Supes must receive proposed legislation based on recs by March 1, will decide if charter amendment heads to ballot
A voter-mandated city task force adopted a final set of recommendations Wednesday that call for significant culling and streamlining of San Francisco’s expansive commission system in ways that, among other things, will increase the mayor’s authority to appoint, hire and fire commissioners and department heads.
The five-member task force, created by voters in November 2024, called for reducing 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. The task force also recommended cutting the number of commission seats from about 1,500 to 900 as part of an overall effort to improve transparency, accountability and responsiveness. In addition to targeting some bodies for removal, the task force said the current commission system is too complex, and it recommended adoption of standards relating to matters such as term lengths and limits, sunset dates, and appointment and removal procedures. Ed Harrington, chair of the task force, said he and his colleagues made “good decisions in terms of cleaning up” the existing system, but their work is not the final word. The task force must issue a final report by Feb. 1 and submit proposed legislation based on its recommendations to the Board of Supervisors by March 1. It will forward both ordinance language for bodies established in municipal codes and a proposed charter amendment for changes that would require voter approval. The supervisors must hold a hearing on the task force’s proposals by April 1. Task-force ordinance proposals sent to the board will take effect automatically within 90 days unless they are rejected by two-thirds of the board, or eight of 11 supervisors. As to amending the City Charter, which functions as The City’s constitution, the supervisors will decide whether to put a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot and what form such a measure might take. The task force’s proposed charter amendment would add a default rule that the mayor — not commissions — may remove department heads, unless the charter provides otherwise. It would also generally allow appointees to be removed without cause. In case of commissions overseeing executive-branch departments, the task force also recommended that the mayor should generally appoint members, other than cases in which insulation from political influence is needed for decision-making, particularly around long-term financial planning or topics affecting elected officials. In such cases, it said, split appointments might be appropriate. The charter currently allows most governance commissions to nominate three candidates for department-head positions and to remove them. The task force recommended instead leaving it to the mayor to hire and fire most department heads, though certain governance commissions — such as the Ethics Commission, Elections Commission, Civil Service Commission and Retirement Board — should retain hiring and firing authority to protect their independence and insulate their departments from political interference. The task force recommended transferring responsibilities from some bodies to others and combining two bodies that oversee issues related to disability and aging into one newly formed entity. In order to make future changes to many bodies easier to accomplish, the task force recommended moving numerous bodies — including all non-decision-making bodies — into municipal codes such as the administrative code. Changing the charter typically requires costly political campaigns, the task force said, and one result is that many charter bodies become outdated, including the following that are targeted for elimination: Ex // Top Stories Villaraigosa sees path to governor’s office in ‘course-correction lane’ The gubernatorial candidate says he hopes his experience carries weight with California voters SF General to double capacity to treat patients with severe mental-health issues The state granted San Francisco $21 million to establish 50 new locked treatment beds at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Is measuring SF homelessness becoming an ‘apples and oranges’ comparison? Advocates for the unhoused express both optimism and reservations over changes to The City’s biennial tally• The Special Strike Committee, a labor-dispute-related body that no longer complies with state law.What kind of reception the task force’s recommendations will receive at the Board of Supervisors remains to be seen. Supervisor Jackie Fielder sent a Jan. 22 letter to the task force raising concerns related to the Homelessness Oversight Commission as well as proposals to eliminate the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee, Shelter Grievance Advisory Committee and Shelter Monitoring Committee. Among other things, the task force has recommended making the Homelessness Oversight Commission an advisory body, and it says the other bodies should be eliminated because they are not needed or outdated and some of their work could be assigned elsewhere. Of the total number of appointed positions, nearly 20% belonged to a single body — the Children, Youth, and Their Families Service Provider Working Group — and the task force recommended shaving the number of positions on that body from 295 to seven. Appointed by the mayor and other city officials, the task force has been meeting since Jan. 31, 2025. After 53% of voters voted in November 2024 for the adoption of Proposition E, it was created with a mandate to identify “ways to eliminate, consolidate, or limit the powers and duties of appointive boards and commissions for the more effective, efficient, and economical administration of City and County government,” according to the task force. Former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin sponsored Prop. E for the ballot at the same time he 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. Prop. D was the brainchild of TogetherSF Action, a now defunct Moritz-bankrolled group that also spent money opposing Peskin’s measure.Harrington, the chair of the task force, is a former city controller and former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission who fought against Prop. D with Peskin, who subsequently appointed him to the task force. “I think that there are some changes we made to the charter, to take some things out of the charter, that people clearly disagreed with, and I’m sure they’ll have that discussion at the Board of Supervisors,” Harrington said. “And I have faith that whatever comes out of the board to go to the voters will be something that’s worth the voters considering — but I wouldn’t expect it to be the same as what comes out of here.”
Aaron Peskin Jackie Fielder Michael Moritz Togethersf Action
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