Just seven days after San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie appointed 29-year-old Beya Alcaraz to the District 4 supervisor seat, Alcaraz has resigned.
Multiple unflattering stories emerged over the last two days, including allegations that Alcaraz, a political neophyte whose previous experience including running a pet store, paid workers “under the table” and potentially committed tax fraud, and that she left her former store in disarray for the new owner.
On Thursday, just hours before her resignation, Mission Local published leaked text messages between Julia Baran, the new owner of Alcaraz’s pet store, and Alcaraz, in which the supervisor wrote that she paid workers “under the table” and thereby reduced her tax burden.
Alcaraz also wrote that she paid for dinners with friends as a “business expense.” Accounting professionals told Mission Local that Alcaraz’s text messages were tantamount to an admission of filing false tax returns.
Three days ago, the San Francisco Standard reported that Baran said Alcaraz left her former shop, the Animal Connection, covered in rodent feces, with hundreds of dead mice decomposing behind the store shelves, and animal corpses in the fridge.
In a statement sent at 9:41 p.m. on Thursday, Lurie announced the resignation.
He wrote that he “admires” Alcaraz’s “commitment and willingness to raise her hand to serve, just as much as [he] respects her decision to step aside in the best interest of her neighborhood. I regret that I didn’t do more to make sure she could succeed.”
“When I raised my hand to serve as supervisor, I told the mayor that it was time for someone who is from the Sunset to represent the Sunset. I believe that my community deserves someone who will work 24/7 to advocate for us,” Alcaraz said in a statement. “I understand that today’s news stories would distract me from doing that.”
The appointment of Alcaraz raised serious questions about Lurie’s vetting process. Alcaraz was the least experienced supervisor to be appointed in San Francisco in at least 25 years, according to a Mission Local review.
She was a virtual unknown among District 4 residents and City Hall insiders. In his past statements in support of Alcaraz, Lurie praised her for gumption in asking him for the job: Alcaraz reportedly approached the mayor at a Sunset night market and asked him to hire her. He emphasized her status as a small business owner who would advocate for the Sunset district.
It is unknown who Lurie will tap to replace Alcaraz, who was appointed after former supervisor Joel Engardio was recalled over his controversial decision to support transforming the Great Highway into the Sunset Dunes park.
This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.
Amateur hour for the Laurie administration. The public sector is not the private sector. Vetting matters. Appointing a lackey isn’t going to cut it. Try again.
Talk about a completely avoidable own-goal? He had months to find a candidate. So he picks some neophyte and doesn’t even really dig into her details? How does this even happen, doesn’t he have teams of advisers and “business know-how” and all that? It’s mind boggling. What does this imply about his other policy decision-making?
Mayoral appointments should require confirmation. Most cities don’t let their mayor unilaterally fill vacancies like this, and with a confirmation process, this mess could have been avoided.
Mayors should require competent staffing. Han Zou looking at YOU.
Or at least an official and rigorous vetting process, an open process? We don’t even know who the other possible candidates were even now. Were there ANY? Did Lurie put any actual time into this, or was it all Han Zou hand-waving and palm greasing? ‘Whims without vetting’ is London Breed style, and we fired her for it.
People deserve a process that makes sense.
This demonstrates Mayor Lurie’s complete lack of management experience. Despite being an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, he’s not qualified to run a Gap Store, much less a city and county. He’s just a rich boy.
“complete lack of management experience”
Dude was running Tipping Point for years, so yeah, no.
Bahahahahahahahaha
Very embarrassing for Lurie. To this point he has seemed like an improvement on London Breed, but that is such a low bar.
His lack of ever having had a real job is the problem. He has hired personal assistants and other lackey types, but he’s never had to hire someone independent of himself for an important role.
We can only hope he learns from this debacle.
Dare I add that the next major appointment by Lurie will be SF Police Chief?
