San Francisco Budget and Finance Committee Summary – October 11, 2023
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San Francisco Budget and Finance Committee Summary – October 11, 2023
The Budget and Finance Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors met on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, at 11:15 AM (agenda date: 2023-10-11 18:15:00+00:00). Chaired by Supervisor Connie Chan, with Vice Chair Rafael Mandelman and temporarily appointed member President Aaron Peskin (for item 1), the committee considered nine agenda items. Supervisor Ahsha Safai was excused. Items included trailing legislation for the Empty Homes Tax, health services contracts, a recycling center lease, a city attorney grant, youth program grants, airport contracts, and an amendment to the Police Department salary ordinance. Votes were taken on all items.
Public Comments & Testimony
- David Pilpel spoke on multiple items: he supported the Our Planet Recycling lease but noted a calculation error in the base rent ($1,949.83/month vs. $1,949.37) and an outdated city attorney name in the lease document; he supported the airport clinic and DEA lease amendments, suggesting adding "retroactive" language to the DEA lease; and he supported President Peskin’s police ordinance amendment, urging a new department organization chart.
- David DeCasa criticized the handling of youth programs (Items 6 & 7), stating that a needs assessment is needed and that representatives from YMCA and the Human Rights Commission should have been present to explain services. He accused the city of outsourcing money without accountability.
Discussion Items
1. Empty Homes Tax Administration (Item 2 – Ordinance 230898)
- Amanda Freed (Treasurer’s Office) presented trailing legislation for the voter-approved Empty Homes Tax, effective January 1, 2024. The ordinance aligns administrative provisions (audit, collections, penalties, confidentiality) with other business taxes. Owners of relevant units must file annual informational returns by April 30 of the following year, with exemptions for those with a valid California homeowners’ exemption. No public comment. Approved unanimously (2-0) and forwarded to the full board.
2. Mission Neighborhood Health Center – HIV Health Services (Item 3 – Resolution 230964)
- Bill Blum (DPH) presented Amendment 1 to increase the contract by $2.6 million to a not-to-exceed amount of $11.3 million, extending the term from February 2024 to February 2030. Funds are entirely from Ryan White federal grants. Performance data for contract year 2021-22 showed only 58% of contracted units delivered, attributed to staff vacancies and patient avoidance of in-person visits during COVID. However, the contractor served approximately 325 clients (close to budgeted target). Nick Menard (BLA) noted the performance issue but recommended approval. Vice Chair Mandelman added as co-sponsor. The committee discussed ways to increase flexibility for durable viral suppression patients. Approved unanimously (2-0) and forwarded to the full board.
3. Lease with Our Planet Recycling (Item 4 – Resolution 230914)
- Claudia Gorham (Real Estate Division) described a 5-year lease (with one 5-year extension option) for a 4,000 sq. ft. remnant parcel at Alemany Boulevard, used as access and storage for the adjacent recycling center. Annual base rent: $23,397.96 with 3% annual increases. The tenant has maintained the property since 2017 under a minor encroachment permit. Conditional use authorization was obtained in July 2023. Public commenter David Pilpel identified two minor errors in the lease documents (monthly rent calculation and outdated city attorney name). Deputy City Attorney Ann Pearson noted the corrections would be reviewed. The committee agreed to forward with the understanding that clerical corrections could be made at the full board. Approved unanimously (2-0).
4. City Attorney Grant – Affirmative Litigation Coordination (Item 5 – Resolution 230983)
- Rebecca Kral (City Attorney’s Office) presented a retroactive grant of $200,000 from the San Francisco Foundation for coordinating affirmative litigation and enforcement efforts with other California public law offices, focusing on consumer and worker protection. The grant period is July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2025; no funds have been expended yet. Vice Chair Mandelman added as co-sponsor. Approved unanimously (2-0).
5. DCYF Grants – Japanese Community Youth Council (Item 6 – Resolution 230692) and YMCA Truancy Program (Item 7 – Resolution 230693)
- Brett Connor (DCYF) presented two amendments: (a) JCYC – fourth amendment increasing the grant by $3.4 million to $13.7 million for the Opportunities for All intermediary program (no term change, ends June 2024); (b) YMCA – seventh amendment adding 1 year through June 2024 and increasing funds by $606,000 to $5.39 million for the Truancy Assessment and Resource Center (TARC). Both programs are part of DCYF’s 2024-2029 RFP due October 20, 2023.
- Nick Menard (BLA) reported that JCYC served only 36% of budgeted participants in FY21-22 and 55% in FY22-23, with zero participants completing a work-based learning experience of at least one month in summer (due to no programming). He noted the program was sole-sourced and lacked performance data. For TARC, only 30% of served youth (89 clients) met the 15-hour engagement threshold in FY21-22. He considered both items policy matters.
