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Ethics staff outline whistleblower ordinance changes and warn of budget cuts affecting operations
Summary
Commission staff presented revisions to the city's whistleblower protections—narrowing intake to city-level and adding mandatory supervisor training—and reported hiring and recruitment plans as the mayor asks departments to propose 3% and 6% budget reductions.
San Francisco Ethics Commission staff on Dec. 19 described a set of revisions to the city————————————————————————————————————————————————'s proposed whistleblower protection ordinance developed with the Controller's Office and the Department of Human Resources, and gave commissioners a staffing and budget update.
Staff said they narrowed the ordinance's intake scope to city-level matters (rather than state or federal referrals), and added a requirement that supervisors receive mandatory training to intake and flag whistleblower reports. The commission————————————— clarified it separated the intake and investigative functions handled by the Controller (for investigation of fraud/waste) from the commission——————————————'s role in providing retaliation protections for employees who report concerns to supervisors or other agencies.
"So what we did was we bifurcated the protection of whistleblowers from the place where they filed the complaint," staff explained. The staff summary also said staff has revised definitions for "improper government activity" and "fraud and waste" to align with Controller——— terminology and the civil grand jury's recommendations.
On staffing, the commission announced that Jacqueline Hickey had joined as a senior clerk and that another staff member had been promoted into an education and compliance assistant role; staff said they are working with Human Resources on eight pending recruitments.
Narita Heller of the mayor's budget office briefed commissioners that departments were asked to propose options that achieve a 3% cut in the coming year and a 6% cut the next year while avoiding layoffs where possible; she said the positions approved for 2017-18 should remain in place and encouraged departments to coordinate with the budget office on options.
Staff said the whistleblower package would return to the commission and the Board of Supervisors in early January for further action on implementation details.
