This week is super busy at City Hall, with business ranging from the future of Free City College to a hearing on a dormant animal-safety program. And when it comes to smoking bans, don’t count out a last- minute change of mind.
On Monday the Civil Service Commission reviews Mayor Daniel Lurie’s renewal of a contract with OpenGov to streamline the city’s permitting system, amid opposition from workers from the Department of Building Inspection and other departments and their union, IFPTE Local 21. They allege OpenGov’s work isn’t up to snuff and the company is too close to Lurie, its officers having donated to Tipping Point Community, the charity he ran before becoming mayor, and his campaign. Supervisors’ Budget Chair (and trailing congressional hopeful) Connie Chan is also riding herd on the issue.
Nobody wants to be seen as an ally of Big Bad Tobacco, but they also want to accommodate businesses who don’t want to cramp the style of certain customers.
Apart from these issues, organized labor overall has been amping up their messaging on automation and AI in the workplace, ranging from the Teamsters organizing against robovehicle providers like Waymo to new labor-backed bills in Sacramento to put a leash on AI use in the workplace.
Also on Monday afternoon: the supervisors’ Land Use Committee reviews a bill sponsored by District 7 member Myrna Melgar that would expand the ban on public tobacco smoking to spaces that have been exempted by local law since 2014 — such as outdoor and semi-enclosed spaces in bars and taverns. State law, as well as laws in a host of other California cities, have since extended smoking bans to these spaces, and Melgar, along with the San Francisco Marin Medical Society and other public health groups, feels San Francisco should follow suit. Meanwhile, tavern owners disagree and have fronted a petition with 2,000 signatures opposing the ban expansion.
Historically, smoking bans have had a unique trajectory at City Hall. Nobody wants to be seen as an ally of Big Bad Tobacco, but they also want to accommodate businesses that don’t want to cramp the style of certain customers. It’s worth noting that when Melgar’s predecessor, Norman Yee, tried to enact a ban on tobacco smoking inside apartments in 2020, he got all the way to second reading before colleague Aaron Peskin mustered five other votes to send the bill back to committee to die, citing its likely undue pressures on tenants.
Speaking of second readings: Tuesday’s full Board of Supervisors meeting begins with the second reading of a bill to implement voter-mandated reform of the city’s onerous commission system. It passed 6–4 last week, with Melgar joining the progressive bloc to vote against. The bill has ruffled feathers among the city’s preservationist/residentialist bloc and progressives, as it targets one of San Francisco’s primary mechanisms for legislative obstruction. One wonders if, had absentee member Jackie Fielder been present, a committee referral on second reading gambit might have been possible tomorrow.
On Wednesday, supervisors return to the dilemmas of the budget, including a hearing on the impacts proposed budget cuts will have on the Free City College program. City residents can still take classes at City College for free as of now, but uncertainty about the program began in 2024 when then-Mayor London Breed withheld half of planned city subsidies. So far, the Lurie Administration has maintained support at the same level despite cuts elsewhere, but advocates are uncertain.
Finally, on Thursday, the Government Audit and Oversight Committee holds a hearing on the status of the city’s Dangerous Dog Unit, which we first reported on last month. Primary sponsor, District 2 member Stephen Sherrill, noted that “Dog Court” has been on hiatus for almost a year and with almost a thousand dog bite cases reported in 2025, it was time to get the program back online again.
