The Weekly Digest (June 23, 2024)

Written By Bill Jackson

Happy Sunday, Brionies! 


Here’s what you need to know about San Francisco politics this week and beyond:


City Hall

  • Monday, June 24 at 10am: Recessed meeting of the Budget and Appropriations Committee (agenda here):

    • Buckle up, it’s public comment day on the budget. This is your chance to testify about the proposed $15.9 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 and $15.5 billion budget for FY 2025-2026. Each speaker is allowed one minute to speak, and translation services will be available until 6pm. 

    • Items 6 and 7 – Resolutions approving two five-year grants, together exceeding $80 million, to the Japanese Community Youth Council for youth employment programs.

  • Tuesday, June 25 at 10am: Regular meeting of the Transportation Authority Board (agenda here):

    • Item 5 – Recommendation to place State Senator Scott Weiner’s Senate Bill 961 on the “watch” (i.e. “maybe”)  list. Weiner’s bill would require new passenger vehicles and large trucks to be equipped with a passive intelligent speed limiter assistance system (also known as a “speed governor”) that would provide a brief, one-time, visual and audio signal to alert the driver each time the speed of the vehicle is more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.

  • Tuesday, June 25 at 2pm: Regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors (agenda here):

    • Item 3 – Ordinance amending the elections code to update rules for the translation or transliteration of the names of candidates for local office into Chinese character-based names for the ballot. This proposal would align San Francisco rules with those of the state, under which a candidate seeking to use a character-based name must verify it by a birth certificate or other identification, demonstrate that it is a phonetic transliteration, or show that the candidate has been known by that name for at least two years. These rules are intended to prevent politicians from crafting flattering Chinese character-based names for themselves, such as Congratulate Brocade Beautiful, a.k.a. Kamala Harris.

    • Item 32 – Resolution supporting the Justice for Renters Act (“JRA”) and reaffirming support for repeal of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. History time! In 1995, the California legislature adopted Costa Hawkins, which exempted newly-constructed buildings and single-family homes from local rent control laws and allowed landlords to charge any amount after a tenant leaves. This “new construction” provision not only prevents rent control on units built after 1995 anywhere in California, but also locks in any “new construction” exemption dates that were in effect under local Rent Control laws when Costa Hawkins passed. In San Francisco, it has prevented rent control on any property built after June 1979. Anti-capitalist supervisor Dean Preston and his progressive pals (Peskin, Ronen, Walton, Chan, and Melgar) want to change all that by allowing strict rent control on all types of housing, including single family homes and newer apartments. The proposed law they endorse would also restrict a landlord’s ability to raise rent when a tenant moves out; progressives call that “vacancy control,” but you may recognize it as market-destroying, government-mandated price controls. A coalition of developers and trades unions (i.e. people who build, rather than regulate, things for a living) are opposed: “this resolution sends a clear but dangerous message to affordable housing and mixed-income developers, trades unions, pension funds, endowments, builders, investors, banks, and lenders that the City and County of San Francisco is overtly hostile to investment in new housing.”

  • Wednesday, June 26, at 10:30am: Rescheduled meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee (agenda here):

    • Item 5 – Ordinance to place a $390 million bond on the November ballot to “fund  key health and shelter infrastructure, street safety and road repaving, and public space and park improvements across San Francisco.”

Meet the Briones Society

  • What is the Briones Society? Who is involved? What does the Society believe and do?  Where does the name "Briones" come from? How can you get involved? Join us for a half-hour Zoom meeting to learn the answers to these questions and more on Thursday, June 27, 5-5:30 pm. Sign up here.

Happenings around town

What we’re reading

  • If you haven’t been following Oakland politics, it might be a good time to start, because things are getting complicated. On Thursday, federal agents raided the home of Mayor Sheng Thao, only two days after a measure to recall her qualified for the November ballot. None of this is good for the people of Oakland, who endured a mass shooting at Lake Merritt on Wednesday and are facing a $177 million budget deficit. For a recap of the issues facing Oakland even before this public corruption scandal, we recommend this interview with local leader Seneca Scott. 

  • San Francisco’s Civil Grand Jury, a government oversight panel of volunteers, has published its latest report, Commission Impossible? Getting the Most from San Francisco’s Commissions. Key finding: even accounting for the fact that S.F. is both a city and a county, we have twice as many commissions as our peers in California. While some commissions are effective and well-run, others have costs that outweigh their benefits. To address the problem, the Grand Jury recommends … wait for it … a commission to oversee the commissions, “a permanent Commission Oversight Board” that would “i) regularly evaluate the performance of San Francisco’s commissions; ii) create standards for the duties, responsibilities and performance of commissions and the commissioners and members who serve on these bodies; and iii) periodically identify commissions that should be changed or abolished.” Acknowledging the “rich irony” of its own recommendation, the report notes that such a  body is “vital in order to optimize and streamline the city’s byzantine commission system.”

Quick hits



Bill Jackson
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