San Francisco Mayor London Breed is set to shell out nearly $23,000 in fines for a number of ethics violations while she was in office.
The $22,792 bill, which will be paid by the Democrat herself if the Ethics Commission approves the sum at its next meeting, was spurred in part after Breed, alongside family members, unsuccessfully requested former California Gov. Jerry Brown release her brother, Napoleon Brown, from prison nearly three years ago, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Brown has sat in confinement for over two decades as he serves a 44-year sentence for robbery and involuntary manslaughter.
“There were mistakes made,” Breed said during a press conference Tuesday. “I take full responsibility for those mistakes, and I’ve learned a lot since becoming mayor and being in office. At no time have any of the things related to the stipulation had any impact on my decisions as mayor.”
DEMOCRATIC SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR ATTENDED DINNER AT THE FRENCH LAUNDRY ONE DAY AFTER NEWSOM
Breed was also said to have failed to report donations pertaining to her float at an annual pride parade in 2015 while she served on the city’s board of supervisors. The mayor requested Nick Bovis, a restaurateur who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2020, and John Konstin, the owner of a local eatery, to each pay $1,250 to the float’s manufacturer, a number which exceeded the $500 reporting threshold.
City officials have further accused the local leader of allowing Mohammed Nuru, the former head of the Department of Public Works, to pay for repairs to her personal vehicle. Nuru, who was charged by the FBI with fraud in 2019, was dating Breed at the time of the car payment, and the mayor said she initially did not disclose the potential donation due to a stipulation in the city’s code that allows gifts “by an individual with whom the official has a long term, close personal friendship unrelated to the official’s position.”
Local leaders have since indicated that the exception did not apply to that case.
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If the monetary fines are approved, the agreement will resolve all “outstanding issues with the Ethics Commission,” Breed’s lawyer, Tom Willis, said.
“Although there are reasonable explanations for all three matters covered by the stipulation, the mayor has taken responsibility for her mistakes and is ready to move on,” Willis added.
