Interviews with west-side residents, business leaders and local politicians suggest that many accept San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s candor and are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in the aftermath of appointed District 4 Supervisor Beya Alcaraz’s resignation earlier this month.
But skepticism remains about his administration’s competence, and some Filipino American leaders want restitution for their cultural group.
Lurie’s frank public admission, apology and vow to better vet candidates in the future, following initial attempts to defend his choice, came quickly after the revelation that Alcaraz said in text messages that she had paid workers under the table and misattributed personal expenses as business expenses.
Before confronting reporters, Lurie also apologized to local Filipino American civic leaders, who were bitterly disappointed that Alcaraz, The City’s first-ever Filipino American supervisor, had flamed out. Lurie made his mea culpas again Tuesday with a larger group of Filipino Americans and also in his regular monthly appearance before the Board of Supervisors.
“It was not the first time that I had done something wrong, and it won’t be the last, but I will continue to get better at this job every single day,” Lurie told supervisors, adding that their jobs are “not easy.” The recognition came in the wake of his nomination of someone without any government, political or major community organizing experience to be their colleague.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, pictured in an October 2025 press conference, has taken the blame for his failed appointment in District 4.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
It remains to be seen how far the mayor’s forthright contrition over the first major gaffe of his administration will go toward preserving or even boosting his public standing as he works to fill the west-side seat vacated when voters recalled former Supervisor Joel Engardio in September over his support of a ballot measure that closed part of the Great Highway to vehicles in order to make the Sunset Dunes park.
For the immediate moment, Sam Singer, a well-known Bay Area crisis relations consultant, said the mayor’s public apology was a “textbook” example of how to confront a bad situation, and it is what he might advise a client to do.
“The mayor really set an example for himself, as well as for other elected officials, in how to handle a crisis, and he did so by accepting responsibility, apologizing and moving on,” Singer said.
“It was an impressive personal and professional moment for the mayor, and I think it only bolstered his credibility and his reputation with people in San Francisco,” Singer said. “He’s turned out to be the Harry S. Truman of San Francisco: ‘The buck stops here.’ “
Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman called Lurie “a gracious person.”
“I think people have appreciated his humility throughout his administration, and people are going to make mistakes. That’s human. But I think acknowledging it, not being defensive, is a sign of a quality person,” Mandelman said. “This was not a great moment for the administration, but I think he’s dealing with it the right way. And I think people are giving him some credit for that.
At the same time, the pressure is on for the mayor to choose another appointment for District 4, a process heavily under way with candidates being interviewed and vetted. One looming factor is a scheduled Dec. 2 board hearing on the mayor’s controversial “Family Zoning” plan, which would increase housing densities, particularly in western and northern parts of The City, including District 4, to satisfy a state mandate for housing planning.
Asked about the mayor’s handling of the District 4 appointment fallout, Supervisor Shamann Walton highlighted by text message “the fact that District 4 continues to lack representation and that’s a disservice to the Sunset and SF as a whole. We are making some pretty serious decisions without a District 4 voice in the room.”
Walton’s aide, Natalie Gee, is both in consideration by Lurie for appointment to the vacant seat and is a declared candidate for the office in the June 2026 election.
A representative for Supervisor Myrna Melgar responded to an inquiry with the statement that Melgar “is not interested in further critique of the Mayor. He has taken responsibility for making a mistake and that’s that. She looks forward to working with a new colleague who will competently represent D4 soon.”
Aaron Peskin, the former Board of Supervisors president who ran against Lurie for mayor last November, questioned the management of the ongoing search for a District 4 appointment, with the administration floating five names publicly and a blank candidates’ questionnaire circulating. Peskin called for a more detailed accounting of Alcaraz’s vetting, which included work by an outside firm that was not paid for with city money, according to a source familiar with the process who did not want to be identified.
“It’s laudable that the mayor is saying the buck stops with him, but it begs the question as to whether or not he’s learned anything from this experience, and thus far, it’s not looking like it,” Peskin said.
Mandelman, on the other hand, welcomed the administration “being more transparent about who they’re considering.”
“It provides an opportunity for all these folks to get thoroughly vetted, and for him to have consultation, and I think that’s good,” he said.
The pressure is on for the mayor to choose another appointment for District 4, a process heavily under way with candidates being interviewed and vetted.
Mike Kai Chen © 2024 The New York Times Company
Lurie’s appearance at a crowded celebratory event of the group ConnectedSF on Monday night in the Inner Sunset, meanwhile, suggested that numerous attendees felt his forthright apology had gone over well.
Marie Hurabiell, ConnectedSF’s executive director, said she was grateful Lurie “immediately corrected the mistake” when “new information came to light.”
