Former City Controller Ed Harrington addressed the Board of Supes today, describing the work he did as the head of a task force charged with “streamlining” the city’s commission structure, and made a very clear and useful point:
“If you have power and you trust people [in charge], then you want as little as possible in the City Charter. If you have less power and trust, you want as much as possible in the Charter.”
In other words: The mayor and his allies, who have power, want to get rid of commissions and move much governmental oversight into the Administrative Code, which the supes and the mayor can change at will. A long list of speakers from community-based groups, who lack power, want their opportunities to engage with the city protected in the Charter.
Margaret Brodkin, who led the fight to create the Commission on Children, Youth and Families, said that the agency “has become a model for cities” all over the country. She urged the supes not to “take a chainsaw to the Charter.”
Doug Engmann, who has been president of both the Planning Commission and the Board of Appeals, said that at a time when Donald Trump is in the White House, “how can you demote the Human Rights Commission, the Commission on Children, Youth and Families, the Youth Commission and the Environment Commission? This is the wrong message.”
Sup. Shamann Walton took particular issue with a recommendation to move much of the authority over police discipline from the Police Commission to the chief.
Walton noted that:
Commissioners are appointed for their expertise in law, civil rights, and community advocacy. Stripping away the authority to hold officers accountable and placing it in the hands of the Police Chief in the name of efficiency, is a rollback of everything this community fought for.
Even the Police Officers Association opposes that change: Paul Chignell, a retired police captain who now works with the POA, said the current system is fair, and giving the chief full power would undermine the reforms of the past decade.
The mayor wants the sole ability to hire and fire the police chief—which means all police discipline would ultimately rest with the city’s chief executive. Given the level of corruption, vindictiveness, and favoritism we have seen in that office in the past few decades, this seems like a terrible idea.
Christin Evans, a bookstore owner and longtime community activist, said the parallels between what’s happening in Washington DC and Mayor Lurie’s agenda are “frighteningly similar. The mayor is staging an executive power grab.”
Coalition on Homelessness Director Jennifer Friedenbach told the supes: “I was around before we had a Homeless Oversight Commission, when we had an advisory board, and it was a joke.”
The recommendations of the task force aren’t binding; the supes would have to draft a sweeping Charter amendment to implement some or all of them.
Sup. Rafael Mandelman announced that he is working with the City Attorney’s Office to draft legislation that would implement some, but not all, of the recommendations. That comes at a time when Mandelman is working with Lurie on a sweeping Charter package that would shift even more power to the mayor.
The supes are going to face a challenge here: The proposals for eliminating commissions are wildly unpopular with the people who work and serve on these panels, but popular with this mayor and the oligarchs. I didn’t hear a single speaker say they supported the proposals.
As Walton said at the end of the hearing:
Is this the San Francisco we want to be? Are we okay with more police deaths, losing resources to children and youth, losing youth voices, attacks on our arts? I really don’t think people understand the magnitude of this.
The Lurie agenda is not about “accountability:” I can’t imagine any of the Big Tech and Real Estate folks supporting any of these stronger-mayor measures if Aaron Peskin had been elected to that office.
It’s about eliminating progressive and community voices and consolidating power in the billionaire class.
We will see, once again, whose side the supes are on.
