On the same day San Francisco will vote whether or not to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, they will also get to decide if the city's recall process should be reformed.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 7-4 to put Supervisor Aaron Peskin's recall reform proposal on the June 7 ballot, when the city will vote on Boudin's recall and in the California primary.
Peskin said during Tuesday's board meeting that the measure was inspired by the gubernatorial recall election last September, not Tuesday's recall of three school board members.
"At the time of that recall, we couldn't hear enough about the unnecessary and enormous costs of the recall," Peskin said of the September recall election, which cost the state more than $200 million. "We could not hear enough about the need for reform."
If San Francisco votes to implement Peskin's proposal, a number of positions – including the board of supervisors, school board and district attorney – couldn't be subject to a recall election within the first or last year of their term.
Under the law, recalled school board members Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga couldn't have been voted out on Tuesday, as all three were set to face re-election in November. Boudin, who faces a recall election in the third year of his term, would've been eligible to be recalled.
The school board recall election will cost the city $3.25 million. Peskin pitched the proposal as a cost-savings measure, which he said isn't designed to prevent recalls altogether.
If an official is recalled, the mayor would fill that position with someone unable to run in the next election. Supervisor Asha Safai opposed that provision, citing it as why he voted against the proposal.
"They no longer really have the advantage of office, of incumbency, of the power of that office because the person knows that they're just simply in that role as a caretaker," Safai said on Tuesday, telling his colleagues the appointee would be "solely" beholden to the mayor.
Mayor London Breed, who endorsed the recall of all three members and will appoint each of their replacements, said the measure sends the wrong message on the heels of the school board recall.
"I think that people should have the ability, if they have a concern with any elected leader, they should have the right to take a recall effort to the ballot," Breed said in a press conference on Wednesday morning, calling the decision to put Peskin's proposal on the ballot "very unfortunate."
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