Campers,
The Public Memory is short and the new billionaire con men are using AI to further befuddle us this time around.
You don’t need to own Garfield Playground to take control of it.
Owning it would make you responsible for upkeep and disposal of their Astro-turf.
The ink wasn’t even dry on heir Snydley Whiplash paper when they started putting up the yellow tape.
My comment on ML …
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POSTED INGOVERNMENT
Mayor Lurie, S.F. city administrator take first action with new voter-approved powers
by IO YEH GILMANNovember 10, 2026, 10:45 am
Carmen Chu, supported by Daniel Lurie, speaks to the press on Nov. 10, 2026. Photo by Zoe Malen.Play
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Mayor Daniel Lurie and City Administrator Carmen Chu today announced their first use of the expanded power granted to them by voters in last week’s election: creating citywide rules for signing contracts.
Proposition E, which is currently leading 64-36 with virtually all votes counted, grants the city administrator the sole authority to make changes to how the city grants contracts. Contracting represents a significant portion of the budget — $6 billion every year out of a budget of $17 billion.
Some of these purchases are for items that any workplace needs — toilet paper, computers, Microsoft Teams — while other contracts are for core city functions. Many of the city’s homelessness and street condition workers are hired through contracts, for instance, including the ambassadors tasked with monitoring the streets surrounding 16th and Mission.We have a $100,000 match!Double your gift!
With so much money in play, the city has rules to ensure that it is properly spent. But the current guidelines are insufficient, Lurie said, because they are “scattered across different sections of city law, and the rules can vary — leaving room for corruption and abuse.”
This legislation, Lurie added, is “the first step toward centralizing and depoliticizing contracting so it serves San Franciscans, not insiders” — repeating the term he deployed, repeatedly, during the $14.5 million, privately funded campaign that led to the overwhelming passage of the mayor’s charter package.
“Every day, dedicated public servants make decisions about how San Francisco spends taxpayer dollars,” Chu said. “They deserve clear rules, practical guidance, and the confidence to speak up when something doesn’t seem right.”
Lurie’s own administration has been criticized for its contracting decisions. In October 2025, his office granted a $5.9 million contract for digitizing the city’s permit system to OpenGov, even though city staff recommended a lower bid from a competitor and expressed doubts that OpenGov could do the necessary tasks. OpenGov went on to miss several key deadlines.
The new citywide standards introduced today by Lurie and Chu would:
- Prohibit giving certain vendors a leg up by sharing confidential information
- Require employees to disclose any conflicts of interest and potentially recuse themselves from contracting decisions
- Have communication between city staff and potential contractors go through official channels
- Prevent employees from splitting purchases or contracts into smaller amounts so they can avoid going through a competitive bidding process or avoid other requirements
- Explain that violating these ethical standards could result in getting fired or other discipline
These standardized rules, Chu said, “will set the foundation for a new culture around how the city does business.”
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Lurie and Chu gave some examples of the behavior they were hoping to prevent.
Chu spoke about how, across different departments and for different types of contracts, what constitutes splitting a contracting ilegally varies. Having clear guidelines for what a violation is, she said, will help city employees identify when lines are being crossed.
“It creates an additional tool for all of us, every single person involved with contracting, our city employees, our leadership, to be able to spot when bad behavior is happening,” she said.
Lurie spoke about rooting out corruption in city hall.
“We have examples of department heads that have gone to jail,” he said, a seeming reference to Mohamed Nuru at the Department of Public Works, who in the 2010s directed contracts to vendors who paid him bribes. Nuru’s actions, however, were a clear violation of the law at the time, and he was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in 2022. He was released early and this year relocated back to San Francisco.
In 2011, Mayor Ed Lee removed any oversight of Public Works contracting, enabling Nuru — his appointee and former lieutenant — to effectively oversee himself.
Under Proposition E, legislation introduced by the city administrator sits for 60 days and then automatically goes into effect, unless the mayor or a majority of the Board of Supervisors blocks it. The Board of Supervisors is not allowed to amend legislation introduced by the city administrator under Prop. E.
Chu will have to wait until late December or early January to officially introduce these laws because the election results have yet to be certified.
IO YEH GILMANSTAFF REPORTER
Io is a staff reporter at Mission Local covering city hall and S.F. politics. She is a part of Report for America, which supports journalists in local newsrooms.
Io was born and raised in San Francisco and previously reported on the city while working for her high school newspaper, The Lowell. She studied the history of science at Harvard and wrote for The Harvard Crimson.
You can reach Io securely on Signal at ioyg.10More by Io Yeh Gilman
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6 Comments
Robynsays:November 10, 2026, 12:31 pm at 12:31 pmSFGOV has many areas that aren’t accessible for screen readers. Blind people vote! And we need election information that is accessible in able to do so. Does anyone care? The Mayor’s office on disability sent me on a wild goose chase. I don’t get paid for this. Can someone help?+3 0 votes. Sign in to voteReply
Nancysays:November 10, 2026, 11:43 am at 11:43 amWould that include the 100 million dollar donation by a Big Tech executive to the SF Parks??? THat’s a chunk of change but would involve San Francisco spending big on our Parks.+2 -2 votes. Sign in to voteReply
h. brownsays:November 11, 2026, 7:54 pm at 7:54 pmYour comment is awaiting moderation.Nancy, The hundred million looks to be a land grab disguised as a charity donation by a billionaire. The way it works is they pick a patch of oxygen giving grass and then tear it out and replace it with a strip of polluting plastic green surface that gives soccer players cancer when they scrape against it. Then, they put a fence around their new concession and charge money for what was once free. Last round in this game one of the groups they priced out of SF soccer fields was a club that had been playing at Beach Chalet (sp?) for over a hundred years and moved to a cheaper field in “low rent’ Marin. Every day I walk across the luxuriously plush grass in Dolores Park and am waiting to find a fence and a toll booth there controlling access to the iconic grass surface ‘upgraded’ to Monsanto plastic. go Niners !! h.
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