San Francisco voters will decide whether to set a lifetime ceiling on how long city politicians can stay in office, closing what some see as a loophole in term limits.
The proposal on the June 2 ballot would change the City Charter that now allows members of the Board of Supervisors to serve two successive four-year terms but allows them to be elected again after four years off.
Measure B, introduced by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents neighborhoods including the Tenderloin, Hayes Valley and Haight Ashbury, would restrict not only the supervisors but the mayor to two four-year terms, whether consecutive or not.
“Prop B closes the loophole and restores what voters intended: two four-year terms and you’re done,” says a proponent argument written by Adrianna Zhang, a Stanford University public policy student and former chair of the San Francisco Youth Commission. “No revolving door. No cycling back.”
“Eight years is enough,” she wrote. “After that, it’s healthy and democratic to make space for new voices.”
Opponents called the proposal “an anti-democratic, Trumpian idea” that “blocks voter choice,” according to an argument written by Susan Solomon, a member of the Board of Trustees at City College of San Francisco.
The opponents feature a virtual who’s who of ex-officeholders including former Gov. Jerry Brown, former Mayor Willie Brown, former Mayor Art Agnos, former Supervisor Quentin Kopp and former Supervisor Tom Ammiano.
The measure would prevent a recurrence of the 17-year, on-again, off-again career of former Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represented District 3 from 2001 to 2009 and from 2015 to 2025.
The district includes North Beach, Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, Polk Gulch, Union Square/Financial District and Russian, Telegraph and Nob Hills. Peskin was president of the board from 2023 to 2025.