From ballot wording voters will see in November to the fate of vacant grocery stores, mental health care, and climate resilience, City Hall’s agenda this week touches nearly every corner of San Francisco government. It includes digest language for several marquee ballot measures, the disposition of the “Zombie Grocery Tax,” final approval of the city’s budget, and hearings on Kaiser Permanente’s behavioral health services and the city’s readiness for a hotter future.
San Francisco’s Ballot Simplification Council will be meeting all week to finalize ballot digests for measures appearing on the November ballot, including the measure to establish a public bank (Monday), reopening the Great Highway to vehicle traffic on weekdays (Tuesday), Mayor Daniel Lurie’s three governance revision charter amendments (Wednesday), and the Muni parcel tax (Thursday). The body will also meet on Friday to hear reconsideration of earlier votes and other matters. Click here for details.
The Planning Commission is in the process of a fairly dramatic transition, in the wake of multiple expired terms and recent state housing development legislation affecting the scope of its work.
Board of Supervisors business begins Monday morning with a full Rules Committee agenda. That includes the return of District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s Zombie Grocery Tax, which would impose levies of hundreds of thousands of dollars on chain store operators holding long-term leases on empty grocery or pharmacy spaces.
Hit with legislative curveballs by Lurie and Budget Chair Connie Chan last week, the committee will mull a motion to call the legislation from the Budget Committee, where it was put on ice, to a hearing before the full board this Tuesday. In a twist reported by the San Francisco Standard on Sunday, the plan now is to expand financial and zoning incentives to grocers who open and operate sites in underserved neighborhoods, alongside the companion Affordable Grocery Fund legislation, which is also on the agenda.
Also on the Rules Committee agenda are a slew of appointments and reappointments to city commissions, including the reappointment of architect and veteran commissioner Lydia So to the Planning Commission. That body is in the process of a fairly dramatic transition, in the wake of multiple expired terms and recent state housing development legislation affecting the scope of its work. Lurie has already nominated YIMBY SFMTA Commissioner Mike Chen for another seat. The Voice has heard from Board President Rafael Mandelman that he is vetting candidates for three remaining vacancies.
Meanwhile, Mandelman has more than 20 landmark-designation ordinances, proposed in coordination with Lurie and other supervisors, on the Land Use Committee’s agenda for Monday afternoon. It’s part of an effort to double the number of protected structures in the city in the face of liberalized planning rules.
In addition to the Zombie Grocery Tax hearing, Tuesday’s full Board of Supervisors meeting will feature the first formal approval vote for the budget. Negotiations for that budget concluded late last month with $28 million in addbacks. The meeting will also include a vote on a bill from Sunset Supervisor Alan Wong that toughens up penalties for illegal fireworks, and another hearing, called by District 11 member Chyanne Chen, on labor negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and approximately 2,400 Northern California behavioral health clinicians, including those who serve city employees. The provider seeks, among other things, to step back from certain worker protections established during a recent strike and to introduce artificial intelligence into some services.
Finally, on Thursday, the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee will hold two topical hearings: one on city preparation for severe heat waves, and another on the status of SFPD’s dangerous dog unit, requested by District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill back in April.
Mandelman called for the former hearing due to research projections indicating that the city could experience twice as many extreme heat events by 2050 as it does today. He’s summoned multiple agencies, including the departments of Public Health (DPH) and Emergency Services (DEM), to testify on issues such as adequate emergency warnings, cooling centers, and necessary infrastructure adaptation.
In the meantime, stay cool, everyone.
