SFPD Postpone Reforms Update Again for 5 Yrs Now & Get Fed $$$ for Crime Lab. Are SF City & County Employees Losing Their Long-Term Disability Insurance? Housing First is Out + Performative Trans Reso
SF BOS 11/18/25. San Francisco figured out how to give immigrants being hunted by white supremacists $3.5 million without a billionaire.
Does anyone else feel like this Board of Supervisors (BOS) is falling apart? Becoming meeker? Falling in the mayor’s line so straight its razor’s edge slits us constituents? On Tuesday something happened that I haven’t ever seen, something so rare if it has happened these past few years: no supervisor submitted a question for the mayor for his regular Q & A BOS session. The play y’all have been calling democracy is over. The opaque, rich, red velvet curtain is closed. No one questioned the powerful billionaire mayor paid $1 a year to rule over us. So the only message we got was solely from Levi Heir Lurie saying he makes mistakes and will continue to make them. He regrets not helping (former) Filipina D4 Supervisor Beya Alcaraz succeed. He has that all too well known cisgender, hetersosexual, white, male privilege of making a mistake, being forgiven, being understood, and allowed to try and fail again and again. Will Beya Alcaraz be afforded that same privilege in her future career endeavors? Or will this haunt her? I can tell you a thing or two about being haunted by City Hall. Meanwhile disabled, BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, women and immigrants never get that first chance, let alone multiple chances to fuck up so badly and so publicly. But don’t worry, y’all. Lurie is making sure cops can afford to raise families in San Francisco with his “Rich Family Upzoning Plan”. That way they don’t have to super commute to terrorize us and keep us in the mayor’s straight line. The billionheir is doubling down on the War on PeopleDrugs. There will be no one to staunch our bleeding should we dare step out of line.
I share my perspective as an autistic, ADHD, trans, bisexual person of Mexican heritage abolitionist who lives in the heart of severely overpoliced “the open-air drug market.” As of 2025 I now call it the “open-air prison.” Another disclaimer is I have no faith in our government, so I judge without any benefit of the doubt. This is where my experience being a vocal resident of SF targeted by Recovery associates of my D6 Supervisor has led me.
BOS November 18th, 2025 Meeting Agenda and Video
I’m not usually drawn to insurance legislation, but “Long-Term Disability” piqued my interest so I took a look. I hope I’m misunderstanding something because if I’m not, San Francisco city employees are about to get fucked. But I can’t imagine this being allowed to happen in San Francisco and I’m waiting for Supervisor Dorsey’s office to reply to an email about this legislation, so let’s assume I’m missing something here and everything is actually fine until further notice.
First, did you know Basic Life and Long-Term Disability (LTD) insurance are provided to active City and County of San Francisco and San Francsico Superior Court employees, as well as other collective bargaining groups? It sounds pretty nice. From the San Francisco Health Service System (SFHSS)’s Request for Proposals for 2026 on this insurance,
1. Basic Group Life Insurance (“Basic Life”) [100% employer-paid); $50,000, $125,000, or $150,000, varies by collective bargaining group Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – bidders required to match benefit levels exactly]
2. Long-term Disability Insurance (“LTD”) [100% employer-paid); 180-day elimination period (60%, $5,000 monthly maximum); 90-day elimination period (66.6667%, $7,500 monthly maximum) varies by collective bargaining group Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – bidders required to match benefit levels exactly]
…as well as voluntary Supplemental Life Insurance and voluntary Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance.
Nice, right? Okay, well, this legislation is saying the bidder San Francisco went with, New York Life, won’t be required to offer Basic Life and LTD.
250981 [Labor and Employment Code - Health Service System - Exemption for Life and Long-Term Disability Insurance Contract] Sponsor: Dorsey
Ordinance exempting the Health Service System’s Life and Long-Term Disability Insurance services contract from the requirements of Article 111 (Minimum Compensation) and Article 121 (Health Care Accountability) of the Labor and Employment Code.
From Legislation: New York Life’s leadership and legal counsel researched the Articles, discussed with the City’s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, and in September 2025 made clear it will not execute a contract that includes Articles 111 and 121 obligations.
No existing statutory exemption or waiver process applies to this agreement. SFHSS supports awarding the contract to the proposed vendor due to its top ranking in the selection process and the anticipated cost savings. Re-procurement is not feasible as no alternative vendor can be implemented in time for the January 1, 2026 start of the Plan Year
This is despite SFHSS’s Request for Proposals stating the insurance must include “all Life and Disability Benefits as defined within the RPF:
This is from RPF Section 2. See?
