The campaign to recall gay District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio is likely to make it to the ballot this year. The San Francisco Department of Elections confirmed to the Bay Area Reporter that 99.3% of a random sample of the signatures submitted last week were valid.
The recall campaign was sparked by Engardio’s support of Proposition K, which voters passed last November to permanently close a portion of the Great Highway to vehicle traffic. While the measure was approved by voters citywide, those in District 4 largely cast ballots against Prop K and were critical of Engardio’s support for it.
Matthew Selby, the election department’s campaign services manager and custodian of records, stated that his department is in the process of verifying all of the signatures, which can take up to 60 business days but will likely be concluded sooner than that.
Otto Pippenger, a field director for the recall, stated, “It’s gratifying to see that the hard work of both collecting and pre-validating is appearing to conform to our intent.”
“We aimed to have as close to a 100% validity rate as possible,” he stated. “We’ve tried to save the DoE as much unnecessary work as possible. At the end of the day, it’s in their hands, but the truth is that we expect the remainder of the count to show a very similar percentage to what we’ve seen in the initial sampling. A lot of very good people put a lot of volunteer time and effort in to meet our threshold of quality, and my colleagues and I are honored to have been able to help D4 voters utilize their democratic rights.”
In a statement, Engardio discussed his efforts to stay in office.
“Making change is hard and I understand the concerns people have. I’ve knocked on thousands of doors in recent months, visited every small business in the Sunset, and met with constituents at community meetings and neighborhood social events,” Engardio stated.
“I'm working with SFMTA to further improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety,” he added, referring to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “I’m fixing problems big and small for residents, supporting merchants, and working with the mayor and my colleagues to pass legislation that addresses pressing issues on public safety, housing, and our local economy. I’m hosting a Budget 101 town hall this week [May 29 at 6 p.m. at 2201 Lawton Street] to help residents understand our city’s complex budget. I’m continuing to do the job of supervisor as I always have.”
At a rally before turning in the signatures May 22, Albert Chow, president of the neighborhood organization People of Parkside Sunset and owner of Great Wall Hardware, said, “We fought for something bigger than any one issue.”
Highway park riled voters
However, the issue top of mind for many speakers was Engardio’s support of Prop K. Voters passed Prop K last November to close the portion of the roadway, and the area is now a city park called Sunset Dunes.
Selina Chu, a former school board candidate, said that Engardio, whom she described as a former friend, “failed to represent our Sunset community” before, during, and after the change. Before Prop K was approved by San Francisco voters, the highway had been open to vehicle traffic on weekdays as part of a compromise brokered by Engardio’s predecessor, supervisor Gordon Mar, between the factions warring over the stretch of road along Ocean Beach.
Engardio said in a 2022 debate with Mar that he supported the compromise that left the thoroughfare open to cars on weekdays.
Asked about this by the B.A.R. earlier this year, Engardio said that on his campaign website in 2022, he stated he supported the possibility of a park between Lincoln and Sloat, but that he "supported the compromise in 2022 because that was the best we had in the moment."
Engardio added that the other side "spent 2023 and much of 2024 trying to kill the weekend compromise," and anti-closure advocates supported a citywide vote on the Great Highway back in 2022 when it was Prop I, a measure they supported but that failed.
Chu claimed Engardio “bypassed the Sunset completely when he submitted a permanent closure plan without a single town hall meeting. When he was confronted, he pointed fingers and blamed others.”
“He ran on promises to represent our Sunset District 4 but acted against the very people who elected him,” she continued.
Despite the majority who voted for Prop K citywide, not a single precinct in District 4 supported the measure.
In his statement to the B.A.R. May 27, Engardio invited residents to reconsider Sunset Dunes.
“I invite people to explore Sunset Dunes and our coast in new ways,” he stated. “The coast belongs to everyone and now it's more accessible to people than ever. Come experience this space to be reminded that joy and a positive connection to humanity and nature can exist in today's world.”
Engardio added, “If the recall qualifies for a special election, I'm confident that a majority of Sunset voters will oppose it.”
“I hear from many residents who approve of the job I’m doing,” he stated. “Some who initially opposed the park now say they like it. They realize the recall is misguided because it’s about my role in offering people a choice about what to do with their coast. I supported an open and transparent democratic process where everyone had an equal say at the ballot box. And everyone had ample opportunity to campaign for and against the issue.
