Category: Update

Chronicle Editorial Board – excerpt

Would you wait a year to get hired for a job? If you want to become a San Francisco sheriff’s deputy, that’s exactly what the city expects you to do

How much time would you give a company to hire you after applying for a job?

For the right opportunity, most people try to be as patient as possible. But could you afford to wait a year? Would you?

It’s safe to say that any company that expects its applicants to sit around idly twiddling their thumbs for that long is in for disappointing results. If you want to become a San Francisco sheriff’s deputy, twiddling your thumbs is exactly what the city expects you to do.

According to San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, getting applicants through his office’s background check process can take between four to five months. Then you have to add San Francisco’s notoriously glacial civil service hiring process on top of that, which takes an average of 255 days according to a June report from the Civil Grand Jury. Miyamoto told the editorial board that recent efforts have been made to allow both processes to occur simultaneously, but there’s still an overwhelming wait.

In 2023, 1,214 people who applied to be sheriff’s deputies met the minimum qualifications for the job and were invited to take the written test. There’s a big drop-off. Only 485 showed up to take it, and 350 passed. From there, candidates have to pass a physical ability test, get interviewed and answer test questions via video, spread out over three weeks. Starting next year, the department plans to roll those into one day to speed up the process, but it doesn’t end there. Background checks and psychological evaluations are conducted, along with training regiments, before a deputy can be put on duty…

Contrary to the online rhetoric, the police department hasn’t been defunded. We’re spending more than ever on police; it’s going to overtime. The department’s open positions are budgeted, we just can’t fill them…

Indeed, the new jail annex is being explicitly reserved for inmates with behavioral health issues. Had city public health staffing levels been sufficient, perhaps many of these folks would have gotten treatment before their alleged crimes, and we wouldn’t need to open an annex…

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As we suspected, it is not hte Mayor or the Supervivosr’s fault, or a matter of money, but, the out of step HR hiring practices that are to blame for hte shortage of police and sheriff’s and pretty much everyone else who is not elected or appointed to a poistion at SF City Hall. How will the candidates running for office deal with this problem? How do other citeis handle their hiring programs?

Glide – excerpt

A community of families with children, students, and seniors who cannot afford the Bay Area’s high rents are living in RVs near Lake Merced. This community is facing the threat of 4-hour parking restrictions, which will require them to leave work or school to regularly move their vehicles or face ticketing and towing. Implementing the new parking restrictions without anywhere else to go will push families deeper into instability and homelessness.

…Many of the families living in their RVs are struggling to make ends meet as they work low-paying jobs. There are also students and seniors living in RVs who cannot afford rent anywhere else……

GLIDE’s Center for Social Justice is one of the founding members of the End Poverty Tows Coalition, which advocates with and for people living in their vehicles and low-income people who cannot afford to lose their vehicles to tows. The End Poverty Tows Coalition recently came together to stand alongside these families and urge the City to reject these 4-hour parking restrictions that would be devastating for these already marginalized families. We have been pushing for the City to fulfill its promises to these families to open up a safe parking site for their RVs and help them access affordable housing.

As part of this organizing effort, GLIDE arranged a press conference on October 24th alongside the families who live in their RVs, as well as other community organizations. RV residents and supporting community members and organizations shared powerfully about the need for a safe parking site and permanent affordable housing…

At GLIDE, we firmly believe in our collective responsibility and capacity to open pathways to stability, rather than place barriers and increased hardships for families and students working to make a life in San Francisco. If you would like to support our efforts, you can quickly send an email to City leadership. …(more)

By ANNIKA HOM : missionlocal – excerpt

Certain street-level fentanyl dealers in the Tenderloin will soon be charged with federal crimes, Northern California District U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said on Thursday afternoon. He made this announcement at a crowded press conference standing beside a lengthy and eclectic group of speakers that included IRS officials, BART deputy police officials and even postal inspectors, and a propped up poster showing overdose statistics.

Federal charges generally carry harsher penalties, and often trigger deportation proceedings for undocumented offenders.

“We’ll double-down, triple-down, and take all necessary steps to keep this poison from our streets,” Ramsey said… (more)

 

By Bob Elko : sfchronicle – excerpt

Backed by a tough-on-crime group, San Francisco attorney Albert “Chip” Zecher is challenging Superior Court Judge Michael Begert in the March 2024 election, a campaign with echoes of last year’s recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Zecher, 59, has practiced law for nearly 33 years, most recently representing Silicon Valley tech firms, and was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the board of directors at UC College of the Law in San Francisco. His mother, the late Marilyn Pestarino Zecher, was a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge from 1975 to 2004, and his sister, Vanessa Zecher, has been a judge on that court since 2001.

Zecher’s campaign describes him as a “lifelong Democrat who believes in restorative justice,” which seeks to assist crime victims rather than focusing solely on punishment. Asked by the Chronicle why he was a candidate, he gave only a general statement, saying he wants to “promote public safety and justice and assure that our judges are providing adequate accountability,” and could not discuss any of Begert’s rulings because of ethical standards.

But Frank Noto, president of Stop Crime Action, which supports Zecher, accused Begert of taking “a revolving-door approach” to criminal cases, sending defendants with violent records to drug courts for treatment rather than to prison.

