Ronen aide’s previous consulting job raises eyebrows

When progressive candidate Rafael Mandelman released his first financial reports in the race to represent San Francisco’s District Eight, one line item caught the attention of several city officials.

Mandelman paid $10,000 to political consultant Nathan Allbee, who is currently a fulltime legislative aide to Supervisor Hillary Ronen.

The disclosure prompted questions from board clerk Angela Calvillo, who said she confronted Allbee after hearing talk in City Hall.

“I asked ‘were you performing this (campaign) work as a legislative aide?’ ” Calvillo said. “He said ‘no.’ ”

Although it is common for city staff to do stints working for political campaigns, the clerk and the city attorney have strict rules to ensure that this election work does not use city resources or interfere with their taxpayerfunded jobs.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera publishes a memo for city officers and employees each year, laying out restrictions on political activity. It forbids all officials and contractors from using city resources — including staff time, computers or email systems — to advocate for or against any candidate or ballot measure. It also bans civil servants from soliciting political donations, even outside of work.

Neither Ronen nor Allbee had reported Allbee’s consulting work to Calvillo because they said he left Mandelman’s campaign at the end of May and started his position in Ronen’s office on June 1. He filed a statement with the Ethics Commission to officially terminate his consulting work on June 26.

“There was no overlap,” Ronen said, adding that she had asked Allbee to fill in for three months after losing her former aide, Natalie Gee. A new aide, Amy Beinart, will start in September and replace Allbee.

Allbee said that most of the concerns about his campaign work were coming from the office of Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who is running against Mandelman in the June primary. The supervisors have a lot riding on that election, since it could tip the balance toward the progressives.

Sheehy was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but his campaign consultant, Mike Mosher, said the questions about Allbee’s political activity originated from other supervisors’ offices. Several supervisors were irritated when Ronen asked for $150,000 to hire a fourth legislative aide during the budget process — a request that her colleagues shot down.

Mandelman said Allbee quit the campaign in May and might return after his legislative job ends in the fall.

— Rachel Swan Ban no more? San Francisco’s ban on flavored tobacco might soon get put to voters, possibly in November.

A coalition of immigrant grocers and vaping advocates — funded by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. — gathered nearly 34,000 signatures to contest the ordinance. If 19,040 signatures are validated, the Board of Supervisors would have to repeal the law or put a referendum on the ballot. Voters would get to weigh in either in the June primary or in a special election this fall. — Rachel Swan