Budget Week opens in San Francisco, and City Hall is already sweating. Police pay, drug policy, and a DA controversy are all on the board before Tuesday is even over. Welcome to The San Francisco Daily Fix — I'm Cassidy, with Devin, and today we're deep in the machinery of local government. Police union deal, drug-free housing debates, a DA declining charges in a sexual assault case — yeah, this is the week where we find out what the city actually values, not what it says it values. And there are some uncomfortable questions about a mayoral appointment we'll get to. But first, let's start with the budget. The Voice of San Francisco writes:
This week San Francisco City Hall hosts a busy week with an ample docket of policy challenges as the Board of Supervisors begin their formal review of the city budget on Wednesday. But before that, they have another opportunity to vote on a bill to fund drug-free supportive housing and create a reward fund to combat hate crimes.
Hat tip to The Voice of San Francisco for keeping track of this week's City Hall docket. It's a busy one. Budget season formally starts Wednesday, but before that there's a vote on drug-free supportive housing funding and a new hate crime reward fund. Drug-free supportive housing, finally. Handing someone a subsidized apartment with no expectation they stay clean has been a disaster for residents and neighbors alike. If this bill passes, that's a real change. On the hate crimes side, Supervisors Dorsey, Wong, Sauter, and Sherrill want a reward fund — up to a hundred grand for tips that lead to conviction — modeled on what SFPD already does in homicide cases. That's smart, unglamorous policy. You want to deter hate crimes? Make the tip line worth calling. And Dorsey's framing — 'instill fear into hate criminals' — is exactly the right energy. Angela Woodall, writing in Patch:
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie signed legislation today to seal a new four-year labor agreement with the San Francisco Police Officers Association. The deal sets pay raises, staffing incentives, and recruitment tools aimed at strengthening the city’s police force and emergency response capacity, according to the mayor's office.
Mayor Lurie today signed a four-year labor deal with the San Francisco Police Officers Association — that's the SFPOA, the police union. It locks in three percent annual raises for the first three years, then five percent in year four, plus hiring bonuses to poach officers from other jurisdictions. That's what you do when you're trying to rebuild a depleted department. SFPD has been hemorrhaging officers for years, so if you want to stop the bleeding, you pay competitively. And hiring bonuses for officers from other departments is smart — you're getting trained cops, not rookies. There's also a FIFA World Cup wrinkle: the deal softens overtime rules around the tournament, and that hits San Francisco this summer. The city needed labor peace before that circus got here, so the timing was not an accident. Four years of cost certainty, a clean retention ladder, extra bumps at eight and ten years of service — honestly, this is the kind of boring, functional governance that actually moves the needle on public safety. I'll take it. Mission Local writes:
Johnston says Breed in November 2024 told him that billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has put millions into Breed’s political career, personally called her and asked for Stephen Sherrill to be appointed to the vacant District 2 supervisorial seat.
Sherrill, a native New Yorker, had previously worked for then-New York Mayor Bloomberg.
Mission Local has a spicy one: two former Breed staffers are now saying, on the record, that she appointed Stephen Sherrill to District 2 not on merit, but because Bloomberg personally called in a favor. Breed and Sherrill both deny it. And the guy saying this isn't some random critic — it's Conor Johnston, who once said he'd crawl through broken glass and bite an alligator for Breed. When your biggest superfan flips, that's not nothing. The Bloomberg thread is worth unpacking. Sherrill worked under Bloomberg in New York, then landed a Bloomberg-funded position in Breed's office, and now he's the District 2 supervisor. That's a lot of Bloomberg for one resume. This is the part that should bother everybody, whatever your politics. Mayoral appointments to fill vacant supervisor seats are already unaccountable enough without a billionaire from New York apparently picking up the phone to fill one. From Angela Woodall at Patch:
San Francisco prosecutors have halted a criminal case against four Baltimore police officers accused of sexual assault. Prosecutors from the San Francisco District Attorney's Office said they could not prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt despite earlier warrant review and a months-long investigation, according to reports.
San Francisco's DA has declined to charge four Baltimore police officers accused of sexually assaulting a Bay Area woman, saying they can't meet the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard after a months-long investigation. The four officers — including a suspended Baltimore district commander — are still on administrative duty with pay. So they keep their paychecks while the woman who reported this gets told there's not enough evidence. That's a brutal outcome. To be precise, declining to charge isn't the same as exoneration. The DA's threshold is proof beyond a reasonable doubt — high bar by design. Baltimore's internal investigation is still ongoing, so this isn't necessarily the final word. Right, but an internal investigation at the same department that employed these guys? Color me skeptical that justice gets served on that track. You'll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, so if something stuck with you, they're there for a closer read.
That's The San Francisco Daily Fix for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.