoff
Summary
The Ethics Commission unanimously approved a narrow waiver allowing Historic Preservation Commission member Hans Baldoff to communicate with certain city agencies on behalf of his firm when no other qualified staff are available.
The San Francisco Ethics Commission on Jan. 17 unanimously granted a limited waiver to allow Hans Baldoff, a founding partner at BCV Architecture + Interiors, to accept compensation to communicate with specified city offices in narrowly defined circumstances.
The waiver responds to Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code §3.224(a), which generally prohibits city officers from receiving compensation to influence government decisions. Staff told the commission that Baldoff holds Seat 2 on the Historic Preservation Commission, a seat statutorily reserved for licensed architects, and that the city has previously granted comparable waivers when filling those seats is difficult.
Executive staff summarized the conditions recommended in the staff memo: the waiver would apply only to the agencies listed in Baldoff’s request, only when other qualified members of his firm could not reasonably make the communication, and only for communications made on behalf of BCV Architecture + Interiors or its clients. In presenting the request, Baldoff said he sought the waiver out of caution and would delegate such communications to colleagues whenever possible.
Commission members asked no substantive questions beyond confirming the waiver’s limited scope. Chair Finlave said the recommendation addressed the recruitment concern for architect-qualified seats and indicated support for allowing qualified professionals to serve. The commission then moved to adopt the staff recommendation and voted 3–0 to approve the waiver as specified.
The commission’s staff recommendation and the waiver are limited to the entities listed in the staff memo; the transcript and staff memo list those agencies but the commission record shared at the meeting did not enumerate them on the public audio record.
