The San Francisco supes in 2021 and then the voters in 2022 approved limits on fundraising appeals from city officials for very good reasons. When elected officials or department heads can ask companies that do business with the city to donate to favored projects, there’s immense potential for corruption. It’s happened numerous times.

Officials can still call up their rich pals and big corporations and ask for donations—if they get a waiver from the Board of Supes. By law, those officials have to explain who they intent to solicit, and why that might create a conflict of interest.

So the Mayor’s Office sent a representative to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee Thursday to ask for a blanket waiver for any money solicited for “downtown revitalization”—but she was unable to answe

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