Measure A: Charter Changes Affecting Various City Departments and Commissions

Prop A is a common-sense solution to an obvious problem: City Hall has too much bureaucracy that slows everything down. Complex organizations with tens of thousands of employees need Directly Responsible Individuals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCqKmhCBtJk) who can be held accountable for failures. The ultimate Directly Responsible Individual is the Mayor, and voters decide if he or she has done a good job. But currently the Mayor lacks the power to hold individuals accountable (https://growsf.org/research/not-a-strong-mayor-city/) in many departments because they are shielded by commissions that don't answer to the Mayor. What we get instead is diffusion of responsibility (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_responsibility), chaos, and failure. Prop A fixes that.

A San Francisco Civil Grand Jury report (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/civil-grand-jury-commission-impossible-302178153.html) counted 152 commissions (https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/7._Final_Report_Second_Draft_2026-01-14.pdf) cluttering City Hall. Every commission and unaccountable layer of bureaucracy blurs responsibility, so when something fails nobody is responsible and nothing is fixed. Two decades of well-intentioned but poorly executed ballot measures built this broken system, and it's time to fix it.

Prop A restores a functional chain of command so that individuals are clearly responsible for success or failure. Departments will answer to elected individuals, not unelected commissioners, so voters can actually hold them accountable. Every link in the chain of command will now end with you. Vote yes on Prop A.

Source (https://growsf.org/voter-guide/san-francisco-voter-guide-november-2026-election#prop-a)

SPUR's Recommendation

Voters have passed more than 100 amendments to the charter in the 30 years since its last comprehensive cleanup. Although the proposed measure contains many individual amendments, nearly all are technical, administrative, or housekeeping changes that simplify and modernize the charter without materially changing city policy. Consistent with SPUR’s Charter for Change recommendations, the measure would reduce unnecessary charter detail, modernize many outdated provisions, simplify the city’s commission and advisory board structure, and shift certain functions and bodies to the administrative code so they can be amended in the future without voter approval. While the final package avoids more controversial but needed reforms, it nonetheless reflects a worthwhile housekeeping package worthy of voters’ support.

What Prop. A Would Do

This broad cleanup measure would make numerous changes to individual provisions in the San Francisco City Charter:

Streamline commissions and advisory bodies. The Streets and Sanitation Commission and the Public Works Commission would be eliminated. Several other commissions and advisory bodies would shift from the city charter to the administrative code, allowing the Board of Supervisors to amend their duties without voter approval. The duties or names of other appointed bodies would be amended but remain in the city charter.

Streamline procedural requirements for city departments. Detailed procedural requirements for many departments, including the Municipal Transportation Agency, the Public Utilities Commission, and the Controller’s Office, would be eliminated, simplified, or moved to the administrative code.

Allow the Board of Supervisors to amend certain voter-adopted ordinances. Voter-adopted ordinances can typically be amended only by a subsequent ballot measure. Proposition A would instead permit the Board of Supervisors to modify or eliminate any aspect of the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee and the procedures governing official newspaper notice of certain government actions — changes voters adopted in prior years.

Require a task force to review and recommend changes to appointed bodies and commissions every 10 years.The voter-adopted Commission Streamlining Task Force would be required to review and offer recommendations on city commissions and advisory bodies every 10 years.

The Backstory

In November 2024, voters passed Proposition E, requiring the city to create a commission streamlining task force charged with developing recommendations to change the city’s unwieldy, duplicative system of commissions, appointed boards, and advisory bodies created in the charter and code. This measure would adopt some of these recommendations.

The task force reviewed 152 boards, commissions, and advisory bodies, including 42 established in the charter and 110 created by ordinance or other authorities. It recommended reducing the total to 87 active bodies by retaining 86, consolidating two into one, eliminating 60 inactive or duplicative bodies, and taking no action on four others.

The Board of Supervisors adopted most recommendations covering bodies created by legislative action in May 2026. That action eliminated dozens of inactive or duplicative advisory bodies and modified 15 others.

The task force recommended reducing the 42 bodies embedded in the charter to 24, generally preserving major governance commissions while moving many advisory and administrative bodies into the administrative code. This action requires approval of a voter-adopted charter amendment.

