SF League of Pissed Off Voters

In a recent debate with Jane Kim, his opponent in the race for San Francisco’s seat in the State Senate, Scott Wiener said he respects Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the national anthem. But while he’s served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Wiener has repeatedly voted against police reform.

Wiener has had multiple chances to stand with people of color in San Francisco calling for police reform. But every time there’s been a contested vote on police reform, he’s voted on the side of the Police Officers Association against reform:

• July 20, 2016: Wiener voted against a proposal to put a portion of the SFPD budget on reserve until the department demonstrated that it was making progress on several reforms including its Use of Force policy, and its processes for hiring and disciplining officers. Wiener continued to oppose this even after John Avalos reduced the amount of the budget reserve from $200 million to $20 million!
• April 19, 2016: Wiener voted against a resolution in support of Mark Leno’s bill to give the public access to records of police misconduct. The ACLU says the California Police Officers Bill of Rights is one of the most restrictive in the country. Even states like Texas, Kentucky, and Utah make records of police misconduct public!
• June 23, 2015: Protesters literally turned their backs on Wiener and his resolution to prioritize hiring more police over funding education, jobs, and housing. 

#SFBoardOfSupervisors room packed with community standing to turn our backs as #ScottWeiner introduces resolution pic.twitter.com/eEtKda1ITl

— nancypili (@nancypili) June 23, 2015

• December 16, 2014: Wiener opposed a non-binding resolution calling for police reform in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown and the protests in Ferguson. The Examiner later reported that the lobbyist for the SF Police Officer Association threatened to break off ties with any Supervisor who supported the resolution.

As Mark Leno’s failed attempt to make modest reforms to the Police Officers Bill of Rights shows, any meaningful police reform efforts in California will require state legislators who are willing to stand up to the law enforcement lobbyists. Leno has been a champion for police reform, and this November voters will decide whether Jane Kim or Scott Wiener will replace him.

Here in San Francisco, there is a growing consensus that the Police Officers Association is the biggest barrier to police reform. Wiener has been endorsed by the POA in every election he’s run, and every time there’s been a contested vote on police reform, he’s voted with the POA against reform.

So it’s great that Wiener respects Colin Kaepernick’s protest calling for police reform. But Scott Wiener's actions as an elected official disrespect Kaepernick and everyone else who is working on the reforms needed to address the crisis of police shootings of unarmed black and brown Americans.

And hey, @kaepernick7: if you’re serious about making police reform happen in California and San Francisco, then we need you to support Jane Kim for State Senate! Jane has a track record of standing up to the Police Officers Association. She voted for all of the reforms listed above. Will you join us in standing with Jane?

What's up, Leaguers!

Are you ready for this crazy November election? Because there are sooo many propositions on the ballot, 17 state and 26 (we think) local ones, we're starting earlier than ever this year and splitting our endorsements into two batches. Join us on August 6th for our first of two endorsement meetings!

We'll be discussing the state propositions and some of the local propositions for this election, then voting on the League's official position. If you've donated (which you can do on the spot) and volunteered four or more hours in the last year, you can vote for your favorites...but even if you can't, this is a fun opportunity to learn about the big races and get ready for the election. This meeting is also your chance to sign up for election volunteer opportunities, like pub crawls!

Saturday, August 6, 2-5pm
Thee Parkside
1600 17th Street at Wisconsin
RSVP on Facebook or at:
theleaguesf.org/nov2016_endorse1
We'll be on the patio. Thee Parkside is kid-friendly. Bring cash for drinks and food. The carne asada tater tots are the bomb.

And mark your calendar for August 20th for our second endorsement meeting. We'll be tackling all of the local candidate races and the rest of the local propositions. 

Saturday, August 20, 2-5pm
The Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics
518 Valencia
RSVP on Facebook or at:
theleaguesf.org/nov2016_endorse2

A NOTE FOR CANDIDATES & CAMPAIGNS!
We do not have speakers for ballot measures or candidates at our endorsement meetings. We present our research, discuss the contests, and conduct a member vote. You are welcome to grab a beer with us and participate in the discussions at the endorsement meeting, but we ask that any candidates or paid campaign staff leave the room during the discussion of their contest.

UPDATE: On Friday, February 26, the Mayor removed the ill-conceived Transportation 2030 from the June ballot! Thank you, Mayor Lee!

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ORIGINAL POST: Mayor Lee: it’s not too late. Please take this measure off the ballot, and let’s all work together on a real transportation funding ballot measure for November.

