Supes veto creating public advocate post

A push to create an elected public advocate position to birddog San Francisco city services and investigate whistleblower complaints failed to get enough votes at the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to make it onto the ballot.

The public advocate charter amendment failed 65, with Board President Norman Yee and Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Catherine Stefani, Ahsha Safaí, Sandra Lee Fewer and Rafael Mandelman voting against it. The majority said that creating a new bureaucracy would be fiscally imprudent and that the city should instead work to strengthen existing oversight roles.

The motivations for those opposing the charter amendment, which was sponsored by Supervisor Gordon Mar, varied somewhat. Fewer said she objected to the cost of a new city office as well as the fact that former elected officials and department heads — who might not be objective in their factfinding role — would be eligible to run for the position.

Stefani said a new bureaucracy, led by an elected official, was not the answer.

“In all my years, I’ve never heard anyone say that the answer to San Francisco problems was more politicians,” she said.

Peskin said a range of appointed and elected officials — including the Ethics Commission and the Board of Supervisors — already have the power to clean up government.

“Our job is to root out corruption,” Peskin said. “I have been been doing that for 13 years. We don’t need new departments. Let’s just do our jobs.”

Supporters of the amendment, which would have appeared on the November ballot if it had been approved, said the ongoing FBI corruption investigation into multiple city departments and the federal indictment of former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru made it clear city government doesn’t do a good job of policing itself.

In arguing for the advocate position, Mar said government corruption is far more costly than the $700,000 to $1 million a year that the office would cost. He said the public advocate position in New York City saves that city “20 times the amount it costs.”

“This is not a spending measure; this is a costsaving measure,” he said. “The system we have has failed the people of the city.”

The board did vote 74 to put another charter amendment on the ballot: the creation of a new Department of Sanitation and Streets, as well as a new commission to oversee the Department of Public Works. That measure was opposed by Stefani, Mandelman, Fewer and Yee.

Supervisor Matt Haney, who sponsored the charter amendment, said that because of the deplorable condition of San Francisco’s trashstrewn streets, “our city has become the butt of jokes on nightly news.”

He said creating a department “solely focused on keeping our city clean, green and sanitary” would be more effective than leaving the responsibility with Public Works, which is charged with everything from designing city buildings to filling potholes to maintaining street trees.

The condition of the streets “has deep impact on quality of life and human dignity of the folks who live in our city,” he said. “The community is yelling and screaming and demanding this. They cannot live in these conditions any longer.”

Mandelman, who opposed the amendment, agreed that residents are “furious” about the blight on the city streets but said creating a new department is not the best response.

“I don’t think the way to get the problem addressed is setting up a new bureaucracy,” he said.