Monumental political change is set to sweep through San Francisco City Hall come January 8 when the city's new mayor is sworn in and close to half of the Board of Supervisors will be newcomers. Plus, in a historic first for the 11-member board, it will have a four-person LGBTQ bloc, with one of the members possibly being elected the new board president.
Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is seeking the powerful position with a two-year term, as is District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, a straight ally. District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton is also expected to once again have his name be put into contention.
Termed out in 2026 like Mandelman, Walton served as board president from 2021 through early 2023 and had sought a second term. But like Mandelman, Walton was unable to secure the backing of a majority of the 11 supervisors and passed the president's gavel to District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose board tenure officially ends next week due to being termed out for a second time.
Joining Mandelman and gay Supervisors Matt Dorsey of District 6 and Joel Engardio of District 4 will be queer District 9 Supervisor-elect Jackie Fielder. The first Native American elected to serve on the board, she is returning out Latina leadership to the governing body since the start of 2013.
That January saw the departure of bisexual appointed District 5 supervisor Christina Olague, as she was defeated in the November 2012 election by now-Mayor London Breed. Due to Breed's loss in last year's election, her mayoral tenure will come to an end at noon on Wednesday, January 8.
At that point Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie will have been sworn in as the city's 46th mayor. The political newcomer, an heir of the Levi Strauss fortune who ran an anti-poverty nonprofit focused on the Bay Area, has pledged to overhaul how the city is managed and run under his administration.
A moderate in the vein of Breed, Lurie will be working with a moderate-dominated Board of Supervisors. With the additions of Supervisors-elect Danny Sauter in District 3 and Bilal Mahmood in District 5, plus new District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, there is expected to be a six-person moderate majority on the board.
Freshman Assemblymember Catherine Stefani (D-San Francisco) resigned from the Marina-based supervisor seat in early December, giving Breed a parting gift of naming her successor to the District 2 seat. Sherrill has served as director of the Mayor's Office of Innovation, with homelessness being one of the main issues he focused on.
"I am confident that Stephen will bring the experience and skills necessary to represent the residents of District Two and to build a stronger, more resilient city," Breed stated in naming Sherrill to the vacancy on December 18. "He is dedicated to making San Francisco safer and more affordable for everyone, including supporting the housing, transit, and infrastructure we need, and committed to the transparency and accountability our residents deserve. With his experience in both the public and private sectors, I know he will be a strong addition to the Board of Supervisors and a committed neighborhood advocate."
A member of the pro-housing group Northern Neighbors, an affiliate of YIMBY Action, Sherrill, 38, lives in Presidio Heights with his wife and children. A graduate of Yale, where he earned a B.A. in political science, he had worked as a policy adviser for former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, an ally of Breed who had donated $1.5 million to her reelection campaign.
Sherrill then worked in private equity, focused on infrastructure investments, before moving to San Francisco to work with outdoor brand Royal Robbins. He later became COO at the volunteer management software platform Golden before joining Breed's administration in 2022 at the office funded by a charity tied to Bloomberg.
"We must build on the foundation that Mayor Breed has left and to continue to make housing more affordable, our streets safer and cleaner, and prioritize recovery and treatment to fight the scourge of overdose deaths," stated Sherrill. "Yet we also face looming budget deficits, and I look forward to working with leaders both inside of and outside City Hall to embrace bold, innovative solutions that will allow small businesses to thrive, our downtown to recover, and our incredible city workforce to continue to deliver the high-quality services we deserve."
Mandelman told the Bay Area Reporter he doesn't know Sherrill well but welcomes having another Yalie on the board, as he earned a B.A. in history from the university.
"We had a coffee, and I have seen him around City Hall and talked to him a few times. I am looking forward to getting to know him better," said Mandelman. "I have been impressed with his work at the Office of Innovation."
Fielder and District 11 Supervisor-elect Chyanne Chen will account for a five-member progressive bloc with Walton, Melgar, and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan. As she has aligned with her moderate colleagues on past votes depending on the issue, Melgar is likely to become a swing vote on the newly constituted board.
The elections of Sauter, Mahmood, Fielder, and Chen, plus the appointment of Sherrill, also represent generational change in the board chambers. As the SF Standard pointed out, the four newly elected supervisors are 40 or younger, with Chen the oldest. Mahmood is 37, Sauter is 36, and Fielder is 30, making her the youngest LGBTQ community leader to win a seat on the Board of Supervisors.
(Gay former District 9 supervisor David Campos was 39 when he won election in 2008 to the seat centered in the Mission district. The previous youngest out supervisor was Leslie Katz, a lesbian who was 34 when she was appointed to fill a board vacancy in 1996.)
Like Fielder, several of the incoming class of supervisors are breaking through political glass ceilings. Chen, who emigrated at age 15 from Guangzhou, China to San Francisco, will be the first supervisor of Asian descent to represent District 11, an Asian and Pacific Islander majority district (56.55%) carved out of the city's central southern neighborhoods. Mahmood, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan in the 1980s, is the first person of South Asian descent and Muslim to serve on the board.
At 5 p.m. Friday, January 17, Fielder will hold a community swearing-in ceremony at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street. She has yet to announce who will administer her oath of office.
Mandelman moves into new digs
In what could be a positive omen for his board presidency bid, Mandelman ahead of the new year moved into Peskin's corner office on the second floor of City Hall, as it is the largest and he has the most seniority among the new class of supervisors due to his winning a special election in the summer of 2018. One previous occupant of the coveted suite was the late gay supervisor Harry Britt, the first gay board president, serving from 1989-1991. (The only other gay board president to date was Tom Ammiano, who held the gavel from 1999 through January 2003.)
Mandelman interned in the summer of 1989 ahead of his sophomore year in high school for then-supervisor Doris Ward. (At the time, supervisors were elected citywide. Ward died in 2018, while Britt passed away in 2020.)
"I remember being both intrigued and frightened by Harry Britt's office. I was worried it might turn me gay," Mandelman recalled of his 14-year-old self who was struggling with internalized homophobia and being bullied by classmates who called him "faggot." "He was known as the gay supervisor and lots of gay people were around his office because there were a lot of gay issues of the time. Later in life, I became friendly with Harry."
As for his bid to become board president, Mandelman acknowledged to the B.A.R. that headed into the holiday break, he was short the six votes needed to secure the position.
"I am still having conversations with my colleagues," he said.
As they did two years ago, Dorsey and Engardio are backing him to lead the board through early January 2027. In the 2023 vote, after multiple rounds of voting, the three out supervisors ended up throwing their support to Peskin.
"He was a great choice then and still is," Engardio told the B.A.R., adding that Mandelman "brings a perfect blend of experience and perspective to the job, which is especially needed with a largely new board charged with addressing critical issues to move San Francisco forward."
Dorsey told the B.A.R. he believes Mandelman will not only "do a great job" as board president but is the right person to serve in the role due to what could be in store for the city under the second Trump administration.
"I feel blessed to be able to work with somebody I actually consider a friend," said Dorsey, who credited Mandelman with helping mentor him along with Peskin during his first two years as a supervisor. "In terms of knowledge, values, tenure and expertise, I think it is an easy vote for him to be board president."
Fielder, who went on vacation ahead of the holidays, did not respond to a request for comment about her decision regarding the board presidency vote by the B.A.R.'s print deadline on December 23. She is believed to be leaning toward Walton for the leadership position.
Political Notes, the notebook's online companion, returns Monday, January 13.
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Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected]
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