Amid a tough budget season, San Francisco’s top elected officials will receive a cost-of-living pay raise soon, based on rising inflation.
The Civil Service Commission, a City Hall governing body that oversees political leaders’ salaries, voted on June 3 to increase wages for seven citywide elected officials by 2.6%. The raises will go to the mayor, city attorney, district attorney, public defender, assessor-recorder, treasurer and sheriff.
Mayor London Breed, who currently makes $374,036 a year, will get a $9,725 raise to $383,760 for the fiscal year starting July 1, according to the commission’s report.
While the commissioners were able to agree on a raise for the seven citywide officials, they failed to reach consensus on a package for the Board of Supervisors. After spending hours discussing the intricacies of a possible five-year plan for supervisors’ pay increases, they punted the question to the commission’s next meeting.
Supervisors now earn $163,878 a year. The commission staff’s report offered three options for a one-year increase: no change, the same 2.6% increase approved for the seven citywide leaders, or a roughly 1.5% increase that mirrors negotiations with the city employees’ labor union.
The Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, Angela Calvillo, appeared before the Civil Service Commissioners to advocate for an increase.
“Board members do not ask me to come and advocate for their salary, I just want the public to know that,” Calvillo said. “However, we believe there is some fairness in the equity as you began the next five-year salary setting for the board members.”
Calvillo cited the supervisors’ workload with the sprawling city budget and their relatively low salary compared to the other elected officials. The commission’s staff report data showed that the San Francisco supervisors are making slightly more than the average pay of the county supervisors of the Bay Area’s nine counties.
Jacqueline Minor, the president of the Civil Service Commission, described the process as “really tough work” and expressed appreciation for the staff’s reporting of historical salary data as valuable context for the discussion.
Controversy previously erupted at the commission’s 2019 salary review meeting, where the supervisors’ expiring five-year salary increase plan was approved. One commissioner voted no on the 12% increase (which was carried in a 3-1 vote), alleging conflicts of interest. Douglas Chan, the commissioner, argued that the commission staff who had recommended the raise served “at the pleasure of the board.” Chan left the board in July 2023.
The commission will meet again on June 17 to further discuss the supervisors’ pay plan, and the city’s Controller’s Office will also discuss their study of the impact of the raises on the city’s budget.
Jonah Owen Lamb contributed to this story.