An affiliated group, Stop Crime SF, also headed by Noto, has sent thousands of volunteer “court-watchers” to San Francisco courtrooms and announced in August that it would issue report cards on the sentencing practices and conduct of local judges seeking new terms next year…

Appointed to the bench by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011, Begert no longer handles criminal cases, as he was recently put in charge of San Francisco’s CARE Court — Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment — a program established by Newsom and state lawmakers to remove mentally ill people from the streets and place them in treatment…(more)

By Rachel Swan : sfchronicle – excerpt

The official who oversees San Francisco’s $14 billion budget — and who helped steer the city through a Great Recession, tech booms, COVID shutdowns and difficult recovery, all while navigating the relentless factional wars in City Hall — has announced plans to step down next year.

“I’ve worked on the last 26 city budgets. I’ve spent over half of my life on the city’s budget and finances,” City Controller Ben Rosenfield said in an interview with the Chronicle.

“It feels like the right moment for me to think about what’s next and what’s different,” Rosenfield continued, discussing a career milestone in the same measured tone he would use to write an audit, or break down intricate budget documents to a layperson. He has not hinted at his next move…

“Everybody trusts him — the mayor, the board, homeless advocates, labor unions, downtown businesses — they believe what he says; they know he’s an honest person,” said Ed Harrington, the previous controller, who passed the torch to Rosenfield in 2008…

Comparable to a chief financial officer, the controller serves as a referee in the city budget process, managing accounts, paying vendors and employees, selling bonds and forecasting economic conditions. Additionally, the controller audits city departments and contracts and regularly makes recommendations. Last year, voters added another duty: monitor trash rates, after the city’s longtime waste hauler, Recology, was linked to a City Hall corruption scandal.

As San Francisco struggles to revive its downtown, the role of the city controller seems critical — and many of Rosenfield’s colleagues are dismayed to see him go…

“Whether it’s the current economic downturn, prior recessions, the passing of Mayor (Ed Lee), or COVID, he has always been the steadying force in the city,” Chu said. “You felt that if Ben was here and involved, then things would be OK.”…(more)

by Annie Gaus :sfstandard – excerpt

San Francisco voters could decide on a slew of changes to City Hall governance in November 2024 under a reform package that would grant the mayor more power over department heads and cut the number of boards and commissions.

Under a proposed ballot measure dubbed “Effective Governance,” Supervisor Rafael Mandelman wants to change the city’s charter to allow the mayor to directly fire and hire certain department heads, eliminate the ability of the mayor and Board of Supervisors to place initiatives on the ballot and authorize a task force that would consolidate or abolish some of the city’s dizzying array of commissions, board and advisory bodies… (more)

What is this rush to re-align the system by re-shuffling the power structure? This reminds me of tall those people who moved here and then decided to change our city to meet their needs. The structure may be difficult and overly heavy and the top, but, that is no excuse for not managing the city. The crime on the street and the impossible transportation system and trash on the streets is not going away any faster by rearranging the deck chairs. I like Lurie’s idea of bringing in the department heads and letting them reapply for their jobs. Good way to meet and evaluate people. Much better than threatening voters and blaming them for your problems doing your job. Hint to those in authority. Blaming the public for your problems does not make you look very good, smart, or friendly.

By Annie Gaus and Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

A hearing over a ballot measure intended to increase San Francisco police ranks devolved into a rancorous debate at City Hall Monday, leaving the future of the measure up in the air.

The measure in question, authored by Supervisor Matt Dorsey, seeks to mandate that the police department reach full staffing within five years, adding about 100 officers per year and offering $75,000 hiring bonuses for new officers, among other provisions. At the Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee, Supervisor Ahsha Safaí proposed amendments that Dorsey called “hostile” and a “poison pill” during a testy discussion.

Safaí and Supervisor Shamann Walton, along with labor organizers and members of progressive political groups, took issue with the measure’s estimated price tag of $300 million over 5 years, suggesting it should include a tax or other funding source and also be expanded to include staff for other first responder jobs, such as 911 operators.

“I find it strange it took you months to come up with a charter amendment that does absolutely nothing,” Walton said. “It’s a myth to get voters to think we can guarantee a minimum number of staffing. … This is something that can happen in the executive branch of government.”…(more)

By ANNIKA HOM : missionlocal – excerpt

The Westside is one step closer to raising the roof.
As a strategy to increase housing density, Supervisor Joel Engardio this summer proposed allowing six-story buildings on corner lots and four units on single lots in better resourced neighborhoods of San Francisco, including the Westside. The Planning Commission on Thursday passed three amendments to tweak it and lowered a height limit on corner lots from 65 feet to 55 feet, with no density change.

The one amendment prevents odd-shaped lot mergers, another clarifies rear yard space, and the third proposed by planning requested larger lot mergers…

All three modified legislation by Engardio that went into effect on Oct. 15 — one of several policies the Planning Commission must consider as San Francisco completes the ambitious task of creating some 82,000 homes over the next eight years.

Planners are zeroing in on the city’s well-resourced neighborhoods, which has historically avoided tall or dense buildings, to help fulfill that lofty goal…(more)