The question now is why was she selected in the first place and how did she get to be the one over everybody else, what did that process look like? It absolutely smacks of behind the curtain politics. Lurie did himself a massive disservice. The Sunset voted to get rid of a crook and what does he do? He appoints another sight unseen?? It’s incredible.
Only a Liar Engardio stan has a problem with calling a tax fraud a crook.
Thanks to Julia Baran for coming forward and helping to minimize the damage to the public.
Beya Alcaraz has assets that could be seized if the IRS decides to investigate and come down hard on her. Mistake. Big public mistake. Hung by her own petard.
I do wonder what Lurie was thinking, though, as this appointment had an “off” vibe about it from the start.
“Hoisted.” As in blowen backwards. Because a ‘petard’ is a bomb.
Amazing comments on this story – agree 100% re: Lurie’s incompetence on this one. Hope you’re happy with your ridiculous recall D4! Goes back to a comment I made during that whole Engardio recall that recalls are insane and stupid and we need recall reform in this state / city county because it should require fraud or malfeasance to get recalled even if your elected official sucks… you should be stuck with them for their term unless they are literally a criminal. But yes, poetic justice for Engardio who launched his career after recalling others.
And yes, there should need to be a confirmation process after a mayoral appointment. Advice and Consent! If it’s good enough for the Senate and the president, it should be good enough for the BOS and the mayor.
But more than anything else, what does this story prove to me? That investigative journalism still matters. That we are so so so lucky in this town to have real reporters covering local news to hold our elected leaders accountable. Huge thanks to Mission Local and the Standard for doing the job that the Mayor and his office refused to do.
100% agree on recall reform. If you don’t like the policies of someone you elected, guess what? You get to vote then out in the next election. Recalls are unnecessary (except in rare cases involving criminal behavior), expensive, and fundamentally undemocratic. I do not understand the current recall fever that seems to have swept the city. You’re voting to get rid of someone the people elected to have them replaced by someone no one voted for. Make it make sense!!
Recall was voted on by the majority of voting residents and found to sustain the charge that Engardio was not trustworthy. They used small donor funds to collect signatures and won the vote.
Don’t like it? Then you don’t actually like Democracy. Engardio came into office calling for exactly this.
Lying to the public is deserving of a recall. Full stop.
Engardio was rightfully and fittingly recalled by his constituents that he lied to, ignored, gaslit, and ultimately endangered with his corruption. Not only does the Sunset deserve better, we deserve MUCH better than Joel OR Bella.
There’s no recall fever, it takes a seriously motivated and pissed off constituency that’s been lied to for it to actually foment that.
Engardio checked those boxes and then some.
I’m quite happy with the recall, and everyone else I know who participated in feels the same way. What does that have to do with Lurie’s poor three-day choice of a candidate that has done absolutely nothing to affect the district?
“The appointment of Alcaraz raised serious questions about Lurie’s vetting process.”
The Mayor barely has any more experience than Alcaraz. At least he and his billionaire buddies managed to hold off ICE and CBP from kidnapping our neighbors, for now.
@Love San Francisco – Mayor Lurie did stop an escalation with armed forces stationed across the Bay, but ICE has been abducting people in San Francisco for months. Mission Local has been the best coverage of these abductions.
Lurie was but one of 6 reported movers in that and obviously Trump is going to listen to his tech-Libertarian Billionaire CEO cadre much more intently than a neophyte San Francisco Democrat Mayor’s pleading. Debunked. Daniel Lurie made a phone call that any mayor should be making in that instance, at the absolute minimum. No points awarded.
No he did not.
More BS Lurie worship. Lame.
Perhaps the detailed due diligence and analysis that was demonstrated for this appointment is also being applied to upzoning analysis and decisions? I’m starting to think that the probelm isn’t D4, but rather downtown.
Exactly! This is demonstrative of a much larger problem at City Hall.
But seriously, I hope the mayor learns the lesson here.
The district that just fired its supe for lying doesn’t want a fraud.
Lesson learned I hope.
