Recall Reform Proposed for San Francisco

On December 14, 2021, District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin tweeted “We're putting Recall Reform on the June 2022 ballot. Taxpayers should not be forced to spend millions to recall officials who were just elected or are up for re-election in the same year. Thx to co-sponsors @shamannwalton @HillaryRonen @DeanPreston @conniechansf @myrnamelgar!” This tweet was soon followed by a Chronicle story about the various measures up for the June 2022 election – one of four we get to participate in this year!
As the Chronicle reported, “Supervisor Aaron Peskin wants to change how vacancies on the Board of Supervisors, Board of Education, and Community College District Board of Trustees are filled. Currently, the mayor appoints replacements in the middle of an election cycle. Peskin wants to instead have a majority of each board’s members appoint a replacement to fill a vacant seat — for example, leaving the power to pick a temporary new colleague up to supervisors.”

The amendment will also limit recalls to officials who have served in office for at least 12 months, up from the current six months. It will prohibit the submission of recall petitions within 18 months of a regularly scheduled election for the official – the BOE members being recalled are up for election in November 2022. Supervisors Shamann Walton, Connie Chan, Hillary Ronen, Dean Preston and Myrna Melgar support the measure.
Aaron Peskin will be presenting and discussing the recall reform measure at the next Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council meeting. We look forward to hearing more January 13, 2022.

The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Board of Directors (BOD) is taking a stance against politically motivated recalls. In the October Voice it was written recalls should be more difficult: “It's expensive. It could be called an excess of democracy, and undermine the independence of elected officials. It can be abused. More recalls are organized by business than by ordinary citizens (the BOE recall has raised $1m from people who also supplied dark money in the last D5 Supervisor race), and often with less than a year before the next election... In SF, recalls can place even more power in the hands of the Mayor. The school board issues appear to be matters of policy, not rising to criminal acts.”

Historically recalls typically have fewer voters because most off season elections have low voter turn out. These low turn out recall elections can be used by a minority as a way of over-turning the high turn out election they didn't win. In addition, recalls distracts office holders from doing the job they were elected to do.

While Governor Newsom has many shortcomings as a leader, we were against the recall despite the harm he caused while a supervisor and Mayor of San Francisco. This recall was little more than an attempted power grab by dark money backers taking advantage of COVID19.

District Attorney Chesa Boudin was elected to implement criminal justice reform, a long talked about issue never seriously explored. It is something that takes a generation, not a year. While the media likes to claim crime is out of control, the data actually shows crime is lower. The Chronicle even platformed Kimberly Guilfoile in January 2020 printing an op ed attacking then new DA Boudin. It isn’t easy in San Francisco, especially for small businesses, but we are not in the dystopian nightmare that the backers of this recall claim. A recall is petty politics by those with sour grapes.

Finally, Board of Education… no criminal acts were committed by those targeted for the recall. While some may disagree with their positions on various policies, all three, Moliga, Lopez, and Collins, are up for re-election in November 2022. The recall folks originally stated they would recall the entire board, but oddly only Moliga, Collins, and Lopez are targeted despite all of the board are now eligible for recall. Much of the recall money comes from charter school folks and people who funded Astro-turf organizations attacking Supervisor Preston in the last D5 election.

Let us not allow SF to further descend into a rabbit hole of petty disagreements. Vote no on the 2022 recalls, protect democratically elected politicians.