- What is San Franciscans for Sunshine?
A citizens’ group that has submitted to City Hall a package of amendments to strengthen the city’s open-meeting and public-records law, the Sunshine Ordinance*. We want to get it on the local ballot. And we need your help in collecting voter signatures, fund-raising, distributing informational materials and the myriad other activities that a grass-roots political effort entails.
- Why is the initiative necessary?
San Francisco has the strongest local sunshine ordinance in the nation. But it has loopholes, it’s too easy for people in City Hall to skate on violations, and it’s too easy for city officials to sabotage the ordinance and the work of the 11-member commission, the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, that monitors the effectiveness of the ordinance and state sunshine laws within City Hall.
- How will the initiative strengthen sunshine?
The initiative, if passed, will, among other things, more clearly define the sunshine-related duties of city agencies, boards and commissions, officials and employees; prescribe specific penalties for violators; require use of the latest information technology to maximize meeting and records accessibility; and significantly increase community participation in appointing members to the task force.
- Who supports the initiative?
Our endorsers include:- CalAware
- DogPAC San Francisco
- First Amendment Coalition
- League of Women Voters of San Francisco
- OWL San Francisco
- Pacific Media Workers Guild (CWA Local 39521)
- SF Taxpayers Association
- Who is San Franciscans for Sunshine?
Our steering committee comprises current and former members of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force and other open-government activists. Chairing the committee is Allyson Washburn, the task force’s most recent chair.Other participants are sunshine activists Maxine Anderson and Jennifer Wong; Bruce B. Brugmann, retired Bay Guardian editor and publisher and one of the task force’s original members; current task force members** Leuwam Tesfai and Bruce Wolfe; and former task force members Kristin Chu, Doug Comstock, Richard Knee and Heather Sterner.
*Administrative Code Chapter 67, sfgov.org/sunshine.
** For identification purposes only.