It is Time For Voters to Decide

Many readers will be inoculated by this column’s volubility, and many will explore it for blunders which render my observations and information subject to judgment and even criticism. It has been observed that criticism from a friend is better than flattery from an enemy. I bear no malice because the person who is not criticized isn’t breathing. You might avoid criticism by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing.

In that spirit, I remind our City Hall geniuses on the second floor, we pay them expecting policy decisions. Instead, this month we encounter 15 ballot measures from them, several of which, like Proposition K (forbidding private motor vehicles from the Upper Great Highway) could have been enacted (or rejected) by the Board of Supervisors and mayor, plus 10 from state government which include five by the legislature and five by voter initiatives. It’s fortunate the supervisors empowered voters to stop any vehicle on a structure for which taxpayers (not bicyclists) paid, because I think Prop. K will fail thanks to residents like Judi Gorski on 48th Avenue. May we be so fortunate with Proposition D’s approval to limit City Hall commissions to 65!

For those of us who value legal immigration, Arizona voters would authorize local police (not just border patrol or state officers) to arrest illegal immigrants. (The “mainstream media” like the N.Y. Times describes them as “undocumented” immigrants, implying such lawbreakers forgot their papers at home that morning before sneaking into the U.S. of A.) Amendments to limit voting to U.S. citizens in all local and state elections will pass or fail in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin, but not in California where minors can vote for board of education candidates. Colorado, Florida, Georgia and New Mexico voters can reduce or limit property taxes, and a North Dakota initiative would abolish them entirely. Stay tuned, California.

Do you recall my noting that the S.F. Bicycle Coalition has been given $5.5 million of taxpayer money this budget year and $5.5 million next year (July 1, 2025-June 30, 2026) for a “program” entitled “Safe Streets.” An example exists with expenditure of over $1 million as of Sept. 11, 2024, on configuration of Valencia Street bicycle lanes by SFMTA which proclaims January 2025 as “launch window” for its new abuse of motorists and merchants. If tax money can be squandered, SFMTA will find a way to do it.

Peter Fatooh, a real estate appraiser and former Assessment Appeals Board commissioner, invites attention to current practices in the Assessor’s Office which should be investigated by the Grand Jury or the White Collar Crime Unit of District Attorney Brooks Jenkins. A Noe Valley native, Mr. Fatooh asserts City Administrator Carmen Chu isn’t fit to audit the Assessor’s Office because she had her residence’s property taxes reduced by then Assessor Phil Ting four years consecutively without Chu even filing a reduction request! After her appointment as assessor, she reduced her own residence property tax unilaterally without filing an appeal. Fatooh then requested relevant public records of that reduction. The city attorney represented Chu and waited over eight weeks, then denied the taxpayer’s request. The Ethics Committee refused to act, claiming lack of jurisdiction.

The assessor’s real estate appraisers now can’t be found in their office on City Hall’s first floor. The epidemic is over except in Assessor Joaquin Torres’s office where taxpayers can’t find appraisers to discuss real estate valuation options with a home-owning taxpayer. And there have been reductions in value (and consequent property tax reduction) of assessor office employees without any appeal being filed. Can you imagine?

With over 115 commissions, Proposition D on the Nov. 5 ballot demands passage. It’s regrettable taxpayers must perform Board of Supervisors’ obligation for “good government.” It’s an inanimate government which allows “vertically structured silos.” (See June 25 Grand Jury report, p. 26, etc.) It also possesses “legislative fetish,” to quote the Civil Grand Jury again. City Hall “places more measures on the ballot” than any other of California’s 433 incorporated cities. From 2013 to 2022, “it exceeded its closest peer city by over 100%.” The Grand Jury also observed: “The duties of the city administrator (the aforementioned Carmen Chu) are ambiguously defined and need more clarity.”

My friend John Horgan in The Daily Journal last month invited voters in 11 San Mateo County school districts from Bayshore Elementary (near the Cow Palace, whose Grand National Rodeo last month was arresting as usual) to Belmont, Burlingame, Cabrillo (on the coast), to Daly City’s Jefferson, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Ravenswood, San Bruno and Woodside to consider over $555 million in borrowing, plus parcel taxes of $14 million totaling $569 million on Nov. 5. The bond issues need a 55% “yes” vote and parcel taxes require approval by 66.66%. With our Board of Education election of Ann Hsu, Letteris Eleftheriou and Min Chang can stop pupil exodus from, and closure of, public schools which anticipate a decline of 5,000 students by 2029 and now contains over 14,000 empty seats with plans to close 102 schools while spending $38.2 million to ignore neighborhood schools by busing elementary school pupils from home to school and back by a private company.

Donald Trump will be sentenced Nov. 26 for conviction of violating New York law on business records. He’s challenged the New York trial court judge who presided his May 31 conviction. On Dec. 11, each state governor submits certification of that state’s electors. Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris have two separate elector lists, two for each U.S. senator and one for each House of Representatives member. California has 54. Wyoming has three. On Jan. 3, 2025, congressional members will be sworn in. The electoral count occurs Jan. 6. If neither Harris nor Trump obtain 270 or more votes, the House of Representatives votes, with each state having one vote and a majority of 26 states decides our next U.S. president.

Let’s hope the national election somehow can be salvaged by salubrious Americans. Maybe we were better off when charity was a virtue instead of a tax deduction, but remember George Jean Nathan’s wise warning: “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.”

Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to name the turkey and make everyone uncomfortable!

Quentin Kopp is a former San Francisco supervisor, state senator, SF Ethics Commission member, president of the California High Speed Rail Authority governing board and retired Superior Court judge.