Am I understanding “respondents must match current coverages” correctly? Because if I am, then how was an insurance company, New York Life, seriously considered when it’s looking like they are not willing to “match current coverages”? So the BOS must pass an ordinance saying New York Life doesn’t need to cover Basic Life and LTD? You tell me.
I sent my supervisor’s office and the BOS my question, so let’s see if we get an answer:
How will San Francisco city employees and their dependents get Basic life insurance and Long-term disability insurance (LTD)? It sounds like New York Life won’t be offering these two types of insurance so I’m wondering how city employees will be receiving it?
Worst case scenario, yall just got sold out to save the city some moneeeeyyyyy. No behested payment waiver fundraising for your life or disability insurance. But I won’t assume the worst because that would truly be fucked up.
251080 [Appropriation - General Reserve - Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development - Immigration Legal Services - $3,500,000 - FY2025-2026] Sponsors: Chan; Fielder, Mahmood, Chen, Walton, Melgar, Dorsey and Sauter
Ordinance appropriating $3,500,000 from the General Reserve to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to expand access to existing coordinated services for immigration legal defense and community response services to the immigrant community in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-2026
Look, San Francisco figured out how to give immigrants being hunted by white supremacists $3.5 million without a billionaire.
251053 [Accept and Expend Grant - Retroactive - Board of State and Community Corrections - JAG Equipment and Training Program - $654,609] Sponsor: Mayor
Resolution retroactively authorizing the Police Department to accept and expend a grant in the amount of $654,609 from the Board of State and Community Corrections for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Equipment and Training Program to procure equipment and services for the Criminology Laboratory with the project period beginning on October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026. (Police Department)
Did you know SFPD is working towards getting a certified Controlled Substance Analysis Unit expected this fall, and a Latent Print Unit that will provide state-of-the-art fingerprint processing and capture, as well as rapid, non-destructive presumptive drug identification? This federal grant will make their crime lab dreams possible. So glad the federal government is still willing to fund SFPD but not food for the poor, or education, or housing, or healthcare, or anything we actually need for survival. Cool. Cool cool. Super straight line.
250808 [Planning Code; Administrative Code - Legacy Businesses in Neighborhood Commercial Districts] Sponsor: Chan, Walton
Here is a nice summary of this legislation
Supervisor Connie Chan proposed an extension of a temporary measure intended to protect community fixtures from displacement. Her legislation would add red tape for operations seeking to push out legacy businesses - those in place for more than 30 years - by requiring them to first obtain a special permit, dubbed “conditional use authorization,” from the city.
Well, it failed to pass by two votes since eight votes were needed for it to pass. No legacy business protections to see here. Don’t see the white men supervisors split their vote that often but here we are.
AYE votes: Fielder, Walton, Chan, Chen, Mandelman, Melgar
NO votes: Dorsey, Mahmood, Sauter, Sherrill
251023 [Appointments, Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee - Shanell Williams, Julia D’Antonio and William Lemon]
Motion appointing Shanell Williams, Julia D’Antonio and William Lemon, terms ending April 22, 2027, to the Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee.
Drama Llama Alert! The Anti-Housing First, Pro-Police and Abstinence-Only Recovery Block are spitting in people’s faces again by replacing prominent Housing First advocate Jennifer Friedenbach with one of Dorsey’s recovery buds, William Lemon. Don’t worry, the replacement is also white, keeping us on mayor Lurie’s (back) track to his Blinding White New Day. (If you think I’m being extra saucy, it may have to do with seeing so many videos of ICE hunting brown people who look like my family members, and some other violent fascist happening right now).
200777 [Hearing - Committee of the Whole - Update on Findings and Recommendations Regarding Law Enforcement Practices - November 18, 2025, at 3:00 p.m.]
