San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Farrell agreed Monday to pay a $108,000 ethics fine after an investigation found that he illegally commingled funds between his mayoral campaign and another committee created to support a ballot measure, a practice criticized as a way to get around the city’s campaign finance limits.
The settlement , made on the eve of the competitive 13-candidate mayoral race, is the largest ethics fine in recent San Francisco history.
Ethics Commission Enforcement Director Olabisi Matthews wrote that the settlement reflected “the serious harm that was done to the public’s right to have timely and accurate information about how campaigns are funded” and “the severity of violating the $500 contribution limit, which is one of the most basic rules that all candidates have to follow.”
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Farrell, a Democratic venture capitalist with Republican leanings, said the settlement was over an “accounting error” that had been “corrected and publicly disclosed months ago,” as well as “over a disagreement about staff time allocation during the campaign.”