Supervisors launch new budget‑priority review, schedule in‑depth hearings on homelessness, clean streets and public safety

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee on [date not specified] heard a presentation from Dan Goncher of the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office on a new process to set the board’s budget priorities for fiscal years 2018–19 and 2019–20. The office collected each board office’s top three citywide priorities in February and found homelessness and housing, clean streets and public safety were the three most frequently cited concerns.

Goncher said the analyst’s office will produce deeper, program‑level reports on those top priorities that will include the status of established programs, historical spending, available performance measures and identification of funding opportunities the board could consider. The BLA will also provide higher‑level analyses on lower‑ranked priorities.

The office set a schedule of committee presentations: April 12 on clean streets, April 19 on public safety and April 26 on homelessness and housing, with a follow‑up meeting planned for May 3. Written reports will be provided to the board a few days before each presentation, Goncher said.

Supervisor Catherine Stephanie asked whether the performance measures would be ones supplied by board offices or ones developed by the analyst; Goncher said they will include official measures tracked by the Controller’s Office and the City Services Auditor as well as other readily identifiable metrics, and invited board offices to propose additional measures.

The committee had no public commenters on the agenda item and the hearing was filed on a motion by Supervisor Catherine Stephanie, seconded by Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, taken without objection. The schedule for the deeper hearings gives supervisors several weeks to review the staff reports before budget decisions that will guide the mayor’s proposed budget.