San Francisco ready to grant new mayor greater powers to battle fentanyl crisis

The proposal already has the six votes needed to pass, and will likely pick up more votes Tuesday.

The 11-member board relinquishing oversight powers for an effort with no concrete plan or accountability metrics underscores how desperate supervisors are for a solution. It also signals their embrace — for now — of a political outsider who pledged to work collaboratively to create common-sense solutions.

Supervisor Connie Chan said last week at the budget and finance committee she chairs that board oversight helps ensure taxpayer money is spent judiciously and transparently. But she also said this is "truly an unprecedented time" that calls for unusual measures, and she appreciated the mayor's willingness to compromise. Breed had a frosty relationship with the board's progressive members, Chan included.

San Francisco has long been known for its liberal politics, but homeless tent encampments and public drug use surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overdose deaths fueled by cheap and potent fentanyl reached a record high in San Francisco of over 800 in 2023.

In response, frustrated residents voted to enhance police powers and backed crackdowns on street homelessness. They also elected more moderate Democrats to the board.

Lurie's proposal would allow the city to bypass the competitive bidding and procurement process for contracts, grants and leases related to addiction, homelessness and public safety hiring. City departments could sign new leases without board approval. He wants to open a 24-hour drop-off center that would be friendly to police and an alternative to jail.

Supervisors would have only 45 days to vote on contracts up to $25 million — down from the original $50 million proposed by the mayor — or relinquish their oversight. Expedited contracting would sunset in one year, down from the original five.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation opposes the proposal because it lacks metrics and details, such as how it would actually reduce fentanyl use, said Laura Thomas, the nonprofit's drug policy expert and senior director of HIV & harm reduction policy.

She applauds the mayor's desire for more housing and treatment services but hopes he will not endorse policies forcing people into treatment, which has shown to be ineffective and often counterproductive.

"We want to know more about what the proposal is," Thomas said Monday. "We're raising notes of concern and we want to know more information before we can support it."

At Wednesday's budget and finance committee, legislative analyst Nicolas Menard warned that waiving competitive bids would likely increase service costs and "create opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse." The fiscal impact is unknown, but the grants and contracts budget for the affected city departments totals just over $1 billion.

"I need to be very clear that you're giving up a lot here," he said.

Still, it passed out of committee to the full board with a unanimous recommendation and in a statement released later that day, Lurie said that with the ordinance "we are no longer looking the other way — we are treating the fentanyl crisis like the emergency it is," he said. "This is a new era in City Hall."