Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods
Advocating for a healthy city
By Tim Redmond : 4hills – excerpt
If Chiu becomes city attorney, his seat will be open for a special election.
David Campos—former supervisor, chair of the local Democratic Party, and current vice chair of the state party, announced today that he is forming an exploratory committee to run for state Assembly.
Forming the committee will allow him to start raising money for the seat…(more)
by Kirk Siegler : npr – (excerpt) includes audio track and transcript
The first-ever shortage declaration on the Colorado River forces arid Western states to re-examine their relationship with resources many take for granted, drinking water and cheap hydroelectricity.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: For the first time ever, the U.S. government declared a shortage on the Colorado River last week. That means states like Arizona that rely on the river for their water supply are seeing big cutbacks as a punishing drought continues in the west. The Colorado River and its tributaries are a lifeline to some 40 million people in multiple states, including in California, who rely on it for drinking water. The river also irrigates countless farms and generates lots of cheap hydropower. So a shortage on the Colorado is a big deal, and we wanted to hear more about that. We asked NPR’s Kirk Siegler to talk us through it. He covers the West and has been reporting on the Colorado River for years…(more)
Dr. Shirley N. Weber Secretary of State
The California Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing recalls for state officers, including for constitutional offices (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, etc.), state legislators, and justices of the Supreme and Appellate Courts. Local recalls are overseen by county or city elections officials.
The recall process is outlined in the California Constitution (Article II, Sections 13-19) and the California Elections Code (Sections 11000-11110, 11300-11386).
The recall has been part of California’s political system since 1911. It provides a mechanism for the public to attempt to remove elected public officials from office before the end of their term of office. Before a recall election can be initiated, a certain number of voters must sign a recall petition within a specified amount of time.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS TOPICS
Qualifications & Filing Requirements for Replacement Candidates
A write-in replacement candidate must file a Statement of Write-In Candidacy with the county elections official of the candidate’s county of residence by August 31, 2021.
The Certified List of Write-in Candidates will be available on September 3, 2021…... (more)
So think twice before writing in a candidate.
By Thomas K. Pendergast : sfrichmondreview – excerpt
With a unanimous vote the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently approved a $14.3 million loan agreement to help replace the Police Credit Union building on Irving Street between 26th and 27th avenues, with 100 units of “affordable” housing reserved primarily for previously homeless and low-income families in a seven-story building.
“This is a historic moment to be considering funding for site acquisition for the Sunset’s first 100% affordable housing development for low and moderate-income families,” District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar told the Board at a meeting on July 27. “The need for affordable housing is so often overlooked and ignored in the Sunset and this development is one very important step to address the urgent needs of residents priced out of our neighborhood.”…
Mar acknowledged that the project is contentious…
“The scale of the building is way out of line from where it should be,” said Robert Ho, who owns a four-unit building in the area. “The City is making a mistake getting back into the large-scale, low-income housing type of development that they’d gotten away from or stopped doing…. I think it’s a mistake to build such a large building on Irving Street.”
Ho said he grew up in Chinatown public housing.
“Where a person grows up, especially a young person, influences their self-esteem,” he said. “Living in such a large-scale building, it’s something that a young person is aware of very early, that this is not where we want to live. We’re living in this out of necessity, not because we want to. It’s a constant reminder for young people that ‘our family is poor.’”…(more)
By ABC Investigation : abc10 – excerpt (includes video)
ABC Investigation : Governor Newsom brokered a bankruptcy plan that prioritized PG&E, French Laundry friend’s clients over PG&E fire victims.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A plate of dinner at Napa County’s award-winning French Laundry restaurant starts at $350, but dining there during the pandemic cost Gov. Gavin Newsom quite a bit more than that.
It was an unforced political error that immediately put Newsom on defense from the appearance of hypocrisy for going against his own COVID safety advice to Californians…(more)
This is just the tip of the nasty iceberg that could bring the house of Newsom down. The party has until the end of the month to come up with an alternative. Will they get smart?
By Joe Eskenazi : 48hills – excerpt
Ethics Commission staff refuses to answer key questions, even to commissioners: Was mayor interviewed? Did it obtain key receipts for Nuru gifts? What was the true source of illegal donations?
y a 4-0 vote, the San Francisco Ethics Commission today approved a stipulated agreement with Mayor London Breed, fining her nearly $23,000 for a series of legal and ethical missteps.
