November 2026: Vote YES on Proposition A, Charter Changes Affecting Departments and Commissions
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What It Is and What It Isn’t
November 2024’s Proposition E established the Commission Streamlining Task Force to make recommendations regarding eliminating or reforming the large number City boards and commissions. These recommendations were intended to address concerns that the proliferation of boards and commissions had the effect of making City government too slow, inefficient, and opaque. The Board of Supervisors enacted an ordinance in May 2026 that adopted many of the Streamlining Task Force’s recommendations regarding boards and commissions established by the City’s Municipal Code. The Task Force’s recommendations regarding boards and commissions established by the City Charter, however, proved much more controversial. Those recommendations affected many high profile City commissions, including the Commission on the Environment. Those substantive, controversial recommendations are not in Prop A.
Instead, the Board of Supervisors decided to propose a Charter amendment that would make less controversial changes that mostly do not affect the structure or authority of major decision-making boards and commissions. The proposed Charter amendment would not make any changes to the Commission on the Environment or to the Environment Department. Most of the boards and commissions affected by Proposition A do not address environmental issues, though it would make miscellaneous, mostly minor changes to some boards included within the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).
The most significant changes Proposition A would make include:
Requiring the City to convene a Streamlining Task Force at least every 10 years to evaluate whether City boards and commissions should be reformed or eliminated.
Allowing the Board of Supervisors to modify specified voter-approved initiative ordinances that relate to boards and commissions. (Typically, initiative ordinances can only be amended via another voter-approved initiative.)
Removing requirements for boards and commissions to prepare annual statements of purpose and annual reports.
Eliminating some boards and commissions entirely. These include the Sanitation & Streets Commission and the Public Works Commission.
Moving the legal authority establishing numerous commissions from the Charter to the Municipal Code. This would allow the Board of Supervisors to make future changes to those commissions, including potentially eliminating them entirely, via ordinance rather than via Charter amendments.
Miscellaneous changes updating Charter language including to modernize it and fix errors.
Why SFLCV Supports Proposition A
The last systematic revision of the City’s Charter occurred in the mid-1990s. The Charter has been amended on a piecemeal basis many times since then. The accumulation of requirements in the City Charter regarding numerous boards and commissions has reduced the efficiency of City government and made it less responsive to current needs. Many requirements in the City Charter no longer make sense or impose undue burdens on City departments. In addition, the City Charter can only be amended through a vote of the electorate. Moving many of those requirements to the Municipal Code would allow the Board of Supervisors to more readily adjust requirements in light of experience and current needs and priorities.
Please vote for Proposition A.