San Francisco Board of Supervisors ban city officials from requesting payments from contractors

Under current city law, city officials can solicit donations from individuals as long as the payment is made on their behalf to a third-party organization. The individual, however, is restricted from giving the payment to the officials directly.

For officials who have been elected by the public, the “behested payments” are governed by local and state laws and any amount over $5,000 must be reported. However, this law doesn’t apply to other officials.

“The Mohammed Nuru scandal made it very clear that we need sweeping reforms in City Hall and to undo the corrupt political culture that’s deeply entrenched in our city,” Haney said in a statement. “Years of blatant corruption have destroyed public trust and while this legislation won’t in itself do away with corruption, it’s certainly a step in the right direction and will help limit pay to play politics. We owe the public full transparency when it comes to how we spend their tax dollars.”

According to Haney, the ordinance was crafted building off recommendations from both the city’s Ethics Commission and Controller’s Office.