San Francisco supervisors approve 2018–19 budget after divided vote on transit spending

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted July 24 to adopt the city's fiscal 2018'19 budget package, approving the annual appropriation and salary ordinances and associated funding items (items 15'29 on the agenda) after separate votes on the transit agency portion of the plan.

President Malia Cohen, chairing the session, described the year's budget process as intended to be "a stronger, more transparent, more democratic process" and moved to accept the mayor's proposed technical amendments and the committee's policy-driven spending plan. She said the budget prioritized homelessness, public safety and clean streets and noted the board's use of a public spending-plan approach in place of the traditional add-back process.

The board heard extended remarks from several supervisors and staff about specific allocations. Supervisors highlighted funding streams included in the package: roughly $27 million in proposed investments for homelessness programs (listed by speakers as including a transitional-age-youth navigation center, rapid rehousing subsidies, treatment-bed expansion and additional street-medicine staff); $6.6 million for corridor managers and $5 new steam cleaners for streets; and $1.2 million for workforce development. President Cohen said the board's committee developed a spending plan of just over $41 million drawn from organizations' public funding requests and that Mayor London Breed added roughly $1.7 million the previous day for related priorities, including $1 million toward stabilizing housing for people with more complex mental-health needs and $725,000 for clean-streets work.

The meeting also recorded procedural actions. Supervisor Aaron Peskin announced a recusal on a limited portion of the budget tied to a specific district project (identified in the record as a line in the appropriation for RPBOS district projects on the budget page cited by the deputy city attorney). The board excused Supervisor Peskin for that vote and divided the budget to separate the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) items from the remainder of the budget.

Supervisor Sandy Fewer moved to divide the file and to take the SFMTA portion separately. After an initial roll call and a brief rescinding motion to correct the procedure, the board held a recorded roll-call on the SFMTA budget: the transit appropriation was adopted with nine ayes and one no (Supervisor Fewer cast the sole dissent on that vote, recorded in the roll call). The remainder of the budget package then passed in a separate roll call with 10 ayes.

Several supervisors used their remarks to describe priorities that shaped the final package. Supervisor Norman Yee and others praised investments to expand City College programs and early-education and child-care planning; Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer and others emphasized improvements to the add-back/legislative process that they said reduced back-room politics; Supervisor Mark Farrell (in remarks acknowledging prior…