Ethics reform pushed
Decision to destroy revelatory document triggers hearings and calls for new leadership

By Steven T. Jones

Controversial public comments by the top two San Francisco Ethics Commission staffers and a pair of impending hearings that will examine problems with local campaign finance regulation are creating momentum to reform the scandal-plagued agency.

The trigger was last month's order by executive director Ginny Vida to destroy a document that had been accidentally sent to the commission from the office of attorney Jim Sutton. It appeared to show a draft plan to illegally divert unregulated contributions from Mayor Gavin Newsom's inaugural committee to cover debt owed by his campaign committee (see "Newsom's Funny Money," 2/11/04).

Although Sutton denies the plan would have been implemented and has since supplied new documentation of how the swearing-in committee money was spent, the incident comes on top of several questionable incidents over the last year involving Sutton and Vida, including her decision in the district attorney's race to remove spending caps and go easy on Kamala Harris (a Sutton client) for breaking a pledge to abide by them (see "The Political Puppeteer," 2/4/04).

The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force will take up the document-destruction case Feb. 24, following an explosive Feb. 10 hearing by its Complaint Review Committee, during which Vida admitted, "It was a policy call on my part whether we keep it," and her deputy, Mabel Ng, admitted to ordering the document's destruction before even getting an opinion from the City Attorney's Office as to whether it constituted a public record, destruction of which is a felony (for details on the hearing and more on this incident, visit the Bay Guardian's blog at http://dev.sfbg.com/politics).

Committee members and those in the audience who watched the hearing – including former ethics commissioners Bob Dockendorff and Paul Melbostad – reacted with confusion and disbelief as to why Vida and Ng would want to destroy a document that staffers Oliver Luby and Kevin De Liban thought indicated a criminal conspiracy that should be investigated.

"I was appalled at the testimony of Ginny Vida and her assistant," Dockendorff later told the Bay Guardian. "To me, it sounded like they were defending Sutton, and that's not their role.... I wasn't prepared, based on what I'd heard, for what I saw at that hearing. That's not the kind of person you need to run Ethics."

Current commissioners Joe Lynn, Bob Planthold, and Mike Garcia all said they were bothered by accounts they'd heard of the hearing but want to wait until the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force issues a decision before taking further action.

"That is their expertise: what are public documents? And the decision of the task force can come to Ethics for enforcement," said Planthold, who chairs the commission until the end of the month, when Garcia takes over. "I know the public feels we've been unresponsive or delaying, but we need to base our decisions on the law and a proper process."

Sup. Aaron Peskin also plans to hold a hearing next month in front of the Board of Supervisors' Finance and Audits Committee, which he chairs.

"There are some overarching policy issues that deserve scrutiny and reform," Peskin said, citing as concerns both staff resources and the need to ensure that "the investigative and enforcement functions are meaningful and real."

Sounding the concern shared by a majority of the commissioners, and even Vida, that budget cuts over the last couple years have made it difficult for the agency to effectively play its mandated role as a campaign-finance watchdog, Garcia told us, "I would welcome outside attention. I would recommend to the Board of Supervisors that they hold a hearing."

With Vida retiring in just a few months, Garcia also wants to use the process of finding a replacement to reform the agency.

"Part of what we want to do is marry the process of finding a new director with the process of reorganizing Ethics," he said, "because we have had some scandals lately."

Get involved: The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force meets Tues/24, 4 p.m., City Hall, Room 408, 1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place, S.F.

E-mail Steven T. Jones