By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC President
At our January meeting AjaiNicole Duncan, campaign manager for 2024’s No on D, Yes on E campaign, and HANC Board member Christin Evans discussed two topics—the Commission Streamlining Task Force and the Charter Reform Working Group. Although these are two separate groups which are composed of different individuals and meet separately, they both seem to have the same objectives—increase the Mayor’s power and decrease the public’s opportunity to participate in City government.
Commission Streamlining Task Force
The Commission Streamlining Task Force was created when the voters passed Proposition E in November, 2024. There are five seats on the task force—one appointed by the City Administrator, one by the Controller, one by the City Attorney, one by the President of the Board of Supervisors (a public sector labor representative) and one appointed by the Mayor (an expert in open and accountable government). The Task Force has been met on January 31, 2025, March 19, 2025, then mostly twice a month, with three meetings in December, 2025 and in January 2026. The Task Force issued its final report on January 28, 2026, which can be found on its website--https://www.sf.gov/commission-streamlining-task-force (scroll down and click on final report). There are meetings scheduled for February 11 and February 25, in which the Task Force is expected to draft legislation to be sent to the Board of Supervisors by March 1.
Although the voters rejected Prop D in the November 2024 election, the Task Force’s report seems like an attempt to implement Prop D. The task force reviewed 152 Boards and Commissions. Some are in the City’s Charter, and can only be changed by the voters. Others are in various sections of the Municipal Code and can be changed by the Board of Supervisors (except for provisions approved by the voters). Although the Task Force’s recommendations are advisory, its recommendations are being forwarded to the City Attorney to draft legislation for the Board of Supervisors and one or more ballot measures for the November ballot.
For each Board, Committee or Commission it reviewed, the Task Force has made a recommendation. These are outlined in a Summary Table on pages vii to xiv of the Task Force’s final report. Possible recommendations include eliminating the body, keeping it as is, keeping it but changing its structure, combining it with another body, and / or moving the authority for the body from the Charter to the Administrative Code. Changes to a body that is currently in the Charter will need to go to the voters; changes to a body that is not in the Charter can be made by the Board of Supervisors. Ajai maintained her own spreadsheet during the Task Force meetings, with additional comments: (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dlcKFlIRV980cL34EXyhG5Z4fGd2vJhT3qa7m_tfIDI/edit?gid=0#gid=0)
Commissions that are moved from the Charter to the Administrative Code, although approved in their current form by the voters will be subject to modification or elimination by the Board of Supervisors. These include, among others, the Homeless Oversight Commission, the Small Business Commission, the Ballot Simplification Commission, the Commission on the Environment, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Youth Commission, and the Human Rights Commission.
Ajai and Christin addressed other concerns with the Task Force report: qualifications have been removed for many commissions (e.g. a small business commissioner will no longer have to run a small business); the Board of Supervisors will no longer have the ability to confirm appointees; the number of mayoral appointees will be increased in many commissions; the mayor will have the ability to remove his appointed commissioners at will instead of for cause; commissions will no longer have authority to hire or fire department heads; commission will no longer have authority to approve budgets and contracts.
Charter Reform Working Group
Mayor Lurie and Board President Mandelman assembled a working group to explore reforming San Francisco’s Charter. The group is comprised mostly of people aligned with the Mayor—there are five billionaires in the group. The composition of this group is further described by articles in Mission Local (https://missionlocal.org/2026/01/sf-charter-reform-working-group/) and in 48 Hills (https://48hills.org/2025/12/luries-charter-reform-working-group-is-not-remotely-a-broad-group-of-experts/).
The Charter Reform Working Group has been emphasizing the number of pages in the City’s Charter, and comparing it to other cities. But this is comparing apples to oranges—San Francisco is both a City and a County. Combining Oakland’s Charter with the Charter for Alameda County or combining the Los Angeles City Charter with the Charter for Los Angeles County would also result in a very large document.
This group wants to make it more difficult to put voter initiatives on the ballot, by increasing the number of signatures required. It also wants to make it difficult for the minority Supervisors to reach the voters by increasing the number of Supervisors required to put an ordinance on the ballot from 4 to 6.
The group is also proposing eliminating labor protections in City procurement.
Ajai’s notes on the meeting of this group are available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/12_2xflTiLt-9O4324V7ZPyg-4gv0EeX7m1cwCk_U-DY/edit?tab=t.0
Advocacy
An early step in addressing both the Commission Streamlining Task Force and the Charter Reform Working Group will be a Town Hall Meeting on March 11 from 6 to 7:30 pm at the Women’s Building, 18th Street between Guerrero and Valencia. The meeting will also be online. We will provide further information as the date approaches.