SF Sends Breed and Farrell Cease-and-Desist Letters Over Alleged Misuse of City Seal

Mayor London Breed and her challenger Mark Farrell, who previously served as a city supervisor and interim mayor, allegedly misused the official seal of San Francisco, according to cease-and-desist letters the city sent to both this week.

While the letters sent Thursday only direct the candidates to stop using the seal for any unauthorized purposes, they also point out that such misuse constitutes a misdemeanor. And although Farrell’s alleged misuse came years before his mayoral campaign, the letter to Breed said the logo was “potentially misused in a private and/or campaign capacity.” The letters come just days before polls close on the city’s increasingly tight mayoral race.

“The City Seal is a significant symbol of our City and is not for general, commercial or political use,” reads the letter sent to Breed, signed by Angela Calvillo, clerk for the Board of Supervisors. “All other uses require Board of Supervisors approval.”

The letter sent to Breed, first reported by The Information, points specifically to an email sent on Sept. 4 by the personal email address of city chief of protocol Maryam Muduroglu, which used the seal on an invitation to “An Evening of Conversation with Mayor London Breed.”

Though voters would have been in attendance at the event, no donations were reportedly collected and Breed’s campaign attributed the cease-and-desist letters to petty politics.

“At a time when San Franciscans are concerned about major issues that affect their daily lives, this is a colossal waste of time,” said Joe Arellano, campaign spokesman for Breed.

A similar letter sent to Farrell and the venture capital firm he led and co-founded, Thayer Ventures, alleged the seal was misused in a private investor presentation in November 2021.

“The City Seal on this private investor presentation is not official City business, and according to my records, the Board of Supervisors has not granted approval of the use of the City Seal for the presentation,” Calvillo wrote. “Therefore, I write to request that you immediately cease and desist using the City Seal in association with your activities.”

The investor presentation happened over three years after Farrell left office in 2018 and over two years before he launched his mayoral campaign in February. Farrell, who has been accused of misusing the San Francisco Democratic Party’s logo on a ballot measure campaign mailer, denied any credit for the presentation itself.

“I did not create the deck,” which is no longer in use, Farrell said in a statement. “The deck was created by a third party.”

A third letter was also sent to Shayne Copland, the CEO of Polymarket, a cryptocurrency website where people can place bets on elections, including the San Francisco mayor’s race.

Mission Local reported that, in an email to the Board of Supervisors, Calvillo called Polymarket’s use of the seal “the most egregious” case of the three letters sent out this week.