SMALL BUSINESS BACKS MEASURES TO CLEAN UP CITY HALL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 15, 2026

Contact: press@cleanupcityhall.org

Small Businesses Join Broad Coalition Backing Props D, E and F

SAN FRANCISCO — Today, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a wave of endorsements from small businesses across the city for Props D, E, and F, the Clean Up City Hall measures, adding to a rapidly growing coalition supporting November’s charter reform measures to demand transparency at the ballot, end corruption in city contracting, and deliver faster city services and permits.

“No one has suffered more under our broken and corrupt system than small business owners. For too long, running a small business in San Francisco has meant wasting time and money fighting City Hall instead of getting the service they deserve. My administration is changing that,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “I’m proud to stand with the small business community to pass these common-sense reforms and make city government more accountable.”

In 2024, Mayor Lurie was elected by a wide margin on a promise to fix a broken system that works for insiders and special interests at the expense of San Franciscans. Passage of these three measures delivers on that mandate and turns the page on a failed status quo.

“Running a small business is hard enough without having to fight City Hall just to get things done. Small business owners need clear rules, faster decisions, and someone who is actually accountable when the system isn’t working. That’s why I am proud to support Props D, E and F,” said Bernie Melvin, owner of Bernie’s.

The package of common sense reforms is backed by Noe Valley Businesses including: Bernie's, Novy, Angela's Ice Cream, Valley Tavern, Mamahuhu and many more across San Francisco. The small business endorsements join a broad coalition of supporters including: Supervisors Sherrill, Sauter, Wong, Mahmood, Dorsey, and Mandelman, as well as labor, community, and good governance leaders.

“Small businesses are what make San Francisco’s neighborhoods special, but too often the city makes it harder than it needs to be for us to succeed. I’m proud to support Props D, E, and F because they will make City Hall more accountable and responsive to the people who keep this city running,” said Ben Moore, co-owner of Mamahuhu.

The Clean Up City Hall package includes three parts: 

Prop D - Demands transparency at the ballot.

San Francisco has the loosest rules of any city in the state for getting initiatives on the ballot. The result: voters weighing in on more measures, many of them confusing and competing. This additionally creates an unstable operating environment for small businesses. In 2024 alone, San Franciscans faced 15 ballot measures — compared with just one in San Jose.

Prop D would bring San Francisco closer to the standards set in the rest of the state: raising the supervisor threshold from a minority to a simple majority, eliminating the mayor's unilateral authority, and increasing the signature threshold to a number still below, but closer to, the state standard. It would also let proponents withdraw their own measure after signatures are submitted, encouraging compromise and a way to pull flawed measures from the ballot.

Prop E - Ends corruption in city contracting.

San Francisco’s contracting system is politicized and inefficient. The status quo rewards insiders and special interests, and, at its worst, it breeds corruption. About $6 billion in annual contracts are governed by a maze of rules scattered across more than 100 sections of code. To simplify the process and make it more transparent and accountable, Prop E   would give the City Administrator sole authority over changes to the City's purchasing laws, with any rule changes taking effect unless rejected by the Mayor or a majority of the Board of Supervisors. The measure would also raise the dollar threshold for City contracts requiring Board approval to keep pace with the consumer price index — a threshold that hasn't been adjusted for inflation in nearly 40 years and adds weeks of delay to routine contracts.

Prop F - Faster city services and permits

As written, the City's Charter locks in bureaucracy, weakens accountability, and protects the status quo. Prop F would allow the Mayor to hire and remove most department heads he or she oversees, and give the Mayor authority to reorganize department reporting structures, subject to rejection from the board. With these tools, the Mayor can end the era of departments operating as independent fiefdoms, and ensure agencies are working toward shared goals. This would eliminate the conflicting guidance that residents and small businesses too often receive from multiple departments, while improving accountability, delivering measurable results, and providing consistent communication to all San Franciscans. 

At more than 500 pages, San Francisco's City Charter is the longest municipal charter of any major American city. Its tangle of rules drives up costs — producing absurd outcomes like the $1.7 million public toilet in Noe Valley — and makes it far too difficult to hold city officials accountable, even going so far as to interfere with the removal of officials who betray the public's trust.

To learn more about the effort to reform San Francisco's charter, click HERE.

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