San Francisco, CA
So far, Mayor Lurie's fentanyl plan is missing just one thing: A plan
In the days leading up to Daniel Lurie’s swearing-in, political types about town said that, in order to be a successful mayor, he’d have to lead differently than he campaigned. As Mayor Lurie, rather than Candidate Lurie, it would no longer be enough to present broad and vague messaging. A mayor, at some point, has to say not just what they’re going to do but how they’re going to do it.
Last week saw the introduction of Lurie’s first piece of legislation, which ostensibly aims to combat fentanyl and mental illness on the streets, boost law-enforcement hiring and other laudable goals by speeding up contracting. But, beyond speeding up contracting, there are no specifics about how this plan would actually accomplish its underlying goals. As such, all this plan is missing — is a plan.
But there’s plenty of stuff in here about stripping away oversights of whatever it is the city chooses to spend money on. It was not until Board President Rafael Mandelman asked for it that the Board of Supervisors was given any say — at all — in the rapid-fire assignment of contracts worth scores of millions of dollars.
What’s that mean? It means that Lurie, who has never before worked in government and, prior to his swearing-in, had never held conventional employment, was calling for no oversight whatsoever for his department heads to enter into an unlimited number of no-bid contracts. You could call Lurie’s ask “audacious” — if you were generously inclined.
Of note, Mohammed Nuru, Tom Hui, Barbara Garcia and Sheryl Davis were all department heads in San Francisco. And now they aren’t. Nuru, of course, is in prison. It’s a bit mind-boggling that he’s the only one.
So, it’s all a bit on the nose, really: It’s exactly like Lurie’s campaign. Not only is it broad and vague, it’s expensive. The contracts he proposed to be ratified sans oversight could be for up to 10 years and up to $50 million; with this kind of money the city could re-sign Klay Thompson.
As a means of shedding oversight and allowing department heads to expediently enter into good-sized pacts or leases, this legislation is a great plan. It’s ingenious if I understand it correctly. It’s a Swiss watch. But you’d expect it to be: This is what you get when you have an experienced government savant like Ben Rosenfield on your mayoral transition team.
Rosenfield is great at what he does, but — and this is important — it wasn’t his job to specify where the money should go or, more fundamentally, where it’s going to come from. Yes, there are waivers in here that would allow Lurie et al. to privately fundraise, but that’s not likely to cover more than a sliver of the money needed to rapidly expand shelter beds, treat street drug-users or any of the other goals herein. San Francisco’s deficit is hovering a shade under $1 billion and, guess what? Donald Trump is getting sworn in today and could stiff San Francisco or claw back some $415 million in reimbursements for FEMA money that we’ve already spent.
Government-watchers with long institutional memories have told us that they can’t think of a precedent for a mayor to ask for significant new powers, as Lurie has done, without offering any specifics on what they will be used for.
But here’s the thing: They’ll be granted. It’s likely that Lurie will essentially get what he wants.
We’ll have to wait and see if the board, or anyone else, asks about the scant details that we do know. Thus far, they’ve brought about more questions than answers.
Bolstering law-enforcement hiring is a goal of the mayor’s legislation, but it’s not immediately clear what private fund-raising or no-bid contracting could do about that. It’s not as if the beaver fur top hat will be passed among the city’s wealthy elites to supplement cops’ salaries. The more intuitive steps would be outsourcing background checks or the hiring of recruiters — but the city already does this. In recent years, in fact, the city has done an awful lot and put significant resources into recruitment and retention. And yet, here we are: San Francisco has not quite 1,600 sworn officers and the most recent academy class graduated 11 officers of an initial 45 recruits — an alarming 75 percent attrition rate
(It warrants mentioning that the city’s crime rates are at near-historic lows. Also, accidental overdose death numbers are at a five-year low. But it seems nobody’s in the mood to hear about this.).
Lurie also wandered off the map when he last week told reporters that San Francisco could “add beds” to General Hospital — which left actual medical professionals at General Hospital gobsmacked. In fact, the Department of Public Health has already submitted half a dozen applications to get up to $140 million in state money for behavioral health beds. But adding these 180-odd beds — at half a dozen or more sites citywide, not just at the General — would require mounting significant procedural, logistical and political hurdles. And, also, it would require that money, from the state. That’s coming on the state’s dime and on the state’s time — that is, not fast.
These are all major challenges, which is why Lurie’s job is majorly challenging. Yet, barring unforeseen lunacy, his initial legislation will pass. And now all that remains is saying what he wants to do. And how he intends to do it.
