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You have questions - we have answers!
During FY2024, Board Staff responded to over 800 requests for advice across all of our program areas. Our General Counsel and Compliance teams work collaboratively to maintain a high level of both timeliness and substantive quality in responding to advice requests. The Board and General Counsel provide guidance through formal, written opinions. Staff continues to provide informal guidance by email and telephone, and meets regularly with requestors.
In May 2024, General Counsel Staff updated its Ask for Advice form. The changes were aimed at improving user experience and streamlining the advice request process by collecting more information in a consistent format. The request form is available at ethics.pub/Advice.
Formal Advice
Formal Advice
Formal, written opinions issued by the Board or the General Counsel provide detailed analysis of the application of the Ethics Laws to the specific facts provided by a requestor. Requestors are entitled to act in reasonable reliance on advisory opinions issued to them and not be subject to penalties under the laws within the Board’s jurisdiction so long as they have not omitted or misstated material facts. Requestors can choose to receive a non-public advisory opinion, which in its published form is redacted to conceal facts that are reasonably likely to identify a requestor.Â
A total of three formal opinions ⎼ all General Counsel opinions ⎼ were issued in FY2024. Electronic copies of each opinion are available by using the links in the menus below. While there were no Board opinions issued in FY2024, the Board issued one new regulation and made significant changes to two others. These regulations provide the Board's interpretation of the statutes through a public process that carries the weight of legislation. You can read more about FY2024 regulatory changes here.
Legal Authority
Legal Authority
Charter Section 4-1100 and Code Chapter 20-600 authorize the Board to render advisory opinions concerning a City officer or employee’s proposed future conduct. Board Regulation No. 4 describes the procedures related to advisory opinions, including for requesting reconsideration or appeal of an advisory opinion issued by the General Counsel.
Home Rule Charter Section 4-1100 also gives the Board “concurrent authority” with the Law Department to advise City officials on the application of State law. Our advice on State law, however, does not provide protection from possible enforcement by the State Ethics Commission. For guidance on the State Ethics Act that would provide such protection, contact either the State Ethics Commission or the Law Department.
Home Rule Charter Section 4-1100 also gives the Board “concurrent authority” with the Law Department to advise City officials on the application of State law. Our advice on State law, however, does not provide protection from possible enforcement by the State Ethics Commission. For guidance on the State Ethics Act that would provide such protection, contact either the State Ethics Commission or the Law Department.
Board Opinions
Board Opinions
Board opinions generally address questions that require the application of the Ethics Laws to situations that have not yet been definitively addressed by legislation, regulation, or prior Board opinions.
General Counsel Opinions
General Counsel Opinions
The Board's General Counsel issues opinions applying and explaining the ethics laws in situations where the result is clear from the law or regulation, or where the Board has already provided a relevant interpretation. The Board does not deliberate on or approve General Counsel opinions, although a requestor may appeal a General Counsel opinion to the Board.
Formal Opinion Topics
Formal Opinion Topics
As with informal advice, the number and topics of opinions are largely driven by requestor needs. In our fourth fiscal year examining the topics covered by formal opinions, the overall decrease in formal opinion requests resulted in a lower number of topics covered. Conflicts of Interest and Interest in City Contracts were the most popular topics addressed in formal opinions.
Note that opinions often cover multiple topics.
FY2024 General Counsel Opinions
FY2024 General Counsel Opinions
Informal Guidance
Informal Guidance
Informal guidance makes up the majority of Board Staff's advice work. In FY2024, we responded to over 800 requests for informal guidance. That total, however, only tells part of the story. Advice requests range from complex legal analyses to straightforward password reset requests, and everything in between. Since FY2020, Board Staff has worked to identify and interpret trends in informal advice requests.
These are not performance measures ⎼ Staff cannot control how many requests are received ⎼ but are part of our larger planning efforts for training, educational documents, and workload allocation.Â
Year-at-a-Glance
Year-at-a-Glance
Overview
Overview
Total informal guidance responses give a high-level snapshot. Compared to FY2023, there was a slight decrease in the total number of requests resolved. This decrease - which reversed an increase from FY2022 to FY2023 - reflects a reduction in Campaign Finance advice requests in the back half of the City election cycle. In contrast, Ethics advice request remained fairly stable, while Financial Disclosure requests increased significantly. The uptick in Financial Disclosure advice appears to be attributable to the influx of new City employees that came with the change in administration.
