Mark Farrell can use the “small-business owner” designation on the November ballot, the Department of Elections determined on Friday, denying two formal public challenges filed earlier this month.
The department asked the candidate to provide documentation to justify the use of the designation. Farrell, in response, submitted a declaration, under penalty of perjury, that his business meets the definition of a small business.
“Thayer Partners Management Company, the small business where I spend the principal amount of my professional time, had revenues of less than $2 million for both the last 12 months and CYE [calendar year end] 2023,” Farrell wrote.
The Department considers it “sufficient documentation” in response to the challenges, according to Matthew Selby at the Department.
The challenges, filed in the past two weeks following Mission Local’s reporting, include a letter from 14 small-business owners in San Francisco, and the other from an individual.
The letters called the designation “purposefully designed to mislead voters,” and said that Farrell’s Thayer Ventures “is so far removed from what it means to be a small business in San Francisco,” from negotiating rents to struggles with payrolls.
Farrell, who is managing director of Thayer Ventures Management Services, received income of more than $100,000 last year from this position, according to his financial disclosures.
He reported an array of investments in which he has a stake of more than 10 percent, associated with Thayer Ventures. These investments add up to at least more than $10 million, the disclosures show.
Farrell’s campaign said it has “nothing else to add.”
“We are disappointed at the department for failing to do its job to keep this accurate and true,” said Justin Dolezal, co-owner of Bar Part Time at 14th and Guerrero streets. “It’s a large disservice of voters, who should be informed of the true nature of their candidates.”
Such misleading designations are fairly common in California, the only state in the union to use ballot designations.
When Farrell talked about his professional experience publicly, on his campaign website, in political donation declarations, or during interviews with media and university students, he referred to himself as lawyer, investment banker, and co-founder of Thayer Ventures, but never a small-business owner.
Farrell had also touted his financial background to be something that would be “super relevant” to San Francisco’s looming budget deficit.
But the financial skills he says will help turn the city around might now be questioned. Revenue of less than $2 million a year is a relatively small gain in the venture capital world.
Farrell has singled out Thayer Partners Management Company, but it’s unknown if that designation includes gains from the multiple special purpose acquisition companies connected to it.