NOVEMBER 2024 VOTER GUIDE
DISTRICT 7 SUPERVISOR
What is the Board of Supervisors?
An 11-member body that governs the affairs of the city
Each supervisor represents the roughly 80,000 residents who live in their district
Supervisors hold a significant amount of power to create or block policies and programs that impact the City
Supervisors can serve two consecutive terms of four years, and serve staggered terms so that every two years, either the even or odd districts are up for elections (this year, the odd districts are up for election)
The salary and benefits of this full-time position total $140,000 per year
Why You Should Care
Your supervisor represents you at the local level, and has the power to fix many of your day-to-day quality of life issues in your neighborhood. They are also powerful enough to solve citywide problems, particularly through their control of the budget which they pass annually after a series of deliberations. While the budget can be effectively used as a tool to implement policy, it can also be spent wastefully on items that are either performative or unaccountable to the voters. Examples: $61,000-per-tent encampments for the homeless, or $250,000-per-unit public restrooms often repurposed as drug injection sites.
Our Vision for the Board of Supervisors
They work with the Mayor and City Departments on the nuts and bolts of making our city better, with measurable outcomes, instead of performative and overly bureaucratic policies.
How We’re Evaluating Candidates’ Records
😍 Perfect 😃 Great! 😐 Fine or not enough info 🤔 Questionable 😩 Quite bad
When making endorsements, we judge candidates based on their political experience, managerial experience, and dedication to our issue areas. We came to our endorsement decisions after conducting interviews with candidates, deeply researching their records, and collecting our community’s input.
✅ Matt Boschetto
Why we’re voting for him: San Francisco elects the Board of Supervisors by district, so supervisors need to represent the values of the voters in their district, while also working to solve bigger, citywide problems. Unfortunately, District 7 voters haven’t had that kind of dependable representation for years, and it’s time for change. Matt Boschetto’s vision for his district and entrepreneurial experience are clearly aligned with both voters and TogetherSF Action. A small business owner, Boschetto doesn’t have any political experience yet, but he’s reliably supported pragmatic, realistic policies for public safety, housing, and homelessness, while current supervisor Myrna Melgar has not. We want to encourage forward-thinking outsiders who are motivated to create change to get into politics, especially when we have the chance to unseat an incumbent who hasn’t delivered. We support Matt Boschetto for supervisor because his proposed solutions for District 7’s problems are aligned with what the Board of Supervisors needs right now.
Proposed Policy 😃
The right values for his district
Boschetto has proven to be a pragmatic candidate, focused on the correct issues, and he’s been clear that public safety is his top priority. To improve public safety in San Francisco, he prioritizes creating additional incentives to recruit new police officers more quickly, and supports reforming the Police Commission’s powers to return full accountability for policing strategy to the mayor and chief of police. Boschetto supports increased accountability and adding standards for the vast network of contractors the city relies on to provide essential services—a necessity when there seems to be a new scandal every month. And to tackle the city’s deteriorating street conditions, Boschetto supports increasing drug addiction treatment services in San Francisco, adding shelter space, and enforcing the city’s parking laws to address the RVs that have sprawled on city streets throughout District 7.
Political Experience 😐
A fresh perspective for the Board of Supervisors
While he doesn’t have any political experience to review, Boschetto has run his flower store for the last seven years, which he says taught him how to make hard management decisions. That can be an asset in San Francisco’s new budget-constrained reality, as supervisors will need to balance the city’s financial health with essential services and programs San Franciscans rely on. Plus, District 7 small businesses have been overburdened by public safety challenges—someone with lived experience running a business will likely take their concerns seriously and provide realistic solutions to solve them.
Past Policy 😐
A true political newcomer
Boschetto is a blank slate for politics, which carries some risk. He’s never participated in one of San Francisco’s numerous political clubs, which is how most elected officials dip their toe in the water of San Francisco politics. But Boshcetto is a reliable champion for streamlining San Francisco’s tangled bureaucracy and making it easier for small businesses to succeed—an issue close to our hearts.
⛔ Myrna Melgar
Why you should leave her off your ballot:
Unfortunately, current District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar hasn’t delivered consistent results for District 7 or the city during her first term in office, and has sometimes taken positions that are not aligned with voters' priorities. For example, she says homelessness is one of her top issues, but has struggled to address the RV encampments around her district. First, she promised to solve the problem by asking SFMTA to pick up its parking enforcement like it did pre-pandemic. Then, she promised to find them a spot to park outside the area. But the encampments still kept appearing around the district. This isn’t a solution for those experiencing homelessness or housed residents and business owners demanding action. We’re leaving Myrna Melgar off our ballot because she hasn’t delivered results for District 7, and is too inconsistent to expect any better in a second term.
Political Experience 😐
An experienced politician out of touch with her district
Prior to her election as District 7’s supervisor in 2020, Myrna Melgar was a legislative aide to former District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar. She has plenty of experience in City Hall, working as the Director of Homeownership Programs at the Mayor's Office of Housing during the Newsom Administration, and serving as President of the City Planning Commission, and Vice President of the Building Inspection Commission. Unfortunately, this experience doesn’t seem to have added up to real results for her district.
Past Policy 🤔
Too inconsistent for a second term
If there’s been one constant throughout Melgar’s time as Supervisor, it’s her inconsistency. As the chair of the Land Use and Transportation Committee, she’s generally been reliably focused on housing and transit issues. But she’s still blocked significant housing projects, like the 495-unit apartment building that would have replaced an empty SoMa parking lot, a 316-unit project in the Tenderloin over fears they would become “tech dorms,” and a 10-home project in Nob Hill over shadow concerns.
More importantly, Melgar hasn’t been aligned with the priorities of TogetherSF Action or the majority of San Francisco voters, opposing the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and recalls in general, even though recalls can indicate the voters’ will in times of serious turmoil. And when seeking the endorsement of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, Melgar indicated that she not only supports defunding the police, but would fire all the city's police officers without cause and make them reapply for their jobs. It’s bad enough to constantly flip-flop on the issues—it’s worse to be disconnected from San Franciscan voters’ needs.
Proposed Policy 🤔
Says one thing, delivers something else entirely
Based on Melgar’s past performance, we have to take her proposals with a grain of salt. She says she supports street safety, but delayed planned safety improvements in West Portal after a family was killed by a driver that ran into their bus stop. She advocates for more housing and helped broker a massive development at Stonestown, but has blocked housing projects on empty lots before. She says San Francisco needs to increase police staffing levels now, but also said she wanted to completely disband the police department in 2020. Unfortunately, Melgar’s inconsistency makes it difficult for us to support her for a second term.
District 7 includes West Portal, Forest Hill, Lake Merced, Inner Sunset, Ingleside Terraces, and Saint Francis Wood.
Paid for by TogetherSF Action (tsfaction.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.