The Weekly Digest (November 12, 2023)

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, November 13 at 10am: Regular meeting of the Government Rules Committee (agenda and call-in instructions here)

    • Items 2 and 3  – Hearing to consider a proposal by Supervisors Engardio, Safai, Melgar, Stefani, and Dorsey to make it the official policy of SFUSD to offer algebra to students by the eighth grade, and to put that proposal on the March 2024 ballot.

  • Tuesday, November 14 at 2pm: Regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors (agenda and call-in instructions here)

    • Item 18 – Hearing on Supervisor Safai’s very bad tax-hike version of the proposed charter amendment to fully staff the SFPD. 

    • Item 27 – Resolution by Supervisors Peskin, Walton, and Chan affirming support for an independent, impartial, and qualified judiciary. Under current law, judges running unopposed for reelection are not even named on the ballot, and as a result, they have historically faced little scrutiny. This undemocratic, insider-friendly tradition is now under threat, as District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and local groups have zeroed in on squishy judges as a weak link in the city’s efforts to combat crime. How squishy, you ask? One report showed that judges granted only 32 of 316 requests by the D.A.’s office to keep suspected drug dealers in custody. Nevertheless, Peskin and his progressive pals are offended that anyone might “actively [recruit] challengers to sitting incumbent judges.” According to them, elections to educate the public are a waste of the judges’ time because the only people who even care about these elections are lawyers and special interest groups. On behalf of the lowly public who happen to care a lot about crime, we disagree. We hope our fellow plebes take Peskin to task for this offensive measure during public comment at the meeting.

    • Proposed Resolutions 231146-231147 – Resolutions approving agreements between the Department of Public Health and drugmaker McKesson. This proposed amendment would increase the not-to-exceed amount of one contract to $1,466,737,824. That’s right: the keen negotiators who brought you a $20,000 trash can are also responsible for approving this multi-billion dollar agreement with a Fortune 10 company. 


Action items

  • Express your support for bringing algebra back to SFUSD eighth graders.

  • Oppose and object to Supervisor Safai’s poison pill amendment to Supervisor Dorsey’s proposal to fully staff the SFPD.

Happenings around town

What we’re reading

  • Demonstrating that they learned absolutely nothing from the landslide vote to recall three anti-merit members of the Board of Education, San Francisco leaders are once again showing their contempt for public school families. First, six of our eleven supervisors have not agreed to support algebra instruction for eighth graders, even though it is offered in most other Bay Area school districts and is a critical step on the pathway to competitive college admissions. Powerhouse parent group SF Guardians will rally to bring algebra back at 9am tomorrow on the steps of City Hall, and we encourage you to join them. Second, there is a new movement afoot to remove merit admissions at Lowell High School despite pushback from community groups such as the Chinese Parent Advisory Council and evidence that students admitted via lottery admissions performed far worse than those who had been admitted under an entrance exam. On top of that, Supervisors Ronen and Melgar skipped important votes this week to take a taxpayer-funded trip to Japan to feast on omakase study instructional methods in mathematics.

Quick hits

Bill Jackson
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