by Patrick Monnette-Shaw and John Crabtree
Breaking news on City Hall Proposal for 400% increases proposed for both ballot argument filing fees and per-word fees. A Citizens’ Democracy Report & Citizens’ Anti-Corruption Report Breaking News Story.
Mayor Lurie’s revised plan to increase filing fees and per-word fees for paid ballot arguments in the official Voter Information Pamphlet (VIP), which is mailed to voters in the City & County of San Francisco; and his new plan to eliminate publishing the legal text of each ballot measure in San Francisco’s VIP. Both measures will weaken democratic elections in San Francisco, and likely hand over even more power to special-interest recipient committees funded by billionaires to adversely influence San Francisco elections.
There are two companion Ordinances being heard at either the Budget and Appropriations Committee on June 17 at 10:00 a.m., or the next day on June 18 (apparently if the Committee runs out of time on 6/17). Both measures are being rushed through the Board of Supervisors Budget and Appropriations Committee without adequate public review. Although the Mayor’s Budget Director submitted both pieces of legislation on Monday June 1, it took two full work weeks until Friday June 12 before the public learned the legislation would be heard five days later on June 17… (more)
The two measures are Agenda Items 6 and 7 on the Appropriations Committee meeting agenda…
UPDATE: The issues were heard at the Appropriations Committee and were tabled by the Chair, Connie Chan. THEY NEED TO BE WATCHED AS THEY WILL COME BACK.
The second Ordinance, Board File #260604, will “remove the requirement that the Department of Elections publish the legal text of ballot measures in the Voter Information Pamphlet sent to voters before each election, and allow the Director of Elections to determine the format of the Voter Information Pamphlet without the Ballot Simplification Committee’s approval.”… (more)
In place of including the legal text of each ballot measure in the Voter Guide, voters would be forced to locate it on-line, at a Branch Library, in-person at the Department of Elections, or by e-mail or U.S. Mail. The costs of providing it by e-mail or U.S. mail — which may ultimately cost more than including it in the VIP — were not estimated for the consideration of this proposal.
The Ordinance to eliminate publishing the legal text in the Voter Guide would become effective 31 days after passage — meaning it would go into effect for the November 2026 election.
Therefore, all of the Charter Amendments the Mayor is introducing for his “Commission Streamlining” reform ballot measures will have their legal text kept out of the VIP in what appears to be a creative way to keep those ballot measures’ legal text as far from the voters as possible… (more)
Patrick Monette-Shaw will continue his breaking-news reporting on all of these developments in the Westside Observer as well.