Well, what do you think? I think there is. And I think most voters think there is too.
This is a biiiig subject, and I will have a lot to say about it in the coming days and weeks. But for now, to get things started, I think the best way to launch this conversation is with a little background information.
Below you will see a quick table that I threw together that shows how much money San Francisco’s current city government spends per year, per citizen, compared to various other American cities.
As you can see, in terms of dollars spent per citizen of the city, San Francisco spends way, way, way (yes, three “ways”) more money per citizen than any other American city of similar size. Or any of the top 5 most populous cities, either.
I don’t know about you, but when I look at this information, one word comes to my mind. And that word is – absurd.
As I said above, I’ll have a lot more to say on this subject in the coming days and weeks. But for now, here’s a brief summary of some of the things I plan to implement to address this absurdity:
- Institute a hiring freeze across all of city government –
- exceptions would include the police (duh), and any genuinely needed emergency responders or SF General nurses
- a short term exception might also apply to hiring staff for a team of outside auditors (see below)
- Create a team of auditors and investigators to study city government spending, compare it to other cities, and identify areas where San Francisco is out of whack. This will be done with an eye to start dialing back city spending without messing up the customer service we deliver to the voters.
- Consolidate and reorganize existing city auditing and ethics people and processes into one powerful and autonomous entity that has the power to investigate spending and accounting practices by any city department, city-funded non-profit organization, city employee, city appointed board member, etc. At any time, for any reason. This will include any and all city elected officials.
- Look to end the insane spending across a fragmented galaxy of non-profit organizations. In my vision of San Francisco’s future I believe strongly that well-run, accountable, and effective non-profits will need to play a prominent role. But I will bring a quick halt to the ridiculous situation where we have, like, 600-something city-funded non-profit organizations.