Budget and Finance Committee forwards wide-ranging slate of grants, contracts, housing and bond actions to full board

Budget and Finance Committee Chair Supervisor Connie Chan on Wednesday moved a set of ordinances, resolutions and contract amendments to the full Board of Supervisors, covering fire apparatus procurement, regional preparedness grants, nonprofit contract corrections, mental-health contract amendments, food-assistance grants, a first issuance of the Healthy, Safe & Vibrant San Francisco general-obligation bond, a city-owned parcel conveyance, and several housing actions.

The committee, consisting of Chair Connie Chan, Vice Chair Supervisor Matt Dorsey and member Joanne Gardio, voted unanimously on every motion called during the meeting (recorded as 3 ayes) to forward the items to the full board, with several items amended or recommended to proceed without recommendation. Public comment was taken on multiple items.

Why it matters: The items approved for forwarding affect city emergency response capacity (fire apparatus), regional emergency preparedness (FEMA grant), mental-health and substance-use services, daily meal programs for unhoused and low-income residents, streetscape and safety capital projects, and multiple affordable housing and land-conveyance decisions that shape development and services across San Francisco.

Key presentations and staff notes

- Fire apparatus sole‑source ordinance (Item 2): Chair Connie Chan introduced legislation intended to permit the Fire Department to use sole-source contracting for specialized fire apparatus to shorten the very long procurement lead times cited by department staff. Assistant Deputy Chief Mike Mullen of the San Francisco Fire Department (fleet and maintenance) explained that COVID-era supply-chain consolidation has produced lead times as long as 900 days — and with competitive‑procurement processes could exceed 1,000 days. He told the committee the fleet contains frontline apparatus more than 25 years old and that “anything that we can do to speed up the process to receive these new apparatus will be very, very beneficial.” Firefighters and union leaders from San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 testified in support.

- Regional catastrophic preparedness grant (Item 3): Adrienne Bechelli, general manager for the Bay Area Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), briefed the committee on a roughly $2.7 million FEMA regional catastrophic preparedness grant. Bechelli said the award funds the third phase of an Equitable Community Resilience Program that will run through September 2027, use FEMA Hazus modeling to do risk assessments across 12 Bay Area counties, and support follow-up planning and toolkits for vulnerable communities. The grant is reimbursement‑only and requires no local match.

- Human Rights Commission retroactive amendment for Lyric (Item 4): Samuel Thomas, chief financial officer for the Human Rights Commission, asked the committee to approve a retroactive…