Fundraising persists after campaign

For much of this year, San Francisco Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Matt Haney were gearing up for a tough, expensive fight to get their overhaul of the city’s mental health care system passed on the March 2020 ballot.

Campaign staff was hired, a website was built and heartrending videos were produced to show the desperate state of those on the streets left behind by what the supervisors cast as a fundamentally broken system of care in San Francisco.

Like any campaign, success would come at a steep price. Beating back Mayor London Breed’s competing vision for reform would cost around $500,000, Ronen estimated Wednesday, prompting a predictable flurry of fundraising efforts, including soliciting donations over email.

The supervisors and the mayor eventually reconciled, uniting behind a single plan of action — Mental Health SF — and both sides agreed to pull their measures from the ballot.

But while the fighting may have ceased, the fundraising did not. Ronen and Haney had a compromise deal wrapped up with the mayor by Nov. 8, if not sooner. Still, their campaign continued sending out daily emails asking for donations through Nov. 12, when the supervisors and the mayor celebrated their agreement on the steps of City Hall.

Ronen said Wednesday that she and Haney spent months preparing for a grueling political fight, including the expensive tasks needed to assemble a campaign’s infrastructure.

Currently, Mental Health SF is around $30,000 in debt as a result, she said. The latest available campaign finance reports for Mental Health SF show the measure raised $78,500 between July and September and spent just over $71,000 in that same period.

“It will go to the campaign that got us to this point. It was in no way, shape or form meant to be misleading,” Ronen said.

It’s not unusual for campaigns to seek out donations even after an election ends. But language used in Tuesday’s fundraising email makes no mention that there was no longer any ballot measure to fight for, or that rolling out Mental Health SF was now largely in the hands of city officials — not the public. It’s unlikely that the language violated any campaign finance laws, but the language could be construed as misleading.

“We need your support to help us ensure that these services are rolled out efficiently and effectively. We won’t stop fighting until every San Franciscan has access to dignified, costeffective mental health care,” Tuesday’s email read.

Haney said Tuesday’s email would be the last for the campaign.

— Dominic Fracassa

Supervisors are close to placing a tax on the March ballot that would try to curb retail vacancies.

The measure, proposed by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, would hit landlords with an annual tax if their properties sit empty for six months — 182 days, to be exact — at a time. The point? Deter “bad actors” from intentionally keeping storefronts vacant for various reasons, including holding out for a tenant who can pay a higher rent.

“I want to be frank about our goal here,” Peskin said at Wednesday’s budget and finance committee meeting. “And that is to point fingers at a handful of bad actors. This will give the city the necessary tools to ... revitalize merchant corridors.”

But critics point out that some landlords are earnestly trying to fill space, but failing as more shopping moves online and as small businesses struggle to afford the high cost of doing business in San Francisco.

The measure — dubbed the vacancy tax — would levy a fee on landlords based on the length of their groundfloor storefront and how long it has been empty. The tax would begin at $250 per linear foot in year one, rise to $500 in year two and then double to $1,000 for each year thereafter.

Any proceeds generated from the tax would be donated to the Small Business Assistance Fund.

Landlords could apply for an exemption for various reasons.

Nearly every major neighborhood in San Francisco is peppered with vacant storefronts. That’s because local retailers have been socked by increased costs of doing business, arduous permitting processes and dwindling foot traffic.

Though Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said he supports the idea of the tax, he said he is worried how it could harm landlords whose storefronts are empty due to factors out of their control — like a dearth of tenants who can afford to operate a business in the city.

The budget and finance committee must vote on amendments to the measure Monday. From there, it will likely move to the full Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. If the board approves the measure, it will head to the March 2020 ballot where it will need a twothirds vote to become law.

— Trisha Thadani

District Attorneyelect Chesa Boudin will take office Jan. 8 — which means Interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus will remain in office until early next year.

Mayor London Breed — who endorsed Loftus and appointed her to the position last month — said Wednesday that she met with Boudin to congratulate him on his win. She said that Boudin requested that Loftus continue serving until he’s ready to assume the post.

“We discussed how we can work together to address the challenges facing our city, as well as to work out a transition plan,” Breed said in statement.

Breed appointed Loftus to the position when former District Attorney George Gascón prematurely left the position to run for the top prosecutor position in Los Angeles County. The mayor was slammed for her decision.

But Loftus was hardly in office for a month when she lost her bid for a fouryear term in the Nov. 5 election.

In a staff memo obtained by The Chronicle, Loftus said she offered Boudin the chance to immediately step into the role — but he asked for more time.

Boudin previously told The Chronicle that he is looking forward to finding common ground with the mayor and “expanding that whenever possible.”

— Trisha Thadani

Six days after her opponent claimed victory in the tense battle to represent San Francisco’s District Five, Supervisor Vallie Brown put an end to one of the closest district races in recent City Hall history and finally conceded.

Tenants Rights Activist Dean Preston squeezed out 187 more votes in the Nov. 5 election than the incumbent — a margin so small that Brown’s campaign considered calling for a recount. But on Thursday, Brown told supporters in an email that the “chances of a change in result are too slim to justify the time and cost.”

Brown, who was appointed to the Board of Supervisors seat by Mayor London Breed last year, called Preston Thursday morning to congratulate him on his win.

“He ran a strong campaign and I’ll be rooting for his success as supervisor,” she wrote in the letter, obtained by The Chronicle.

Preston will now represent District Five, which includes neighborhoods like the Fillmore, Western Addition, HaightAshbury and the Inner Sunset. The Department of Elections must certify the results of the election before Preston can take office.

He said his “best guess” is that his first meeting will be in midDecember.

Brown could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.

Despite the hardfought election, Preston won’t be able to get too comfortable in the role. The new supervisor will have to fight for the seat again in November 2020, as he is just filling out the rest of the term for Breed, who stepped away from the seat when she became mayor.

— Trisha Thadani