Ethics Commission sustains executive director's finding that Alioto committee fell short of $50,000 public-financing threshold

The San Francisco Ethics Commission on May 5 considered a letter from the Angela Alioto for Mayor 2018 committee alleging that a third-party treasurer software (Netfile Professional) failed to upload supporting attachments and that Ethics Commission staff failed to notify the campaign. After more than two hours of testimony from staff, campaign representatives and public supporters, the commission voted 3 to 2 to sustain the executive director's determination that the committee did not qualify for public financing.

Executive Director Pelham told commissioners staff had reviewed the committee's April 25 resubmission and found it fell short of the statutory $50,000 threshold for public financing. Pelham said staff provided the committee a detailed spreadsheet identifying 46 instances in the April 25 filing where documentation was insufficient to demonstrate San Francisco…