San Francisco government ethics investigators have accused former human rights chief Sheryl Davis of breaking city and state laws that bar conflicts of interest and the acceptance of improper gifts, setting the stage for an unusual mini-trial at City Hall.
The 31-count charging document, made public Thursday by the San Francisco Ethics Commission, opens up a new front in the long-running public integrity saga surrounding Davis, the former executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. The administrative filing represents the first formal legal action against Davis since the scandal broke, and could result in the ethics commission fining her tens of thousands of dollars.
Investigators found that Davis unlawfully accepted first-class flight upgrades, an expensive portrait of herself and other gifts from city-funded nonprofits, around the same time that she funded those organizations with taxpayer dollars, among other allegations…