Hearing of the Board of Supervisors sitting as a Committee of the Whole on November 18, 2025, at 3:00 p.m., for the Members of the Board of Supervisors to hear and receive updates on the progress and implementation status of the Unites States Department of Justice recommendations regarding reforms within the Police Department; scheduled pursuant to Motion No. M20-125, approved on September 15, 2020. (Clerk of the Board)
10/20/2020; CONTINUED. 01/26/2021; CONTINUED. 05/25/2021; CONTINUED. 01/25/2022; CONTINUED. 03/22/2022; CONTINUED. 05/24/2022; CONTINUED. 07/12/2022; CONTINUED. 09/27/2022; CONTINUED. 02/14/2023; CONTINUED. 03/14/2023; CONTINUED. 10/03/2023; CONTINUED. 05/21/2024; CONTINUED. 07/16/2024; CONTINUED. 01/28/2025; CONTINUED. 03/18/2025; CONTINUED. 05/06/2025; CONTINUED. 10/07/2025; CONTINUED
Supervisor Walton promised this would be the LAST TIME this item gets postponed. Check in on December 2nd to see if that’s true. Can you explain why it has taken 5 years to get an update on SFPD reforms? This is Dorsey’s bread and butter, shoving praises for SFPD’s voluntary reforms down everyone’s throat. Maybe the reforms are also backtracking and by the time this report comes out we’ll be ruled by a cop-living billionheir who won’t care and a further gentrified city population that doesn’t care about defunding the police, and so none of this will matter either. Looking forward to December 2nd.
ROLL CALL FOR INTRODUCTIONS
Supervisor Walton is calling for a hearing on why the mayor and other agencies are trying to turn Bayview into a containment zone, a dumping ground. This hearing will require the Mayor’s Office, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Department of Emergency Management, MTA, and San Francisco Port to submit reports “detailing every shelter bed, navigation center, safe sleeping site, triage center vehicle site, community cabin program and related service in San Francisco and particularly in District 10.”
Supervisor Mahmood did a nice in memorium for disability activist and force of life Alice Wong who died on my birthday, November 14th. Her friends also showed up to give public comment on the impact their friend Alice had on them and the world. I wrote this when Alice was commended by Mahmood in July:
I really appreciated Supervisor Mahmood’s choice for commendation, disability activist Alice Wong. I don’t think Supervisor Mandelman, or any like him, did because everything she championed in her speech was counter to the Moderate Democrat’s politics. I would really watch her speech if you have time [start time ~1:42:14]. She championed disabled homeless people, disabled immigrants targeted by ICE, and the importance of creating a society that liberates disabled people. She got a standing ovation despite her speech being 8+ minutes long. I felt incredibly honored and grateful to have heard her speak, and inspired. Thank you, Alice Wong.
I would like to write something new but I don’t wanna cry again right now.
251115 [Transgender Awareness Month - November 2025] Sponsors: Dorsey; Mahmood, Mandelman, Sauter, Sherrill, Chen, Walton, Fielder, Melgar and Chan
Resolution declaring the month of November 2025 as Transgender Awareness Month in the City and County of San Francisco; and honoring the leadership, resilience, and contributions of San Francisco’s transgender community.
This is such a bullshit, meaningless resolution. No trans people were honored for this Trans Awareness Month. No supervisor commented on this resolution. No one gave public comment in support of this, if anyone else even knew this was happening. Someone I know who worked on the Transgender History Month resolution was unaware and thought this was redundant. I said how bullshit this was and more in my public comment on this item at 2:59:00.
My Comment
“I’m here to comment about the Transgender Awareness Month resolution that you all unanimously sponsored. This is performative. This is hollow and meaningless. I know that for a fact. Currently the transgender sanctuary city status of San Francisco is a resolution. It has no teeth. If you really wanted to do something for the trans community you can turn it into an ordinance so we can actually have real protections and get real help and services from San Francisco. But until that happens with the rollback in protections and rights and the degraded standard of living that trans people have been experiencing over this past year hence why 9% now of the homeless population is transgender, I call San Francisco a trap for trans people. It’s not a real sanctuary city. You could also if you wanted to help reinstates transgender cultural competency training for San Francisco city and county employees. It was a little over a year ago that the Board voted to settle against the GIFT program which was helping financially helping very poor trans people, specifically Black and Latine trans people. However, the majority of the board voted against Black and Latine and trans people so that they can never get a basic income from San Francisco again. That’s really fucked up. You all did real harm. I know this. I know the people you harmed. I think this whole board should be banned from trans events until you show up with something tangible instead of some piece of paper that doesn’t do anything for trans people, not just the one person [Matt Dorsey] I called out last week. You just, you’re failing us.”
I sat down and looked at Dorsey. He glared at me and shook his head at me. I rebutted by emphatically nodding my head at him. And so it goes.