SEC. 3.234. POST-EMPLOYMENT AND POST SERVICE RESTRICTIONS.
§ 3.234
Former City officers and employees are permanently barred from representing other parties in matters where the City is involved and they personally participated, and from assisting others in such representation. They face a one-year ban on communicating with their former departments on behalf of outside parties. Former elected officials and their senior staff have stricter rules, including a one-year employment restriction with the City itself. The Ethics Commission may waive these restrictions under specific circumstances.
Once you leave a job working for San Francisco's government, you cannot later act as a lawyer or representative for someone else in a case or matter involving the City—but only if the City is directly involved and you personally handled that same matter while you worked there. You also cannot give advice to help someone else do this. For one year after you leave your job, you cannot contact your old department on behalf of a client or outside party trying to influence a City decision. If you were the Mayor, a Supervisor, or their top aide, the rules are stricter: you cannot get a paid City job for one year after leaving office, and you cannot lobby any City department for a year. Former employees also cannot work for a company that got a City contract within the last 12 months if they personally handled that contract. You can testify as a witness without pay, and the Ethics Commission can grant exceptions in certain situations.
- Complex:The section contains multiple overlapping restrictions with different timeframes, definitions, and carve-outs that require careful cross-referencing (e.g., subsection (b)(1) redefines 'department' for certain former officials).
- Controversial:Post-employment restrictions on former elected officials and the scope of the one-year communication ban touch on questions about government access and fair representation that San Franciscans reasonably debate.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) All Officers and Employees.
(1) Permanent Restriction on Representation In Particular Matters.
(A) Prohibition. No former officer or employee of the City and County, after the termination of his or her service or employment with the City, shall, with the intent to influence, act as agent or attorney, or otherwise represent, any other person (except the City and County) before any court, or before any state, federal, or local agency, or any officer or employee thereof, by making any formal or informal appearance or by making any oral, written, or other communication in connection with a particular matter:
(i) in which the City and County is a party or has a direct and substantial interest;
(ii) in which the former officer or employee participated personally and substantially as a City officer or employee; and
(iii) which involved a specific party or parties at the time of such participation.
(B) Restriction on assisting others. No former officer or employee of the City and County, after the termination of his or her service or employment with the City, shall aid, advise, counsel, consult or assist another person (except the City and County) in any proceeding in which the officer or employee would be precluded under Subsection (A) from personally appearing.
(C) Exception for testimony. The prohibitions in Subsections A and B do not prohibit a former officer or employee of the City and County from testifying as a witness, based on the former officer's or employee's personal knowledge, provided that no compensation is received other than the fees regularly provided for by law or regulation of witnesses.
(2) One-Year Restriction on Communicating with Former Department. No current or former officer or employee of the City and County, for one year after termination of his or her service or employment with any department, board, commission, office or other unit of the City, shall, with the intent to influence a government decision, communicate orally, in writing, or in any other manner on behalf of any other person (except the City and County) with any officer or employee of the department, board, commission, office or other unit of government, for which the officer or employee served.
(3) Employment With Parties That Contract With The City. No current or former officer or employee of the City shall be employed by or otherwise receive compensation from a person or entity that entered into a contract with the City within the preceding 12 months where the officer or employee personally and substantially participated in the award of the contract.
(b) Mayor, Members of the Board of Supervisors, and their Senior Staff Members.
(1) One year restriction on communicating with City departments. For purposes of the one-year restriction under subsection (a)(2), the "department" for which a former Mayor, a former member of the Board of Supervisors, or a former senior staff member to either the Mayor or a member of the Board of Supervisors served shall be the City and County and the prohibition in subsection (a)(2) shall extend to communications with:
(A) a board, department, commission or agency of the City and County;
(B) an officer or employee of the City and County;
(C) an appointee of a board, department, commission, agency, officer, or employee of the City and County; or
(D) a representative of the City and County.
For the purposes of this subsection, "a former senior staff member to either the Mayor or a member of the Board of Supervisors" means an individual employed in any of the following positions at the time the individual terminated his or her employment with the City: the Mayor's Chief of Staff, the Mayor's Deputy Chief of Staff, a Legislative Aide to a member of the Board of Supervisors or a position that the Ethics Commission determines by regulation is an equivalent position based on an analysis of the functions and duties of the position.
(2) City service.
(A) Except as provided in Subsection (B), no former Mayor or member of the Board of Supervisors shall be eligible for a period of one year after the last day of service as Mayor or member of the Board of Supervisors, for appointment to any full time, compensated employment with the City and County. This restriction shall not apply to a former Mayor or Supervisor elected to an office of the City and County, appointed to fill a vacancy in an elective office of the City and County, or appointed to a board or commission in the executive branch.
(B) Notwithstanding the one-year restriction in Subsection (A), a former Mayor who was appointed to that office under Charter Section 13.101.5 to fill a vacancy shall be eligible for appointment to any City employment, provided that (i) the former Mayor did not file a declaration of candidacy for election to the office of Mayor after being appointed to that office, (ii) the former Mayor was employed by the City immediately prior to assuming the office of Mayor, and (iii) the salary in the first year of the new employment shall not exceed the salary received by the former Mayor in the City employment that he or she held immediately prior to assuming office as Mayor.
(c) Waiver.
(1) At the request of a current or former City employee or officer, the Ethics Commission may waive any of the restrictions in Subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) if the Commission determines that granting a waiver would not create the potential for undue influence or unfair advantage.
(2) At the request of a current or former City employee or officer, the Ethics Commission may waive any of the restrictions in Subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) for members of City boards and commissions who, by law, must be appointed to represent any profession, trade, business union or association.
(3) At the request of a current or former City officer or employee, the Ethics Commission may waive the prohibition in Subsection (a)(3) if the Commission determines that imposing the restriction would cause extreme hardship for the City officer or employee.
(4) The Ethics Commission may adopt regulations implementing these waiver provisions.
(Added by Proposition E, 11/4/2003; amended by Ord. 218-07, File No. 070505, App. 9/21/2007; Ord. 208-09, File No. 090219, App. 9/25/2009; Ord. 86-11, File No. 110023, App. 5/31/2011, Eff. 6/30/11)