Supervisors advance budget package, forward appropriation and salary ordinances to full Board after multiple holds and technical adjustments

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Appropriation Committee on June 26 moved the mayor’s revised spending plan toward final adoption, forwarding the appropriation and salary ordinances to the full Board after accepting many Budget & Legislative Analyst (BLA) recommendations and incorporating technical adjustments.

Chair Supervisor Connie Chan said the purpose of the recessed committee meeting was to finalize outstanding departmental items before recommending a balanced budget package to the Board. The committee accepted the BLA’s recommendations broadly, while explicitly rejecting or holding a set of items that included a Department of Early Childhood facilities request, a transgender subsidy line in Homelessness and Supportive Housing (CYHOM 1), and three Public Defender clean slate program requests. Chan put the full list on the record and asked the clerk to call roll; the committee’s motion passed on recorded vote.

Committee staff and the BLA flagged several items that need more documentation or policy review before final Board consideration. The mayor’s budget office and controller’s staff provided a list of technical adjustments the mayor plans to include in the packet going to the full Board; Budget Director Anna Dooney told supervisors those adjustments reallocate staffing and small program dollars, rebalance certain department budgets and appropriate about $9.8 million identified by the BLA.

Committee members pressed departments for clearer operational detail on several leases and program rollouts included in the spending plan. Supervisors asked for memos or clarifying exhibits on hours of operation, staffing levels and partner organizations where the city would occupy leased spaces; for one high-profile lease the Human Rights Commission’s director committed to providing a formal memo before the full Board hearing.

The committee also tabled an ordinance (item 12) that would authorize Recreation and Park to charge fees for reserving tennis and pickleball courts outside Golden Gate Park Tennis Center; staff estimated roughly $475,000 in annual revenue related to that fee but the committee agreed to hold the item while fitting it into the larger budget package.

With the technical amendments agreed and the requested memos pledged, Chair Chan moved items 3 and 4 — the annual appropriation ordinance and the salary ordinance — and the committee voted to forward the budget package to the July full Board meeting with a positive recommendation. The final vote on forwarding the ordinance and related items recorded four ayes with one member absent.

Next steps: the committee asked departments to supply the written operational details the BLA requested and scheduled continued consideration of several substantive items at the July hearings; the full Board will vote on the appropriation and salary ordinances at the July meeting. The committee convened and adjourned the day's business thereafter.