SEC. 2.100. FINDINGS.
§ 2.100
San Francisco voters declare their intent to require disclosure of lobbyists' activities and restrict lobbyists' gifts and campaign contributions to city officials in order to protect public confidence in government, prevent corruption or its appearance, and prohibit campaign consultants from exploiting their influence with city officials.
The city wants to make sure people know who is lobbying—trying to influence—city decision-makers, and how much effort they're putting in. The city also wants to limit the gifts and money that lobbyists can give to city officials, so it doesn't look like officials are making decisions based on personal benefits rather than what's best for the public. Additionally, the city is concerned that campaign consultants who work with politicians might use their connections to help private clients in unfair ways, so it wants to prevent or stop that practice.
- Controversial:Lobbyist regulation and restrictions on campaign contributions are subjects on which San Francisco residents hold differing views about balance between disclosure/restriction and free speech or political participation.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) The voters find that public disclosure of the identity and extent of efforts of lobbyists to influence decision-making regarding local legislative and administrative matters is essential to protect public confidence in the responsiveness and representative nature of government officials and institutions. It is the purpose and intent of this Chapter 1 to impose reasonable registration and disclosure requirements to reveal information about lobbyists’ efforts to influence decision-making regarding local legislative and administrative matters.
(b) To increase public confidence in the fairness and responsiveness of governmental decision making, it is the further purpose and intent of the people of the City and County of San Francisco to restrict gifts, campaign contributions, and bundled campaign contributions from lobbyists to City officers so that governmental decisions are not, and do not appear to be, influenced by the giving of personal benefits to City officers by lobbyists, or by lobbyists’ financial support of City officers’ political interests.
(c) Corruption and the appearance of corruption in the form of campaign consultants exploiting their influence with City officials on behalf of private interests may erode public confidence in the fairness and impartiality of City governmental decisions. The City and County of San Francisco has a compelling interest in preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption which could result in such erosion of public confidence. Prohibitions on campaign consultants lobbying current and former clients will protect public confidence in the electoral and governmental processes. It is the purpose and intent of the people of the City and County of San Francisco in enacting this Chapter to prohibit campaign consultants from exploiting or appearing to exploit their influence with City officials on behalf of private interests.
(Added by Ord. 71-00, File No. 000358, App. 4/28/2000; amended by Ord. 28-04, File No. 031656, App. 2/20/2004; Ord. 235-09, File No. 090833, App. 11/10/2009; Prop. T, App. 11/8/2016, Oper. 1/1/2018; re-enacted by Proposition D, 3/5/2024, Eff. 4/12/2024, Oper. 10/12/2024)