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Board grants one-week continuance on administrative code changes after union concerns
Summary
Supervisors continued consideration one week of an administrative code amendment to employee relations (Item 15) after a bargaining unit raised concerns about exclusion from the process; staff warned a delay could trigger further negotiations and instability in upcoming bargaining cycles.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday continued for one week an ordinance amending the administrative code provisions on employee relations to allow the Department of Human Resources to update language to comply with state and local law.
Supervisor John Marr moved for the continuance after members of a bargaining unit said they had been excluded from parts of the process and asked for more time to resolve language concerns. The motion to continue was seconded by Supervisor Dufty and approved without objection.
Martin Grand of the Department of Human Resources told the board that all bargaining units had been invited to participate in meet-and-confer negotiations and that the DHR and labor had worked “nearly 12 months” on the negotiations and met “countless hours” with union legal counsel. He said DHR believed the document deserved to go forward because the process had been met and “all of labor is on board.”
Several supervisors pressed whether a short delay would cause harm. Grand and other staff warned that even a one-week continuance could begin internal discussions that might not be limited to one week and could trigger further rounds of negotiations and instability in labor relations ahead of spring bargaining. They said the existing Employee Relations Ordinance (ERO) was outdated and in conflict with state law and the charter, and that moving forward would provide clarity for next year’s bargaining cycles.
Supervisor David Chiu and others said they were willing to accept Marr’s one-week compromise; Supervisor Scott Ellsburn urged the board to proceed immediately, saying repeated delays would prolong the process. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and others noted rank-and-file members had asked for a short delay; Marr positioned one week as a compromise between those requests and the administration’s concerns.
Without objection, the board continued the item to the November 16 meeting. DHR staff told the board the delay would not immediately derail benefits for those already agreed to but cautioned that an open-ended delay could imperil the overall agreement and the city’s bargaining timeline.
This continuance does not constitute adoption of the ordinance; follow-up meetings and any additional changes will be reported at the continued hearing next week.
