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For the first time in public, the six District 11 candidates revealed at a forum on Tuesday night how they felt about recent San Francisco recalls, telling attendees how they voted in 2022 on three Board of Education members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Michael Lai called recalls “fundamental instruments of democracy.” Both he and Roger Marenco voted yes to recall the school board members and Boudin.
Ernest “E.J.” Jones and Chyanne Chen, said they don’t believe in or support recalls but declined to directly answer how they voted. Adlah Chisti simply said, “The city spoke.”
Jose Morales, who has not voted in some recent elections, said he voted in favor of recalling the school board members, but did not mention the Boudin recall.
District 11 voted 59 percent in favor of recalling Boudin with 40 percent opposed, and also voted in favor of recalling all three school board members — Alison Collins by 75 percent, Gabriela López by 70 percent and Faauuga Moliga by 68 percent. Both elections, however, involved just a fraction of the total electorate.
The candidates spoke on Tuesday evening to some 70 neighbors who filled half of the seats on the ground floor of Ingleside Presbyterian Church at 1345 Ocean Ave. The forum was moderated by the San Francisco Examiner reporter Patrick Hoge.
This was the third District 11 forum of the year, and even though all but one of the questions had already been answered by the candidates in Mission Local’s “Meet the Candidates” series or in previous forums, the candidates all made an effort to slightly refresh their pitches.
Lai, who always talks about his love for boba tea, showed up with milk tea in his hand, chewing black tapioca pearls and sipping as the event began.
For the first time since he launched his campaign in April, Lai changed his opener from the call-and-response chant “When I say ‘We want,’ you say ‘Change.’” On Tuesday, he simply asked the audience to raise their hands if they want safer and cleaner streets, efficient spending, and new leadership. The change might have been prompted by the experience of hearing Jones’s supporters taking over the chant at an earlier debate, saying “E.J” instead of ‘Change.’
Marenco, a Muni driver, continued to look to Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador who cleaned up crimes on the street by jailing thousands, as a model, and updated his tough-on-crime stance with a jingle to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas: “Five police cars, four sheriff’s deputies, three ambulances, two fire trucks and a partridge in a pear tree.” The song was weirdly fitting for the venue. The audience chuckled.
Chisti continued with her list of degrees — double majors and triple minors in college, two master’s and a law school juris doctorate — and her history of living in a multigenerational home with her parents and 2-year-old daughter. She called it the epitome of a District 11 family, which made her “resilient and fearless.”
Chen, who missed the last forum, reminded the audience of her immigration story: Arriving in District 11 to build a new life at the age of 15 and wanting to give back to the community.
Morales, another District 11 native, stuck with his pitch of being “a regular Joe tired of the status quo.”
Jones, who is often tied to current Supervisor Ahsha Safaí for working as his legislative aide for about two years, talked less of that tie but more of his dedication to the district. Jones said he would be ready on Day One. “The work has been done,” said Jones, who showed the audience a photo of him at the Ingleside church during Halloween when he was four. “I’ve been doing the work.”
Other than the recalls, there was also an exchange of rebuttals on Proposition B — a ballot measure to increase police staffing that would have been paid for by new taxes or other revenue allocated from outside of the city’s general fund. The measure failed with an overwhelming 72.38 percent against. Marenco, Lai, and Morales voted against the measure while Chen, Chisti, and Jones voted for it.
Lai said it was written in a way to confuse voters and add a “cop tax.” Lai said he believed there is enough funding for police, but that it hasn’t been spent efficiently.
“How would you get there?” Chisti questioned Lai. “What would you do in order to address the issue of having fully staffed police?”
Lai called for more creative recruiting, including taking part of the department’s “huge” $42 million overtime budget to offer sign-on bonuses.
Jones jumped in on the issue and offered a quick fix: Working with San Francisco State and City College to create a pathway within both schools. At present, the colleges have pathway programs for other fields like radiology and nursing.
Some of the candidates also altered their picks for mayor. Chisti, who used to have incumbent London Breed as first, Aaron Peskin as second, and Ahsha Safaí as third, removed Peskin from her list but said she is not sure who she would put in his place; Safaí would remain third.
Lai said during the first candidate forum that he would vote for anyone but Peskin. Now, he puts Breed as his first choice. Beyond that, he doesn’t know.
Jones stuck to Safaí as his first choice. “What about your second choice?” someone from the audience shouted. “I have door-knocked for Mayor Breed,” Jones said. “So Mayor Breed would probably be my second.”
Morales alternated his choices and now his first pick is Mark Farrell and his second pick is Daniel Lurie. Though he does not like the fact that Lurie is a billionaire, he appreciates his accountability plan.
Both Marenco and Chen stuck to “I don’t have a pick yet.”
