Supervisors' Budget Committee forwards $535 million earthquake safety and emergency response bond to full Board

The Budget and Finance Committee on Jan. 14 voted unanimously to recommend that the Board of Supervisors place a $535 million general obligation bond on the June 2, 2026 ballot to fund seismic upgrades to first-responder facilities and essential infrastructure.

City Administrator Carmen Chu and Brian Strong, director of the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning, told supervisors the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (ESER) bond would finance seismic improvements to the emergency firefighting water system, fire stations and police stations and pay for a major retrofit or replacement of Muni's Potrero Yard.

The legislation package includes an ordinance adjusting the capital plan reporting cycle and a resolution amending the city's 10-year capital plan; two separate measures would call the special election and declare the public interest and necessity for the bond if voters approve it. Strong said the bond is part of the capital planning cycle and that staff are keeping the city's property tax rate within the 2006 pledge not to increase tax rates by issuing new bonds only as older ones are retired.

Under the plan presented to the committee, the bond would allocate roughly $130 million to expand and complete the emergency firefighting water supply system (EFWS), $100 million for renovation or replacement of at-risk fire stations, $72 million to retrofit district police stations and support facilities, $33 million for critical public-safety building repairs and $200 million for seismic retrofit and replacement work at the Potrero Yard bus and maintenance facility.

Chu and Strong framed the package as both an earthquake-preparedness measure and a way to protect the city's ability to respond to post-earthquake fires and other disasters. "We know that a large earthquake is something that we should be planning for and preparing for," Chu said, citing USGS estimates of Bay Area earthquake risk. Strong told the committee the EFWS work would allow the city to connect a new Fort Mason fireboat manifold and extend West-Side piping toward 47th Avenue and Cabrillo.

Public testimony included support from San Francisco Firefighters Local 798, whose president Sam Gebler said multiple stations face seismic ratings that make them likely to be red-tagged in a large quake. Opponents at the hearing questioned whether Potrero Yard's inclusion fits the bond's stated public-safety purpose; Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods speaker Eileen Bogan urged reserving EFWS funds until operational control is clarified.

The committee's roll call on the motion to forward the four items to the full Board recorded votes of Supervisors Dorsey, Sauter and Chair Chan as "aye"; the motion passed 3'0'00. If the Board approves the measures, the bond question would appear in the June ballot pamphlet with project descriptions and estimated costs.

The next procedural step is a full Board hearing on Jan. 27; staff warned that several projects in the bond package do not yet have California Environmental Quality Act clearance and are presented as examples of planned uses of proceeds.