“I appreciate that the mayor took immediate action on that and didn’t let it become a much bigger albatross on the neighborhood,” she said. “I think that’s healthy when people can say, ‘I made a mistake.’ Not everybody would do that.”
Mark Dietrich, a Richmond resident who is active in community affairs, said admitting mistakes and trying to learn from them is what regular people do.
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“I’m a strong Lurie supporter after this, because everybody makes mistakes. He made one, but the fact that he admitted it so quickly, that is such a rare occurrence in San Francisco politics,” Dietrich said.
“I think the mayor’s done a lot of good for The City in a short time. There’s a noticeable difference. Everybody says so,” Wunderman said. “He made a mistake on this one… I hope he doesn’t make as many mistakes as I made in my time.”
Wunderman, who was previously chief of staff to former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan and a senior assistant to former Mayor Dianne Feinstein, said a mayor has to delegate responsibilities, and sometimes that doesn’t work out.
“I think people will forgive and forget, unless it becomes a trend,” Wunderman said, “which I bet it won’t. I bet he learned from it.”
Mike Nohr, a leader of the civic group Sunset United Neighbors, also said he appreciated the fact that Lurie “took full ownership” of the Alcaraz disaster.
“He admitted, ‘I’m 100% responsible for this,’ so I respect him for that,” Nohr said.
“Definitely it’s been a really bad thing for him, but for the most part, I know enough about him. I respect him enough, I know he’s going to make sure things head in a good direction,” Nohr said.
Nohr credited Lurie even though he dislikes Lurie’s upzoning plan. He said he has known Lurie for about a year and before Lurie chose Alcaraz, he attended several meetings in houses where the mayor sought input about neighborhood desires and concerns.
“A lot of mayors wouldn’t have taken the time to do that before he made his choice,” Nohr said.
“He wants the best for my neighborhood.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie, pictured with now-former District 4 Supervisor Beya Alcaraz on Nov. 6, 2025, met with Filipino American community leaders following Alcaraz’s resignation.
Craig Lee/The Examiner
Albert Chow, a Sunset district hardware-store owner who advocated for former Supervisor Joel Engardio’s removal, similarly gave Lurie credit for taking blame.
“I respect that, because too often these days, people deflect blame onto somebody else, find a scapegoat. He didn’t do it. He took it on the chin. I think that’s admirable,” said Chow, who is president of the People of Parkside Sunset neighborhood association
Chow was willing to give Lurie the benefit of the doubt on selecting Alcaraz even though he himself interviewed for the vacant District 4 seat and was not initially chosen, though he was one of the names the administration was considering this week.
“I think Mayor Lurie was trying to find somebody that was clean and new, that could walk in and nobody would have an ill thought of them. And I think that was why he did what he did. I don’t think he tried to just bring a novice in for no reason,” Chow said.
Lurie on Tuesday met with about a dozen Filipino American leaders who expressed their “outrage and disappointment” about the first-ever Filipina American supervisor serving for only one week, said Marily Mondejar, founder and CEO of the Filipina Women’s Network.
Mondejar called Tuesday’s meeting “positive” and Lurie’s contrition “a very good first step,” but said she and others want the mayor now to appoint another Filipino American to the vacant seat, though District 4 is a heavily Chinese American neighborhood. On the campaign trail last year, Lurie pledged Asian American and Pacific Islanders would be represented in his administration proportionally to their share of The City.
“We believe that he should appoint another Filipino American to remove the disgrace of this appointment,” Mondejar said. They also want more Filipino Americans in Lurie’s administration.
Mondejar recalled that she and other Filipino Americans attended Alcaraz’s Nov. 6 swearing-in in the Sunset at the invitation of the Mayor’s Office and, like others, knew nothing about Alcaraz. But Mondejar trusted the Mayor’s Office had vetted her.
The subsequent revelations about the way Alcaraz ran her former pet store and follow-on commentary in the public realm that was disparaging toward Filipinos — specifically relating to the eating of dead animals found in a freezer — was unpleasant, she said.
The group put forward the name of a Filipino American with experience in corporate external and government affairs who also held posts in the administrations of former mayors Ed Lee and Gavin Newsom, Mondejar said.
“We have a lot of qualified Filipinos in our community to serve in different, various capacities,” said Al Perez, an organizer with Filipino American Arts Exposition, who was at the meeting.
Perez said he and others have spent decades trying “to get a seat at the table,” and some got “emotional” in expressing their disappointment at not being consulted before Alcaraz’s appointment.
“I feel like with Beya having to resign the way she did, it kind of set us back as a community,” Perez said. “I think [Lurie] heard us, and we’re glad that he made time and made himself available to hear what we have to say.”