Mayor Daniel Lurie and City Administrator Carmen Chu are holding a press conference at 10:45 a.m. to discuss these changes. The story will be updated shortly after with new information.
Mayor Daniel Lurie and City Administrator Carmen Chu today announced their first use of the expanded power granted to them by voters in last week’s election: creating citywide rules for signing contracts.
Proposition E, which is currently leading 64-36 with virtually all votes counted, grants the city administrator the sole authority to make changes to how the city grants contracts. Contracting represents a significant portion of the budget — $6 billion every year out of a budget of $17 billion.
Some of these purchases are for items that any workplace needs — toilet paper, computers, Microsoft Teams — while other contracts are for core city functions. Many of the city’s homelessness and street condition workers are hired through contracts, for instance, including the ambassadors tasked with monitoring the streets surrounding 16th and Mission.
With so much money in play, the city has rules to ensure that it is properly spent. But the current guidelines are insufficient, Lurie said, because they are “scattered across different sections of city law, and the rules can vary — leaving room for corruption and abuse.”
This legislation, Lurie added, is “the first step toward centralizing and depoliticizing contracting so it serves San Franciscans, not insiders” — repeating the term he deployed, repeatedly, during the $14.5 million, privately funded campaign that led to the overwhelming passage of the mayor’s charter package.
“Every day, dedicated public servants make decisions about how San Francisco spends taxpayer dollars,” Chu said. “They deserve clear rules, practical guidance, and the confidence to speak up when something doesn’t seem right.”
Lurie’s own administration has been criticized for its contracting decisions. In October 2025, his office granted a $5.9 million contract for digitizing the city’s permit system to OpenGov, even though city staff recommended a competitor and expressed doubts that OpenGov could do the necessary tasks. OpenGov went on to miss several key deadlines.
The new citywide standards introduced today by Lurie and Chu would:
- Prohibit giving certain vendors a leg up by sharing confidential information
- Require employees to disclose any conflicts of interest and potentially recuse themselves from contracting decisions
- Have communication between city staff and potential contractors go through official channels
- Prevent employees from splitting purchases or contracts into smaller amounts so they can avoid going through a competitive bidding process or avoid other requirements
- Explain that violating these ethical standards could result in getting fired or other discipline
These standardized rules, Chu said, “will set the foundation for a new culture around how the city does business.”
Under Proposition E, legislation introduced by the city administrator sits for 60 days and then automatically goes into effect, unless the mayor or a majority of the Board of Supervisors blocks it. The Board of Supervisors is not allowed to amend legislation introduced by the city administrator under Prop. E.
Chu will have to wait until late December or early January to officially introduce these laws because the election results have yet to be certified.