Prop. A would adopt some of the task force’s recommendations for these charter bodies. It would eliminate two charter commissions (Streets and Sanitation and Public Works) and shift two others (Human Services and Disability and Aging Services), as well as several advisory bodies, from the city charter to the administrative code. Duties for several charter commissions would modestly change. The measure would not adopt several more contentious Task Force recommendations.

Beyond these changes to charter commissions and advisory boards, the measure proposes “housekeeping” changes to other sections of the charter. As SPUR’s 2025 report Charter for Change describes, San Francisco’s charter contains departmental procedural detail well beyond the typical “constitutional standard” for city charters. That standard recommends that procedural detail for charter-established departments reside in code.

Prop. A proposes minor and often technical changes to detailed operating requirements and procedures for 40 departments. These changes are generally modest, updating outdated language, removing non-operative clauses, shifting some requirements to the code, and modifying or eliminating other requirements. Examples:

• Reducing operational details defined in the charter that govern the operations of the Municipal Transportation Agency
• Removing detailed and specific audit requirements for the Controller’s Office while retaining the office’s broad charge and authority to conduct audits
• Removing non-operative language, outdated provisions, and other minor requirements for the Public Utilities Commission
• Eliminating, modifying, or shifting to code some overlapping and conflicting requirements that apply to all departments.

The measure would reconvene the Commission Streamlining Task every 10 years, thereby providing a formal, institutionalized process to periodically review the city’s commission and advisory board structure as new bodies are added and as needs and circumstances change.

The measure was sponsored by Board of Supervisors President Mandelman and was placed on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors through the legislative process. It requires a simple majority (50% plus one vote) to pass.

Equity Impacts

The measure primarily proposes administrative, technical, or minor changes to the city’s charter, so it would have few direct equity impacts.

By simplifying government operations, updating advisory bodies, and moving operational details out of the charter, it could modestly improve the city’s ability to adapt programs and services to meet the needs of San Francisco’s diverse communities.

Commissions and advisory bodies provide a public forum for communities to inform city policies, particularly for vulnerable communities that may lack access through other channels. While the measure makes only modest changes to the city’s broader commission and advisory body structure, it would eliminate several bodies, which may modestly reduce this access. Importantly, other public venues remain available in each service area.

Pros

• Taken together with changes already adopted by ordinance, Prop. A would make significant, needed reforms to the city’s unwieldy commission and advisory board structure.
• The measure would make modest but meaningful progress in updating outdated requirements throughout the city charter, improving operational efficiency.
• Shifting several departments and many procedures to the administrative code and allowing the Board of Supervisors to amend other voter-adopted laws would let elected policymakers change them as needs and priorities change.

Con

• The proposed changes to the city’s commission system do not implement many recommendations of the voter-adopted task force charged with proposing changes to that system.

Source (https://www.spur.org/voter-guide/2026-11/sf-prop-a-departments-and-commission)

Proposition A is a collection of various technical fixes to the City’s charter. For the planned merger of the Department of Building Inspections and the Planning Department to be successful, the Building Inspection Commission (which oversees the Department of Building Inspection) will need to be updated as well. SF YIMBY endorses Proposition A because it gives the Board the flexibility to make those updates instead of requiring yet another ballot measure.

Proposition A is a collection of various technical fixes to the City’s charter. For the planned merger of the Department of Building Inspections and the Planning Department to be successful, the Building Inspection Commission (which oversees the Department of Building Inspection) will need to be updated as well. SF YIMBY endorses Proposition A because it gives the Board the flexibility to make those updates instead of requiring yet another ballot measure.

Restructures San Francisco's extensive system of commissions and advisory bodies by eliminating or consolidating some bodies, standardizing appointment and removal procedures, and making portions of the structure easier to change in the future. CADC supports Prop. A because San Francisco has accumulated numerous overlapping, inactive or duplicative bodies that can diffuse responsibility and consume staff resources. The committee favored clearer lines of accountability and a more streamlined government structure while recognizing the counterargument that commissions provide independent public oversight.

CADC 認為三藩市不少的委員會及諮詢機構職能重疊、缺乏效率，所以精簡架構及釐清責任有助提升政府效率，因此支持提案 A。

Source (https://www.sfcadc.org/11_2026_propositions)

This charter amendment eliminates redundant or unnecessary commissions (like the Sanitation and Streets Commission), requires regular convening of a Commission Streamlining Task Force every 10-years to review the commission system, and removes outdated legal language.

