On behalf of the Board of Ethics, I welcome this opportunity to report on the Board’s accomplishments in Fiscal Year 2020. This Report describes the Board’s efforts to fulfill its Charter-mandated responsibility to administer and enforce “all provisions of . . . [the] Charter and ordinances pertaining to ethical matters.” These ethical matters, collectively known as the City’s Public Integrity Laws, include the Campaign Finance, Ethics, Lobbying, and Financial Disclosure Laws and the Charter’s political activity restrictions.

As usual with these annual reports, this one will describe our accomplishments in detail, but I would be remiss if I didn’t focus this initial message on the Board’s chief challenge in FY2020 ⎼ the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like every other City agency and entity, the Board was directly faced with the full impact of the pandemic in late March 2020. Like everyone else, we dealt with all the work-related difficulties that came along with it: closed offices, cancelled meetings, new work schedules, school closings, safety precautions, and telecommuting. I am pleased and extremely proud to report, however, that the Board has weathered the storm of this pandemic and the challenges of the new work environment, and continues to effectively perform all of its important duties under the Charter.

In many ways, the Board was perfectly prepared for this emergency. For example, after years of hard work and planning, in FY2020 the Board had in place brand new filing systems for both financial disclosure and campaign finance reporting. With a focus on new efficiencies and ease in electronic filing, reviewing and maintenance, the new filing systems proved invaluable in a situation when every major step of the filing process was completed remotely by filers and Board Staff alike. Thus, even with the outbreak of the pandemic, the Board’s filing systems became more user-friendly and efficient in FY2020.

Likewise, the Board was well situated to transition much of its work to the online world. Board Staff had been exploring online trainings prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, so when such online trainings became necessary due to the pandemic, Board Staff made the transition quickly and seamlessly. The Board performed its work efficiently in this new environment ⎼ with online training presentations incorporating new and exciting features not available through in-person sessions.

Finally, the Board was fortunate to have its tech-savvy, hard-working and dedicated staff. Even with the challenges of working remotely, scheduling issues, the departure of certain staff and the staff’s relatively small size, staff members never faltered and, indeed, in many cases their work only intensified. As the most noteworthy example, during the height of the pandemic and work-related disruptions, the Board was able to issue an important Amendment to Board Regulation 8 (Political Activity). This involved not only the administrative steps regarding the Amendment process (holding a hearing, drafting the regulation, communications with concerned parties, etc.), but also a host of secondary activities such as drafting educational documents and conducting specialized trainings regarding the Charter Amendments that precipitated the regulatory changes. All of this work occurred as the Board Staff continued their day-to-day duties and responsibilities without missing a beat.

FY2020 was certainly an extraordinary year. I could not be more proud of how well the Board and our staff performed (and continue to perform) during the COVID-19 crisis.

Michael H. Reed, Esq., Chair

City of Philadelphia Board of Ethics

It's 2020! I could stop my summary of the year with that phrase and most people would have a pretty good idea of what I’m trying to describe, but that would leave out the remarkable ways that the Board and staff responded to the many challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented.

These challenges were compounded by staff departures, including the Board's second longest serving staff member, Deputy Executive Director Nedda Massar, who retired at the end of 2019. Nedda joined the Board in 2008 and her dedicated, hard work, clear perspective and cheerful demeanor is deeply missed by Board Members, staff and people she interacted with throughout City government. Who knew that less than three months after Nedda’a retirement we would all be spending most of our time at home?

I remember how surreal it felt making the decision, after consulting with Chair Reed, on March 12, 2020, to authorize Board staff to work from home, beginning on March 16^th. It seemed like an overreaction at the time, but that’s the world we’ve lived and worked in since then.

As Chair Reed describes in his Annual Message and as set forth in more detail in the Report which follows, I’m extremely proud of how the Board and staff have risen to the challenges presented by the pandemic. Our technically inclined staff (not including me) have used technology in ways to enhance Board meetings, training sessions, social media and even the regulatory process in new and extraordinarily creatively ways throughout the quarantine.

Although we were compelled to cancel the Board’s public meeting in March this year, we were able to choose, acquire and teach Board and staff members how to use the now-ubiquitous Zoom videoconferencing application in time for the April Board meeting, and we have held monthly public Board meetings using that platform ever since. As explained elsewhere in this Report, the Zoom application has also been a perfect tool for continuing ethics training during the pandemic and will likely be used for campaign finance training as we get closer to next year’s municipal election.

Even during the pandemic, the Board and its small staff continue to provide training, render advice, conduct investigations and hold monthly public Board meetings. We will continue to strive to fulfill the Board's broad mandates – even during these challenging times – with diligence and fairness.

J. Shane Creamer, Jr., Executive Director

City of Philadelphia Board of Ethics