"SPUR, a Bay Area urbanist think tank, today released a report with 10 recommendations for City Hall to reform its 548-page charter, which functions as the constitution for San Francisco. The report echoes past SPUR reports in that it recommends increasing mayoral power, and specifically calls for the mayor to be empowered to unilaterally hire and fire department heads. It also calls for enhancing the power of the City Administrator, setting a higher threshold for issues to end up on the ballot for voters and creating more flexibility to make changes on city budget and departmental structures."
"SPUR adviser Ed Harrington, San Francisco's controller from 1991 to 2008 and later a PUC general manager and commissioner, said that augmenting mayoral power is actually a good way to hold the mayor accountable. "If you want the mayor to be held responsible, you have to give them authority to make decisions," he said. Harrington recalled his conversation with former mayor London Breed. "What she said was 'nobody in the public is ever going to care what five of you who were on the Public Utilities Commission did,' Harrington said. 'They're going to blame me as mayor if I didn't make sure the water department ran.'""
San Francisco's 548-page charter functions as the city's constitution. Proposed reforms increase mayoral power, granting the mayor unilateral authority to hire and fire department heads and strengthening the City Administrator's role. Proposals would raise the threshold for placing issues on the ballot and create flexibility to adjust the city budget and departmental structures. Reforms would formalize mayoral policy chiefs and support a new organizational structure for the mayor's office. The measures align with plans for a November 2026 charter reform ballot likely supported by Mayor Daniel Lurie and Board President Rafael Mandelman.
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