City Hall Digest: Mayor Adjusts Drug Arrest Policy, BART Addresses Safety Concerns

City Hall Digest is TogetherSF Action’s weekly dispatch from San Francisco’s City Hall, broken into bite-sized pieces—because understanding local government is your fundamental right.

Mayor Breed Adjusts Public Drug Use Arrest Policy

The Mayor’s new policy directive to arrest drug users has been controversial—critics have brought up research showing forced treatment does not work, while others have pointed out that fentanyl is a different, more dangerous drug and compelled treatment should be explored. Last week, the Mayor announced that she would be tweaking the policy: now, when someone is arrested for public drug use for a second time, they will be placed in the Community Justice Center court system. 

Currently, people can be repeatedly arrested and offered services—this hasn’t been effective, as none of the 53 people booked into county jail for public intoxication have accepted treatment services. With the modification placing people in the CJC, there’s a greater chance that people can receive treatment. 

The Community Justice Center, which includes Drug Court, is an alternative branch of the criminal division of the court system here in San Francisco. There, defendants reach deals with the court to participate in treatment programs, or serve a sentence—however, sending people to jail is the option of last resort for the court. The preferred option is treatment. Unfortunately, the CJC does not track Drug Court case outcomes and has no data on how many people have completed treatment versus those who have gone to jail, so it’s hard to say for sure how effective the program is at getting people into treatment. Despite this shortcoming, Drug Court has a positive reputation throughout the state for delivering on getting people out of the carceral system who do not belong there. 

While this policy is a shift from people entering treatment at-will, it resembles Portugal’s model, where drug users are in a system that makes treatment—not punishment—the goal. We hope this new path can refocus people’s lives—drug users need to recover, and SF needs an end to open-air drug use.

New Report Shows Citywide Hiring Difficulties Affecting Critical Services

Last week, San Francisco County’s Civil Grand Jury (a group of civilian volunteers that publishes reports on good governance in every county in California) published a report on problems SF is facing when it comes to hiring. While we know that the San Francisco Police Department is chronically understaffed, other city departments are facing similar staffing problems—there are a total of 4,800 vacant positions citywide. This shortage, which comprises twice as many vacant positions as the city had before the pandemic, has affected critical services, including medical services, Muni frequency, and hospital staffing. 

According to the report, the process to become a city employee is completely broken. Currently, it takes close to 255 days to begin employment with the City and County of San Francisco. This is abysmal by any standard—the length of the hiring process discourages quality talent from joining. The Grand Jury pointed to overly complex Civil Service rules and employee union agreements that managers have to follow to the letter. 

Other barriers slow certain budgeted positions, including getting approval from the Mayor’s office. According to the report, this process takes an average of 22 days. The Grand Jury recommended this be cut to five days. 

Last year, Mayor Breed proposed a plan to expedite the hiring process, which was approved by the Civil Service Commission in January—but has yet to be implemented. Her multipart solution would include bringing software into the 21st century—outdated systems are slow and inefficient, and applicants still have to take an SAT-style entry test. Her plan would also target positions that have languished for months, with more aggressive marketing for those jobs. 

The city has to be able to hire efficiently and smartly if it is to overcome this massive backlog in city hiring. Filling these roles is critical to providing quality services for all of the city’s residents, and San Francisco cannot afford to let crucial areas like public health, safety, and transportation continue to deteriorate.

BART Board Moves to Address Safety on Trains

Last week, the BART Board of Directors voted to give the transit agency’s police officers a 20 percent raise as part of an agreement to address rider safety issues on the system’s trains. According to a rider survey published in February 2023, personal safety was in the top five priorities for BART customers—ever since the pandemic, trains have generally become emptier and people have reported feeling less safe on the system.

Part of addressing that concern is having a presence of ambassadors as well as uniformed officers. The raise for BART police is part of an agreement that also requires officers to sign up for additional shifts patrolling trains. According to the agreement, officers will sign up for patrol shifts twice per year. Half of these shifts are assigned to patrolling trains, while others will fill floater shifts that can be reassigned on an as-needed basis.

While we recognize that BART will soon face an enormous budget deficit, addressing safety concerns of customers who ride the Bay Area’s largest transit system is critical to restoring confidence in the agency and bringing people back to the service. We appreciate the BART Board of Directors taking this issue seriously, and we’re hopeful that customer satisfaction with safety improves with this commitment by BART police to be present on the system.