PROP D: WEAKEN THE CHECKS AND BALANCES IN OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

San Francisco is what’s called a “strong-mayor city.” Our mayor holds a disproportionate amount of power for one person, compared to other big cities that distribute that power between the mayor and their legislative branch: city councils or boards of supervisors.

San Francisco’s mayor can introduce, approve, and veto bills, appoint members to the board of supervisors, control the city budget and city departments, and make appointments to city offices. And those appointments aren’t just temporary. The mayor’s appointees often go on to win election campaigns because of the mayor’s influence.

Now we don’t have to tell you why it’s a bad idea to give one person too much power, but billionaire-backed political group TogetherSF put this deceptive measure on the San Francisco ballot under the guise of cutting down on bureaucracy by eliminating unnecessary commissions. But those 65 commissions that could be on the chopping block have provided important checks and balances to the mayor’s power, and serve important needs of San Franciscans. Some commissions under threat include commissions on Human Rights, Human Services, Health, Youth, Environment, the Status of Women. Under this measure, the person with the sole ability to bring back any of the commissions this measure aims to disband is none other than the mayor of San Francisco. The measure also would allow the mayor to appoint at least two-thirds of commission members, while the Board of Supervisors would only be able to appoint one-third. The measure would give the mayor sole authority to appoint and remove department heads and further weaken the police commission’s ability to keep SFPD in check. Prop D is really about giving an already powerful mayor more power, with a knock to police oversight slipped in as well.

Groups like Together SF, who see long-standing, working-class San Francisco communities as detrimental to their vision of a tech-dominated city for the ultra-wealthy, are willing to give an already powerful mayor even more power to cut out the voices of people who are most impacted by the existence of these commissions. 

Reject this power grab by TogetherSF and vote NO on Prop D.