Yearly Archives: 2020

This combined charter amendment and ordinance would change the city’s business tax code in an effort to shift the tax burden away from small businesses and more toward larger ones, with the biggest relief going to restaurants, retail, arts and other businesses that have suffered during the pandemic. The authors of this measure also designed it to create a mechanism for the city to spend funds from previously voter-approved taxes that are tied up in litigation. The city controller estimates the measures could generate $97 million every year, once fully implemented in 2024. If the measure doesn’t pass, the city would have to cut an estimated $150 million from its budget.

In 1994, San Francisco voters passed a charter amendment requiring the Police Department to always keep 1,971 full-duty officers on the force. This amendment would eliminate the mandatory minimum and instead assign the Police Department the task of evaluating its staffing needs based on workload. The police chief would submit that report to the Police Commission every two years, which in turn would hold a public meeting on that assessment and make the final determination about what the staffing level should be.

This charter amendment would create a city body, the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board, which would include an inspector general. Neither would have disciplinary power over deputies or staff, nor could they set policy or issue directives. The board would have the power to hold hearings and issue subpoenas, force deputies or other sheriff’s staff to appear at hearings, access facilities — including jails — and refer cases to the district attorney for criminal prosecution.

If this charter amendment passes, San Francisco residents of voting age — which could also change this year (see Proposition G) — could be appointed to city policy bodies even if they aren’t citizens. Proponents say people on the city’s oversight boards don’t represent the city demographically, as 62% of the local population consists of people of color, whereas boards are 50% white. Noncitizens are currently barred from serving on city commissions and boards.

This charter amendment would split the Department of Public Works into two departments by creating the Department of Sanitation and Streets. Street cleaning and trash removal are currently managed by Public Works, but would become a new department under the measure, with the goal of improving sanitation citywide. The other part of the amendment is an attempt to improve oversight: Both departments would be overseen by commissions. The measure would also require the controller’s office to do a performance audit and cost and waste analysis for both departments every year.

The “Health and Recovery” proposition is a bond measure put on the ballot in part in response to the devastation wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic. This is a $487.5 million bond aiming to fund a wide range of projects, including supportive housing and homeless shelters, the development of parks, and repairs to roads and curb ramps.