Following pushback, there is now a provision in here that the board has 45 days to review a potential contract and vote it up or down. Without that, the board had zero input. So the supes hve that going for them. Which is nice.
Truth be told, the board, which must approve city contracts of $10 million or more, does not spike all that many of them — or, for that matter, reject all that many mayoral appointments. But the oversight provision, in and of itself, can serve as a deterrent for corruption or ineptitude. Put another way: Does anyone think it’s a grand idea for the city to begin rapidly spending lots and lots of money while specifically telling all parties ahead of time that nobody is going to be doing any front-end oversight? Hopefully nobody who reads the news would say that.
So that’s kind of a big deal — and to cast that obligation to the wind would’ve been a wholesale abdication of the board’s responsibilities. Expect more pushback, starting at the Budget Committee. Expect board members to call for reductions in the 10 years and $50 million limits for the no-bid contracts.
But nobody is going to try to derail this. Nobody wants to open up the board to charges of obstructionism.
That seems wise, at least politically. With 45 days to review a contract, anything egregious ought to be bird-dogged by the supervisors. Concerns about abandoning competitive bidding are somewhat mitigated by the fact that the sorts of outfits that can minister to drug-users or oversee shelter beds are not great in number — and, more likely than not, are already here and already have city contracts. No one is pushing to bring Halliburton in to do this work.
The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, meanwhile, already has license from the Board of Supervisors to ignore competitive bidding requirements on contracts regarding homeless services (A cynic would note “and here we are.”). Lurie’s legislation would expand that ability to other departments.
When all is said and done, the board will retain one of its core raisons d’être. If time and money limits are reduced, its members can claim they mitigated the potential damage if and when things go sideways. And Lurie can claim the political win after the board passes what he and his people continue to — unfortunately — refer to as a “state of emergency” ordinance.
But is this going to actually help solve the problems? Will this make things better? Those do seem to be the $50 million questions.
The people cheering and banging drums on the front steps of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice are usually quietly keeping the calendars and paperwork on track for the city’s courts.
Those court clerks are now hitting the picket lines, citing the need for better staffing and more training. It’s the second time the group has gone on strike since 2024, and this strike may last a lot longer than the last one.
Defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges agree that court clerks are the engines that keep the justice system running. Without them, it all grinds to a slow crawl.
“You all run this ship like the Navy,” District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder said to a group of city clerks.
The strike is essentially a continuation of an averted strike that occurred in October 2025.
“We’re not asking for private jets or unicorns,” Superior Court clerk employee Ben Thompson said. “We’re just asking for effective tools with which we can do our job and training and just more of us.”
Thompson said the training is needed to bring current employees up to speed on occasional changes in laws.
Another big issue is staffing, something that clerks said has been an ongoing issue since October 2024, the last time they went on a one-day strike.
Court management issued their latest statement on Wednesday, in which the court’s executive officer, Brandon Riley, said they have been at an impasse with the union since December.
The statement also said Riley and his team has been negotiating with the union in good faith. He pointed out the tentative agreement the union came to with the courts in October 2025, but it fell apart when union members rejected it.
California’s superior courts are all funded by the state. In 2024, Sacramento cut back on court money by $97 million statewide due to overall budget concerns.
While there have been efforts to backfill those funds, they’ve never been fully restored.
Inside court on Thursday, the clerk’s office was closed, leaving the public with lots of unanswered questions. Attorneys and bailiffs described a slightly chaotic day in court.
Arraignments were all funneled to one courtroom and most other court procedures were funneled to another one. Most of those procedures were quickly continued.
At the civil courthouse, while workers rallied outside, a date-stamping machine was set up inside so people could stamp their own documents and place them in locked bins.
Notices were also posted at the family law clinic and small claims courts, noting limited available services while the strike is in progress.
According to a union spokesperson, there has been no date set for negotiations to resume, meaning the courthouse logjams could stretch for days, weeks or more.
The San Francisco Giants are likely to break camp with one of their top prospects on the 26-man roster. But they’re all getting plenty of work in camp.
The thing is, just because a prospect doesn’t make a 26-man opening day roster doesn’t mean they can’t help a Major League team at some point in the season. Others, for now, are working on developing talent.
In this exercise, five prospects that are part of Major League camp were selected to determine if they’re real depth this season or if they’re marketing names — for now. Marketing names can become real depth before one knows it, such as the first Giants prospect listed.
Bryce Eldridge: Real Depth
Eldridge has nothing left to prove at the minor league level after he was selected in the first round in the 2023 MLB draft. Back then, he was the classic example of a marketing name, one that creates buzz in the organization and with fans.
