UPDATED: San Francisco supervisors transfer to finish journey and contract bans masking conservative states :: Bay Space Reporter

San Francisco regulators have pushed back a vote to lift San Francisco’s ban on city officials doing business with companies headquartered in states that have enacted anti-LGBTQ laws, abortion bans or restricted voting access in recent years. They did so despite objections from local minorities and LGBTQ entrepreneurs who fear it will have a negative impact on them.

Meanwhile, District 8 gay warden Rafael Mandelman on Tuesday introduced an ordinance to completely abandon the city’s policy of banning travel to and doing business in conservative states. He was joined as co-sponsors by Supervisors Catherine Stefani of District 2 and Hilary Ronen of District 9, and Board Chairperson Aaron Peskin, representing District 3.

“Removing 12X will increase bidding competition and reduce contract costs, saving San Francisco tens of millions or more each year. And it will better advance our social policy goals by allowing us to engage with the actual communities impacted by restrictive LGBTQ, abortion, voting and human rights policies,” Mandelman said in announcing the regulation. “I got it As I said before, the best pressure we can put on red states is to show that progressive San Francisco can be governed effectively.”

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí had requested that the vote on his ordinance be postponed to the March 14 Board of Supervisors meeting to continue meeting with business leaders in the city. Last November, he introduced the ordinance to abolish the contracting ban.

But when the Regulators’ Rules Committee, of which Safaí is a part, finally raised the city policy overhaul known as 12X at its February 13 meeting, local business leaders complained that they had not been consulted on the matter. Safaí promised to meet with them to hear their concerns and asked for the continuation at Tuesday’s full board meeting to continue those discussions.

“We’ve had some of those talks, but I want to give space to continue those talks,” said Safaí, who voted to introduce the 12X policy when it was first proposed.

The 11 supervisors voted unanimously to allow progress, although District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar suggested that more time was needed to gather community input on the 12X policy change. It also includes a ban on most taxpayer-funded city breaks in the 30 states now covered by the directive, although the travel ban would not be affected by Safaí’s regulation.

“If we’re going to reform it, we have to do it wisely,” Melgar said, adding that she feared two weeks wasn’t “enough time to get the community involved.”

District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton reiterated his opposition to the proposal, which he originally made during the hearing before the Rules Committee, of which he is vice chair. A major objection made by Walton is that changing the 12X policy would result in rewards for large multinational corporations headquartered in states that have legislated against the values ​​that support San Francisco and its residents.

“In my opinion, this will only support the people who support these discriminatory laws,” Walton said.

The 12X Directive was first enacted in 2016 and initially included only those states that had previously passed laws that discriminated against their LGBTQ residents. In 2019, the policy was extended to states that restricted abortion and again in 2021 to states with election-busting laws. California also has a law that bans most taxpayer-funded travel to states that have passed anti-LGBTQ laws in the past eight years, but does not prohibit contracts with companies in those states.

With more than half the country now on San Francisco’s blacklist, critics argue it’s hampering city governments’ ability to find qualified contractors. They also insist it increases the cost of projects because companies that could make the work less expensive won’t bid for them at all if they’re in a banned state.

Critics of 12X, like District 6 gay supervisor Matt Dorsey, also claim that it has failed in its goal of convincing lawmakers in affected states to repeal the laws that put them on San Francisco’s ban list . According to a 16-page memo the city government’s office sent to regulators earlier this month, the implications of the 12X policy in other states are “not clear.”

It concluded that the 12X policy created “additional administrative burdens for city staff and vendors and unintended consequences for San Francisco citizens, such as: B. the restriction of enrichment and development opportunities”.

The memo came at the request of five supervisors who asked the city bureau to review the 12X policy last October. Among them was Mandelman, who supports updating the ban but had been working on his own ordinance for it.

“I don’t think the right way to make a change is to flip the bird and walk away,” he told the Bay Area Reporter, writing last week that supervisors are slowing down their decision-making process on the 12X should policy.

In a letter sent to the Rules Committee and shared with all supervisors, the San Francisco Latino Black Builders Association questioned whether there was any data showing that a change to the 12X policy was warranted. It asked supervisors to require city authorities to prove that work efficiency was reduced or costs increased as a result of the contract ban.

“We support the intent of the original regulation and the support it offers to LGBTQ communities across the country. We also approve of the idea of ​​supporting local and Californian businesses,” wrote Anne Cervantes, a founder and co-chair of the association.

But former District 8 gay supervisor Scott Wiener, now a senator, is urging current supervisors to repeal the entire 12X policy he originally wrote. It is no longer a sound public policy, he claims.

“When I penned 12X, we believed that a coalition of cities and states would form to create real consequences for states that enact these despicable, hateful laws,” Wiener said. “However, as it turns out, that coalition never formed and the full potential impact of those policies never materialized. Instead, San Francisco is now penalizing businesses in other states — including LGBTQ owners, women owners, and people of color. owned corporations — for the sins of their far-right governments. Additionally, the City of San Francisco employees are unable to fly to a large number of states for critical needs, whether collaborating on HIV prevention and treatment strategies or helping working together on critical transportation strategies, it is time to acknowledge that this policy has not worked and we must back down.”

UPDATED 2/28/23 to include the new regulation put in place to repeal the entire 12X policy.

Help keep the Bay Area Reporter going during these trying times. To support local, independent LGBTQ journalism, consider becoming a BAR member.