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Supervisors expand local‑hire and prevailing‑wage rules to projects on city‑owned property with targeted exemptions
Summary
An ordinance expands San Francisco's local hire and prevailing‑wage requirements to private developments on city‑owned land, adds limited exemptions (small tenant improvements, short special events, donor‑funded gifts) and allows projects with Board‑endorsed term sheets to be grandfathered if they commit to 30% local hire per trade.
The Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Finance Committee considered and accepted as a member‑of‑the‑whole an ordinance to extend the city’s local hiring program and prevailing‑wage requirements to private development on city‑owned property.
Supervisor John Avalos said the amendment brings private development on public land into the local hire framework and aligns prevailing‑wage requirements with state law. The package incorporated negotiated exemptions to reduce unintended burdens: tenant improvements under $750,000 per permit performed by a tenant; special events of three days or fewer (within a two‑week window); and donor‑funded 'gift' construction projects so long as the gift agreement requires workers to be paid the same prevailing rate that would apply to public works.
The ordinance also includes a narrowly tailored grandfathering clause for large waterfront projects that already have Board‑endorsed term sheets and fiscal feasibility findings: those projects can be exempted only if they sign a legally enforceable commitment to a 30% mandatory local participation level per trade, enforceable by OEWD.
Unions, community organizations and major private developers (including Forest City and the baseball Giants' development partners) are on record supporting the negotiated language; the companies committed voluntarily to raise prior local‑hire pledges to 30% per trade. The committee accepted the member‑of‑the‑whole amendments and moved the ordinance forward with a positive recommendation.
