Fire Department equity officer tells commission budget document tied to racial equity plan has been "suppressed"

Bryce Peoples, a longtime San Francisco resident and 27-year firefighter who identified himself as the department's diversity, equity and inclusion officer, addressed the San Francisco Fire Commission during the public-comment period and said a budget-and-staffing document tied to the department's Racial Equity Action Plan "has been suppressed" and has "sat on the chief's desk now for 6 months." He asked the commission to request the chief produce two items: release of the document in question and a progress report on implementation.

Peoples said the withheld document contains the budget and positions necessary to implement the plan and warned that without those elements the plan "is dead on arrival." He also said he believed racial equity leaders had been told not to submit a statutorily required progress report and urged the commission, as the oversight body, to ask the chief for clarification. "It is part of the law that this document should see the light of day for transparency," Peoples said.

The comment also included an allegation about personnel practices: Peoples said the administration in the past two years had been the subject of four discrimination lawsuits and asserted that people who speak up about transparency and social justice have faced retaliation. He described his remarks as an "experiment" to see whether speaking publicly would trigger retaliation.

The commission did not take immediate formal action on Peoples' request during the meeting; the public-comment period closed after his remarks. Commissioners and staff present did not offer a direct response on the record during the public comment segment.

Next steps: the commission may place oversight or follow-up requests on a future agenda to seek the document or a staff report; the transcript indicates Commissioners expressed willingness to raise questions with department leadership during regular reports and follow-up items, but no directive was recorded during the public-comment item.