Board of Supervisors Preview: Sharing the Wealth and Police Funding

This Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’s meeting is fairly light on heavy and contentious issues–a change from last week, when the Supervisors spent much of the day debating the fate of car-free JFK. Many items involve authorizing or modifying grant agreements, and there are also some significant commissioner reappointments. (As always, wonks looking for the full kit and caboodle can check out the complete agenda.)

Sharing the Wealth: Doling out Grants

Part of the Supervisors’ fiscal powers is authorizing applications for, or acceptance of, grants from other government agencies or foundations for use by specific departments. Funds tackling a wide range of issues are  on this week’s agenda, including: 

• Amending an existing grant agreement between the Department of Children, Youth & Their Families and the Instituto Familiar de la Raza for the Roadmap to Peace program, which is aimed at intervening in the lives of at-risk Latinx youth and turning them away from gang violence through wraparound support services and other initiatives. 

• Authorizing the Department of Public Health to accept $334,576 in grants from the National Institutes of Health for participation in a “Integrated Pharmacy Digital Diary and Delivery Strategy” to promote the use of PrEP to prevent the spread of HIV.

• Applying for yet another Homekey grant, this time of over $19.9 million for the purchase of 685 Ellis Street, the former City Center Hostel, for use as Permanent Supportive Housing. San Francisco has already purchased eight properties under the program, including a 200-unit building just last week. 

Of note are a number of grant acceptance resolutions for the San Francisco Police Department:

• $125,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice for community policing in the Tenderloin, including increased foot patrols, community safety workshops and youth mentorship programs. 

• $123,664.99 from the Department of Justice to fund purchase of bulletproof vests for SFPD, as well as for the Sheriff’s Department and other agencies. 

• An in-kind gift worth $66,000 of 900 units of Naloxone, also known as Narcan, to SFPD for rescuing opioid overdose victims. These will be provided by the federal government through the state Department of Health Care Services. 

Commission Reappointments

Speaking of police matters, two members of the Police Commission are up for reappointment: 

• Larry Yee is a former labor activist and longtime board member of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also known as the Chinese Six Companies. The CCBA provides social services and other support for Chinese immigrants and small businesses in Chinatown. Yee was first appointed in March 2021. 

• Max Carter-Oberstone is an appellate lawyer at Orrick, a former state deputy solicitor general, and a longtime police reform activist. He also serves on the board of Death Penalty Focus, an anti-capital punishment advocacy group. Carter-Oberstone was first appointed in November 2021. 

Those hoping for more aggressive scrutiny of police practices should look to Thursday morning, when the Supervisors’ Government Audit and Oversight Committee will hold a hearing called by Supervisor Dean Preston on “Taxpayer-Funded Communications Regarding Police and Public Safety.” 

When Preston requested this hearing last month, he expressed concern that SFPD was disseminating “copaganda”: what he described as “messaging that promotes increased policing, minimizes continued racial disparities in local policing, and sanitizes or minimizes police violence” in a letter to the department.