A MEASURE TO PLACE stricter term limits on the mayor and members of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco will head to voters in the June 2 election.
In a 7 to 4 vote Tuesday, the Board decided to place the measure on the ballot which could prevent the mayor and supervisors from serving more than two terms in their lifetimes.
In the 1990s, San Francisco voters passed a measure that prevented the mayor and supervisors from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms. However, a loophole allows people in these positions to serve more than two terms if they take a break in between.
“Our ballot measure is about giving a voice to San Franciscans to send a clear message,” said Supervisor Bilal Mahmood in a statement on social media. “Two terms, and that’s it.”
Supervisors Myrna Melgar, Alan Wong, Stephen Sherill, Danny Sauter, and Matt Dorsey co-sponsored the measure.
Mahmood has said the purpose of the measure is to allow new leadership to enter these positions.
“This is really about the intention of allowing an opportunity for the next generation of leadership to have an opportunity to serve in our city and county of San Francisco in these positions,” he said during the first reading of the measure last week.
Supervisors Shamann Walton, Connie Chan, Chyanne Chen, and Board President Rafael Mandelman voted against putting it on the ballot.
Walton was against the measure because of election costs and he does not see the loophole as a pervasive problem.
“We have probably one person in the history of the city and county of San Francisco that has decided to run for office after serving two, four-year terms,” he said during the first reading of the measure. “This issue is not something that should be going on the ballot where millions of dollars will be spent for an election.”
Former Board President Aaron Peskin is the only former supervisor who has been able to serve more than two terms through the loophole. He first served two terms from 2001 to 2009, then another two terms from 2015 to 2025.
Other former supervisors have tried running again after serving two terms but were not reelected.
Before the vote, Walton asked Deputy City Attorney Brad Russi whether the city would be legally allowed to apply the proposed changes to current and past mayors and supervisors. State law says that if a city does change term limits for these positions, the changes can only apply to future officials in these roles.
Russi said that the limits under state law do not apply to San Francisco since the city is a charter city that is authorized to have a certain amount of autonomy over its own municipal affairs.
“Under current case law, the statute that supervisor Walton mentioned does not apply to San Francisco,” Russi said at Tuesday’s meeting.
As a charter city, San Francisco is allowed “to determine how term limits are applied, and this would include applying the proposed measure’s lifetime term limits both to current office holders and past office holders,” Russi said.
Ballots for the June 2 election will start being sent in the mail to voters in early May.