Fire Han Zou and hire an actual vetting staff?
Don’t make decisions on Ambien?
Do your job better than a Joel.
Now the criminal charges should come because she admitted she avoid taxes and payed people under the table.
How Lurie’s people chose this person is just beyond me.
Drama for Lurie’s mama. Suggested city charter reform: the mayor should not have sole capacity to appoint his kids’ babysitter or the nice youngster who works at the corner Starbucks as a district supervisor. This event underscores the reality that the hardest part of a supervisor’s job is crafting thoughtful and enduring policies that impact the daily lives of constituents and San Franciscans. Imagine if the mini mayor proposition to eliminate district specific supervisors had passed. We’d be stuck with 11 Beyas and one Mayor Lurie. Yikes.
Mayor Lurie should simply cut to the chase and (re) appoint Joel Engardio as D4 Supervisor. Engardio, without a doubt, has been the best Supervisor the district has ever had — other than Kay Tang. 😉
A public vetting process could’ve avoided this. There’s no possibility the Mayor or his staff could’ve unearthed these private text messages without Julia Baran coming forward. Also, the latter could’ve reported this to the city confidentially without fear of having her own privacy aired in public.
I don’t believe it’s necessary to require confirmation by the board.
Rather, a list of names under consideration should be published at least 30 days before an appointment to the board takes place so the city has an opportunity to vet those names.
Also, the Board should have the option to override in much the same manner as a veto from the Mayor or a removal from office by the Board
Baran was the new registered owner of the small business that Lurie’s office advertised her “service to the City” about, remember?
There’s plenty of connective tissue for a non-braindead chief of staff to investigate the basic avenues. They praised and lauded Han Zou as a “doorknocking genius” but apparently his insights don’t extend to BASIC VETTING? It’s a joke but entirely not funny as Lurie’s office continues to insist he’s not going to revisit the mistakes. Why?
HOW CAN YOU LEARN FROM MISTAKES YOU DON’T INVESTIGATE, EVEN IF YOU ADMIT MULTIPLE HUGE MISTAKES WERE MADE?
Who is on Lurie’s staff who understands damage control and the Job 1 of avoiding the need to employ it by doing basic research? My kingdom for a competent aide!
How about Charles Guiteau as the next appointed D4 Supervisor?
Mayor Lurie wasted no time and appointed Tony Luini as the new District 4 Supervisor.
I’m betting she’ll ‘rebrand’ herself and pop up again – this type doesn’t disappear.
I don’t think so. The IRS puts a dark cloud over anything she now does.
Is Ed Jew available?
Comment of the year!
This is enraging. Politicians and wannabe politicians are vermin.
Truly remarkable how Mission Local’s reporting shook the city establishment in mere hours!
Politicians today more typically double down to deny any responsibility for poor decisions.
Poor Isabella Alcaraz is no Dana Williamson or Pete Hegseth! Was it her own decision to resign?
One lesson San Franciscans could learn from this experience is that any excessive celebrating of anyone chiefly for their [fill in the blank] identity can be toxic— whether it be for a first Chinese-American mayor, a first African-American and woman mayor, or a first Filipina-American city supervisor.
I suppose people do it partly because they hope the youth will model their lives on exceptional individuals “who look like them.”
For whatever reason, it is not so smart and can backfire.
It supplies grist for haters who are eager to label complex groups and individuals. It also suits the ruling class that profits by dividing and weakening the working class whose labor creates all the world’s wealth.
“I understand that today’s news stories would distract me from doing that.” you bet lady..you messed up big time..send your resume to Mar a Lago they are hiring the brightest around there..If the IRS comes hard on you, no worries, you can ask for a pardon, the Nobel peace prize will give it to you. Lurie, what were you thinking? were you on something? are you ok?
He was thinking about other things; gentrification and the PR to push it.
When are the RV’s moving from Lake Merced Drive. Mayor Lurie said this would start in November of this year.
They have a 6 month waiver. Because they got a ticket.