But, after more than two years of development and a taste of the Majors, he’s real depth. He’s expected to make the opening day roster and share time at first base and designated hitter with Rafael Devers, one of the game’s most established sluggers.
On Wednesday, he hit his first spring training home run, one of three in the 13-12 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Blake Tidwell: Real Depth
Tidwell was acquired from the New York Mets in July in the Tyler Rogers trade. He only pitched in four games for the Mets, so he still has prospect status. But that MLB service time, combined with his early impressions in camp, make him real depth for a team that only has one or two spots available on the pitching staff.
Tidwell may not make the team out of camp for opening day. But he’s one of those prospects that could make his way to San Francisco during the season due to injury or underperformance. It’s an example of using the time in spring training wisely and paving the way for a future promotion.
Will Bednar: Real Depth
The Giants have been waiting for their first-round pick in the 2021 MLB draft to pay off, and this might be the year that Will Bednar finally makes the jump to the Majors. He’s in Major League camp and he’s been converted into a reliever in the past couple of seasons.
He went 2-3 with a 5.68 ERA in 38 games, his full season as a reliever. But he’s impressed the new coaching staff during camp and there’s enough buzz around him to consider him a potential call-up during the season. He’s in his fifth professional season so the Rule 5 draft is a consideration this coming offseason.
Parks Harber: Marketing Name
For now, the young third baseman is going to create a lot of buzz in the farm system in 2026, but he isn’t a threat to anyone’s job yet. Picked up in the Camilo Doval trade, he only has 102 minor league games under his belt after he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Yankees. He got his first spring training hit on Wednesday. His career slash of .312/.413/.528 is encouraging but he hasn’t played higher than High-A Eugene.
Bo Davidson: Marketing Name
The Giants signed Davidson as an undrafted free agent and he’s starting to generate real buzz in spring training as a non-roster invitee. He’s not quite real depth yet because he has yet to play above Double-A Richmond. But the way he’s playing in the spring he should be at Sacramento sometime this season, which puts him in the position to be real depth.
He’s hit well at every stop, but he showed off more power than ever last season. He hit a career-best 18 home runs and 70 RBI as he slashed .281/.376/.468. He played 42 games at Richmond last season.
The San Francisco Giants weren’t giving up that undefeated spring training slate without a fight, apparently.
Wednesday’s game between the Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers came down to a raucous ninth inning that saw the two teams combine for seven runs. Milwaukee had the final at-bat and rallied to win, 13-12.
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A lot happened in this one, not the least of which was Harrison Bader’s home run putting a dent in a food truck.
Here are three important takeaways from the game.
Adrian Houser’s Giants Debut
Before this game got out of hand, Adrian Houser made his first spring training start and looked solid.
He pitched two innings, giving up three hits, one run and one walk. He also allowed a home run. He threw 36 pitches, 23 of which were strikes. The right-hander figures to be the third or fourth starter in the rotation, depending upon how San Francisco wants to line up Houser and Tyler Mahle behind Logan Webb and Robbie Ray.
Houser resurrected his career last season with the Chicago White Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays, as he combined to go 8-5 with a 3.31 ERA in 21 starts, with 92 strikeouts and 38 walks in 125 innings. It was his best season since going 10-6 with Milwaukee in 2021.
Power Surge
The Giants are looking for more slug in their lineup in 2026. Part of that is a long-term project that included signing Willy Adames last offseason and trading for Rafael Devers last June. Both hit at least 30 home runs last season. That’s sustainable power for San Francisco. But they could use more and some of that was on display in Wednesday’s game.
Bader’s home run got a lot of attention. But two other Giants hit home runs, each slugging their first of spring training. Luis Matos, an outfielder that was the designated hitter, slammed one in the second inning. Then, Bryce Eldridge, who played first base, hit one in the third inning.
San Francisco’s ability to compete offensively with the top teams in the National League won’ just hinge on Adames and Devers. It will hinge on what others can produce, too. From that standpoint Wednesday was a good day.
Parkr Harber’s Instant Offense
Parks Harber isn’t going to make the opening day roster. But that’s not expected. The top prospect, acquired in the Camilo Doval trade from the New York Yankees, is off to a solid start to his first spring training with the Giants.
He entered Wednesday’s game as a pinch-hitter and in his only at-bat he claimed a hit and drove in a run. It pushed his spring training batting average to .333. The downside? It was his first hit of spring training. But, the fact that a young player entered the game as a pinch hitter and drove in a run is a good sign for his ability to come off the bench later in his career and give the Giants something.
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