Lurie charter overhaul wins $1.5 million from wealthy donors

Mayor Daniel Lurie’s charter overhaul committee collected $1.5 million in the final two weeks of June, bringing Clean Up City Hall to $8.6 million for the year. The money came as Lurie’s effort moved toward a July hearing at the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee, with a full Board vote needed before the July 24 deadline for the November 2026 ballot.

The biggest checks were $500,000 each from Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective and venture capitalist John Doerr. Two more donors from real estate and private equity gave $250,000 apiece. Michael Moritz and Chris Larsen, who spent $1.5 million against Lurie in the mayor’s race, are now among the largest supporters of his charter agenda.

The city’s charter was last fully updated in 1995, has been amended more than 100 times since then and has grown into a nearly 540-page document. One proposal would raise the threshold for initiative measures from the current 2% of registered voters, about 10,000 signatures, making it harder for neighborhood groups and small campaigns to qualify ballot measures. Another would let the mayor reorganize or consolidate 24 city departments, while a separate plan would move city contracting under the city administrator’s office. Those changes would cut through a fragmented system, speed decisions and curb waste; they would also concentrate power in the Mayor’s Office, weaken checks on spending and shrink opportunities for ordinary residents to force issues onto the ballot.

The draft package grew out of a Charter Reform Working Group that met four times between December 2025 and March 2026 and reviewed 34 ideas across four topic areas. Reform groups such as GrowSF and SPUR have backed the effort, while labor leaders and other critics have opposed it. It also reflects work from the Commission Streamlining Task Force, created by Proposition E in November 2024, which delivered its final recommendations on Jan. 30, 2026.