San Francisco Mayor London Breed confirmed in a press conference Tuesday afternoon she will be fined nearly $23,000 for a series of ethics violations during her time in office, following an earlier report from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Breed on Monday signed an agreement with the City and County of San Francisco Ethics Commission that said she committed "significant" violations by asking former California Gov. Jerry Brown to release her brother from prison, letting ex-Public Works head Mohammad Nuru pay her car repair bill and improrperly reporting a 2015 political campaign donation.
The Ethics Commission can approve the $22,792 fine on Aug. 13. If approved, Breed would personally have to pay it.
The mayor said Tuesday the agreement was "fair."
"(There) were mistakes made," Breed told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. "I take full responsibility for those mistakes, and I've learned a lot since becoming Mayor and being in office."
According to the paper, the fines break down as follows:
· $2,500 for using her title for "non-city purposes" in an Oct. 23, 2018 letter appealing to then-Gov. Brown to release her brother, Napoleon Brown, from prison after serving two decades of a 44-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter and armed robbery. The letterhead referenced her mayorality, as did the body of the letter.
· $4,500 for soliciting and accepting $1,250 payments to a float manufacturer from restauranteur Nick Bovis and John’s Grill owner John Konstin so Breed, then a city supervisor, could ride a parade float in San Francisco’s 2015 Pride Parade. Bovis and Konstin’s payments exceeded the $500 contribution limit for city candidates.
· $7,500 for failing to disclose Bovis and Konstin’s contributions on her campaign disclosure statements.
· $8,292 for accepting and failing to disclose a gift from Nuru, who paid for her car repairs in 2019. That same year, the FBI charged him with fraud. Breed had said she didn’t immediately disclose the gift because of her decades-long friendship and dating history with Nuru, while the commission said she violated city law by accepting a gift from a subordinate.
Breed said Tuesday she wasn't aware at the time she was committing ethics violations. Pointing to the parade float purchase, she told reporters she recognized the manner in which she sought it was "problematic." Breed claimed it was also a change of course from previous years in which she had a float.
The mayor said multiple times that none of the violations in question impacted her decision-making in office. Asked how she planned to restore confidence among skeptical constituents, Breed said she hoped transparency would help.
"It's difficult because people may look at this, of course, and feel a certain kind of way," Breed told reporters. "I can't completely control that. I can only make sure that I do exactly what a leader in this city should do. When you make a mistake, you step up, you take responsibility for your action, you put it all out there and you hope that people will look at it and realize that you're human, just like anybody else."
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