Shall the City adopt state law signature requirements for petitions to recall City officials?

Currently, 10% of registered voters in a district of the City is needed to recall an elected official in the following areas/positions:

• City and County
• City Administrator
• Airports Commission
• Board of Education
• governing board of the Community College District
• the Ethics Commission
• the Public Utilities Commission

The ten percent rule is in the City laws. Proposition E wants to rid the City of the ten percent rule and use the state recall rule which dictates the percentage based on a tiered system.

The state recall rules is as follows for district-held positions:

• 30% for a population less than 1000 registered voters
• 25% for a population between 1000 and 10,000 registered voters
• 20% for a population between 10,000 and 50,000 registered voters
• 15% for a population between 50,000 and 100,000 registered voters
• 10% for a population of 100,000+ registered voters

For positions that are elected through a city-wide vote, the number of signatures required would remain at 10%. The districts in San Francisco are mostly in the 10,000 to 50,000 range with one above the 50,000 range. So for a max population of 10,000, 2,000 signatures would be needed to recall a supervisor as opposed to the current need of 1,000 signatures.

The proponents of proposition E point to special interest groups initiating recalls of supervisors whose policies do not coincide with the groups’ interests.

The opposition to proposition E point to the three attempted recalls in the past eight years that have failed after review.

Also, if someone is able to get a petition going with signatures from 10% of a district, then the elected official must be straying away from the policies he/she was elected for in the first place.

I will be voting no for Proposition E.