The Facts

City Attorney David Chiu is investigating the Board of Supervisors to determine who leaked a confidential legal brief. According to his letter dated February 13 reported by Josh Koehn, City Attorney David Chiu warned that whoever leaked the confidential legal memo could face investigations, discipline, or removal from office.

The leak appears to be the same one behind Mission Local’s Feb. 10 story on the legal risks surrounding a proposed sobering center. The letter was first disclosed by Lee Edwards on twitter, who obtained it via a public records request.

Only two Supervisors voted against the sobering center: Jackie Fielder and Connie Chan. Since the City Attorney's memo on the legal consequences, one of Jackie Fielder's staff has resigned and Fielder has gone on mental health leave after being briefly hospitalized. Chan's office has not experienced similar disruption.

The Context

San Francisco’s ethics code bars city officers and employees from knowingly disclosing confidential or privileged information. A 2009 City Attorney memo laid out the same principle and said unauthorized disclosure of confidential legal advice can lead to administrative, civil, or criminal penalties and removal for official misconduct under Charter Section 15.105.

The leak explicitly does not fall under "whistleblower" rules that allow insiders to leak information. The memo in question was an attorney-client privileged legal document, and the entire Board would have needed to vote on it in order to disclose it and break privilege. Breaking privilege makes the city's internal legal reasoning both discoverable and admissable in any future lawsuits the city may face.

The GrowSF Take

Leaking privileged legal advice is not transparency, and it is irresponsible. If an elected official wants to oppose a policy, they are obligated to make the case in public and keep sensitive legal memos privileged. We hope whoever leaked it is held responsible and removed from office.