City and business leaders agree
to craft implementation of voter mandated economic impact studies

June 16, 2006

A lawsuit seeking to compel economic impact studies be completed prior to legislation affecting the San Francisco economy was put on hold for 30 days yesterday, under instruction by Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay.

The San Francisco City Attorney's Office and business leaders who brought the suit agreed to work together to craft implementation of Proposition I.

Under Proposition I, legislation pending before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to determine whether any proposed laws impact on the City's economy through loss of revenue, job creation or other factors.

Proposition I was approved by the voters on November 2, 2004 and passed into law on December 17, 2004. The law requires the City and County of San Francisco to create an Office of Economic Analysis (OEA) and for the OEA to analyze any legislation pending before the Board of Supervisors that might affect the overall economic health of the City before the Board votes on it.

The board subsequently authorized the board president to waive economic analysis of any legislation before the board; allow the Board to vote on a piece of legislation without an economic report; and exempt certain kinds of legislative documents such as resolutions from being subject to any analysis under Proposition I.

The lawsuit asks those board rules to be invalidated.
A spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera said disagreement remains only on how the measure should be implemented.

Plaintiffs, including the Chamber of Commerce and the Committee on Jobs, cited victory in Quidachay's instruction.

"We see this as a major victory," said Nathan Nayman, Executive Director of the Committee on Jobs.

"Any movement by the City to create a plan for implementation of Proposition I represents progress. We look forward to working with the City."

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