Board of Supervisors’ Approval of Proposed Budget Disappoints Community, Jeopardizes Reparations for Black Community
In addition to failing to cut a single officer, the latest proposed budget left frontline and essential city workers’ raises vulnerable to being cut by Mayor London Breed in order to pay for SFPD raises
[SAN FRANCISCO, CA September 28]—Following months of widespread calls to defund the police in San Francisco, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10-to-1 September 22, 2020, to approve the latest budget, effectively preventing any further cuts to the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and the Sheriff’s Department for this fiscal year. The Board is expected to cast a second and final vote for approval of the proposed budget September 29, 2020.
“We are disappointed and disturbed that the Board of Supervisors sided with the POA instead of our communities by failing to introduce an amendment that would lay off cops, make significant investments in San Francisco’s Black community, and protect essential workers’ pay,” said Alex Karim, a Defund SFPD Now organizer. “Instead, the city will fail its Black community, fail Labor, or fail us all by doubling down on its support for the racist POA and increasing SFPD salaries, with no accountability whatsoever.”
While several members of the Board remarked during the September 22 hearing that the cuts to the SFPD were “historic”, the budget cuts amounted to approximately 6 percent of the SFPD’s total budget and did not require cuts to SFPD’s current staffing levels. Board members also highlighted a $120 million allocation for reparations to the Black community.
However, the $120 million in reparations appear to be predicated on renegotiation of the Police Officers Association’s (POA) contract to postpone planned SFPD raises but extend the length of the contract, a move that will cost the city more money in the long term and block new accountability measures.
The proposed POA contract renegotiation, which is subject to approval by the Board, would incorporate planned raises next year and provide additional raises to SFPD officers in 2022 and 2023. The renegotiation would also extend the POA contract to 2023—a mayoral election year—giving the POA the power to leverage their next renegotiation during local elections.
Should the Board reject the renegotiated POA contract, the SFPD would run into a multi-million shortfall over two fiscal years. Moreover, while the Board allocated $37.9 million for the city’s union workers from the city’s reserves, the Board’s failure to move city union workers’ raises into the general fund leaves the allocation vulnerable to being redirected to police by Mayor Breed, who has complete power over the city reserves during the current state of emergency. As a result, leadership of some city unions have started to lobby in favor of the new POA contract in order to protect their own raises.
The Defund SFPD Now campaign is a joint project by the SF Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus (Afrosoc) and the Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), SF. The SF Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus is a Black-led organization created in 2020 to center BIPOC voices within socialist spaces. The DSA SF Justice Committee was formed in 2017 and organizes DSA SF’s work fighting for the abolition of policing and prisons.
This campaign is one part of the collective pursuit to defund SFPD into abolition, and ultimately abolish the prison industrial complex in San Francisco and beyond. For years, there has been a grassroots movement in the City fighting for abolition. We support and work alongside these organizations by contributing additional leadership, capacity, and structure as needed in times of mass mobilization.
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For more information about Defund SFPD Now’s efforts to abolish SFPD and the Sheriff’s Department, email defundsfpdnow@gmail.com.
