11 Arrested After Disrupting SF Supervisors’ Meeting in Protest Against City Job Cuts

Updated 10:45 a.m. Wednesday

Nearly a dozen people were arrested Tuesday afternoon after disrupting a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting where lawmakers were set to discuss a budget plan that makes significant cuts to city jobs.

More than 100 members of local labor unions and supporters rose from the chamber benches in City Hall shortly after the 2 p.m. meeting began, filling the large room with signs and chanting “Protect public services” and “Whose city? Our city.” They say Mayor Daniel Lurie’s plan to issue the city’s first layoff notices in more than a decade is unnecessary and threatens to further constrain under-resourced departments.

“We are here once again — it’s not our first time — because we are 100% not OK with all of these layoffs that are proposed in this budget,” said Nicole T. Germain, vice president of representation for the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, one of several unions that represents San Francisco city workers. “There is absolutely no reason that this budget should be balanced on the back of our hardworking San Franciscans.”

Sheriff’s deputies blocked the barricade between protesters and the board but remained mostly silent for more than 20 minutes as the demonstration continued. Supervisors cleared the room when the board went into recess just after 2:30 p.m., and they were not expected to return for at least an hour. The protestors remained in the chambers until after 3:30 p.m., at which point 11 people who were sitting on the chamber floor were arrested.

They were cited for intentionally obstructing business and were released shortly after, according to the sheriff’s office.

Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who walked around to the side of the chamber where protesters were gathered, told KQED during the recess that she understood their concerns. She echoed statements Supervisor Connie Chan made last week to the San Francisco Standard, indicating that she would eye both vacant and filled managerial positions for potential reductions.

“Their demands are reasonable as to have no layoffs in this budget, and I’m hopeful that this board and the budget committee are able to figure something out to make sure that jobs are saved,” Fielder said. “At the end of the day, it’s city services, and we’re also in general severely understaffed, so we can’t afford any cuts to public services.”

In a statement to KQED, Chan also expressed her solidarity with the protesters.

The protest came ahead of the board’s first discussion of Lurie’s proposed budget for the next two fiscal years. The mayor has proposed deep cuts to the city’s workforce, with 1,400 positions eliminated across 40 departments, as part of his plan to close a $782 million shortfall exacerbated by federal and state funding cuts and expensive pushback against the Trump administration.

Many of the positions are vacant, and only about 17 of the affected departments stand to lose roles that are currently filled.

Among those whose positions will be eliminated, some are retiring and won’t be replaced. But up to about 100 workers could be issued layoff notices — something the city hasn’t had to do for 15 years.

“A crisis of this magnitude means we cannot avoid painful decisions, and I’m prepared to make them,” Lurie said when he announced his plan in May.

The Board of Supervisors must pass a balanced budget before the new fiscal year begins in July. This week, supervisors will begin their amendment process and hold hearings with the city departments affected by proposed cuts.

Meanwhile, San Francisco is steeling itself for a decline in federal funding under the Trump administration.

About $140 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding that the city used to shelter unhoused residents during the COVID-19 pandemic could be clawed back. President Trump has also threatened to pull money from sanctuary cities like San Francisco, and during a hearing in the city’s Budget and Appropriations Committee last week, Chan said officials are expecting cuts to Medicaid, which more than 17% of San Francisco residents rely on.

Chan said during the budget hearing that the city has “no good options,” citing the Trump administration’s threats.

This year, San Francisco received just under $1 billion in federal grants, according to the Bay Area-based think tank SPUR. The city’s total spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year is $15.9 billion.

San Francisco is also facing potentially costly litigation from Airbnb and Google, which are trying to recoup $145 million they claim they were forced to overpay in city taxes.

Labor groups have pushed back in force since Lurie made his proposal public, saying the city could have worked with their leaders to avoid layoffs and should instead be focused on retaining the tax revenue from Airbnb and Google.

In addition to the labor cuts, many grant-making departments are set to lose money, and about $100 million in grants and contracts have been sliced from the budget. The district attorney’s and public defender’s offices, along with public safety departments, would mostly maintain their funding.

The mayor’s office itself will have an increased budget in the coming years, though a spokesperson told KQED that was due to previously negotiated wage increases, not new positions.

“Mayor Lurie’s budget tackles the city’s historic budget deficit head-on, doubling down on the core services that are driving our recovery and bringing San Francisco back,” Lurie’s spokesperson Charles Lutvak said in a statement. “To do that amid serious uncertainty in the state and federal budgets, we can only spend the money we have.”

KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara contributed to this report.