“A recall won’t reopen the Great Highway and it sets a bad precedent for recalling officials over a single policy disagreement,” he continued. “If there’s a recall every time we disagree with one issue, we won’t have a functioning government. I appreciate the support of thousands of residents who are standing with me. Every week that goes by as traffic redirects to where it needs to go and the park becomes more popular, we will see how the benefits surpass any costs and concerns.”
Engardio campaign strategist Josh Raznick told the B.A.R. that, “Nothing has been decided yet.”
“We respect the democratic process and the SF Department of Elections and their work,” he stated. “We eagerly await the results of their manual count, but anyone claiming this is over is jumping the gun.”
Proponents have to have 9,911 signatures verified. The recall campaign said May 22 that it had collected over 14,000.
“Those are numbers that represent people, that represent the voice of our commitment to democracy,” Chow said.
Also speaking at the rally was longtime westside resident Quentin L. Kopp, a former San Francisco supervisor, San Mateo County Superior Court judge, and a 1979 candidate for San Francisco mayor against the late mayor and U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein.
Kopp, 96, intoned, “Prop K was rammed down our throat by Mr. Engardio” and that’s “what he bestows on people who counted on him to protect their way of life.”
Pippenger said, “As a professional campaign operative, I have never seen commitment, engagement, turnout like this.”
Allegation of misleading voters
A spokesperson for the Engardio campaign said several people have asked for their names to be removed from recall petitions because they had signed it under the impression that it would reopen the Great Highway to vehicle traffic.
Indeed, James Smith, a District 7 resident and attorney, told the B.A.R. that on the weekend of May 10-11, he was outside a Taraval Street Walgreens when “a woman outside with a clipboard” said, “Do you want to sign this? It’s to put cars back on the Great Highway.”
Smith said he didn’t answer her, but when she insisted by asking again and handing the clipboard toward him, “I responded ‘No. I don’t want to put cars back on the Great Highway, and more importantly, that’s not what the ballot measure says,’ and then she didn’t say anything in response to that. It was crazy enough. It was clearly scripted.”
Smith said he wrote down the interaction because he was “stunned.” He said he is not part of Engardio’s campaign to stay in office.
Jamie Hughes, who had worked on former supervisor Aaron Peskin’s 2024 mayoral campaign, helped take over the recall effort from Vin Budhai after Budhai resigned May 13. Budhai did not return a request for comment for this report, but he stated to the San Francisco Standard that, “This decision comes after ongoing creative and strategic differences regarding the direction and execution of the effort. I wish the committee and all those involved in the campaign continued success as they carry this effort forward.”
Unnamed sources told the Standard it was a dispute over spending.
Pippenger said Smith’s story is “absolutely untrue,” and when asked, said it “has no relation to Vin’s departure.”
“This is all the result of a desperate last minute effort on Joel’s part to avoid democratic accountability; his team has been searching for, and encouraging, his core supporters to make such claims,” Pippenger told the B.A.R. “The substance of our campaign is, and always has been, about Joel’s betrayal of his constituents; a supervisor who feels he is responsible to a few oligarchs rather than a vast majority of his actual constituents. A recall obviously is only a recall, and Joel is trying to avoid this one with increasingly desperate grasps for a magic solution to undo this broad, popular, and frankly, deserved recall.”
Pippenger continued, “Today we’re focused on celebrating our incredible outcome, and looking forward to the next steps with great excitement!”
Engardio declined to comment on the allegation, but his campaign strategist Raznick stated to the B.A.R., “We are very concerned about the drumbeat of allegations we continue to hear about the recall [campaign] misleading and lying to voters, just like what James experienced. Deceit and lies seem to have become a hallmark of the recall campaign. Just today [May 21], another Sunset voter sent a request to the Department of Elections asking to withdraw their signature. I wonder how many people signed the recall on false pretenses?”
When the recall effort first launched, Engardio stated on social media and his campaign website that the effort would not result in the Great Highway reopening to vehicles.
Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes, had a comment too.
“Sunset Dunes receives more visitors every weekend than the recall gathered signatures over 120 days,” Lux stated. “We'll wait to hear from the Department of Elections on whether the recall qualifies, but neither result will distract us from helping San Franciscans enjoy the beautiful coast at their new park.”
