Speakers warn that quest for government efficiency could come at the high cost of lost community input, oversight
A parade of supporters pleaded with city legislators Tuesday to spare San Francisco city commissions and advisory councils from changes recommended by a voter-mandated task force. Though intense, much of the concern might prove to be short-lived.
Multiple supervisors appeared unlikely to accept some of the Commission Streamlining Task Force’s more controversial proposals, including many contained in a proposed amendment to the City Charter, which serves as the city’s constitution. If implemented, the task force’s recommendations would reduce the number of city commissions and boards by nearly 43%, and in many cases eliminate their roles in hiring or firing city department heads. “It is highly unlikely that I or any other member of the Board of Supervisors will introduce that particular charter amendment, or that this board would send that particular charter amendment on to the voters in November,” Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman said at the outset of the hearing. After listening to nearly two hours of public comment, Mandelman concluded by saying, “I don’t think we’re going to touch many of the live wires that folks have expressed their greatest concerns about, but we’ll see.” The widespread anxiety among members of commissions and similar entities was sparked by a five-member Commission Streamlining Task Force, which was created when voters approved Prop. E in November 2024. The task force was charged with recommending to the mayor and Board of Supervisors ways to modify, eliminate or combine the city’s appointed boards and commissions to make city government more effective, efficient and economical. Appointed by the mayor and other city officials in early 2025, the task force held 23 public meetings before it recommended cutting the total number of commissions and advisory bodies from 152 — a number it said is far higher than other cities have — to 87. About 115 bodies are currently active. Tuesday’s hearing was focused on the draft charter amendment that the task force — as required by voters — proposed for the Nov. 3 ballot, as well as ordinance language from the task force. Mandelman said before the hearing that he was working with Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration and the City Attorney’s Office to produce an alternative charter-amendment proposal. Targeting the November ballot, the proposal would likely include task-force suggestions for which there is consensus while omitting other controversial recommendations. “If the task force’s proposed charter amendment were introduced, it would not pass,” Mandelman said in an interview. One example of a relatively uncontentious task-force suggestion for which it appears the “juice is worth the squeeze” calls for eliminating the Sanitation and Streets Commission, which oversees a department that does not currently exist, Mandelman said. Mandelman said the streamlining task force did “good work,” and “their recommendations make a lot of sense,” but getting some of them enacted could involve “big, thorny fights.” “They weren’t tasked with thinking about political reality or the need to get passed, either at the Board of Supervisors or by the voters,” Mandelman said.The ordinance language produced by the task force would divide bodies into commissions and advisory bodies — with commissions having greater powers — and set forth general rules that apply to both types of bodies. It also would abolish a significant number of bodies and rename many. The ordinance proposals will take effect automatically within 90 days of introduction unless they are rejected or amended by two-thirds of the board, or eight of 11 supervisors. Separate from the task-force process, Mandelman and Lurie this month unveiled three proposed charter amendments targeting the November ballot that would reform varied aspects of city government, including by increasing mayoral authority to hire and fire department heads, which the streamlining task force also recommended. Ex // Top Stories 13 SF events to celebrate Irish heritage this St. Patrick’s Day Parties and festivities — including The City's 175th annual parade — will make for a golden holiday Steyer pushes harder line on AI limits In an interview with The Examiner, the gubernatorial candidate indicates he’d be much more open to regulating artificial intelligence than Gov. Gavin Newsom Bay Bridge lights are returning — and businesses are beaming After a three-year hiatus, SF waterfront will have finally “got its sparkle back” as of March 20 Signature gathering for those initiatives is ongoing, and Mandelman said in an interview that he would hope to avoid having “dueling” reform measures. Supervisor Shamann Walton, meanwhile, criticized various task-force proposals, including revising procedures for disciplining sworn members of the police department. He urged supervisors to preserve the “independent civilian oversight powers of our Police Commission.” The draft amendment would state that the police chief can impose discipline without approval from the Police Commission, and it would remove the commission’s ability to remove the chief of police, leaving that authority with the mayor. “Stripping the commission of its disciplinary authority is not a technical fix,” Walton said. “It is a fundamental shift, and who holds power over police accountability in this city. The moment oversight becomes subject to political pressure, it stops being oversight.” The police commission exists “because our community demanded it,” and it has helped reduce use-of-force problems, said Walton, who pointedly criticized the lack of diversity on the task force. “San Franciscans spoke up, spoke out and won real structural reforms, deescalation, standards, use-of-force policy, crisis intervention, training, body-camera implementation,” he said. “None of that happened by accident. It happened because the commission had the independence to act without political interference.” “The streamlining task force proposal to change exactly the structure that made that possible is unjust, inequitable and racist,” Walton said. “In 2026, we have to do better.” Paul Chignell, a retired city police captain who is the legal-defense administrator for the San Francisco Police Officers Association, also testified against changing what he called “an effective and workable charter-mandated discipline system” that he said has helped reduce use-of-force shootings. Supervisor Danny Sauter said he thought there would be support among supervisors for winding down “defunct commissions” that exist on paper but haven’t met in years or that struggle to meet quorums. He said his office has heard a great deal from people objecting to moving commissions out of the charter and into the administrative code, which would allow them to be modified in the future without getting voters’ approval. For example, one hotly criticized task-force recommendation Tuesday was for the Commission on the Status of Women to become an advisory body only and to transfer it to the administrative code. Sauter said advocates see moving entities out of the charter, where they might have been placed by voters, as a “demotion” and a move that would leave altered bodies “not as protected” and “more susceptible to political whims and machinations in the future.” “Our charter is a declaration of our values,” said Margaret Brodkin, president of the Juvenile Probation Commission, about a proposal for moving the Youth Commission — which was created by voters via a 1995 amendment to the City Charter — to the administrative code. “Taking commissions out does not create efficiencies. It doesn’t mean less work. It only makes our commitment to issues subject to political whims.” In addition to transferring some bodies to the administrative code, the draft charter amendment would modify some commission and advisory bodies’ powers and duties, make some bodies advisory only, and outright eliminate others. It would establish a Continuum of Care Subcommittee to assume the powers and duties of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, among other things. The charter language would also remove the Homelessness Oversight Commission’s decision-making powers, designating it as an advisory board, and move it to the administrative code. The commission, which was created by a 2022 ballot measure, oversees the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin sponsored Prop. E to create the Commission Streamlining Task Force. At the time, Peskin was successfully leading the charge to defeat Prop. D, a heavily funded measure backed by billionaire Michael Moritiz that, among other things, would have capped the number of commissions at 65 — cutting The City’s commission system in half — while giving the mayor sole power to appoint and remove most department heads. Ajai Duncan, who managed the campaign for Prop. E and against Prop. D, testified Tuesday that she thought “balance was lost” by the task force, particularly relating to increasing the mayor’s power to appoint and remove commissioners. “The recommendation undervalues the role of commissions that protect our communities, especially those focused on arts, children, youth, women and our civil rights,” Duncan said. “Our system is built on checks and balances for a reason.”
Shamann Walton Paul Chignell Danny Sauter Aaron Peskin
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