*Because multiple topics may be associated with each request, the breakdown of requests by topics is approximate and reflects the proportion of total topics addressed adjusted for the total number of requests resolved.
Topics Covered
Topics Covered
Since FY2020, Board Staff has tracked guidance responses by both topic and type. Beginning in January 2021, we began noting each topic covered by a request for guidance, rather than assigning one topic to each request. As a result, the total topics covered in the accompanying visualizations exceeds the total responses. This approach better reflects both the complexity of our work and more accurately depicts which topics are "hot."
A similar visual summary, separated by filing and advice, is included in the monthly General Counsel Report to give the Board a snapshot of advice work for the preceding month as compared to the calendar year.
Month-by-Month
Month-by-Month
Plotting FY2024 advice requests by general topic on a monthly basis gives an overview of the year's events. We see our largest spike centered on the Financial Disclosure filing deadline in May. Campaign Finance questions peaked in October in the run-up to the November Municipal General Election. Notable this year is a significant uptick in ethics questions in January, coinciding with the start of a new administration.
Response Times: Overview
Response Times: Overview
Since February 2020, Board Staff has tracked the time to respond to informal guidance requests. In FY2024, nearly 80% of guidance requests were resolved within three business days.
Response Times by Topic
Response Times by Topic
When broken down by topic, the response times consistently show that ethics questions (Conflicts, Contracts, Gifts, Political Activity, Post-Employment, & Representation) generally have a longer response time than questions related to Campaign Finance or Financial Disclosure.
Year-to-date reporting on response times by topic is provided to the Board on a quarterly basis in the General Counsel Report.
Ethics Informal Guidance
Ethics Informal Guidance
Ethics Overview
Ethics Overview
Starting in FY2021, General Counsel Staff expanded its efforts to track and understand advice requests. We now have three full fiscal years of such data for comparison.Â
Note that the total topics necessarily exceed the total responses.Â
Month-by-Month
Month-by-Month
FY2024 monthly data suggests that other than higher numbers of Political Activity questions in October and November, shifts by month continue to be generally proportionate among topics. The monthly breakdown also shows an overall increase from December 2023 through March 2024, reflective of significant personnel shifts through the transition following the Municipal Election.
Campaign Finance Informal Guidance
Campaign Finance Informal Guidance
FY2023 vs. FY2024
FY2023 vs. FY2024
Campaign Finance guidance requests decreased significantly from FY2023 to FY2024. This is expected as the number of candidates and committees was narrowed after the Municipal Primary in May 2023. FY2024 showed a return to a more even split between advice and filing assistance.
Month-by-Month
Month-by-Month
Campaign Finance guidance shows fairly predictable spikes around pre- and post-election filing deadlines, with a significant decrease after Cycle 7 filings for the 2023 Municipal General Election were complete.
Financial Disclosure Informal Guidance
Financial Disclosure Informal Guidance
FY2023 vs. FY2024
FY2023 vs. FY2024
Financial Disclosure questions jumped significantly in FY2024, nearly doubling from FY2023 levels. This was a stark contrast to steadily decreasing requests on this topic since the changes to Board Regulation No. 3 (Financial Disclosure) in 2021. This increase reflects an influx of new filers with the start of a new administration. New filers needed both substantive and filing assistance at much higher rates. So long as the turnover rate decreases in FY2025, we would expect to see an accompanying decrease in Financial Disclosure questions.
Month-by-Month
Month-by-Month
Financial Disclosure guidance shows a predictable spike around the May 1 filing deadline. As compared to previous years, FY2024 saw an earlier start to Financial Disclosure questions. This likely reflects both the influx of new employees - particularly City form filers in the new administration - and the fact that Board staff got an earlier start on filing reminders than in previous years.
Lobbying Informal Guidance
Lobbying Informal Guidance
FY2023 vs. FY2024
FY2023 vs. FY2024
Lobbying advice requests increased in FY2024. This was an expected shift as attention turned from the election to attempting to influence the new administration. The type of advice continues to be slightly weighted toward filing assistance. For a deeper dive into who is lobbying and how much they are spending, see the Compliance section of this report.
Month-by-Month
Month-by-Month
Overall Lobbying guidance requests peaked around the filing deadlines. We typically see the largest jump in requests around the annual reporting deadline in January. In FY2024, there was a notable increase around the April filing deadline, suggesting increased activity to influence the new administration.
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