Ethics Commission outlines 15% cut scenario and a budget alternative to avoid staff reductions
Loading...
Summary
The San Francisco Ethics Commission held a second required public hearing on its fiscal 2026'27 budget, with staff presenting a 15% cut scenario that would eliminate four funded positions (reducing staff from 29 to 25) and an alternative request to keep staffing flat and seek reclassifications and technology funding instead.
The San Francisco Ethics Commission on Tuesday held its second required public hearing on the commission's budget proposal for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, hearing a staff presentation on how to meet a mandated 15% cut and a separate budget request intended to avoid reducing staff.
Director Ford told commissioners the commission's operating budget is largely personnel (about 87% of current spending) and that meeting the mayor's instruction for a 15% cut would require roughly $1,100,000 in reductions. That baseline reduction would reduce funded positions from 29 to 25, the director said, and include one existing vacancy plus three filled positions identified for elimination: the training design specialist (engagement and compliance division), a personnel clerk (operations), and an 1840 policy research specialist (policy division).
Ford said the commission has sought non-staff savings (materials, contracts, maintenance) and identified an opportunity to charge a portion of staff time to the city's Election Campaign Fund, which city law allows to pay up to 15% for public-financing program administration. That step would partially mitigate staff reductions. Still, Ford warned, losing these positions would force the office to "dial back" some programs and reassign work across the small staff.
As an alternative to cuts, Ford asked the mayor's office to (1) allow backfilling the vacant senior program administrator position, (2) reclassify the training design specialist to an 1823 senior program administrator to strengthen engagement and advice capacity, (3) retain the 1840 policy research specialist to preserve policy-analysis capacity, and (4) reclassify several enforcement and technical positions to better align skills with responsibilities. Specifically, staff requested reclassification of two 1823 senior investigator roles (administrative-prosecution functions) and the director of enforcement to a higher supervisory classification, and reclassification of an IS analyst (1052) to an IS engineer (1042) to support automation and electronic disclosure systems.
Ford also identified technology and licensing costs the commission seeks the mayor to cover: NetFile form 700 licenses for roughly 6,000 filers currently funded by a COIT project (estimated at about $10,000 in the first year and a larger amount when the NetFile contract renews), and other software licensing and maintenance estimated at about $12,000 in year one and roughly $9,000 in year two. Director of Technology Services Steven Massey and Deputy Director Gayathri Taikundeel joined the discussion and offered to work with the mayor's office and Department of Technology to explore alternatives.
The commission heard public comment from Edward DeAssis, deputy director of administration and finance for the Office of the Clerk of the Board, who handed up a letter from Clerk Angela Calvillo and urged the commission to continue maintaining the Form 126/DocuSign workflow. DeAssis said departments hold data (contract amount, board of directors, contract nature) that are not otherwise available and argued discontinuing the system would not save general-fund dollars but would shift costs and workload to other departments, complicating disclosure and public access. He proposed streamlining the current two-submission process into a single departmental submission to reduce duplicative work.
Commissioners asked for clarifications about which programs would be reduced under the 15% scenario and whether affected parties would notice changes. Ford said the priority would be to preserve core public-facing advice and information services while considering scaling back lower-value programs such as the major-developer disclosure program and the campaign-consultant reporting program. Ford said staff will finalize the required cut scenario for the city's financial system but will also submit the alternative request and continue negotiations with the mayor's budget office. The commission accepted the presentation as its required second public hearing; no formal vote was taken on a final budget today.
