How to Attend a Board of Supervisors Meeting
A guide to what you will see and how it all works
The Board of Supervisors is the legislative body for the City and County of San Francisco, and you can watch them make the laws. Witnessing government is both mundane and magical, and you’ll get more out of it if you understand what’s happening and know what to expect.1 Below is a guide to what you will see.
Prerequisites
There are some things you should know before you go. The Board can take three kinds of actions: ordinances, resolutions, and motions. Legislative Committees are subsets of supervisors who review and revise legislation before it comes to the full Board for consideration.2
Logistics
The Board of Supervisors meets weekly on Tuesdays at 2pm in City Hall, Room 250. You can find the schedule here. You can also stream the meetings live or watch recordings, though I highly recommend attending in person when you can.3 Board meetings often take about 2 hours, but they can run longer if a spicy issue brings lots of public comment.
Agenda Summary
The agenda for every Board meeting is posted publicly in advance.4 There’s some variation, but here’s a template for the standard sequence of events:
Introduction: procedural stuff to kick off the meeting
Consent Agenda: voting on a group of legislation all at once, for non-controversial legislation that requires no further discussion
Regular Agenda: this is the normal part of the meeting, it has two parts
Unfinished Business: legislation up for final discussion and vote
New Business: legislation coming before the full Board for the first time for consideration and an initial vote5
Special Order 2:30pm - Recognition of Commendations: supervisors shoutout people in the community - good vibes, good politics
Committee Reports: procedural “hack” to fast-track legislation, but fundamentally the same type of stuff as the Regular Agenda
Roll Call for Introductions: supervisors announce new legislation which then begins the legislative process
Public Comment: your results may vary - sometimes brief, sometimes hours, sometimes profound, sometimes unhinged
For Adoption Without Committee Reference: certain types of legislation can skip part of the legislative process
Adjournment: that’s it, folks
There are other interesting things that can happen at Board meetings but they don’t occur every time:
Special Order 2:00pm - Mayor’s Appearance Before The Board: monthly guest feature from the Mayor, includes a short speech and Q&A with supervisors
Closed Sessions: non-public meetings to discuss sensitive matters like lawsuits and labor negotiations
Special Order 3:00pm - Board of Supervisors Sitting as a Committee of the Whole: the Board acts like one big legislative committee
Imperative Agenda: some types of legislation can be added to the agenda late - you’ll see it on the agenda just in case, but it’s uncommon
Below are detailed explanations and examples for each type of agenda item.
Agenda References and Examples
Past meeting agendas and minutes here.
1. Introduction
Meetings start with a sequence of procedural items. Fun fact - the supervisors and everyone in the chamber says the pledge of allegiance!
Call to Order and Roll Call (Board Rule 4.7)
Pledge of Allegiance (Board Rule 4.9)
Communications (Board Rule 4.11)
Approval of Meeting Minutes (Board Rule 4.10)
Agenda Changes (Board Rule 4.1)
2. Consent Agenda
Board Rule 4.14: Matters of a routine, non-controversial nature which require no further discussion and only six votes may be listed in a section of the Regular Agenda of the Board called Consent Agenda. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Supervisor so requests, in which event the matter shall be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as a separate item. The Consent Agenda will be acted upon by a single roll-call vote of the Board. Items removed from the Consent Agenda may be heard immediately following the vote on the rest of the items.
Context: Most legislation moving through the legislative process is routine and non-controversial. The Consent Agenda speeds the process up by grouping these items together and voting on all of them at the same time. Any supervisor can choose to remove an item from this group for separate consideration, but it’s usually over quickly.
3a. Regular Agenda - Unfinished Business
Board Rule 4.15: This item includes matters which were previously considered by the Board, continued, amended, or were not passed by a unanimous vote of the Board at the previous Board meeting.
Context: Unfinished business is for items that have already appeared before the full Board but require further action. Unlike the Consent Agenda, these items are discussed and voted on one by one, so you’ll get to hear from the Supervisors who sponsor them. In most cases, the legislation is passed and heads to the Mayor to complete the legislative process.
3b. Regular Agenda - New Business
Board Rule 4.16: This item includes legislation reported to the full Board by Board committees prior to 9:00 a.m. on the Thursday preceding the Tuesday Board meeting.
Context: This is stuff just coming out of committee and being considered by the full Board for the first time. You’ll usually get a short spiel from the sponsor(s) about why their colleagues should support them, and you might get some interesting discussion here.
4. Special Order 2:30pm - Recognition of Commendations
Board Rule 4.13: The general recognition of commendations may occur at 2:00 p.m. and should require no more than five minutes per recognition. Group recognitions shall be noted as a Special Order on the Board agenda at an affixed time to be determined by the Clerk of the Board.
Context: Supervisors take the time to shout out members of the community. This could be for public service, community involvement, retirement, in memoriam, etc. Good vibes, good politics. Sometimes takes a while.
5. Committee Reports
Board Rule 4.20: As an exception to the New Business rule, legislation deemed by a committee to be of an urgent nature, which is heard after 9:00 a.m. Thursday may be considered by the Board as a committee report if the chair has anticipated such finding and shall request the Clerk of the Board no later than 11:00 a.m. on that Thursday to include the item(s) on the printed agenda under Committee Reports at the end of New Business.
