Supervisors Advance Naomi Kelly's Nomination as City Administrator After Wide Community Support

Naomi Kelly, the acting city administrator, asked the Rules Committee on Jan. 26 to confirm her five-year appointment by Mayor Ed Lee, describing a career that began in city government in 1996 and emphasizing priorities including local hiring, procurement reform, community benefits agreements and emergency preparedness. "I am deeply honored and grateful to have been nominated by Mayor Ed Lee to a 5 year term as the city administrator," Kelly said during her remarks.

Kelly told supervisors she had worked across administrations and departments on initiatives intended to expand local hiring and streamline contracting. She cited recent work implementing the city's mandatory local-hire ordinance and said she helped negotiate a community benefits agreement with Zendesk as part of the mid-Market payroll tax exclusion program. On procurement, she said purchasing has pushed to source environmentally preferred products and adopt web-based systems to improve certified-payroll submissions.

Supervisor David Campos, who moved the committee—s positive recommendation, said Kelly has shown a consistent emphasis on responsiveness to the public. "You have been very responsive and always trying to find ways of doing things better," Campos said, praising her record on local-hire implementation and community outreach.

Dozens of labor leaders, community organizations and neighborhood advocates rose in public comment to urge confirmation. Speakers representing the Laborers union, Local 21, the NAACP, the African American Art & Culture Complex and other groups described Kelly—s outreach to underserved communities and her work connecting residents to job-training programs. Vince Courtney, speaking for labor leaders, said Kelly—s nomination energized union members: "We clearly support Ms. Kelly, and I think the best words to describe the laborers' position is that we are absolutely fired up for her." Several commenters cited examples of Kelly placing job trainees in programs and facilitating local-hire opportunities.

After the public record, Campos moved and a colleague seconded a motion to forward the nomination with a positive recommendation to the full Board of Supervisors. The committee approved the motion without recorded opposition; the full Board is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Next steps: The committee—s positive recommendation sends Kelly—s confirmation request to the full Board, which must vote to finalize the appointment.