See our November 2024 SF Voter Guide for a nonpartisan analysis of measures on the San Francisco ballot, for the election occurring Nov. 5, 2024. The following measure is on that ballot.
Proposition D would halve the number of City Hall commissions and end their oversight of government departments. The mayor would gain greater power to appoint commissioners, and full control over hiring and firing department heads.
Proposition D would dramatically alter governance in San Francisco. It would remake rules, approved by voters nearly 30 years ago, about the mayor and lawmakers’ shared control over who sits on public bodies.
Support
By transferring power from commissioners to elected politicians, Proposition D would make government more directly accountable to voters, according to TogetherSF Action, the political advocacy group that sponsored the measure and is funded by billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, who also owns The San Francisco Standard news outlet. Proposition D’s many mandates would also make government more efficient, said Kanishka Cheng, chief executive officer of TogetherSF Action.
The “redundant, wasteful, and ineffective” commission system is a major reason that local government has “failed to solve the challenges San Francisco faces,” Cheng says in the official proponent argument for the measure. Despite there being five commissions related to homelessness and six related to public health, the city’s homelessness and fentanyl crises have persisted, she says.
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The San Francisco Democratic Party, one of the city’s most powerful political groups, also backs Proposition D — a move that brings funding for political ads, mailers and volunteers. The endorsement comes after party leadership shifted in March away from the political left and toward the center. Other supporters include local groups RescueSF, Stand with Asian Americans, Stop Crime SF Action, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
Supporters have heavily funded the campaign.
Opposition
The measure’s main opponent is Aaron Peskin, president of the Board of Supervisors and a mayoral candidate. Proposition D would disband more than 20 voter-approved commissions, “undermining key services” and drawing the governance process out of the public’s view and “back behind closed doors,” he says in his official opposition argument.
“Prop D will only lead to more corruption by taking away checks and balances, transparency, and civic engagement,” Peskin said in a September press release.
Other opponents include the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Labor Council, Small Business Forward and the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods.
Peskin is sponsoring Proposition E, a competing measure that would create a task force to consider changes to the city’s commission system.
Measure would slash commissions
San Francisco City Hall has about 130 commissions and similar government bodies.
If voters pass Proposition D, it will schedule the vast majority of commissions for automatic elimination, though the Board of Supervisors could intervene to retain some of them.
The measure would initially preserve the 20 commissions that oversee major city functions, such as the Police Commission, Fire Commission and Public Utilities Commission. Within nine months of the measure’s passage, a task force would make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors about other commissions to keep as well. The board would have until spring 2026 to save or restructure up to 45 commissions, to preserve a total of 65, at which point any others would dissolve.
Budget savings
Some of the city’s roughly 1,200 commissioners receive stipends — the rest are unpaid volunteers — and all commissioners are offered access to health insurance through the city.
Proposition D would eliminate stipends and health coverage. That would save the city between $350,000 and $630,000 annually. These changes might affect who could afford to serve on commissions.
The city would no longer pay for support staff for dissolved commissions.
Executive power would increase
Proposition D would give the mayor greater control over commission makeup. Currently, the mayor appoints most commissioners; the Board of Supervisors appoints the rest and may reject the mayor’s picks. Under Proposition D, the mayor would appoint two-thirds of commissioners and the board could not reject them.
The mayor would also gain control over who runs city departments.
Today, when appointing department heads, the mayor chooses from among candidates whom commissions recommend. And often, the mayor may remove appointees only following their misconduct and with commission approval. Proposition D would strip the commissions of those powers and let the mayor hire and fire department heads at will; the commissions could only advise on those decisions.
Measure D would remove the Police Commission’s authority to make rules about officer conduct, and give that power to the police chief. The commission would still discipline officers.
Campaign finance
Proposition D is drawing more financial backing, by far, than any other local ballot measure, according to data from the San Francisco Ethics Commission.
As of Oct. 7, campaign committees supporting Proposition D had raised more than $8.7 million. The next-greatest financial support was for Proposition M, which would overhaul the city’s business tax system; that committee had raised nearly $1.5 million.
Of Proposition D backers’ war chest, about $2.4 million had come from the “Mayor Mark Farrell for Yes on Prop D” campaign committee.
Mayor London Breed — who is running to keep her seat against Farrell and many other candidates — supported Proposition D but withdrew her backing in September because it had become “tainted” by Farrell’s campaign committee, she said.
By a quirk of local election laws, committees for or against ballot measures may receive financial donations of any amount — unlike Farrell’s mayoral campaign committee, for which individual donations may not surpass $500. Breed said Farrell was using Proposition D to “funnel unlimited amounts” into his bid for mayor.
Cheng, of Proposition D sponsor TogetherSF Action, called Breed’s move a political calculation. The group backs Farrell for mayor.
A campaign committee opposing Proposition D and supporting other measures, including Proposition E, had raised $27,404.
Votes needed to pass
Proposition D requires a simple majority of “yes” votes to pass, as does Proposition E. If both measures pass, the one receiving more votes will prevail.
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