Clash Over SFPD Staffing Measure May Cost Peskin a Progressive Ally in His Mayoral Bid

Ever since San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin tossed his hat in the ring for mayor, Supervisor Hillary Ronen has marched in lockstep supporting his campaign.

Now, a dispute spiraling out of a proposed ballot measure on police staffing threatens to sever the progressive lawmakers’ alliance. Ronen told KQED she’s reconsidering her support after the strife with Peskin — which this week led her to resign from a key city committee tasked with evaluating such ballot proposals — caused her to question his commitment to running from the left.

“I don’t think there is a progressive candidate in this race,” Ronen said. “All you hear is them trying to compete against each other over wanting more police. I wish I could say Peskin is an alternative to that, but I’m not seeing that he is.”

The November ballot proposal, if passed by voters, would allow a handful of veteran officers to collect their salaries and pension benefits simultaneously in exchange for delaying retirement.

The Rules Committee, which Ronen chaired until Tuesday, deemed the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) “fiscally irresponsible,” according to Ronen. She pointed to a similar plan enacted in 2008 that supervisors ultimately ended in 2011 after an analysis found it had increased pension costs by $52 million in those three years alone.

After the committee voted on Monday to scrap the measure, which is supported by eight supervisors, Peskin called on Tuesday for a special meeting to reconsider it. Ronen said the move undercut the committee’s power.

“It weakens the stature of the Board of Supervisors when the rules of order can be changed so easily for one item the minute one or two supervisors don’t agree with the chair’s findings,” she said.

However, Peskin maintains that the special meeting to revisit the measure was by the book.

“A small committee on the Board of Supervisors consisting of three people does not take the board’s ability away to democratically vote for or against something,” Peskin said. “In this particular instance, a supermajority of eight board members are sponsors of this measure, and to allow two supervisors to not enable the board to take a position on it is not democratic.”

Ronen, who will be termed out of her seat in January, said she “hasn’t decided” whether she will vote for another mayoral candidate, but she is indeed questioning her support of Peskin.

“I really thought Peskin would be the best candidate, just because he is a pretty practical common sense guy,” she said, “but it’s hard to see him be a candidate and play the same games as all the other typical politicians.”

Peskin doesn’t seem swayed.

“I had a very pleasant, albeit sad conversation yesterday where [Ronen] indicated that if we held a special board meeting, she would resign from the committee,” he told KQED. “She was clear that she would continue to support my candidacy, but that’s ultimately up to her.”

In her resignation letter, Ronen cited the city’s approval of increasing the police budget by $166 million for salaries and hiring bonuses in recent years and nearly $200 million overall for the department.

As for supporting a measure that would funnel more money to police, Peskin said: “Public safety is a progressive value, and this particular relatively small piece of legislation … will help maintain our current staffing levels at the Police Department, which has undergone a host of 21st-century policing reforms.”

San Francisco’s progressive voting bloc has largely embraced Peskin. His leading opponents in the mayoral race — incumbent Mayor London Breed, nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, and former supervisor and interim mayor Mark Farrell — have positioned themselves as moderates, with Supervisor Ahsha Safaí running slightly to the left of his fellow moderate opponents.

This week, Peskin secured a key endorsement from the city’s largest labor union, Service Employees International Union No. 1021.

“It was his approach to working with our union on issues important to us, including housing and tenants rights,” said Ramsés Teón-Nichols, vice president of politics at SEIU 1021, on why the group endorsed Peskin. “Also, his record supporting social and economic justice values that align with ours.”

Peskin told KQED he was “humbled” to have the support from the union, which represented nearly 16,000 San Francisco city workers.

“SEIU 1021 is a standard bearer for the labor movement, and their thousands of working members have informed a lot of my policies, from workforce housing to improving transit and public safety,” Peskin said.