It was slated to be the most expensive way to relieve yourself in the country. The estimated $1.7 million to build a public commode in Noe Valley drew national headlines, (opens in new tab) producing an embarrassing pants-down moment that drew eyeballs to San Francisco’s long, convoluted purchasing processes.
Now, Mayor Daniel Lurie is trying to flush the rules that produced the exorbitant potty in the first place.
The mayor will propose giving the City Administrator’s Office sole authority over the city’s purchasing laws as part of his charter reform package heading to the ballot this November, The Standard has learned.
Last year, Lurie announced an effort alongside Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman and the urbanist think tank SPUR to craft a 2026 ballot measure that would reform the maze of rules in the city charter — the 500-plus-page tome that essentially serves as the city’s constitution.
A working group composed of labor and business leaders is mulling other wonky yet impactful recommendations to change the charter, including allowing the mayor more authority over commissions. Their next meeting is on Wednesday.
While the ballot measure’s passage wouldn’t change San Francisco’s purchasing laws overnight, it would give authority to City Administrator Carmen Chu to begin hacking away at the red tape that has led the city to pay inordinately higher prices than other cities do for many goods.
If voters approve Lurie’s measure, the city administrator’s proposals could be rejected by the mayor or the majority of the Board of Supervisors. According to sources familiar with the matter, the board would retain authority over setting wages, crafting rules to help minority and women-owned businesses, and setting labor standards for projects.
Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, said the proposal initially didn’t protect the board’s ability to protect labor by setting worker benefits, apprenticeship opportunities or pay standards. Lurie changed that, Gonzalez said.
“With that, we saw no downside with how the mayor is packaging things,” Gonzalez said. “We’re ready to offer our full-throated support.”
Ed Harrington, a retired City Controller and former director of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, has firsthand experience of the difficulty of contracting in the city.
He recalled a time at the PUC when his staff wanted to build a pump house for power, and had to go to his own commission three separate times “because they didn’t like the roof.” His staff went back and forth between their architects and the commission until it hit the sweet spot.
“I remember my staff going crazy about it,” he said. “It took an extra six months to do it.”
Lurie is proposing a number of changes to the city charter. | Source: Minh Connors for The Standard
Sometimes, the time and costs balloon just because a contractor has to figure out who in city government they need to talk to. There are more than 9,000 references to the word “contracts” or “procurement” scattered across more than 100 sections of San Francisco’s administrative code, according to a 2026 report from SPUR. The report, called “Charter for Change (opens in new tab),” urged the mayor to empower the city administrator to streamline those laws.
The proposal would also increase the dollar threshold for city contracts requiring approval from the Board of Supervisors. Right now, any contract over $10 million triggers a Board of Supervisors review. The new threshold would be $25 million, and would keep rising alongside the consumer price index, sources said.
While there may be little opposition to the contracting changes, Lurie may propose other charter reforms alongside this one. Other parts of that package – including raising the number of voter signatures, or number of supervisors, required to place propositions on the ballot – have drawn criticism.
“We feel it’s an equity issue for working people,” said Kim Tavaglione, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, of the proposed changes to the ballot measure threshold. “It becomes harder to help the citizens band [together] to do what they want.”
On Monday morning, the San Francisco Labor Council voted to oppose the mayor’s charter proposal around ballot measures, which could put the rest of his reforms in the crosshairs as well.