San Francisco's five-person Commission Streamlining Task Force met to consider cutting nine commissions from the city's 149 advisory bodies. The first round removed 31 inactive groups, many not meeting in the past year. As the task force evaluates the remaining 118 advisory groups, targeted boards have drawn pushback. The Sheriff's Department Oversight Board faced potential elimination and questions about whether its functions could be folded into the Department of Police Accountability. Labor leaders and a supervisor argued that recent sheriff conduct and the need for independent oversight make the board a critical accountability safeguard. Attendance at board meetings has been low.
Now, as the task force starts to weigh in on the remaining 118 advisory groups, councils, commissions and other bodies, pushback has arrived. Alongside the Treasury Oversight Committee and Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island Citizen Advisory Board, for instance, the Sheriff's Department Oversight Board was on Wednesday's chopping block, eliciting a bevy of soul-searching questions: Does the sheriff's department truly need its own oversight board? Can the board's work, perhaps, be folded into that of the Department of Police Accountability?
Absolutely not, said Kim Tavaglione, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council and one of 40 or so people crammed into the small room on the fourth floor of City Hall. "You have to look at the moment we are in," Tavaglione added. "We have a sheriff who just endorsed a MAGA person for governor," she said. "If you don't think that deserves oversight, no more said."
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