A three-member committee of the San Diego Ethics Commission has selected an outsider to take over the regulatory office after current Executive Director Sharon Spivak steps away early next year.
On Thursday, the full commission will consider appointing longtime prosecutor Bryn Kirvin to run the San Diego department charged with enforcing city campaign finance laws and lobbying rules.
If approved by the Ethics Commission, the City Council will be asked to confirm her appointment as soon as next week.
A career criminal prosecutor with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, Kirvin was the top choice of the ad hoc committee set up earlier this year to review applications for the job. The committee waded through more than 125 applicants before making its selection.
Kirvin, who has worked as a prosecutor for 27 years, told The San Diego Union-Tribune that she was excited by the possibility of becoming the city’s top ethics official.
“I am thrilled and humbled by the Ethics Commission’s nomination, and it would be an honor to serve the city of San Diego,” she said in a brief email.
According to materials posted on the Ethics Commission website ahead of the Thursday meeting, Kirvin currently works as an issuing deputy — a prosecutor who evaluates cases filed by law enforcement agencies and decides whether to proceed with criminal charges.
She also said she is a career civil servant who honed her public speaking skills over many years working as a trial attorney.
“Later, I was tapped as ethics coordinator for my office,” she wrote to the recruiter. “I spearheaded ethics and professionalism training for over 300 attorneys, provided ethics training and advice statewide, and litigated allegations of prosecutorial misconduct on behalf of my colleagues,” she added.
Kirvin acknowledged in the same letter that she lacks some experience related to the duties of the Ethics Commission executive director.
“Although my experience with city ethics, campaign and lobbying laws is limited, I am eager to acquire the necessary expertise,” she wrote. “I am proactively reviewing relevant local ordinances and secondary sources to familiarize myself with the issues.”
Kirvin, 52, earned an undergraduate degree from Occidental College before receiving a law degree from California Western School of Law. She has served in the District Attorney’s Office in a variety of roles since 1997.
She was paid just over $211,000 as a deputy district attorney in 2023, according to the Transparent California public salary database. She would be paid between $227,000 and $241,500 a year as the Ethics Commission executive.
The San Diego Ethics Commission was created in 2001 to monitor, enforce and administer city ethics and campaign rules. It investigates complaints, audits campaign and lobbyist disclosures and issues penalties for violations.
In addition to enforcement, the commission conducts training sessions and issues advice letters to city officials and others required to file public disclosures.
The new executive director will take over at an important time for the Ethics Commission.
Voters this month approved Measure D, which strengthens the agency’s authority in several important ways, including awarding the commission authority to name its executive director.
Even so, the ethics board will seek City Council confirmation of the Kirvin appointment, because the election results are not expected to be formally certified for several weeks.
Measure D also awards the commission the authority to set its own rules and empowers the executive director to open investigations without approval from commissioners. It also codifies the commission’s mission so that a future mayor or council cannot undo its authority.
Unrelated to the ballot measure, which was leading with more than 70% of the vote in early returns, the City Council last month agreed to triple the fines the commission can impose.
The new penalties can now reach $15,000 per violation — or up to three times the amount of money a person or entity illegally received, donated or spent.
Too often under the prior penalty limit, violators wrote off the fines as the cost of doing business, a staff report to the council said.
The updated fines passed by the council last month are due to be reconsidered Tuesday under what’s called a second reading.
The San Diego Ethics Commission is made up of seven volunteer commissioners. It is managed by the executive director, three attorneys, an auditor and support staff. Until earlier this year, the commission was persistently lacking a full complement of commissioners.
Spivak was appointed in 2020 and announced earlier this year that she would retire early in 2025.
The commission hired a recruiter to advertise for a successor and received more than 125 applications. The committee reviewed the candidates before scheduling a handful of interviews and putting Kirvin forward as their top choice.
If she gets the job, Kirvin would join the city staff in January and work alongside Spivak for two months. Spivak is scheduled to retire from city employment in late March.
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