Rules Committee backs repeal of Chapter 12X, sends ordinance to full Board 2-1

On April 17, 2023, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee voted to send an ordinance repealing Administrative Code Chapter 12X to the full Board with a positive recommendation, passing 2-1 in committee.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelmann, the item's sponsor, told the committee the 2016 code provision originally aimed to pressure states that enacted anti-LGBTQ, anti-reproductive-rights and restrictive voting laws. "I just don't believe that 12X is working the way it was intended," Mandelmann said, arguing the city has continued to do business with banned states through waivers and that compliance costs and reduced competition harm San Francisco taxpayers and services.

Mandelmann cited a Budget and Legislative Analyst review his office requested that found widespread use of waivers. He told the committee that between 2017 and 2020 six departments were granted 47 waivers valued at over $75,000,000 and that between July 2021 and July 2022, 35 departments approved 538 waivers, bringing the total to about $791,000,000. He also cited a BLA estimate that procurement impacts could be "as much as 20%," and described local operational consequences, including instances in which the Human Rights Commission and city economic-development staff were constrained and an emergency-housing lease was delayed because a vendor was headquartered in a banned state.

Vice Chair Shimon Walton dissented. "I 100% feel that there are so many unintended consequences with this repeal," Walton said, urging that the committee not repeal the prohibition without an explicit plan to protect the populations the law was meant to defend and to analyze impacts on small and minority-owned businesses.

Other supervisors said they supported repeal while pledging to work on targeted supports for local and minority business enterprises so the city can both pursue its social goals and reduce procurement costs.

After public comment from a caller who supported the repeal, Chair Matt Dorsey moved to forward the measure. The clerk recorded votes of Walton (no), Asha Safai (yes) and Dorsey (yes). The motion passed in committee 2-1 with Walton dissenting; the ordinance now moves to the full Board of Supervisors for further consideration.