This week San Francisco City Hall hosts a busy week with an ample docket of policy challenges as the Board of Supervisors begin their formal review of the city budget on Wednesday. But before that, they have another opportunity to vote on a bill to fund drug-free supportive housing and create a reward fund to combat hate crimes. Later in the week, lawmakers will hold hearings on recent power outages and the city’s Drug Court program.
Reward fund for solving hate crimes
On Monday the Rules Committee will review a bill sponsored by Supervisors Matt Dorsey, Alan Wong, Danny Sauter, and Stephen Sherrill that would direct the San Francisco Police Department to establish a reward fund, similar to that already established for those who provide information leading to conviction in homicide cases, for hate crimes.
The fund could offer rewards of up to $100,000, depending on the seriousness of the offense. At a June 24, 2025 board meeting where he requested that City Attorney David Chiu’s office draft the legislation, Dorsey told colleagues that it would “help to flip the script on lawless bigots by instilling fear into hate criminals that informants will be well paid to bring them to justice for their hateful vandalism and violence.”
Drug-free housing redux; speed cameras
Tuesday’s full Board of Supervisors meeting begins with an appearance by Mayor Daniel Lurie as part of regular policy discussions. No questions were submitted for the mayor to answer by supervisors, so it’s likely he’ll spend at least part of his time urging support for Dorsey’s drug-free supportive housing bill, which had its first reading continued to this week.
Dorsey wanted more time to negotiate with the San Francisco/Marin Medical Society, which continues to have reservations about the bill, and to accommodate one of his supporting votes who had to answer a jury summons. The bill is cosponsored by five other members of the board.
Also on tap Tuesday are approval of eight appointments to the Behavioral Health Commission, as well as a resolution calling for the expansion of the city’s speed camera program. Installed just last year, about 60 cameras track traffic in the city’s high-risk areas and have generated well over seven million dollars in fines, as well as cut the number of drivers speeding over 10mph from 25 percent to just 6 percent.
The budget slog begins
On Wednesday, the Budget and Appropriations Committee begins its review of the biannual budget for city departments submitted by Mayor Lurie. The budget reflects severe cuts, including up to 500 city jobs so far, in an effort to stanch a structural budget shortfall that currently stands at $877 million, in part due to federal budget cuts.
The supervisors’ review, led by Budget Chair Connie Chan, will likely feature significant pushback to the cuts against the background of elections in June and November, which spotlights ballot measures to change the city’s business taxes as well as Chan, who is backed by the city’s public sector unions, and her own candidacy for Congress.
Drug Court and power outages
On Thursday, the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee will hold two topical hearings on the current state of the city’s Drug Court program and a continued hearing on recent power outages.
Dorsey called for the hearing on Drug Court back in January as the diversion program, originally meant for low-level offenses, increasingly admitted defendants facing charges for more serious and violent crimes, as reported by The Voice and the San Francisco Chronicle.
The hearing on the Dec. 20 power outage, which affected 130,000 ratepayers in the city, and the related Dec. 28 blackout, which affected another 11,000 customers in the Richmond and Sunset, was called by District 4 member Wong, and had been continued in early February. Committee members heard about how Pacific Gas & Electric failed to inform the city of a fire inside their Mission Street substation, which prompted the blackouts, for almost two hours after it started.
The substation also suffered similar fires in 2003 and 1996. A report released this week concluded that the most recent fire was the result of an arc-flash event wrought from excessive moisture and surface contamination, and that the enclosing building is historically prone to the problem. It’s one of numerous manifestations of what many call an institutional problem at the utility, which has developed a reputation for prioritizing shareholder compensation over safety.
