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Smart Voter
San Francisco County, CA November 3, 2009 Election
Proposition B
Board of Supervisors Aides
City of San Francisco
Charter Amendment - Majority Approval Required

Fail: 0.0% Yes votes ...... 47,361 / 47.74% No votes

See Also: Index of all Propositions
Results as of Nov 10 4:00pm, 100.0% of Precincts Reporting (428/428)
22.0% Voter Turnout (99,649/451,988)
Information shown below: Summary | Fiscal Impact | Official Information | Arguments |

Should the City Charter be amended to allow members of the Board of Supervisors an unspecified number of aides?

Summary Prepared by LWVSF Pro & Con Guide:
The Background: The current Charter allows each of the eleven members of the Board of Supervisors to have two aides. The Proposal: This measure would amend the City Charter to remove the stipulation that each member of the Board Supervisors have two aides.

Fiscal Impact from The Controller of San Francisco:
The Controller states the following: Should the proposed Charter Amendment be approved by the voters, in my opinion, it would not in and of itself affect the cost of government. The proposal would remove the current reference in the Charter limiting each member of the Board of Supervisors to two staff aides. In effect, the number of staff for the members of the Board of Supervisors would become subject to the normal budgetary and fiscal provisions of the Charter through which annual budgets are proposed by the Mayor and revised and approved by the Board of Supervisors. Currently each of the eleven members of the Board of Supervisors is authorized to have two staff members. The legislative aide job classification currently in use for these staff pays from $69,500 to $93,100 annually and the total cost of the 22 positions is approximately
2.3 million annually including salary and benefits.

Official Sources of Information

  
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Arguments For Proposition B Arguments Against Proposition B
1. Staffing levels should be arranged according to what is needed, not dictated by the City Charter.
2. The realities of the City's budget will act as a constraint on the number of people hired and their salaries.
3. This measure would benefit constituents by giving Supervisors more flexibility in their staffing needs, which would result in increased responsiveness to the needs of citizens. Additional resources would also improve the quality of research
4. San Francisco has relatively few aides per elected official, compared with other large California cities.

1. It is unreasonable for Supervisors to ask for increased staffing when the City's budget is in such crisis.
2. This measure seeks to ignore the wishes of the voters; in 2000 (Proposition B) and 2004 (Proposition D) there were similar measures that were not passed by voters.
3. The City should be trimming staff; not adding new positions that could be costly to the City.
4. The Supervisors' aides do not need to do in-depth research on issues, since there are already City offices that provide research and data.

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Created: December 29, 2009 12:08 PST
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