Mission Local is publishing campaign dispatches for each of the major contenders in the mayor’s race, alternating among candidates weekly until November. This week: Ahsha Safaí. Read earlier dispatches here.
Two supervisors running for mayor spatted over a potential proposition today, with Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin telling District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí that his proposal to cover student loans for first responders should stay off the ballot, come November.
“It doesn’t need to go to the ballot. This is an ordinance, and I think you have the support to pass it here at the Board of Supervisors,” Peskin told Safaí and his co-sponsor, Supervisor Shamman Walton, at the Rules Committee on Monday morning. “We could just be doing our jobs right here.”
But the move by one contender against another could also rob Safaí of a campaign tool as he seeks the mayor’s office: Ballot measures are not only useful for messaging during a race, but the committees created to pass them can take in vast sums of money that benefit those backing them.
While contributions to a candidate have a $500 limit, there are no limits on giving to ballot-measure campaigns. They also send a not-so-subtle message to the strongest endorsers in the city — in this case, the firefighters, police officers and other first responders. A measure like this also sends a message to San Francisco voters that its sponsor is keen on addressing public safety issues and rewarding those who directly do so.
The ballot should only be used for things where the Board of Supervisors don’t have the ability to pass a law and only voters can, Peskin said, such as a charter amendment. Safaį’s first-responders measure would overload the ballot, he added.
Safaí, for his part, said he wanted a voters’ mandate on the first-responder loan-forgiveness fund. He compared it to the 8th-grade algebra proposition — when the voters passed it, it became a mandate that no mayor could “choose to ignore.”
“If there’s a voter mandate to make [this measure] as a priority, whoever the mayor is, if not me, is gonna know that it’s going to be a priority.” It also sends a signal to philanthropy to put money in the fund, Safaí added.
Peskin, who has been in City Hall for almost a quarter of a century now, knows very well the advantages a ballot measure can bring. Although elected officials are required to keep city business and their campaigns separate, for the three mayoral candidates who are currently holding office — Mayor London Breed and supervisors Peskin and Safaí — the line gets blurry at times.
Peskin has been trying to put his own measure on the ballot: A proposal to defer retirement for police that would allow officers to simultaneously earn salaries and pensions. He’s pitched it as a recruitment and retention tool.
Peskin’s efforts to push forward the measure prompted Supervisor Hillary Ronen’s abrupt resignation as chair of the Rules Committee last week, after she accused Peskin of “undermining the credibility” of the institution of the Board by setting up special meetings to “overturn the majority ruling” of the committee. That ruling had stalled the proposal so that it would fail to reach the full Board in time to make the ballot.
Peskin also has other ballot measures in the works: One to fund affordable housing for seniors, people with disabilitiesm and low-income families, which already has 10 sponsors and will be voted on on Tuesday; and one to create an inspector general position in the Controller’s office to prevent corruption.
Mayor Breed also proposed a $360 million bond measure, which would invest $167 million in public health infrastructures, $50 million in family homelessness shelters, $70 million in street safety infrastructures and $25 million to improve public spaces.
Another mayoral contender, Mark Farrell, just disclosed receiving another $570,340 in donations for his ballot measure to cap the number of city commissions and increase mayoral power. Among the wealthy donors is Thomas Coates, a millionaire real-estate investor and major opponent of rent control in California.
Daniel Lurie has not announced a ballot measure proposal, but in the March election, he also used the rules to his advantage. After launching a campaign to support Prop. E, one of Breed’s propositions, Lurie received large sums of cash flowing into his campaign committee for Prop. E.
It was unclear how Safaí will benefit from the measure if it ends up on the ballot, but he is certainly using it as good material on the campaign trail. At the Sunday Streets event last weekend, a resident told Safaí how she abandoned her deputy sheriff’s training. “After everything I went through, I stopped pursuing it because it’s expensive to keep up with all the fees.”
Safaí, bringing up the potential loan forgiveness measure, reassured her. “We are going to try and put $25,000 in loan forgiveness for first responders. That would be a big priority for me as mayor.”
Peskin is right. This not only doesn’t belong on the ballot. It shouldn’t even be before the Board in the first place when muni, schools and other basic services are being cut.
Gina, then you’ll hate this part of the article:
“Peskin has been trying to put his own measure on the ballot: A proposal to defer retirement for police that would allow officers to simultaneously earn salaries and pensions.”
Patch up the riff, fellas. I want to vote for you both.
The crisis within the SFPD has reached the critical mass point. Short of some
300 officers. Many crimes are not responded to by Precincts in good part
due to shortage of personnel. For instance, the Parkside precinct is staffed
about 1/2 of what it was some 10 years ago. Other precincts are calling on
precincts in the west of Twin Peaks to send personnel due to out of control
violent situations.