The meeting will come to order.

This is the June 27, 2024 Rules Committee meeting.

I'm Supervisor Hilary Ronan, Chair of the Rules Committee.

I'm joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Shaman Walton and Committee Member Supervisor Asha Safai.

We are also joined this morning by President Aaron Paskin.

Our clerk is Victor Young, and I'd like to thank Eugene Lebadia.

I wonder if Eugene is new.

I it's a new name to me.

Good welcome Eugene from SFCov TV for broadcasting this meeting.

Mr.

Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

When your item of interest comes up in public comment is called, please line up to speak.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing either of the following ways.

Email them to myself, the rules committee clerk at VICTOR dot YOUNG at sfgov.org.

If you submit public comment via email, it will be uh forwarded to the supervisors and included as part of the file.

You may also send written comments via U.S.

mail to our office at City Hall when Dr.

Carlton B.

Good that place room 244 San Francisco, California 94102.

Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices.

Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of July 9, 2024, unless otherwise stated.

That completes my initial announcements.

Thank you.

Can you please call item number one?

Item number one, Charter Amendment first draft to amend the charter of the city and county of San Francisco to establish the position of Inspector General in the controller's office to provide that the Inspector General be nominated by the controller, subject to approval by the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor to authorize the Inspector General to initiate and lead investigations regarding potential violations of laws or policies involve fraud, waste, abuse, or misconduct to expand the authority of the controller's office to issue subpoena and to authorize the controller's office to execute search warrants to the extent permitted by state law at an election to be held in November 5th, 2024.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Ronan.

Thank you for scheduling this as the first of the charter amendments that the Rules Committee is considering for the November ballot.

And let me just start uh by thanking the collaborators in putting this together uh starting with my staff, Nate Hurrell, who did a national search of best practices and looked at models from cities around the country and consulted uh with leading academic experts in the field of ethics and investigation and enforcement.

Uh let me thank the controller's office, uh, Greg Wagner and members of his team who have had a hand uh not only in doing audits and running the whistleblower program pursuant to the charter for many years, uh, but also in authoring a number of public integrity reports uh under the leadership of the previous controller Ben Rosenfield and the esteemed uh Todd Reedstrom.

Uh and then let me thank the city attorney's office, uh John Givner and Ann Pearson and others for their help and collaboration as thought partners and drafting uh this charter amendment.

Let me just start out with the obvious, which is um government relies on trust.

And the erosion of public trust is an erosion of government and our ability to do what government is supposed to do.

And uh the last number of years have been really quite shameful as uh a number of high profile um public integrity scandals have thankfully been uncovered.

And as somebody who has devoted the lion share of my adult professional life uh to governance and good governance, um, it has been devastating and is eroded public trust.

Uh and and these are not new occurrences, these uh occurrences have gone back long before I was first elected 24 years ago.

Um it's uh while I thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S.

Attorney for rooting out corruption in San Francisco's government.

Uh I think it is time that San Francisco have the mechanisms in place to clean our own house.

Um we know that uh in the last half a dozen years uh charges have been leveled uh against uh over a dozen people.

Many of those charges have led to convictions, including, of course, the highest profile case of former uh department head Mohammed Nuru and everywhere that led.

Um it is time to establish through this charter amendment uh the role of a uh public integrity unit.

Um and in doing our research, we realize that the gold standard is the inspector general, and most American cities already have one, and San Francisco is probably the city most in need of one.

This ballot measure takes the best aspects of the strong inspector general model recommended by leading public integrity experts and practiced successfully in dozens of major American cities.

It's a clear mandate with expanded powers, public accountability uh, and independence.

It puts this critical role within the controller's office in order to harness these best practices and streamline them with existing functions, building on what works uh at no additional cost to the taxpayers because uh the controller's office uh already enjoys uh a set aside that has room uh in it for this position.

Um I have a little presentation, and if I could ask my staff, Nate Hurrell uh to come forward.

We can run through this very brief PowerPoint, which you will bring it up.

The inspector general.

Uh can we have the laptop display, please?

Thank you.

Thank you, Victor.

Uh the inspector general would be appointed by our independent controller.

I think we all recognize and acknowledge that the controller's office is truly a nonpartisan independent office.

I have personally experienced that under three controllers.

Uh, that is a position that is nominated by the mayor and approved by the board, and the controller uh would have the power to appoint this person subject or to nominate this person subject to the approval of the mayor and a majority of the board.

Uh that individual would uh not be subject to civil service, and as I said, would be funded by the previously created set aside.

Um let's move on to the next slide.

As to expanded investigative powers, uh the charter amendment would give the inspector general broad anti a broad anti-corruption mandate to receive complaints and proactively investigate, would expand the controllers and the independent uh and the inspector general subpoena power uh to include contractors, lobbyists, and anyone seeking contracts, grants, loans, permits, licenses, tax incentives, entitlements, or other benefits from the city.