More Lobbyist Donations Appear After Pay-to-Play Complaint Againt SF Supervisor Candidate

FOLLOWING LAST MONTH'S NEWS OF A "PAY TO PLAY" ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST SF DISTRICT 9 SUPERVISOR CANDIDATE HILLARY RONEN, at least three different lobbyists have since logged on to report their contributions to Ronen's campaign as required by City law.

As reported in today's Mission Local, the SF Ethics Commission website now shows that Ronen, who works as legislative aide to current Supervisor David Campos, has received $2,700 in contributions from six different lobbyists, making her eligible for even more in public matching funds. Ronen has taken money from lobbyists for developers Lennar Residential, Nick Podell Company, Trumark Urban, Crescent Heights Development, 40 Bernal Heights Boulevard, and Strada Development, as well as tech companies Airbnb and Uber, Shell Oil wholesaler Au Energy, non-union grocer Grocery Outlet, anti-union shuttle company Bauer's Shuttle, and controversial eviction attorney Andrew Zacks.

Lobbyist Rich Peterson finally reported his December 1, 2015 donation to Ronen just days after SF Labor News broke the story of a whistleblower's ethics complaint alleging financial conflict of interest and pay-to-play practices related to 11 meetings between Ronen and Peterson following Peterson's then-unreported donation.

Peterson's client Grocery Outlet proposes to build two non-union grocery stores in District 9, and it is illegal for legislative aides such as Ronen to participate in or to in any way seek to influence a governmental decision in which one has a financial conflict of interest. It is unclear at this point the extent to which Ronen may have been involved in decision-making regarding clients of this most recent round of lobbyist-donors.

This story appears to be "developing."

SF Labor News