This is not an insignificant amount of money. And this is the first instance of the Ethics Commission dinging a sitting mayor — despite a healthy selection of ethically challenged (and extremely ding-able) prior San Francisco mayors. But if the purpose of today’s proceedings, and the Ethics Commission writ large, is to give San Franciscans confidence that our elected leaders are adhering to the law or face consequences — well, that didn’t happen...(more)
By Alexei Koseff : sfchronicle – excerpt
SACRAMENTO — A former senior employee in the California State Treasurer’s Office has sued Treasurer Fiona Ma for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, alleging that she was fired earlier this year after resisting unwanted sexual advances from Ma.
Judith Blackwell, who worked under Ma for about 16 months as executive director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, filed the lawsuit last week in Sacramento County Superior Court.
“Plaintiff felt the work environment to be hostile as she felt her employment was contingent on her accepting Defendant Ma’s sexual advances,” Blackwell’s attorney, Waukeen McCoy, wrote in the complaint. “As a result of Plaintiff denying Defendant Ma’s advances, she was terminated from her employment.”…(more)
A little light reading after all the heavy stuff we are hearing about graft and corruption in City Hall, this is tame by comparison.
Opinion By : sfchronicle – excerpt
I’ve always been an aspiring muckraker. Years ago, in my hometown of Portland, Ore,, I immersed myself in local and state politics, and watched the “sausage” get made as a lobbyist in the Oregon State Legislature. I was appalled at the often-questionable actions taking place behind closed doors. A state senator once told me he wouldn’t consider a bill to reduce diesel pollution on school buses because the Big Oil lobbyist “got here first.”…
San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance was enacted by the Board of Supervisors in 1993 with the goal making the inner workings of local government more transparent and accountable to city residents.
“Government’s duty,” according to the ordinance, “is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public.”
I joined the SOTF to be help empower citizens to better understand their local government and call out officials for non-compliant behavior. My time on the task force, however, has made clear that the Sunshine Ordinance is failing.
We aren’t exposing corruption. Instead, we’re a cog in the over-bureaucratization of democracy…(more)
By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excpert
Simmering clash between the mayor and the supes breaks into the open after Breed attacks the board for asking tough questions of her department heads.
The Mayor’s Office has been attacking and refusing to work with the Board of Supes for some time now. Mayor London Breed refused – for no apparent reason – to spend the money the voters approved for rent relief. She threatened to go to the ballot if she didn’t get everything she wanted, immediately, on (of all things) parklets.
Her public comments about the supes have been just this side of hostile. One board member recently told me the relations between the two branches of government have been “toxic.”
All of that broke out into the open Tuesday…
Ginsburg has been all about privatizing the parks for years now; his role with a private contractor that may be linked to an ongoing corruption scandal is the public’s business…(more)
The public must insist o knowing how City Hall is working and the only way to do that is to do that is to shine a light on the process. Supervisor Walton has made it clear that he is going to assist the Board of Supervisors in their efforts to not only conduct studies and investigations, but to inform the pubic of their findings.
via email:
SF Board of Supervisors Passes Reinvest in San Francisco
Supes Vote 10-0 for a SF Public Bank!
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors took a giant step for public banking June 15 by voting 10-0, a veto-proof majority, to pass the Reinvest in San Francisco Ordinance, legislation introduced by Supervisor Dean Preston to rebuild the COVID-devastated economy with a public bank.
Reinvest In San Francisco builds on years of work by the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition, former Supervisors John Avalos, Malia Cohen and Sandra Lee Fewer, and many others who see the need for a municipal bank to counter the concentrated power of Wall Street banks. This legislation will result in San Francisco redirecting a portion of the city funds from “too big to fail” banks into the hands of community banks, credit unions and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that invest to benefit SF communities.
The Process for Starting the Public Bank
Reinvest in SF sets up a Working Group which will develop the plan for establishing our bank. Last year, an extensive report by the Budget and Legislative Analyst on a Municipal Bank for San Francisco recommended a phased-in transformation of City banking by beginning with a non-depository municipal financial corporation (MFC). Lending by the MFC will finance loans for small businesses, affordable housing and sustainable infrastructure enabling a smooth transition into a public bank. The Working Group will produce a business plan for the Board of Supervisors that will be sent to State regulators for approval.
Once chartered, under the rules of The Public Bank Act (AB857) signed into law last year, SF will have its own municipal public bank. As a depository bank, it will be able to leverage its capital multiple times in loans, greatly expanding its lending capabilities.