Fielder Hospitalized, Plans to Resign
Muni Revenue Per Passenger Down 53%
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of March 22, 2026:
- Fielder Hospitalized, Plans to Resign
- Muni Revenue Per Passenger Down 53%
- More Treatment Beds Funded
- Schools Need Funding Reform
- Public Defender Held in Contempt
- Lurie Replaces Innovation Chief
Election Countdown
66 days until the June 2 SF Primary Election — the one that decides whether our commonsense Board majority survives. Read the GrowSF Voter Guide for the June election
GrowSF endorses Alan Wong in District 4, Stephen Sherrill in District 2, and Phil Kim for Board of Education.
On the local ballot measures, GrowSF endorses Yes on A, Yes on B, Yes on C, and No on D. Stay tuned for more!
Read our full endorsement rationale in the GrowSF Voter Guide.
Fielder Hospitalized, Plans to Resign
Published March 28, 2026
The Facts
District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder was reported hospitalized on March 27, according to Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Gabe Greschler, and Han Li at The Standard. Her office said she is facing an “acute personal health crisis”. Two sources told GrowSF she’s experiencing a mental health crisis, and that it may be related to an investigation into her office for leaking a confidential, legally privileged memo to Mission Local in February.
Sources told GrowSF that hospital staff described her as “agitated.”
The Context
Fielder won her race for Supervisor with 59% of the vote, and has held office for about 14 months.
Vacant seats on the Board of Supervisors are filled by the Mayor, which would be the second third appointment Mayor Lurie has made. The appointee would serve until the next regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors election, which is on November 3, 2026.
Fielder’s seat is historically a solidly progressive seat, and she has regularly opposed Lurie’s agenda. Her absence would significantly shift the partisan valence of the Board.
The GrowSF Take
We hope Fielder swiftly recovers, and that the internet rabble don’t harass her.
If she did, in fact, leak a confidential legal memo, she should resign or her colleagues should censure her.
Muni Revenue Per Passenger Down 53%
Published March 27, 2026
The Facts
Muni revenue per passenger dropped 53% since 2015, and inflation-adjusted revenue fell from $283 million to just $97 million over the same time period.
SFMTA’s official estimate is that close to 20% of riders do not pay, up from 12% in 2019. And the method of counting non-payment has known undercounting flaws.
The Context
SFMTA says tougher fare inspections and compliance work are helping: inspections doubled, observed evasion fell nearly 30%, and revenue per rider rose 6% by early 2025. But that “observed” evasion metric is incomplete. In its own fare-compliance update, SFMTA notes the measure counts only inspected riders and does not include people who step off when inspectors board.
The GrowSF Take
At least one out of five riders is stealing from the public, and the real rate is higher since the agency’s main enforcement metric misses riders who evade inspection entirely.
A society cannot function when it collectively believes that stealing won’t be punished. San Francisco should strictly enforce payment from everyone, and require that even those riding on monthly passes or free fares still must scan their card. Reliable transit requires easy payment, visible and universal compliance, visible inspectors, and honest measurement.
More Treatment Beds Funded
Published March 26, 2026
The Facts
San Francisco will receive about $100 million for three treatment projects, Sydney Johnson at KQED reports. That will fund 56 psychiatric beds at Hyde Hospital, 44 treatment beds on Treasure Island, and a sobering center at 1660 Mission. Statewide, Prop 1 will fund 6,919 residential treatment beds and 27,561 outpatient slots.
The Context
This builds on San Francisco’s earlier 73-bed award from Prop 1.
GrowSF backed Yes on Proposition 1 in the March 5, 2024 primary because of its promise to fund treatment facilities, recovery housing, and other behavioral-health infrastructure.
The GrowSF Take
More locked beds, dual-diagnosis treatment, and sobering capacity are exactly the kinds of investments San Francisco needs. The pressure is now on City Hall to execute: staff these sites, open them fast, and use them to move people off the street and into care.
Schools Need Funding Reform
Published March 26, 2026
The Facts
Bay Area school board members, including SF Board President Phil Kim, urged Sacramento to overhaul school funding, arguing that attendance-based formulas and underfunded special education are pushing districts toward cuts, strikes, and even insolvency, according to Jill Tucker at The Chronicle. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2026-27 budget includes a 2.41% cost-of-living adjustment for schools, but local officials say it does not keep up with health, pension, transportation, energy, and inflation costs.
The Context
California currently uses a daily attendance formula to calculate school funding, rather than the simpler enrollment funding formula. Other big states, with better education outcomes, use enrollment: Florida funds schools through FTE membership counted during survey windows, with an attendance check; Illinois uses average student enrollment from October 1 and March 1; and Washington funds most programs using annual average FTE reported monthly.
California’s Legislative Analyst has warned that a full shift to enrollment-based funding would cost billions. Which... is exactly of the point school leaders are making.
California’s rules were supposed to help boost attendance numbers, but they are still weak. The current rules punish the kids who show up for the truancy of those who don’t.
The GrowSF Take
Sacramento should stop acting like California is uniquely incapable of doing what other big states already do. If those states can manage a more enrollment-based approach, California should stop pretending the idea is unworkable. A more realistic formula, especially for special education and enrollment stability, is overdue.
Public Defender Held in Contempt
Published March 26, 2026
The Facts
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman fined Public Defender Mano Raju $26,000 on March 24 after finding 26 instances in which his office refused felony appointments for indigent defendants, according to Jonah Owen Lamb at The Standard. Raju said he plans to appeal. The office has been declining some new cases one day a week since May 2025, arguing that attorneys are over capacity.
The Context
At a criminal arraignment, judges must advise defendants of their right to a lawyer and appoint one at no cost if they cannot afford counsel. GrowSF noted in a January standoff story that this dispute was already causing delays and leaving some defendants stuck in jail waiting for counsel.
San Francisco’s Public Defender says it represents more than 20,000 clients a year; the office had 209.6 full-time employees and a $50.2 million budget in 2022-23. The city’s adopted budget raised that to $54.0 million in 2024-25.
The GrowSF Take
The constitution is clear: everyone has the right to an attorney. Raju’s woes about staffing do not override the rights of the accused, and it’s proper for the judge to hold him in contempt. San Francisco cannot accept a system where defendants wait in custody, cases stall, and an elected department refuses appointments it is legally expected to handle. No doubt this will be a main point of contention in the next Public Defender election.
Lurie Replaces Innovation Chief
Published March 26, 2026
The Facts
Mayor Daniel Lurie has shaken up the Mayor’s Office of Innovation, less than a year after hiring new leadership to help drive permitting and technology reform, according to Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez at The Standard.
The Context
The Board of Supervisors approved a $7 million Bloomberg Philanthropies grant for the office on February 10, 2026, adding four new positions, so the shakeup comes just as the department is expanding.
The innovation office is meant to help departments execute cross-city reforms, but in San Francisco even simple changes can get bogged down in process, legal review, procurement rules, and overlapping authority. In its January budget update, the office said it was working on permitting, police hiring, transit, violence prevention, and contracting reform.
The GrowSF Take
We have a lot of sympathy for people who come from faster-moving worlds like tech and get dropped into City Hall, only to discover that almost everything is slow and layered with bureaucracy. That frustration is real, and it says more about San Francisco’s broken systems than any one staffer. We wish the former director the best in her next endeavor!
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