The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Government Audit and Oversight Committee met on November 20, 2025 (regular meeting), chaired by Supervisor Jackie Fielder, with Vice Chair Janie Sauter and Supervisor Cheryl Sherrill present. The committee considered two behested payment ordinance waiver resolutions (for homelessness services fundraising and downtown/economic revitalization fundraising), approved a 15-year management agreement for the Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District, and advanced a block of settlements/claims to the full Board. Items acted upon were expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda on December 2, 2025 (as announced by the clerk).
Item 1 — HSH behested payment waiver for donations to expand temporary shelter and homeless services
Item 2 — Six-month behested payment waiver for the Mayor’s Office and OEWD to solicit donations for economic revitalization
Item 3 — Agreement for administration/management of Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District (GBD), 2026–2040
Item 1 (HSH behested payment waiver):
Item 2 (Mayor/OEWD economic revitalization behested payment waiver):
Item 3 (Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill GBD management agreement, 2026–2040): Forwarded to the full Board with a positive recommendation (vote 3–0).
Items 4–12 (settlements/claims block): Forwarded to the full Board with a positive recommendation (vote 3–0).
Good morning. This meeting will come to order. Welcome to the November 20th, 2025 regular meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I'm Supervisor Jackie Fielder, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Janie Sauter and Supervisor Cheryl. Our committee clerk is Monique Creighton, and our thanks to Jaime Echeverry of SFGovTV for staffing this meeting. Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak on your right. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. Email them to me, the Government Audit and oversight committee clerk at monique.crayton at sfgov.org. If you can 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. Number one, Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102. If you have documents you would like to be included as part of the file, please submit them to me before the end of the meeting. Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to prevent any interruptions to today's proceedings. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of December 2nd, 2025, unless otherwise stated. Thank you. Madam Clerk, please call item one. Yes, item one is a resolution authorizing the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing's Executive director, chief deputies, deputy directors, and program directors to solicit donations from various private entities and organizations to support the expansion of temporary shelter and other homeless services to support people experiencing homelessness, notwithstanding the behested payment ordinance. Thank you. And today we have Executive Director of HSH, Shereen McSpadden, who will be presenting on this item. My thanks also to Deputy Director Emily Cohen and Dylan Schneider for being available for questions. Director McSpatton, please go ahead. Great. Good morning, Chair Fielder and members of the committee. Thanks so much for the opportunity to speak to you today. I'm here to respectfully request an extension of the Behested Payment Waiver for myself and for key HSH leadership. This waiver remains essential for our ability to fundraise, explore philanthropic partnerships, and to coordinate private support that expands the reach of and fills gaps for San Francisco's Homelessness Response System. This request is fully aligned with the intent of the legislation before you, which recognizes that expanding shelter and services is in the public interest and that this waiver does not create impropriety in appearance or actual in any way. The waiver is necessary because San Francisco continues to face profound homelessness challenges. The 2024 point in time count found that 8,323 people experiencing homelessness, more than half of whom, 52%, were unsheltered. And obviously, our system cannot pay for the needs of people experiencing homelessness by ourselves. We need strategic partnerships. Our strategic plan, Home by the Bay, calls for a significant expansion of new shelter beds to meet our goal of reducing unsheltered homelessness. While the department continues to expand shelter, prevention, and housing, we know city resources alone are not enough, and it is also well established that city funds do not even fully cover the cost of the interventions for which we're contracting. The resolution explicitly acknowledges that successful solutions depend on public-private partnerships, and this waiver enables those partnerships to happen. Most major philanthropic partners working on homelessness also work in policy or systems change, and under the behested payment ordinance, that often places them in the attempt to influence category, classifying them as interested parties, even when their work is charitable and aligned with city goals.