As part of a suite of good governance reforms on the ballot in June 2022, Prop E solidifies San Francisco’s commitment to prohibiting pay to play politics.
To understand why Prop E is good for San Francisco, it is first necessary to understand an unfamiliar term — “behested payments” — and refresh recollections about very recent history.
Behested payments are donations made to a government agency or charity at the request of a public official for a legislative, governmental, or charitable purpose. For example, if a Supervisor asks a real estate developer to make a donation to a local nonprofit, that is a behested payment. The payment was made at the “behest” of the public official. So, what’s the big deal? Donating to nonprofits is a good thing.
These payments become problematic when the party making the payment at the request of the public official also has an interest in a decision over which the public official has authority, i.e., they are an “interested party.” Consider a Supervisor who asks a real estate developer to donate to a nonprofit while the developer’s permit is pending before the Board of Supervisors. While not rising to the level of a bribe, the payment does raise questions of impropriety. The very type of impropriety with which the City is all too familiar.
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