4:32 PM: A San Francisco City Attorney’s office investigation has determined that Supervisor Chris Daly has satisfied his residency requirements under city law. The city attorney’s office began the probe late last month at Daly’s request after the supervisor disclosed that he and his wife had purchased two homes earlier this year in Fairfield, and that his family had moved to that city.
Daly maintained that he still lives in the couple’s three-bedroom condominium at 1346 Stevenson St. in San Francisco, where he has lived since November 2001. “Supervisor Daly has consistently stated that he spends most of his time in San Francisco and that he intends to remain at the Stevenson Street residence,” City Attorney Ethics Team Chief Jon Givner and Chief of Investigations Thomas Boyd wrote in their report.
“His actions–as evidenced by witness observations as well as public and private documents–corroborate that intent,” they wrote.
“Applying the established legal standard, we conclude that Supervisor Daly currently remains a resident of District Six,” the report stated.
Reached by phone this afternoon, Daly praised the report as “thorough.” “The result is as I anticipated, based on the facts and my reading of the law,” he said.
“I have a lot of political detractors … they took their swings at me, but they struck out,” Daly said.
San Francisco’s charter requires that members of the Board of Supervisors live in the district they represent and intend to keep living there as long as they are in office. Daly’s 6th District includes parts of the Financial District, and South of Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods. Daly was first elected in 2000 and will be termed out of office in January 2011.
The city’s residency requirement for elected officials falls under the state’s definition of maintaining a legal domicile, “to physically inhabit a place with the intent to remain there,” according to the city attorney’s office. They can own multiple residences, but can only have one domicile.
Daly and his wife purchased the Fairfield homes in February and April. The first was to be rented out, and his wife and two young children live in the second, two doors down from his wife’s parents, in order for them to grow up closer to her family, according to Daly.
The city attorney’s office investigation found that though Daly spends time at the Fairfield home, it does not necessarily mean he has established a new domicile, and that all evidence indicated otherwise.
“We do not reach any conclusions here about whether Supervisor Daly’s domicile will change at any point in the future,” the investigators wrote. Daly said today, “I publicly maintained that it is my intent not only to have Stevenson Street as my domicile, but it is also my intent to maintain that, at least through the end of my term, and possibly longer.”
The city attorney’s office reviewed several documents, including Daly’s Department of Motor Vehicles and voter registration records, tax returns, utility bills, homeowner’s exemption records and additional public documents.
All the documents “are consistent with Supervisor Daly’s assertions and link him to the Stevenson Street residence,” the investigators said. “In contrast, we are aware of no documents that demonstrate Supervisor Daly has changed his domicile to Fairfield,” they wrote. Interviews with Daly’s wife, his three roommates on Stevenson Street–who include Daly’s brother-in-law and his brother-in-law’s girlfriend–and neighbors in both San Francisco and Fairfield corroborated Daly’s assertions, they added.
Two neighbors reported regularly seeing or hearing Daly coming and going from the home. A third said she sees him “only occasionally” but recently saw him leaving the building “carrying a cake.”
“Based on our inspection of his bedroom and other rooms in the unit, it appears that Supervisor Daly resides at least part-time at Stevenson Street,” the investigator said.
Daly’s case had drawn parallels to former Supervisor Ed Jew, who was convicted of perjury in November for lying on election papers about residing in San Francisco’s Sunset District, which he was elected to represent in 2006.
Jew was sentenced to one year in county jail and three years’ probation for perjury, in addition to more than five years in federal prison for a federal conviction for extortion, mail fraud and bribery.
“The facts here present a much different case from the question of Supervisor Edmund Jew’s qualifications for office, where it was clear based on this Office’s investigation in 2007 that Mr. Jew failed even to establish residency in his district,” the city attorney’s office investigators said in their report.
“Supervisor Jew’s similar declarations of residency found no credible support on paper, in visual observations of his house or in the observations of his neighbors,” the report said.
Unlike Daly, Jew refused to meet with city attorney’s office investigators, the report added.
Daly insisted when the investigation began that his situation was completely different, and he described some media accounts of the issue as a “witch hunt.”
Today he said comparisons to Ed Jew were “not even close on the facts, not even close on the law.”
“It was unfortunate,” he said.
Daly said his focus would now return to “the day-to-day work in City Hall,” though the Board of Supervisors will take a three-week hiatus after this week.
As for his long-term plans, “I have ruled out a run for mayor,” Daly said. “I have not ruled out running (someone else’s) campaign for mayor,” he added. He declined to name any potential candidates “at this time.”
12:45 PM: A San Francisco City Attorney’s office investigation has determined that Supervisor Chris Daly has satisfied his residency requirements under city law.
The city attorney’s office began the probe at Daly’s request after the supervisor disclosed that he and his wife had purchased two homes earlier this year in Fairfield, and that his family had moved to that city. Daly has maintained that he still lives in his home at 1346 Stevenson St. in San Francisco.
“Supervisor Daly has consistently stated that he spends most of his time in San Francisco and that he intends to remain at the Stevenson Street residence,” City Attorney Ethics Team Chief Jon Givner and Chief of Investigations Thomas Boyd wrote in their report.
“His actions–as evidenced by witness observations as well as public and private documents–corroborate that intent,” they wrote.
“Applying the established legal standard, we conclude that Supervisor Daly currently remains a resident of District Six,” the report stated.
