Created under Prop. E, the new body has a year to come up with a plan to consolidate, cut or reform San Francisco’s more than 100 city commissions
On Wednesday afternoon, the five members of The City’s newly formed Commission Streamlining Task Force gathered together in a City Hall meeting room. Among their first orders of business were figuring out some basics — things like when they’ll meet, how many commissions there are in The City, and how task force members should go about evaluating those bodies to determine which to keep, which to cut and which to reform.
Ed Harrington has been appointed to chair the task force, which was created by November’s Proposition E. In a recent interview, Harrington told The Examiner that before any reform decisions can be made, the task force must first answer some fundamental questions: “What makes a good commission? What are the kinds of commissions we're trying to do in San Francisco, and how do we make them as strong as possible?” Prop. E marks an attempt to address concerns that San Francisco’s sprawling commission system has become too bloated and cumbersome, creating impediments to effective governance. In total, The City has more than 100 commissions, which are largely comprised of residents receiving only nominal compensation for their time. Together, they carry out an array of functions within city government, including overseeing city departments, reviewing legislation, hiring and firing key city officials, and hearing appeals of fines or other city decisions. Prop. E charged the task force with coming up with a reform plan for the city’s commissions by next February, including determining which ones should be reshaped, consolidated or cut entirely. The task force’s five members — each of whom was appointed by the mayor, the Board of Supervisors, or a city agency — held their first meeting Jan. 31. But that was basically an orientation session, informing members about the body’s duties and powers, and giving them a chance to name their chair and vice chair.First up was tackling the most basic questions of all: where and when they would hold their meetings. They agreed to the first and third Wednesdays of each month, inside City Hall room 408. Far thornier questions still lie ahead. One will be simply figuring out exactly how many commissions The City has. Last year, a grand jury report stated San Francisco has 115. But in a separate tally using different criteria, the City Attorney’s Office counted 135.“Our job is to increase the public's confidence in government, and if we can't even say what bodies exist, at least for me, that seems like it diminishes confidence,” one such member, Jean Fraser, said at the meeting. Ex // Top Stories Pelosi had ace in the hole to withstand worst fears for Presidio Marc Sandalow argues the creation of the Presidio Trust is among the biggest accomplishments of the longtime San Francisco congresswoman’s career SF Ballet's ‘Raymonda’ adaptation a rarity Tamara Rojo choreographs for company for first time by revisiting a classic Experts call Pelosi wise for pick-your-battle approach to Trump The speaker emerita is dead-set on dodging distractions from the Commander in Chief — even when they land in her backyard or bear her name In some cases, the calls about what to cut could be easy. The grand jury report, for example, identified 15 commissions that no longer function at all. But in other cases, the task force will have to take a close look at the functions particular commissions serve, whether their work overlaps with other bodies, and how much they cost to operate, Harrington said. City staff will assist task force members in answering those questions by carrying out a survey of commissions. “Our duty is to say, do we think these commissions are effective?” Harrington said. “Do they bring in and add value? Do they bring in expertise the department might not otherwise have? Do they allow for public engagement?” That question — over the value that San Francisco’s commissions offer to The City — lay at the heart of a heated debate that played out over the course of last year’s election, as Prop. E supporters clashed with the backers of a rival measure, Prop. D. Backers of both measures agreed The City needed to consider trimming back the number of commissions in order to streamline government operations and decision making. But the two propositions took dramatically different tacks toward that goal. Championed by billionaire Michael Moritz’s advocacy group, TogetherSF Action, and backed with $9.5 million in campaign finance support, Prop. D would have forced The City to cut its commissions down to a hard limit of just 65. It also specified 24 San Francisco commissions for elimination, including the Public Health, Library, Human Rights, Human Services, and Arts and Environment commissions. By contrast, Prop. E, which was introduced by former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, left the decision of which and how many commissions to eliminate up to the task force it created and ultimately to the board.The advantage of Prop. E is that it makes commission reform a transparent process with input from citizens and experts, Peskin told The Examiner this week. Despite his fierce opposition to Prop. D, Peskin acknowledged that reform is needed. “This is an exercise that the government should take on in a democratic way every few decades, as things accumulate,” Peskin said. “Some of the laws that we passed in the 1950s made sense then, and they don't make sense in 2025.” In addition to being able to recommend that commissions be cut or consolidated, the task force will also be able to suggest changing the scope of a commission's authority or how its members are appointed. Such changes could hold implications for how The City is run, given that commissions have, at times, clashed with the board or mayor. Once the commission makes its report, its reform proposals for most commissions will take effect within 90 days unless a super-majority of the Board of Supervisors votes to overturn them. However, supervisors and voters will have to approve any changes it proposes for the several dozen commissions established under The City’s charter via a charter amendment.
Commission Streamlining Task Force Aaron Peskin Ed Harrington
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