SEC. 67.29-7. CORRESPONDENCE AND RECORDS SHALL BE MAINTAINED.
§ 67.29-7
The Mayor and Department Heads must maintain and preserve documents and correspondence in a professional manner and disclose them under this ordinance. The Department of Elections must keep records of ballot design, printing, and custody. When the City contracts with outside entities that collect fees from residents, accurate transaction records must be kept and made public; failure to do so can result in contract termination or a financial penalty equal to half the fees collected during the violation period.
City officials and department heads must keep all their documents, emails, drafts, and other records organized and be ready to share them as public records. The Elections Department has to keep detailed records about how ballots are made and who handles them from voting through certification. When the City makes deals with outside companies to collect money from people (like for vehicle towing or pretrial diversion programs), those companies must keep accurate records of who paid what, and the public should be able to see those records. If a company fails to keep good records, the City can cancel the contract or fine them half of whatever money they collected while they weren't keeping proper records.
- Complex:Subsection (c) is a long, dense paragraph combining multiple obligations (record-keeping, public access, enforcement mechanisms, and specific applications) that could be clearer if broken into separate sentences or subsections.
- Controversial:The penalty provision—canceling contracts or fining entities half their collected fees—affects towing companies and other service providers, a subject on which San Francisco residents have expressed differing views about enforcement and fairness.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) The Mayor and all Department Heads shall maintain and preserve in a professional and businesslike manner all documents and correspondence, including but not limited to letters, e-mails, drafts, memorandum, invoices, reports and proposals and shall disclose all such records in accordance with this ordinance.
(b) The Department of Elections shall keep and preserve all records and invoices relating to the design and printing of ballots and other election materials and shall keep and preserve records documenting who had custody of ballots from the time ballots are cast until ballots are received and certified by the Department of Elections.
(c) In any contract, agreement or permit between the City and any outside entity that authorizes that entity to demand any funds or fees from citizens, the City shall ensure that accurate records of each transaction are maintained in a professional and businesslike manner and are available to the public as public records under the provisions of this ordinance. Failure of an entity to comply with these provisions shall be grounds for terminating the contract or for imposing a financial penalty equal to one-half of the fees derived under the agreement or permit during the period of time when the failure was in effect. Failure of any Department Head under this provision shall be a violation of this ordinance. This paragraph shall apply to any agreement allowing an entity to tow or impound vehicles in the City and shall apply to any agreement allowing an entity to collect any fee from any persons in any pretrial diversion program.
(Added by Proposition G, 11/2/99)