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Public financing ordinance goes to supervisors' committee; staff flags ballot and implementation timelines
Summary
Staff told the Ethics Commission the public financing ordinance was assigned to the Board of Supervisors' Government Audit and Oversight Committee and reiterated upcoming deadlines for public financing qualifying requests (Aug. 27) and resubmissions (early September).
Pat Ford, the commission's senior policy analyst, told commissioners that the public financing ordinance the commission approved at an earlier meeting has been transmitted to the Board of Supervisors and assigned to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee. "It sat in, City Hall for 30 days on a 30 day hold" and "since this memo was written, it's now been assigned to the government audit and oversight committee," Ford said.
Ford and other staff described the subsequent process: committee consideration, possible amendments, and two readings at the full board before final adoption. Ford noted Supervisor Gordon Marr is the sponsor and staff will monitor committee scheduling; commissioners asked staff to return updates if committee digest language or amendments introduce inaccuracies about the Commission's prior actions.
Staff also briefed the Commission on a ballot initiative commonly described in the meeting as the "sunlight on dark money" measure and said the Controller's Office is preparing a financial impact estimate for the voter information pamphlet. Ford said staff are scoping the new forms, trainings and resources implementation would require and will provide that estimate to the Controller.
On public financing program operational deadlines, Executive Director Pelham and staff located the filing deadlines during the meeting: the last day to submit a qualifying request is August 27 and the last date to resubmit a qualifying request was cited as September 6. Pelham emphasized the website contains the authoritative schedule and staff will email commissioners the exact dates.
The Commission discussed whether staff comments at the Board hearing would be returned to the Commission and how resource impacts would be handled if a voter-approved change requires new forms or training; staff said comments will be submitted by staff and that any new implementation costs not in the budget would have to be absorbed or pursued via supplemental appropriation to the Board of Supervisors.