We recommend voting Yes on A. This is a common-sense measure that streamlines city government. Reforming the commission structure will reduce redundant bureaucracy and create a more efficient and responsive government.

Source (https://www.sfblueprint.org/advocacy/november-2026-voter-guide)

Streamlines our bloated City Charter and reins in the tangle of oversight committees that diffuse responsibility. Fewer layers, more accountability.

Source (https://sfgop.org/nov-2026-endorsements)

Prop A - SF Charter Cleanup

What it does: Prop A: 1) eliminates seven superfluous city entities, 2) changes both departmental operations and reporting requirements and how the Board of Supervisors must approve settlements or dismissals of legal proceedings recommended by the City Attorney; (3) removes provisions allowing disciplinary action against non-police- and non-fire-striking employees; and (4) makes additional changes to the San Francisco City Charter and past voter-approved ordinances.

Endorsement: YES on Proposition A

Prop A is the Board of Supervisor’s timid execution of the Commission Streamlining Task Force’s recommendation to clean up city boards and commissions (e.g., the Sanitation and Streets Commissionoversees a non-existent department). That’s the definition of waste. The task force wanted bigger cuts. Supervisors flinched. This is the result.

Vote YES. The Charter should not be a museum of committees that meet so they can keep their titles and enjoy taxpayer-funded healthcare.

Source (https://www.connectedsf.com/2026-voter-guide#prop-a)

What it does: Prop A: 1) eliminates seven superfluous city entities, 2) changes both departmental operations and reporting requirements and how the Board of Supervisors must approve settlements or dismissals of legal proceedings recommended by the City Attorney; (3) removes provisions allowing disciplinary action against non-police- and non-fire-striking employees; and (4) makes additional changes to the San Francisco City Charter and past voter-approved ordinances.

Endorsement: YES on Proposition A

Prop A is the Board of Supervisor’s timid execution of the Commission Streamlining Task Force’s recommendation to clean up city boards and commissions (e.g., the Sanitation and Streets Commissionoversees a non-existent department). That’s the definition of waste. The task force wanted bigger cuts. Supervisors flinched. This is the result.

Vote YES . The Charter should not be a museum of committees that meet so they can keep their titles and enjoy taxpayer-funded healthcare.

Prop A is mostly focused on purging "inefficient" government commissions from the city charter. Okay, some of these commissions are just places for city officials to park their friends, and a few, like the “Advisory Committee of Street Artists and Crafts Examiners” might  not be absolutely vital to the city’s functioning. But Prop A throws away the baby with the bathwater by also targeting some important voter-approved independent oversight commissions, which we think is shady AF.

Prop A specifically targets the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee. This committee was created in 2019 by an overwhelming majority of San Francisco voters to provide citizen oversight over the new Our City, Our Home homeless services fund. Funded by a new gross receipts tax on big businesses, Our City, Our Home has raised over $300 million annually, which is spent on assisted living facilities, supportive housing, and mental health treatment facilities. 

Thousands of San Franciscans rely on these subsidized services to stay housed. Because a lot is at stake, and it's a lot of money, voters also created the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee to track the money, to inspect service contracts, and to give a voice to the unhoused who depend on these services.

If Prop A passes, this voter-mandated oversight committee would be removed from the protection of the city charter and could be dissolved by a simple majority vote of the Board of Supervisors. Lucrative city contracts will be awarded without citizen oversight. Unhoused residents will not have a voice in City Hall. For these reasons, we cannot support Prop A and recommend a No.

Source (https://www.theleaguesf.org/#PropA)

Commission reform to lower public oversight

Source (https://www.sfgreenparty.org/endorsements/123-november-2026-endorsements)

NO on Prop A, which would limit oversight of independent commissions: “Commission Streamlining” was put on the ballot by Supervisor Mandelman and Mayor Lurie. Prop A amends the charter, moving commissions out of the City Charter and into the municipal code with a simple majority vote of the Board of Supervisors, effectively allowing the removal of commissions put in place by voters.

Source (https://indivisiblesf.org/endorsements)