United States Representative, District 11: Nancy Pelosi. Our hometown congressional hero is awesome, and remains if not at, close to, political peak power. That said, please Nancy, retire gracefully when you feel you’re slipping.
State Controller: Former District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen is a pretty good politician. She does not, however, have a reputation for being an excellent number cruncher. Ron Galperin, who served as Controller for the City of Los Angeles does have such standing.
State Treasurer: A whiff of entitled corruption emanates from the direction of Fiona Ma, who otherwise should be a shoe-in for this office. Do yourself a favor and vote for Jack Guerrero, a Cudahy city council member, instead.
Insurance Commissioner: Marc Levine.
State Assembly District 17: It’s hard to find someone in the know who unreservedly loves Matt Haney. He’s smart and ambitious, but perhaps with a challenging personality. If you want to shake things up, consider Bill Shireman, a lifelong warrior for the environment.
City Attorney: David Chiu. A fine fellow. Not that you have a choice.
A Muni Reliability and Street Safety Bond: Is Muni an essential service? Is it well run? Do we believe that $400 million in general obligation bonds will be spent wisely, with stellar procurement practices, resulting in a tangibly better system? This is one of those gun-held-to-an-adorable-dog’s head decisions. Of course, you don’t want to shoot the dog. But you really wish it’d been potty trained before it came into the house. Yes..?
B Building Inspection Commission: Like San Francisco’s legendary fog, the whiff of corruption regularly rolls into City Hall and its environs. Will the changing of deck chairs on the Building Inspection Commission titanic stop it from hitting an iceberg? Probably at least for a while, given the additional light that’ll be shined. Yes!
C Recall Timelines and Vacancy Appointments: Our fragmented society is catalyzing more recall elections, of governors, district attorneys, school board members. Is that democracy in action, or democracy run amuck? These bad boys are costly and can be used strategically to remove politicians from offices during low turnout special elections, not entirely democratic. However, it’s not clear that we’ve fully absorbed the lessons learned from the most recent bout of recalls, nor does it seem entirely fair that the mayoral appointee to replace a recalled officeholder would be prohibited from running for that seat. No.
D Office of Victim and Witness Rights: Legal Services for Domestic Violence Victims. It’s reasonable to help crime victims navigate a complex legal and support system. Yes.
E Behested Payments: See Proposition B, except this one would prohibit supervisors from asking contractors to donate to their favorite nonprofit. Yes.
F Refuse Collection and Disposal: Again, B, focusing on the “Refuse Rate Board,” (i.e., garbage). Yes.
G Public Health Emergency Leave: This proposition would require employees with more than 100 employees worldwide to provide paid public health emergency leave, not to exceed 80 hours a year. It’s a nice idea but isn’t it government’s job to provide this type of protection, through unemployment insurance and the like? And what if most of those employees are located outside San Francisco? No.
H Recall Measure Regarding Chesa Boudin: San Francisco’s criminal justice system is a work in progress. There are far too many unresolved home and automobile break-ins, as well as a continuing epidemic of adjacent public health issues, related to deadly drug abuse and erratic, sometimes dangerous, street behavior. Is this because we have an inept District Attorney, a poorly functioning police department, a “City family” that isn’t effective, or all of the above? New to elected office and management of a complex organization in general, Boudin’s performance thus far merits a “C.” Does it also merit being recalled? The View will leave that up to you. No recommendation.
