San Francisco and California Ballot Backstory · Why is this on my ballot?
Prop A: summary
Charter Changes Affecting Various City Departments and Commissions
Mark your own choices here. You may bring this sheet into the voting booth.
A YES vote means
The City updates its Charter, cuts or reorganizes some commissions, lets the Board approve legal settlements by resolution, and must amend some voter-approved laws.
A NO vote means
The Charter stays as it is. Current commissions and processes stay, and most voter-approved laws still need voter approval to change.
Both ovals are empty on purpose. The choice is yours.
If it fails
Nothing changes if it fails
If Prop A fails, current City Charter rules stay in place: the commissions and advisory bodies it would end or change keep their present form. Changes to the Charter need voter approval.
Why it’s on the ballot now
The Charter is the City’s constitution. Over time, some of its rules and other voter-approved laws have become out of date. The Charter, and most laws passed by voters, can be changed only by voters.
The Commission Streamlining Task Force met in 2025 to advise City leaders on ways to cut or combine commissions. Prop A would require it to meet every ten years.
Under the Charter, Public Works was to take over the Department of Sanitation and Streets’ duties on January 1, 2023. Today the Sanitation and Streets Commission and the Public Works Commission both oversee parts of Public Works’ work. Prop A would eliminate both commissions.
Most voter-approved laws can be changed only by voters. Supporters say even small updates to some commissions, such as how often they meet, must go to the ballot.
Prop A also deletes a Charter section that bars strikes by City workers other than Police and Fire and sets discipline for those who strike, and lets the City change or end 2018 Prop C’s oversight committee by ordinance.
The money
The Controller estimates Prop A would save the City $365,000 to $450,000 a year by eliminating three commissions and advisory bodies, and may free staff time. Convening the streamlining task force every ten years would need staff. For context, the 2025 task force took about 5,900 staff hours. Paying Youth Commission members, if leaders choose, could cost $5,000 to $85,000 a year.
Needs a simple majority (50% + 1) to pass Some measures need 55% or two-thirds of votes to pass. This one needs only a simple majority.Who bears the cost
City governmentNo new cost
The Controller says Prop A would save the City $365,000 to $450,000 a year by eliminating some bodies. Other costs and savings depend on future budget decisions.
The strongest case for and against
Strongest case for
Supporters, including Mayor Daniel Lurie and Board President Rafael Mandelman, call Prop A a “housekeeping” measure of 110 small fixes to an outdated Charter. They say the fixes target laws made pointless by new technology, such as requiring the City to employ a bookbinder; duplicate reports that waste staff time; and commissions that serve no purpose, such as one that oversees a department that no longer exists. They argue that small updates to commissions should not be delayed by a citywide election, and Prop A lets the Board make them by ordinary law. They say it removes none of the five commissions that oversee homeless services.
Strongest case against
The Coalition on Homelessness, which wrote the official argument against, says the Charter should be improved but not at the cost of transparency and checks on power. It warns that Prop A lets the Board, by majority vote, remove the oversight committee for 2018’s Prop C, a tax to fund homeless services. It credits that committee with helping house over 8,400 people. It says removing commissions that voters created weakens public participation. A paid argument by columnist Patrick Monette-Shaw says Prop A makes some required qualifications for commission members merely “desired,” which Monette-Shaw says invites patronage, and ends the rule that boards and commissions file annual reports.