Melgar says incoming San Francisco supervisors too deferential to Mayor Lurie

At City Hall, where the next fights over homelessness, housing and public safety will shape life from the Tenderloin to the Sunset, Supervisor Myrna Melgar says San Francisco’s new Board of Supervisors is giving Mayor Daniel Lurie too much room.

Melgar, who represents District 7, said the board was “too deferential to the mayor” and warned that members have a “steep learning curve.” She said supervisors have tended to “go along with the mayor,” sometimes “reflexively,” a criticism that lands as Lurie presses ahead with some of the most consequential policy shifts of his first year in office.

That tension has already shown up in the chamber. In Lurie’s first month, supervisors gave near-unanimous approval to expand his authority over certain homelessness- and mental-health-related contracts. The city later codified that authority in Administrative Code Chapter 21B, and the ordinance took effect on March 14, 2025. Under the new rules, designated departments must file quarterly reports on contracts and leases executed under the framework, giving the board a formal paper trail even as it widened the mayor’s reach.

Lurie, sworn in as San Francisco’s 46th mayor on January 8, 2025, entered office alongside newly elected supervisors after defeating London Breed in the November 2024 election. Six of the 11 supervisor seats were on the ballot that year, in a ranked-choice race that drew 412,231 ballots citywide and 78.9% turnout, according to Mission Local. The fresh roster gave Lurie an early governing opening, and the board quickly showed it was willing to help move his agenda.

That early alignment matters because Lurie is pursuing a broad “Breaking the Cycle” plan on homelessness and behavioral health, while also pushing a family zoning and housing agenda that has already stirred political friction. Melgar’s criticism suggests the next round of fights may hinge less on personal sparring than on whether supervisors are prepared to challenge the mayor when his proposals test the city’s budget, land-use rules and shelter system.

Board leadership is part of the equation too. On January 8, 2025, Rafael Mandelman was elected board president after an expected challenge from Melgar never materialized. For now, the board has backed Lurie on the biggest early decisions. The question for City Hall is whether that same loyalty will hold when the costs of his agenda become clearer and the need for independent oversight grows sharper.