Supervisors accept PLA amendments, send ordinance to full board after wide public testimony
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Summary
The Budget & Finance Committee accepted negotiated amendments to a proposed citywide Project Labor Agreement ordinance — including $5M runway and $10M non‑bond thresholds, controller data collection and annual reviews — and forwarded the item to the full Board with a positive recommendation after hours of public comment for and against.
The Budget and Finance Committee on Thursday accepted a package of negotiated amendments to a proposed citywide Project Labor Agreement (PLA) ordinance and voted to forward the ordinance to the full Board of Supervisors with a positive recommendation.
The amendments change coverage thresholds and add reporting and review requirements. Supervisor A. Peskin said the work to reach this draft had been long: “This has been a long, arduous road.” Supervisor A. Safaie and Mayor’s Office staff described changes that create a $5,000,000 "runway" for local business enterprises (LBEs) to transition, a $10,000,000 threshold for non‑bond work, and a path for bond‑funded projects to step down toward lower thresholds over time.
Supporters and opponents turned out in force during an extended public comment period. Labor and building‑trades speakers argued the PLA will protect wages, benefits and safety while preserving local hire requirements; a labor representative said PLAs “work” and urged committee members to move the ordinance forward. Contractors and LBE advocates said the joint‑signatory language and the ordinance term raise the risk that small and micro LBEs — many minority‑owned — could be shut out without additional safeguards. The Lawyers’ Committee and Coalition for Economic Equity asked for more time to assess micro‑LBE impacts and proposed amendments to strengthen civil‑rights protections.
Under the accepted amendments, the ordinance requires the city administrator to negotiate a citywide PLA with the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades and affiliates, clarifies that existing local hire and LBE codes (Chs. 12, 14, 82, 83) continue to apply, and directs the Office of the Controller to collect utilization data and perform annual reviews to assess PLA impacts on LBEs and local workforce. Supervisor Safaie emphasized that many specific protections and measurements will be negotiated in the final PLA contract rather than set exclusively in the ordinance.
The committee took the amendments without objection and moved the item to the full Board as a committee report. The Board will consider the ordinance and the attached negotiation roadmap at its next hearing.