Context: A bit technical, but essentially just a procedural hack to move legislation forward faster without violating public notice requirements. The legislative committee can send the legislation to the full board for a vote before actually hearing and voting on it in committee. It will still be heard in committee, but they know they will support it.
6. Roll Call for Introductions
Board Rule 4.21: Supervisors will be called alphabetically rotating on a weekly basis to introduce legislation, request the City Attorney to prepare legislation, approve draft ordinances, or issue legal advice, and requests for letters of inquiry during the Roll Call for Introductions and up until the adjournment of the meeting or 5:00 p.m. whichever is later…
Context: Supervisors will announce new legislation, which then begins its journey through the legislative process. They will give a short speech about why it’s important and why they hope their colleagues will support it. This is usually when the public first hears about potential laws, so this segment of the meeting might be the source of headlines you come across “Supervisor wants to do X”. Note that legislation introduced by the Mayor or Departments will not be read out loud, but appears at the end of the agenda in the section “Legislation Introduced at Roll Call”.
7. Public Comment
Board Rule 4.22: This is an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the Board on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Board, including items being considered at this meeting which have not been referred to committee, and excluding items which have been considered by a Board committee. Members of the public may address the Board for up to three minutes. At the conclusion of public comment, the Board may not lawfully take action to approve or disapprove a new proposal which is not on the agenda, but may refer the proposal to a City official for review. During public comment before the full Board, remarks shall be addressed to the Board as a whole, not to individual Supervisors and not to the audience. Supervisors shall not enter into debate or discussion with speakers during public comment. The President may request a City official to investigate an issue raised and later report to a committee or to the Board.
Context: Your results may vary. Sometimes brief, sometimes hours. Sometimes profound, sometimes unhinged. You’ll start to recognize the “regulars” after attending a few meetings. During Covid the Board allowed remote public comment but it was often abused, so they removed in 2023.
8. Adoption Without Committee Reference
Board Rule 4.23: The Board may consider resolutions for immediate, unanimous, adoption without reference to committee which are presented to the Clerk of the Board by a Supervisor or the Mayor at the previous week’s Board meeting or prior to 12 noon the Wednesday before a Board meeting. The President shall inquire whether any Supervisors wish to discuss or object to any of the resolutions presented for immediate adoption. Resolutions to which there is an objection shall be referred to committee unless withdrawn by the sponsor. The roll then shall be called on the resolutions as a group…
Context: Resolutions and motions (not ordinances) can be introduced and adopted at the same meeting without going through the typical legislative process. A unanimous vote is required, so this is only used for low-level, non-controversial matters.
Special Order 2:00pm - Mayor’s Appearance Before The Board
Board Rule 4.12: The second regularly scheduled meeting of the Board shall include an agenda item for the Mayor’s personal appearance before the Board… Questions and discussion shall be limited to the formal policy matters as set forth in Charter Section 3.100 (7) and shall be limited to items within the jurisdiction of the Mayor and Board. Questions must be previously submitted to the Clerk of the Board and the Mayor by 12 noon the Wednesday prior to the Board to the Mayor’s appearance…
Context: A good chance to evaluate the political alignment between the Mayor and the Supervisors asking the questions. Depending on the current climate, the tone can be collaborative or combative.
Closed Sessions
Board Rules 4.24.1-4: Closed sessions are permitted for the Board to meet with the relevant authorities to discuss: Litigation, Labor Negotiations, Emergencies, and Personnel.
Context: Closed sessions truly are closed - the public has to exit the Legislative Chamber and the livestream is turned off. This is the only time the Board can officially meet together in a non-public setting and they use it to discuss matters which require discretion, like ongoing lawsuits or potential personnel disciplinary action. After reconvening, the Board votes whether to disclose what happened, which they usually don’t.
Special Order 3:00pm - Board of Supervisors Sitting as a Committee of the Whole
Mentioned variously in Board Rules 2.18.1, 3.19, 3.25.1, 3.36.
Context: This is when the full Board acts as one big legislative committee. They can consider legislation, hold hearings, and discuss. They might do this to bring greater publicity to a matter because full Board meetings get more attention than committee meetings.
Imperative Agenda
Board Rule 4.25: The Imperative Agenda includes proposed resolutions which are purely commendatory, or resolutions for which failure to approve would result in serious injury to the public interest, and which are not on the printed agenda. Imperative Agenda resolutions shall be filed with the Clerk of the Board prior to the start of the Board meeting…
Context: This is for “last-minute” resolutions or motions added to the meeting after the agenda was already posted. Functionally similar to the “Adoption Without Committee Reference” but with some additional procedural requirements dealing with the lateness. There were only three imperative agenda items in 2024, so it’s pretty uncommon.
Students of How SF Gov Works take a field trip to City Hall to watch government in action!
Legislative Committees are often the most dynamic and important part of the legislative process, but most people don’t even know they exist. More on that another time.
It’s easier to gauge social dynamics in person and you’ll also catch interesting bits that happen off-camera. Also City Hall is beautiful.
Agendas are published online 72 hours in advance (Board Rule 4.1). You can also find the agenda and meeting notes for all previous meetings.
Ordinances require votes in two separate meetings, Resolutions and Motions require one
Such an insightful breakdown, thanks so much!