Ethics staff and public draw random audits of 2014 campaign committees and lobbyists

The Ethics Commission selected campaign committees and lobbyist firms for random audits of 2014 activity after staff outlined recent workload and a proposed selection approach.

Assistant Deputy Director Shaista Shaikh told commissioners that staff and the city controller’s office completed a backlog of audits this year: "The controller's office conducted 13 audits and staff conducted the remaining 27," she said, and staff recommended selecting 10 campaign committees and 4 lobbyist firms for audit going forward. Shaikh explained staff divided entities into three levels of financial activity and proposed how many committees to pick from each tier.

Several members of the public urged inclusion of entities not currently filed as political committees, notably the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, which one commenter said raises substantial funds and does not file as a campaign committee. Shaikh said the selection pool excluded entities raising less than $10,000 and that the list presented to the Commission was based on prior Commission guidance to focus on entities with higher activity.

Volunteers from the public read slips containing committee names and then selected the committees publicly; commissioners and staff completed the draw and then repeated the process for lobbyist firms. The Commission then closed the agenda item to move on to its project calendar work.

The audit-selection process is intended to be transparent and public; staff expects to begin audits after finalizing the selections and completing outstanding audit finalizations.