§ 14.4. ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT.

(a) The City shall develop and promulgate rules and regulations to govern the operation of this Chapter. The Department of Public Health shall develop and promulgate rules and regulations to govern the operation of the Health Access Program identified in Section 14.2, including but not limited to eligibility for enrollment in Healthy San Francisco and the establishment of Medical Reimbursement Accounts. OLSE shall develop and promulgate rules and regulations for enforcement of the obligations of Employers under this Chapter. The rules and regulations shall also establish procedures for Covered Employers to maintain accurate records of Health Care Expenditures and Required Health Care Expenditures and provide a report to OLSE without requiring any disclosures of information that would violate State or Federal privacy laws. The rules and regulations shall further establish procedures for providing Employers notice that they may have violated this Chapter, a right to respond to the notice, a procedure for notification of the final determination of a violation, and an appeal procedure before a hearing officer appointed by the City Controller. The sole means of review of the hearing officer's decision shall be by filing in the San Francisco Superior Court a petition for a writ of mandate under Section 1094.5 of the California Code of Civil Procedure. No rules or regulations shall be adopted finally until after a public hearing.

(b) OLSE shall maintain an education and advice program to assist Employers with meeting the requirements of this Chapter.

(c) Any Employer that reduces the number of employees below the number that would have resulted in the Employer being considered a "Covered Employer," or below the number that would have resulted in the Employer being considered a Medium-sized or Large Business, shall demonstrate that such reduction was not done for the purpose of evading the obligations of this Chapter or shall be in violation of this Chapter.

(d) It shall be unlawful for any Employer or Covered Employer to deprive or threaten to deprive any person of employment, take or threaten to take any reprisal or retaliatory action against any person, or directly or indirectly intimidate, threaten, coerce, command or influence or attempt to intimidate, threaten, coerce, command or influence any person because such person has cooperated or otherwise participated in an action to enforce, inquire about, or inform others about the requirements of this Chapter. Taking adverse action against a person within ninety (90) days of the person's exercise of rights protected under this Chapter shall raise a rebuttable presumption of having done so in retaliation for the exercise of such rights.

(e) (1) OLSE shall enforce the obligations of Covered Employers under this Chapter 14, including requiring restitution to employees where appropriate, and shall impose administrative penalties on Covered Employers who fail to make Required Health Care Expenditures on behalf of their Covered Employees within five business days of the quarterly due date. Failure to make a Required Health Care Expenditure shall include making a purported expenditure that OLSE determines is not reasonably calculated to benefit the employee. The amount of the penalty shall be up to one-and-one-half times the total expenditures that a Covered Employer failed to make, but in any event the total penalty for this violation shall not exceed $100 for each Covered Employee for each quarter that the required expenditures were not made within five business days of the quarterly due date.

(2) For other violations of this Chapter by Employers and Covered Employers, the maximum administrative penalties shall be as follows: For refusing to allow access to records, pursuant to Section 14.3(f), $25 as to each worker whose records are in issue for each day that the violation occurs; for the failure to maintain or retain accurate and adequate records pursuant to Section 14.3(f) and for the failure to make the annual reports of information required by OLSE pursuant to Sections 14.3(f) and 14.3(g), $500 for each quarter that the violation occurs; for violation of Section 14.4(d) (retaliation), $100 as to each Person who is the target of the prohibited action for each day that the violation occurs; and for any other violation not specified in this subsection (e)(2), $25 per day for each day that the violation occurs.

(3) The City Attorney may bring a civil action to recover civil penalties for the violations set forth in subsections (e)(1) and (e)(2) in the same amounts set forth in those subsections, and to recover the City's enforcement costs, including attorneys' fees.

(4) Penalties recovered under this Section 14.4 shall be deposited in the City's General Fund.

(Added by Ord. 218-06, File No. 051919, App. 8/4/2006; amended by Ord. 69-07, File No. 070255, App. 4/2/2007; Ord. , File No. 111030, App. 11/22/2011, Eff. 12/22/2011, Oper. 1/1/2012; Ord. , File No. 140317, App. 6/26/2014, Eff. 7/26/2014; Ord. , File No. 161081, App. 1/20/2017, Eff. 2/19/2017)