SF Mayor Accused of Power Grab Via Ballot Measures
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has introduced new ballot measures that critics claim are designed to increase his own power. The move, made with Supervisor Mandelman, has sparked immediate pushback, though specifics of the measures have not yet been detailed.
The proposed charter reforms are broken into three distinct ballot measures aimed at restructuring San Francisco's governance. One measure seeks to give the mayor more direct authority over city departments by changing commissioners to at-will employees and giving the mayor the sole power to hire and fire most department heads, a power currently shared with commissions. This move is designed to create clearer lines of accountability, according to proponents. A second measure would significantly increase the power of the city administrator, extending their term from five to 10 years and giving them broader authority over city contracts and technology projects. This proposal also raises the financial threshold for contracts that require approval from the Board of Supervisors, aiming to streamline the contracting process. The third and most contentious proposal aims to make it harder to place initiatives on San Francisco's often-crowded ballots. It would require signature-gathering efforts to obtain signatures from 8% of registered voters, a substantial increase from the current 2% threshold. The measure would also prevent the mayor from unilaterally placing measures on the ballot and increase the number of supervisors needed to do so from four to a majority of six. These proposals arrive amid a long-standing debate about San Francisco's "strong mayor" system, which some argue has been weakened over time by the power of commissions and the Board of Supervisors. While the 1996 charter was intended to create a strong executive, subsequent amendments have diluted the mayor's authority, leading to what critics call a diffusion of accountability. For example, during Mayor Willie Brown's first term, he controlled 19 city departments, whereas Mayor London Breed controlled only 12, with the Board of Supervisors overseeing 16. Mayor Lurie has framed these reforms as necessary to make city government more efficient and to end the cycle of competing ballot measures that can confuse voters and lead to gridlock. He has pointed to recent elections with dueling initiatives on topics like housing and business taxes as evidence of a "broken system." Critics, however, view the measures as a strategic power grab that would centralize authority in the executive branch. Kim Tavaglione, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, has expressed concern that voters will see the proposals as a "consolidation of power and possible corruption." Opponents of the ballot access changes argue that raising the signature threshold will make it prohibitively expensive for grassroots campaigns to qualify initiatives, leaving the process to be dominated by wealthy interests.
