Was This Ethics Commission Appointment Unethical?

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​San Francisco's Ethics Commission often provides its followers with "Who'll watch the watchmen?" moments. This is the latest.

On March 2, Assessor Phil Ting appointed Benedict Y. Hur, a thirtysomething lawyer with a sterling resume, to fill a vacancy on the commission. Hur -- who really does go by "Ben Hur" -- is a young partner at the firm Keker & Van Nest. And that's interesting, because Ethics Committee Vice-Chair Susan Harriman is a longtime partner at the very same law firm. In fact, he's even worked under her on the same cases. 

So, you'd think the pressure to vote along with a senior colleague might be something of a problem when Hur and Harriman are sitting on the same body. We posed that question to Bob Stern, the president of the Center for Governmental Studies and an ethics expert. And he said this is odd -- but legit.

"There are no laws that I know of on that," he said. In other words: It's nice and legal. "But their votes will be scrutinized. If they are voting together when others are voting differently, people will question that. But if every vote is unanimous..."

Yet just because it's legal to have two of the city's five ethics commissioners serving as partners in the same law firm, doesn't mean it's not a head-scratcher.

"I think people have a right to be concerned about that," said Stern. "It's a big city -- why'd they have to go to the same law firm?"

Our calls to Hur and Ting have not yet been returned.