- Chair Chan and Vice Chair Mandelman expressed concerns about persistent lack of data and performance, especially for JCYC. DCYF stated that improvements are underway (87% completion rate for one-month placements in the latest period) and that the new RFP will include stronger performance measures. The committee voted to continue both items to the October 25, 2023 meeting (2-0) to allow further discussion with BLA on evaluation criteria.
6. Airport Contracts – SFO Medical Clinic (Item 8 – Resolution 230908) and DEA Lease (Item 9 – Resolution 230965)
- Kathy Widener (SFO) presented: (a) Modification No. 4 with Dignity Health/St. Mary’s Medical Center increasing the contract by $1.7 million to $12.7 million (no term change, ends June 2024) due to lower-than-projected patient revenues (airport reimburses net operating costs). The clinic provides urgent care, occupational health, and travel medicine. (b) Modification No. 2 of the lease with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, extending the term by 2 years through September 30, 2025, and increasing annual rent to $620,611.20. BLA recommended both. Public commenter David Pilpel noted the clinic’s founder and suggested adding "retroactive" to the DEA lease. On question from Chair Chan, Widener confirmed that UCSF’s pending acquisition of Dignity Health sites would not change the contract terms. Both items approved unanimously (2-0) and forwarded to the full board.
7. Police Department Salary Ordinance (Item 1 – Ordinance 230865)
- President Aaron Peskin, temporarily seated on the committee, presented an amended version of the ordinance. Originally, the ordinance would delete four high-ranking positions (two assistant chiefs and two commanders) and add 7.69 police officer positions. After negotiations with the Police Department, the amendment deleted only two positions (one assistant chief, one commander) and allowed incumbents to stay until attrition, while creating four additional police officer positions. Olivia Roche (Police Department) expressed agreement with the compromise. BLA’s report supported the amendment. Public commenter David Pilpel supported it and called for future discussion on civilianization. Chair Chan noted ongoing work on police reform and quarterly reports. The committee approved the amendment unanimously (3-0) and then forwarded the amended ordinance to the full board with a positive recommendation (3-0).
Key Outcomes
- Items 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 were approved and forwarded to the Board of Supervisors (October 17 agenda) with votes of 2-0 (Supervisor Safai excused).
- Items 6 and 7 were continued to the October 25, 2023 Budget and Finance Committee meeting (2-0) for additional data and discussion on program performance metrics.
- Item 1 was amended and forwarded to the full board (3-0) with a revised deletion of two command staff positions via attrition and addition of four police officer positions.
- Public comment identified minor clerical errors in the Our Planet Recycling lease documents (Item 4) to be corrected administratively.
Meeting Transcript
The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the October 11, 2023 meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee. I'm Supervisor Connie Chan, Chair of the Committee. I'm joined by Vice Chair Rafael Mendelman. Today our clerk is Bran Haliba. I would like to thank uh Jamie Evercheri uh from SFGAU TV for broadcasting this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcement? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a friendly reminder for those in attendance to please make sure to sound all cell phones and electronic devices so as to not uh interrupt our proceedings here in the chamber. The Board of Supervisors and its committees are convening hybrid meetings that allow in-person attendance and public comment while still providing remote access and public comment via telephone. Pardon. Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. For those attending in-person will be allowed to speak first, and then we will take those who are waiting on the telephone line. For those watching remotely and streaming through sfgovtv.org. The public comment call-in numbers streaming across the screen and when connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up in public comment is called, those joining us in person should line up to speak, and those on the telephone should dial star three to be added to the speaker line. If you're on your telephone, please remember to turn on your TV and all listening devices you may be using in each speaker will be allowed up to two minutes to speak unless otherwise stated. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. Email them to myself, the budget and finance committee clerk at B R E N T dot J A L I P A Hat S F G-O-V dot ORG. If you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file. You may also send your written comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office in City Hall. That's one Dr. Carlton B. Good at place, room 244, San Francisco, California, 941 and 2. And finally, Madam Chair, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of October 17th, unless otherwise stated. Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Clark. And um would like to excuse Supervisors uh Arsha Safai for today's meeting. Um do I need to do a roll call and because I don't think that we have any objection. Uh you could take that without objection, Madam Chair. Great. I can win. Sorry. I can go ahead. So I go ahead. We're gonna go ahead and excuse Supervisor Asafai without any objection. He is excused. And uh I think today we're gonna do um our items out of order. So let's start with we're gonna leave item number one to the last item for agenda today. So let's go with item number two. Yes, item number two is an ordinance amending the business and tax regulations code to add provisions to administer the empty homes tax and to make informing non-substantive changes. Members of the public who have joined us remotely and wish to comment on this ordinance. Press star three to enter the speaker line. A prompt will indicate that you've raised your hand, and when the system indicates you have been unmuted, that will be your signal to begin your comments. Madam Chair. Thank you. And today we have Amanda Freed uh from the Treasurer's Office, Chief of Policy and Communications.
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