San Francisco politics have been shaken up recently by the ousting of one district supervisor, the announcement and quick resignation of his replacement — and the new search for yet another supervisor to replace that one.
The current candidates in the running to lead District 4 have had to fill out a five-page questionnaire about the state of their finances, and possible conflicts of interest. They’ve had to make it through a fake press conference without disgracing themselves.
But, aside from the two who have previously worked as legislative aides, how much do they know about the job itself? How much do we know? We set out to find out.
As a supervisor, your door is open to the public, while the mayor’s is not. At times, a supervisor’s responsibilities are bound only by the imagination of their constituents, and the complexity of the bureaucracy that they navigate.
In the conversations that led to this quiz, one aide recalled an 88-year-old constituent who had asked their supervisor to do something about the overgrown bushes along a staircase next to her home.
The staircase was not under the city’s jurisdiction; it seemed public, and the public used it, but it fell under the homeowner’s jurisdiction. But, again, the homeowner was 88.
Finally. the supervisor aide in question went out with a few interns and cleared out the shrubbery himself.
How much do you know about being a district supervisor? Take our quiz below.
The City Hall quiz was fun and interesting; a small but mighty civics lesson. A regular feature? I’m inspired to contrubute again. Thanks!
Question 1 states “San Francisco Public Works deals with any trash that is on the sidewalk. Recology, the San Francisco’s sole trash service provider, takes charge of anything that’s contained in the city’s bins.”
That’s not exactly true. Property owners are responsible for their sidewalks, and per Recology’s contract with the the city they pick up bulky items. If you call 311 for a mattress the request is allocated to Recology’s abandoned waste queue.
Seth,
This only works if the DPW inspectors do their jobs.
Talking sidewalks around the Armory.
The owner is a billionaire and our DPW inspector will not cite him for the conditions of the walks surrounding the building.
Instead, daily the City sends men and equipment to clean the walks when we’re lucky.
Otherwise, I clean them as I have for the past couple of years with my dog.
I’ve walked around the building with an inspector and complained about the trash and rat holes all around the rear of the building and nada.
Bottom line is that the supervisors and workers on the ground don’t listen to the brass or citizen complaints all the time.
Took me 2 years to get AJ Enterprises to remove the scaffolding base from the base of the building as the DPW inspector insisted the sidewalk upon which the structure was seated was private property.
Problem there is leftover Nuru slugs.
I’m off now to do their job with my dog again as we do every day.
go Niners !!
h.
The Board of Supervisors could take the mayor’s budget, reject it, and pass their own balanced budget that the mayor could sign or veto and the board could try to override.
Convention has it that so long as the supes want their priorities to see the light of day, they do nothing but tinker around the edges via add backs. But this is a convention, not charter mandated.
That implies 6-7 supervisors who have spines that the mayor doesn’t supply.
I’m a senior living in District 10. I’d like to run for Supervisor. I’ve lived in the Southeast neighborhood for 71 years. What do I need to do in order to be a Supervisor?
7 out of 10.
Don’t know about the rest, but I know 2 things: A supervisors job is to keep the area where their constituency live-Clean and safe! And Jackie Fielder, supervisor of the Mission is not doing that. The area around 24th and Mission, is filled with trash and street, vendors, or should I say, vendors and trash, plus it’s impassable for disabled people,the worst is on the weekends.
The question about which departments report to the BOS appears to be incorrect. The “answer” that only the youth commission and some other small departments report to the BOS and that none of the others, the answer chosen by 80% of the respondents, is ruled incorrect and the planning commission is “correct”. I must be missing something…
Sir or madam —
The question was “Which of the following departments does not report directly to the Board of Supervisors?” The Planning Commission does not report directly to the Board of Supervisors. The AAB, however, does.
I’m sure you can still be a supe with 9/10.
Best,
JE
I thought that the main requirement to be a supervisor is that you have never had a real job or ran a business?
The usual path is via unions, the school board, a non-profit or be some kind of lawyer.
The ones that graduated, from the school board are the worst!