SF Ethics Commission facing complaint against itself

Executive Director of San Francisco Ethics Commission LeeAnn Pelham works in her office on finalizing job postings Jan. 4, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif. Executive Director of San Francisco Ethics Commission LeeAnn Pelham works in her office on finalizing job postings Jan. 4, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close SF Ethics Commission facing complaint against itself 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The San Francisco Ethics Commission — the panel that keeps politicians in line and ensures that government meetings are open to the public — is itself facing an ethics complaint.

It’s now up to state Attorney General Xavier Becerra and District Attorney George Gascón to decide whether the Ethics Commission violated the state’s Brown Act, as alleged in a complaint filed Tuesday. The complaint cited Ethics Commissioners Peter Keane, Quentin Kopp, Paul Renne and Daina Chiu for acting on an item that wasn’t on their agenda last week when they voted to send a letter to city planner Christine Johnson, asking her to recuse herself from a controversial affordable housing battle at the Planning Commission.

Johnson recently took a job as the director of SPUR, an urban think tank that often takes positions that favor developers.

Ethics Commission Executive Director LeeAnn Pelham said in a letter to Becerra and Gascón that she cannot make a judgment on the complaint because it names her as a witness: She and Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen both warned the commissioners that they were violating open meeting laws.

If Gascón chooses to prosecute the Brown Act violation as a misdemeanor, it would be the first such case his office has ever pursued.

— Rachel Swan

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan