Ethics Commission outlines budget priorities, warns of potential cuts under citywide 15% target

Pat Ford, executive director of the San Francisco Ethics Commission, presented the commission's budget landscape and strategic priorities at the Jan. 17 meeting and described the process and constraints the department will face in preparing the FY26–27 proposal.

Ford said the commission's operating budget for the current fiscal year (FY25) is approximately $6,750,000 with 29 funded positions (the commission reported all positions filled at the time of the meeting). The commission's workload centers on education/compliance assistance, audits, enforcement, electronic disclosure systems, policy review, and maintaining staffing to support those functions. Ford said the baseline budget increases across the next two years largely reflect scheduled cost-of-living adjustments under city labor agreements.

Mayor London Breed's budget instructions (issued in December) call for department submissions that in the aggregate reflect a 15% reduction; on Jan. 9 the new mayor, Daniel Lurie, declared a hiring freeze requiring departments to request exceptions for critical hires. Ford estimated the 15% target translates to about $1.1 million in ongoing reductions for the commission and said most of that pressure would fall on personnel costs because roughly 85% of the commission's budget is salary and benefits. He noted limited flexibility in non-personnel spending (e.g., e-filing vendor contracts, work orders with other city departments and rent).

Ford reviewed the election campaign fund (a separate fund that finances the public-financing program), noting it is distinct from the operating budget and can fluctuate substantially by election year; the commission has used a statutory allowance in the past to fund external audits from that fund but said use is limited (the code permits use of up to a portion of the fund balance for administration, historically cited as up to 15% of the balance). Ford said staff will explore the full permissible uses of that fund for administration but cautioned it is not a general-purpose operating source.

The commission will hold a second public hearing on the budget at its Feb. 7 meeting; Ford must submit the department's proposal to the mayor's budget office by Feb. 21. The mayor submits a proposed city budget to the Board of Supervisors by June 1, and the board must pass the budget ordinances by Aug. 1.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the 15% target, what is included in "services of other departments," and whether the commission could secure more attention from the mayor's budget office. Ford said staff may ask commissioners to assist in outreach if needed, and pledged to return with a concrete proposal and trade-off scenarios at the next meeting.