Rules Committee approves changes to Behavioral Health Commission makeup and forwards ordinance to full Board

The Rules Committee on Jan. 8 voted unanimously to amend and forward an ordinance that changes the composition and appointment process for San Francisco’s Behavioral Health Commission.

The ordinance reduces the commission’s membership from 17 to 12 seats, moves appointment authority from individual supervisors to the full Board of Supervisors, and updates reserved seats: at least one seat must be held by a veteran or veteran advocate ("veteran" defined to include a spouse, parent or adult child), consumer/family reserved seats are reduced from nine to six, two seats are provided for mental‑health professionals, and staggered terms will be updated. Chair Dorsey said the city attorney drafted an additional amendment to require that one member shall be a child or youth advocate (a family member of a child consumer or minor consumer advocate), described as a floating requirement intended to preserve child/youth expertise while meeting the goal of a smaller, more workable commission.

Current and former commission members and City Department of Public Health staff testified during public comment, urging timely appointments to reduce quorum problems and speed application processing. A commissioner who spoke said slow appointment timelines had left the commission short of members despite a strong applicant pool.

Chair Dorsey moved to amend the file as read into the record and send the item to the full Board as a committee report; the roll call vote was unanimous. The committee recorded its positive recommendation and the measure will appear on the Board agenda for final action.