Rules Committee Meeting - July 1, 2024: Charter Amendments on Children, Housing, and Commission Reform
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Rules Committee Meeting - July 1, 2024
The Rules Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors met on July 1, 2024, chaired by Supervisor Hilary Ronan, with Vice Chair Shimon Walton, and joined by Supervisors Asha Safai and Myrna Melgar. The committee considered three charter amendments proposed for the November 5, 2024 ballot, all of which were continued to the call of the chair.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Item 1 (Children & Youth Services): One speaker opposed the charter amendment, calling it "more red tape" and stating that every department already has outcome measures.
- Item 3 (Commission Reform): Multiple speakers opposed Supervisor Peskin's proposal and supported the Together SF alternative. Speakers argued that Peskin's measure does not cap commissions, could increase them, and gives unelected bodies lawmaking power. Supporters of Together SF claimed their measure has 50,000 signatures and would reduce commissions to 65. Other speakers, including the co-authors of the Civil Grand Jury report "Commission Impossible," expressed general support for Peskin's approach as a first step, but recommended a permanent oversight body. One speaker criticized the signature-gathering process for Together SF as paid and uninformed.
Discussion Items
- Item 1 (240545): Charter Amendment – Accountability for Funding Children and Youth Services – Supervisor Melgar presented the measure, which would strengthen coordination between city departments and SFUSD, require annual budget hearings and resolutions, and mandate data-sharing agreements. She requested a continuance to allow further amendments, including removal of language regarding the Our Children, Our Families Council due to ongoing commission reform discussions.
- Item 2 (240550): Charter Amendment – Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund for Seniors and Families – President Peskin presented the measure, which would require the Board of Supervisors to set aside funds for project-based rental subsidies for extremely low-income households. He requested a continuance due to ongoing negotiations.
- Item 3 (240547): Charter Amendment – Commission Reform – President Peskin presented a measure to establish a Commission Streamlining Task Force to recommend ways to modify, eliminate, or combine city commissions. He proposed amendments to add findings referencing the Civil Grand Jury report and the Rhodes Institute study, and to clarify the task force's expiration date (24 months after first meeting, with charter section removed by December 31, 2026). The task force would include the City Administrator, Controller, City Attorney, and appointees from the Mayor and Board President. Supervisor Safai questioned the provision allowing the task force to introduce ordinances, which City Attorney Ann Pearson clarified only allows introduction to the Board, not direct ballot access. Supervisor Ronan praised the measure and requested to be added as a co-sponsor, noting the need for a systematic review rather than an arbitrary cap.
Key Outcomes
- Item 1: Motion to continue to the call of the chair passed unanimously (Walton, Safai, Ronan aye).
- Item 2: Motion to continue to the call of the chair passed unanimously (Walton, Safai, Ronan aye).
- Item 3: Motion to adopt President Peskin's amendments and continue the item as amended to the call of the chair passed unanimously (Walton, Safai, Ronan aye).
All three charter amendments will be considered at a future Rules Committee meeting before potentially appearing on the November 5, 2024 ballot.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The meeting will come to order. This is the July 1st, 2024 Rules Committee meeting. I'm Supervisor Hilary Ronan, Chair of the Committee. I'm joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Shimon Walton. We should be joined shortly by Supervisor Asha Safai and our colleague Mirna Melgar is joining us this morning. Mr. Oh, our clerk is Victor Young, and I'd like to thank Eugene Levadia at SFGov TV for broadcasting this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes. Public comment will be taken on each item on the agenda. When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak on on your right. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either the following ways. Email them to myself, the rules committee clerk at VICTOR.yo N G at SFgov.org. If you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the file. You may also submit your written comments via U.S. mail to our office in City Hall when Dr. Carlton be good that place, room 244, San Francisco, California 94102. Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. Documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda on July 9th, 2024, unless otherwise stated. That completes my initial announcements. Thank you. Can you please read item number one? Item number one is the charter amendment first draft to amend the charter of the city and county of San Francisco to require our children, all families council to use an outcomes framework to evaluate the budget and spending of each city department with expenditures that are eligible, and to include in the children's and youth fund baseline or the public education enrichment fund to require the mayor and the board of supervisors to consider the council's findings during their considerations of the city's budget each year, including by the Board of Supervisors holding public hearings and adopting findings about the expenditures by resolution. Require the San Francisco Unified School District to submit proposed proposals once every five years and annual reports describing how it will expend city general funds contribution to the PEEF consistent with the outcome framework. Prohibit the city from providing PEF funding to the school district and to the board of supervisors and the mayor have approved the school district's proposal. Prohibit the city from providing discretionary funds to the school district unless it has entered into a data sharing agreement with the city, create our city, excuse me, create our children, our family initiative to coordinate the city departments and school district and establish a size of membership of the council and an election to be held on November 5th, 2024. Thank you. And I'd like to pass this over to the author of this legislation, Supervisor Melgar. Thank you so much, Chair Ronan. Uh, and thank you for your co-sponsorship uh on this issue as well, as well as your leadership on all things uh having to do with kids in our city. Um colleagues, the purpose of this charter amendment is to tighten up existing systems within the city to better serve children, youth, and families. A few years ago, uh, we talked to many of the service providers and department staff to discuss how we can improve our existing structure. What we heard is that we need a centralized coordinated system without losing public transparency. The Department of Children, Youth and Families has a very robust five-year budget and services planning process as dictated by our charter on how to expand the children and youth fund, starting with a community needs assessment with a lot of public outreach. Service providers who are awarded are subject to review and benchmarks and regular reporting. However, we do not hold our own agencies and departments uh accountable. Uh, and not under the same level of scrutiny or budgetary discipline. The city also spends funding, sends funding to the school district through the public education enrichment fund and other discretionary funds. Again, we don't closely track these dollars to make sure they're resulting in the impacts and the outcomes framework. Despite our many investments, we unfortunately are failing children when it comes to social emotional health and educational milestones like literacy and math. This charter amendment before you today revamps the our children our families by making it a citywide initiative that ensures that the department and SFUSD are aligned with the existing five-year planning cycle that we have through DCYF. This means that we would have stronger coordination, alignment in the centralized way of measuring outcomes for our city's departments, both SFUSD and city departments. Once we have a citywide plan and outcomes framework in place, on an annual basis, the initiative staff would evaluate budgets and provide recommendations to the mayor and the board of supervisors on whether the funding is moving the needle on outcomes for our children and youth. This aims to get us more information during the budget process, enforces discipline and decisions. The board will have to hold a dedicated hearing during the budget process and pass a resolution attesting that the dollars attributed to this baseline are in fact aligned with the citywide plan and outcomes framework. I am grateful to uh city attorneys, Henry Lifton and Joe Gibner for their support, Greg Wagner and his team, uh in the Department of Children Youth and their families, and the many service providers and advocates who helped inform uh this charter amendment. In discussions with advocates and our partners at SFUSE, we have been uh working on amendments to clarify timelines and procedures and to make sure that they align with the SFUSD own budget timelines.
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