Editor:

I choose my words carefully. I say what I mean and I mean what I say.

This week marked the beginning of the submission of ballot arguments related to San Francisco’s June 2026 ballot and bond measures and for publication in the official Voter Information Pamphlet.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie kicked off the process for Prop. A – the bond measure seeking to create the 2026 iteration of the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (ESER) Bond – by penning and submitting to the Department of Elections the official “Proponent Ballot Argument” for the June 2 ballot.

I eschew, in almost all cases, using the word “lie,” especially in political or electoral context. It is used by others far too often, that is one reason. Also, as I said above, I choose my words carefully. The more serious the context the more stringent I am about word choice. Mayor Lurie’s “Proponent Ballot Argument” is not just one lie, it is a statement chock-full of lies with the intention of foisting all of them on the voters in the official Voter Information Pamphlet that is mailed to every registered voter in the City and County of San Francisco.

“Strengthening San Francisco’s emergency firefighting water system. Prop. A upgrades and extends high-pressure water lines, hydrants, and key connection points to improve reliability and coverage on the west side and every neighborhood in every corner of San Francisco.” Mayor Daniel Lurie, Proponent Ballot Argument, June 2026 Prop. A Bond Measure

Lest any reader wonder as to the accuracy of that statement, you can look it up for yourself HERE.

The mayor’s statement above is false. In fact, a vast majority of his entire “Proponent Ballot Argument” is false, but today, in this essay, I’m addressing this statement. Prop A’s $130 million in ESER bond funding won’t get their mostly unplanned, entirely unworkable “Westside Potable EFWS Project” – the PUC’s Boondoggle Pipe – even across the Sunset District, let alone into The Richmond. 

As for “every neighborhood in every corner of San Francisco,” forget about it. Those other unprotected neighborhoods in “every corner of SF” will get post-earthquake firefighting water pipelines about 10 years after NEVER under this mayor and this ESER bond.

Moreover, Mayor Lurie and the people working for him on this issue and this bond measure know that the statement above is false. They know it. He knows it. We have told them, and him, the truth many times. He knows.

I am not a complicated man. My parents taught me that when one says something that they know to be false, that is a lie. If you want other words, here are a few: deceit, prevarication and mendacity. When a D-4 voter asked me recently, “When will people start trusting City Hall again?” I said, “When City Hall stops lying to us.”

Mayor Lurie’s Big Prop. A Lie, in and of itself, proves the day has not yet come when City Hall will stop lying to us.

Vote NO on Prop A by June 2.

John Crabtree, Equal Fire Protection for All Committee to Oppose June 2026 Prop A (ESER Bond)