I just talked with Stacey Fulhorst, the executive director of the city of San Diego’s Ethics Commission. She has no jurisdiction over Ron Roberts and the county. But, that said, the city’s laws that she enforces are almost identical to the state laws to which everyone has to conform.
She said that if something similar to what I describe below came up in the city, it would merit an investigation.
I’ll let her tell it.
“If there were a situation regarding City Council members accepting gifts under similar circumstances, I think it would merit an Ethics Commission investigation to be absolutely certain that the gifts were not earmarked for the use of specific city officials,” Fulhorst said.
In other words, if she were overseeing the county’s ethics, she would look for proof that a gift like the one to Roberts wasn’t really specifically meant for Roberts and instead was just a gift to “the county.”