Sheriff's department set to blow past overtime budget by $19 million

Good afternoon!

According to the S.F. controller, the S.F. sheriff’s department is blowing through its overtime budget, and is set to spend $19 million more on overtime, reports Joe Rivano Barros. The sheriff’s department and SFPD routinely overspend their overtime budgets by tens of millions of dollars, and then ask the city to make up the difference.

Meanwhile, Abigail Vân Neely writes, Mayor Daniel Lurie told the S.F. Department of Public Health to cut an additional $40 million from its budget, on top of an earlier $17 million of cuts. DPH said it will prioritize patient care, and protect “safety net” services.

Yujie Zhou has an interesting story about the way that monolingual Chinese seniors, a political power bloc in San Francisco, are now using automatic translation apps to speak directly to officials—without bilingual political aides who aren’t professional interpreters, but can mistranslate speech and twist meanings.

See our 2022 back story about a political aide who turned DA Brooke Jenkins’ broad, innocuous remarks to a Chinatown crowd into a fiery promise to bring “bandits who attacked Asians” to justice.

More soon,

Sara

A group of girls in yellow shirts run together at a race event, smiling and holding hands, with adults and a purple banner in the background.

Girls on the Run Bay Area is enrolling 3rd–8th graders for a season of “girl power.” With capacity already at 50%, a Mid-March start date, and the May 9th 5K ahead, spots are filling quickly. Scholarships are available—now is the time to join. Register for the Spring Season here!