London Breed calls for overhaul of San Francisco city charter
San Francisco Mayor London Breed is proposing the first overhaul of the city's charter since 1995.
Breed called on city and county leaders to start the process of comprehensive charter reform and examine potential changes that could be put before voters in November 2026.
As the city and county's "fundamental law," the city and county charter is its governing document that defines its governance structure and government duties.
In an executive directive on Tuesday, Breed did not lay out any specific proposals, but said broadly that the changes should "improve the effectiveness of government and improve the delivery of services to our residents."
The directive also took aim at the ballot measure process, saying it had added too many layers of bureaucracy to the city's government. Eight measures will go before voters this fall.
The closest the directive comes to specifics is its component that calls on city leaders to gather data related to potential reforms, including "consolidating City Departments, overhauling Commission structures, improving accountability in the Executive Branch, and updating the legislative process to ensure that new rules can be implemented," according to the executive directive.
Breed said she thought now was the time for wholesale reform.
"Over the last three decades, the Charter has been amended over and over, adding new departments, creating new positions, setting in place new legal requirements, restricting city spending, and adding other bureaucratic barriers that have not been created through a holistic view of what it means to govern," Breed's directive said.
Breed also included the nonprofit San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, known as SPUR, as a participant in the process. The organization has made specific recommendations for a new charter, including reducing redundancies, adding a legislative analyst to the Board of Supervisors, and restoring the mayor's ability to hire and fire department heads.
The organization has also suggested "raising the bar" for getting measures on the local ballot, something Breed's directive hinted at. The organization said in its newly released report, "Designed to Serve," that any potential measure put forth by the county Board of Supervisors and be subject to a mayoral veto, and that any measure proposed by the mayor should first be passed by the Board.
It also suggested raising the signature threshold from 2% to 5% of registered voters' signatures to qualify a measure for the ballot.
The mayor's executive directive calls on the city controller and city administrator to work with other city leaders and good government experts like SPUR to prepare for putting proposed changes before voters in fall 2026 by collecting data, preparing outreach and stakeholder input, and, ultimately, make a range of recommendations for reforms.
"It's the right time to ensure that laws are keeping pace with our ever-evolving city," said San Francisco Controller Greg Wagner.
County Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who, like Breed, was interviewed for SPUR's report, agreed that a lot of "dysfunction is baked into our Charter."
"Too often, our City government acts more like a collection of loosely affiliated departments than a unified municipal government with clear lines of accountability and oversight," Mandelman said.
SPUR's President and CEO, Alicia John-Baptiste, agreed it was time for a broad reexamination of the charter.
"Sometimes, it's important to step back and evaluate whether the system we have in place is structured to allow the government to play this critical role effectively and if not, how it should change," John-Baptiste said.