LAFCO adopts $427,685 budget, keeps oversight of Clean Power SF and public‑bank working group role

The Local Agency Formation Commission on June 4 unanimously approved its final work plan and general fund budget for fiscal year 2021–22, a $427,685 package that continues LAFCO’s oversight of Clean Power SF and sets limited roles in a San Francisco Reinvestment Working Group public‑bank effort.

Executive Officer Brian Gobo recommended the budget and described three core work‑plan objectives: ongoing oversight of Clean Power SF, development of a scope for local renewable build‑out (including a possible solar‑plus‑storage demonstration at an affordable housing site), and participation in a working group on a proposed public bank. "My recommendation to you today, commissioners, is to adopt the final work plan and general fund budget in the amount of $427,685 requesting the full statutory amount of $341,240 from the general fund of the City and County of San Francisco," Gobo said during the presentation.

Why it matters: LAFCO’s oversight role places the commission in a monitoring position on Clean Power SF and gives it a coordination role on the city’s exploration of a public bank. The work plan also includes a new, limited partnership on a survey of app‑based workers that LAFCO said would be driven by external consultants and dependent on outside fundraising.

Gobo told commissioners that LAFCO’s statutory funding level is now $341,240, with protected carry forward balances of just over $86,000 and an MOU fund balance of a little more than $129,000 earmarked for Clean Power SF work. On the public‑bank front, Gobo said the legislation proposed by Commissioner Preston (and Supervisor Preston in the Board of Supervisors) outlines four categories of work for LAFCO: oversight, administrative and clerical support, running an RFP for a consultant, and producing a business and governance plan report to be submitted to the Board of Supervisors and LAFCO. He also said two committee amendments would move some clerical and administrative tasks from LAFCO to the clerk’s office and that details remained to be worked out.

On the survey of app‑based workers, Gobo described LAFCO’s role as limited to acting as a liaison and relaying results to relevant city departments; consultants would handle fundraising and the fieldwork. He emphasized the survey is contingent on that outside funding.

Procedure and vote: The clerk opened Item 3 and confirmed there were no public comments on the budget item. Vice Chair Cynthia Cruz Pollock and Commissioner Gordon Marr were recorded in the motion and second; the clerk’s roll call recorded three ayes and Chair Connie Chan declared the budget unanimously approved.

Other business: The commission approved the minutes from its May 21, 2021 meeting earlier in the session (motion moved by Vice Chair Cruz Pollock and seconded by Commissioner Marr, carried by voice/roll call), heard no public comment during the general‑comment period, and set its next regularly scheduled meeting for July 16. Chair Chan noted the June 4 meeting was a special meeting to meet the June 15 budget deadline.

The commission adjourned after completing the agenda.