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: Daniel Lurie. Read earlier dispatches here.
Four leading mayoral candidates seized the opportunity of Mayor London Breed’s absence at a forum on Monday night to take aim at the incumbent and bash her track record at likely the last such forum before ballots drop on Oct. 7.
“This mayor” is not spending an “additional $5 million that the Board of Supervisors allocated” in the city budget to increase funding for food pantries, said Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, speaking at the forum organized by the League of Women Voters of San Francisco, a nonpartisan political nonprofit.
And so, the evening went with each candidate in turn attacking the mayor on the stage at the Mission Bay Conference Center at 1675 Owens St. Breed skipped the forum because of a “scheduling conflict,” according to her spokesperson, Joe Arellano.
The League of Women Voters said it was “surprised and disappointed at Mayor Breed’s last-minute and unexplained refusal” in a press release on Monday morning. Breed had agreed to the forum previously, the group said, but changed course on Sunday.
That gave her opponents ample room for critique. While discussing the possibility of creating RV parks with water and power for people to stay in the city, for instance, Peskin again bashed Breed. In September, Breed proposed a new law that RVs parked overnight, between midnight and 6 a.m., on city streets could be towed if residents living in them previously turned down offers of shelter, housing, or other services.
“The mayor’s solution, to have these vehicles towed, that are full of children, that are going to the San Francisco Unified School District, is bad public policy,” Peskin said. “It is inhumane.”
Mark Farrell, the venture capitalist and former District 2 supervisor, in an extended effort to add to the blame, framed the RV-site debacle as part of the out-of-hand homelessness issue in the city.
Farrell acknowledged that the RV park at Candlestick Point is a failure, but didn’t quite specify how it has failed. He then stated that San Francisco needs to change its reputation as a city so that people will stop “coming to sleep in tents on the sidewalks,” or “coming with more RVs.”
“The reality is, we have people living in neighborhoods that are getting crushed by this epidemic because of this mayor’s failure as mayor,” he said.
Another topic in which Breed was under fire was on City College of San Francisco. The city’s budget, adopted this August, appropriated $9.3 million to the City College free tuition program this fiscal year, less than half of the allocation from the previous 2023-24 budget of $18.9 million.
District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who always leans into his working-family, immigrant, and labor roots, said it is essential to have certain programs at City College remain free, so that workers, first responders, nurses and teachers can be trained. “This mayor raided that money this year,” Safaí said. “I would never do that.”
Farrell agreed. “The fact that this mayor won’t allocate the budget to City College is a shame,” Farrell said. The cuts to City College are much more nuanced, however: City College has had trouble enrolling people into its free classes, a fact cited by Breed’s administration in cutting funds.
Public safety and the staffing level of the police department was another hot topic for the night. On the campaign trail. Safaí and Daniel Lurie, the Levi Strauss heir and nonprofit founder, focused the discussion on proposing their own solutions.
Safaí called for proactive community policing, and on putting more money into hiring officers instead of paying for them working overtime. Safaí also pointed to Proposition N on the November ballot, which would create a city fund to reimburse the student loans and job-related educational and training expenses up to $25,000 for sworn members of the police, fire, and sheriff’s departments, paramedics, nurses and 911 dispatchers, supervisors or coordinators.
Lurie also called for fully staffed police and sheriff’s departments and 911 dispatch offices and community policing. He proposed having trained clinicians attending to people suffering from addiction and mental health crises on the streets while saving the police officers for “walking the beat.”
“What we’ve seen from this mayor is simply unacceptable,” Lurie said at one point. It was his only criticism of Breed for the night, without giving any specifics.
Farrell, particularly, made a “replace Breed” message loud and clear.
“Make San Francisco safe again?” Farrell asked at one point. “We can elect a new mayor.” On a rare occasion for the night, the audience laughed lightly. He went on with his list of promises if he were elected: Fully fund and fully staff up the police department, and a zero-tolerance approach to crime.
Peskin spoke after. “It’s easy to talk tough,” he said. “But in my experience, the tough talkers usually don’t get the job done” — a rejoinder to Farrell, who’d just finished his speech with a determined look on his face. Peskin touted his experience working with officers at the Central Station for 25 years.
Peskin also pointed to Proposition F as an example of his approach to bolstering the police force. The measure, which Peskin co-sponsored with Supervisor Matt Dorsey, allows police officers with 25 years of experience or more to postpone their retirement for up to five years while earning a pension and a salary simultaneously.
The night ended with a question to look into the future, as Election Day is 35 days away: What legacy would candidates wish to leave after their term is up, if they were elected?
Lurie, as usual, painted a hopeful picture of people from other parts of the Bay Area wanting to meet up with their friends in San Francisco and have a good time in the city.
Farrell wants the city to be safe again — though San Francisco’s violent crime rate is at near-historic lows — and he gave his wishlist: A new police chief and a decrease in homelessness; clearing out encampments and getting people into shelter and housing; and drug markets gone and the fentanyl crisis lessened.
Peskin, in a rushed manner, summarized “From Crisis to Care,” his strategy to deal with homelessness and behavioral health. He wants to fully implement this six-point plan.
And Safaí sees no bigger issue than the overdose crisis. He hopes to turn the crisis around.
“Let’s deal with that, and all else will follow,” Safaí said.
I have to ask, how many mayoral debates do we need to sit through? I know it adds prestige to the organizers, but what new information do we really expect to discover after 5 or 6-panel debates from the actual candidates? We have two rich kids, one labor organizer, a spoil sport, and the mayor. What more do we need to know?
Campers,
From the Gold Rush to 200 our City Family had filled in 40% of the Bay.
Willie moved to take some more with new SFO runways.
Peskin stopped him.
Aaron’s a Preservationist at the bottom of things.
Gonzalez and Ammiano were visionaries who gave the BOS a 40% voice on major commissions and Healthy San Francisco Universal Health Care and District Elections and on and on but Aaron is better prepared to be Mayor than any of them.
And, he’s honest as the day is long and …
h.
Wow.
Prop N – a shining example of bureaucratic expansionism.
“administrative costs could range from approximately $125,000 to
$315,000 annually for one to two new staff within DHR to administer the Fund.”
Right.
This will require at least one manager at a high level salary and the worker bee.
+ benefits
+ retirement
+ the corruption scandal when the manager approves loan forgiveness to their buddy who hasn’t worked for The City in 2 years
+ another worker bee in short order
oh yeah + a glitchy custom computer system for the new program
Instead of the rational approach – let’s just pay these people more.
Jeez – that would save “up to approximately $315,000 annually for staff to administer the program”.
It seems like there is an overwhelming driving force churning within the walls of City Hall to dream up new programs and hire administrative staff and keep expanding The Family.
Some kinda primordial procreation instinct.
Anyone but Breed or Peskin.
The more I hear from all of these candidates, the more I dislike all of them. Maybe Breed was smart to skip this, my level of distaste for her did not go up.