On the same day that Mayor Ed Lee vetoed the Bike Yield ordinance, he announced a ballot measure for the June 2016 election about transportation funding called “Transportation 2030: Smart Investments for a Better Future" (PDF).  It’s less than three pages double-spaced, but it manages to be simultaneously meaningless, hypocritical, and divisive. Here’s the tl;dr version:

1. It’s meaningless. It’s a non-binding declaration of policy. 
2. It’s hypocritical. It purports to implement the “recommendations of the “Transportation 2030” Task Force, but the Mayor already fell two years and $140 million behind on implementing those recommendations when he blocked attempts to put the Vehicle License Fee restoration on the ballot in 2014!
3. And it’s divisive. It says no new transportation revenues should be used for Muni’s operating expenses for the next fifteen years! Why? Because the Mayor wants more leverage to push back in labor negotiations with MTA workers. This artificial separation of the MTA’s capital and operating budgets also threatens to pit Muni advocates (that require both capital and operational money) against bike and pedestrian advocates (mostly capital expenses).  

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

What the SF League of Pissed Off Voters’ Wants from Tech Commuter Buses

(Photo by Sean Rea.)

Ten months ago, the League weighed in on tech buses with our post “Hey Tech Buses: Just Pay Your Fair Share, Please.” The SFMTA and City ignored what we felt like were reasonable requests. Since then, the pilot program has gone on to litigation. The judgment is slated for mid-December. [Note: The League is not part of the lawsuit.]

On Tuesday, November 17, the SFMTA Board will vote on the proposed permanent program, and we want to weigh in with our position and call attention to a few points we feel are really important and have been omitted by the press reporting on the final pilot findings.

The TL;DR version is this:

• The pilot has not achieved its goal of eliminating safety and traffic issues.
• The City is not receiving the data it needs to manage this program.
• The City is not collecting fees that correlate to the impacts of the commuter buses.
• The City is expanding the program before the pilot has concluded.
• The City is not being completely transparent on the study conclusions.

On March 3, 2015, Julie Christensen was the swing vote against giving low-paid workers at non-profits providing City services a small cost-of-living raise. These non-profits provide vital services like mental health care, staffing homeless shelters, and violence prevention. Their workers are struggling with the skyrocketing cost of living in San Francisco. Meanwhile because of the economic boom, the City budget has never been larger. This is a real world example of why the League of Pissed Off Voters supports Aaron Peskin for District 3 Supervisor!

Read more about this vote in this Examiner article.

One of the key ways we try figure to out what’s going on with San Francisco is by following the money. And in the race for District 3 of the Board of Supervisors, the lobbyist money is going in one direction: for Julie Christensen. The Ethics Commission Campaign Finance Dashboard shows that lobbyists have contributed $32,350 for Christensen compared to only $2,000 for Peskin.

Confused by those sketchy ads about how Prop F will have "neighbors spying on neighbors?" Read this take from a lawyer explaining why you shouldn't believe Airbnb's B.S. Please vote #‎YesonF

We're so inspired by Airbnb's letters to San Francisco, we're sending them our own love letter. Vote yes on Prop F! #‎airbnbfail

The League of Pissed-Off Voters urges BART Directors, BART General Manager, and the Alameda County District Attorney to be on the right side of history — join community organizations, transit advocates, social justice leaders, and thousands of multiracial allies fighting for Black lives.

On November 28, 2014, fourteen protesters locked themselves to BART trains at the West Oakland station. Instead of citing and releasing protesters, or charging them with the same minor infraction applied to the thousands of multiracial allies that have blocked buses, trains, and traffic, a harsher penalty has been discriminatively applied.

Please help us by calling and emailing the BART Board of Directors, and tell them to drop the charges against the BlackFriday14:
(510) 464–6095
[email protected]

Transit advocates, including a member of the League’s Steering Committee, joined BART Directors Rebecca Saltzman and Nick Josefowitz as they rode BART’s new late night bus to shine a light on this issue and request support for a potential resolution calling for the demand for restitution and criminal charges be dropped against the group of protesters known as the BlackFriday14.

The League believes that the BlackFriday14 have paid significant restitution for their protest. They were held in the Santa Rita Jail and Glenn Dyer Detention facility, and they have expended significant time and resources in their legal proceedings. We call on the BART Board of Directors to pass the following resolution to urge District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley to drop the charges against the BlackFriday14.

This picture speaks volumes about the different priorities of these two Mayors.

Bill de Blasio canceled his appearance at the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting and gave a powerful, frank, 30-minute speech about the grand jury decision to not charge the officer who killed Eric Garner.