Now, a grand jury report on the city's Ethics Commission has found that the commission has no way to track the cases it investigates, that it often allows people who break campaign laws to pay as little as 1 percent of their fines, and that it hasn't taken action against any public official for violating open records laws in the last six years.
"The Ethics Commission is there to make sure that the elections are run fairly and cleanly and that the politicians are upholding their ethical responsibilities" said Brian Kliment, part of the San Francisco civil grand jury. "If the citizens start to lose faith in the Ethics Commission, that they're not performing their function, then it causes citizens to lose trust in their government."
The grand jury also accused the commission of dragging its feet in investigating whistleblower complaints, taking as long as nine months just to start the process.
