City and County of San Francisco

Recovery Plan 

State and Local Fiscal Recovery 

Funds

2021 Report

City and County of San Francisco

2021 Recovery Plan
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 1

Table of Contents

General Overview........................................................................................................................3

Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................3

Uses of Funds ...........................................................................................................................3

Promoting Equitable Outcomes.................................................................................................4

Community Engagement...........................................................................................................5

Labor Practices .........................................................................................................................5

Use of Evidence ........................................................................................................................5

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category ............................................................................6

Project Inventory.........................................................................................................................8

Example Project .......................................................................................................................9

Additional Projects.....................................................................................................................9
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 2

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Executive Summary 

Unique among California cities, San Francisco as a charter city and county provides the services of both a 

city and a county. Public services include police, fire and public safety; public health, mental health and 

other social services; jails, and juvenile justice; public works, streets, and transportation, including a port 

and airport; construction and maintenance of all public buildings and facilities; water, sewer, and power 

services; parks and recreation; libraries and cultural facilities and events; zoning and planning, and many 

others. Under its original charter, the City committed to a policy of municipal ownership of utilities. The 

City’s utilities and enterprises have expanded over the years and include the San Francisco International 

Airport, the Port of San Francisco, the Public Utilities Commission (which includes the Water Enterprise, 

the Wastewater Enterprise and the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power Project), the Municipal 

Transportation Agency (“MTA”) (which operates the San Francisco Municipal Railway or “Muni” and the 

Department of Parking and Traffic (“DPT”), including the Parking Authority and its five public parking 

garages), and the City-owned hospitals (San Francisco General and Laguna Honda).

The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020, ended the longest period of economic expansion 

in U.S. history. Within the first month, over 20 million jobs were lost across the country – equal to nearly 

all the jobs gained during the preceding ten years. In the San Francisco metro division, the job losses 

were not as severe, but according to data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages by the 

Bureau of Labor Statistics, the City lost more than 115,000 jobs at the height of the crisis in April 2020. 

At that time, the city’s unemployment rate rose to 13 percent from 2.2 percent in two months. While 

employment in San Francisco has generally tracked broader trends in the national and state economies, 

the City has experienced economic shifts from the pandemic which other parts of California, and other 

large cities in the U.S., have not experienced to nearly the same degree. In particular, the City’s tourism, 

small business, and office sectors face structural challenges to recovery.

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession is reflected in the City’s actual and 

forecasted revenue declines during Fiscal Years (FY) 2019-20, 2020-21, and beyond. Local taxes, rents 

and concessions, and charges for services experienced major declines, as emergency public health 

measures dampened economic activity; residents migrated away from densely populated urban areas; 

and tourists, business travelers and in-commuters stopped visiting the City due to travel restrictions, 

fear of COVID and businesses’ work-from-home policies. Although the City has experienced almost 

across-the-board revenue declines, hotel tax provides a striking example of the pandemic’s impact. San 

Francisco’s hotel tax totaled $414.3 million in FY 2018-19 but declined to $281.6 million (32% less than 

prior year) in FY 2019-20. Preliminary FY 2020-21 hotel tax results of $42.2 million are 85% below prior 

year and are not projected to recover to pre-pandemic levels until FY 2025-26. 

Uses of Funds

Due to the severity and scale of revenue loss, the City intends to use all $624,817,342 of State and Local 

Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) on Revenue Replacement, toward the Provision of Government Services 

(Expenditure Category 6.1). Half of the funds will be recognized and spent in each fiscal year, FY 2020-21 

and FY 2021-22, as assumed in the City’s March Five Year Financial Plan update and adopted two-year 

budget for FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23, both approved by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors.
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 3

The City and County of San Francisco calculates its January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 revenue 

loss to be $1,780,709,161, well above its first allocation of $312,408,671. The City’s base year general 

revenue is $9,484,593,120, reflecting July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019 (FY 2018-19) revenue. 

Assuming a 4.1% average annual growth rate, the City’s counterfactual revenue for January 1, 2020 

through December 31, 2020 is $10,073,834,208. Subtracting the actual from the counterfactual revenue 

results in $1,780,709,161 of revenue loss. As the City begins an anticipated multi-year economic 

recovery, revenue loss for the January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021 period is expected to be

lower than for 2020 yet still exceed the Spring 2022 allocation of $312,408,671.

For the period March 3, 2021 through June 30, 2021, the City has expended well over $312,408,671 on 

the provision of government services across its 56 departments. For ease of financial accounting and 

reporting, the City has identified General Fund payroll expenditures of $312,408,671 not claimed from 

any other source. These expenditures are currently supported by the City’s own financial resources; 

SLFRF funds will enable these critical departments’ ongoing operations.

Promoting equitable outcomes 

The City’s work to address historic issues of inequity in public services and outcomes began before the 

pandemic, and quickly developed in targeted ways to address the disparate health, economic, and 

educational outcomes caused by COVID-19. 

San Francisco’s Black, Latino, API, and Indigenous communities have disproportionately suffered the 

pandemic’s health and economic impacts. As the City builds the foundation for economic recovery, 

there is an opportunity to build a stronger and more equitable economy—one centering on racial equity 

and economic justice. Through the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the City has worked 

to create programs targeted to communities of color and vulnerable populations who do not have 

equitable safety nets, and who have been historically excluded from wealth building opportunities. Over 

$52.5 million has gone to loan and grant programs to support more than 1,200 small businesses and 

their employees, and an additional $17.7 million has gone to aid for workers. San Francisco’s Economic 

Recovery Task Force (ERTF) has also guided the City’s efforts to sustain and revive local businesses, 

mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable residents, and build an equitable future. The 

Task Force’s Shared Spaces program promotes safer operations by allowing merchants and community 

groups to use sidewalks, streets, and other public spaces for a variety of restaurant and retail activities. 

As of April 2021, the City has issued more than 1,900 shared space permits.

Equity has been a guiding principle of San Francisco’s COVID public health response. The COVID 

Command Center (CCC) worked individually with community leaders, CBOs, local businesses and trusted 

community partners to design outreach strategies and solutions specifically for each community. 

Examples include:

o The CCC launched a robust food security program that has delivered more than 2 million bags of 

groceries and 2 million meals for food insecure San Franciscans;

o Partnerships with community-based organizations representing the Asian American and Pacific 

Islander, Black/African American, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Faith, Youth, Tenderloin, Bayview and 
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 4

Excelsior communities to support community-led COVID-19 public education campaigns. These 

campaign concepts were driven by community input with the CCC providing the graphic design, 

translation, multimedia production, printing, neighborhood canvassing and advertising support.

o Commitment to Language Access: The CCC maintained a robust translation capacity and 

translated more than 5,200 documents into 10 languages including the threshold languages of 

Spanish, Chinese and Filipino. Through the activation more than 130 disaster services workers 

were deployed as translators. 

o Testing, vaccine, and COVID-19 education events are planned and occur during pre-existing 

community events and celebrations, and known entities for specific communities such as 

Carnival, Pride, Juneteenth, Lighthouse for the Blind, Slow Streets, and others.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, CCC tracked virus-related data based on demographics, 

including race/ethnicity, as well as by neighborhood to identify and mitigate inequities. The City has 

developed a best-in-class COVID data analysis of demographics of populations served, available at 

https://sf.gov/data/covid-19-population-characteristics.

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco had begun the work to create structures to 

address historical racial and gender inequities in our community. The City’s Office of Racial Equity (ORE)

(https://www.racialequitysf.org/) was established in July 2019 through Ordinance 188-19 to address the 

history of structural and institutional racism in San Francisco’s delivery of services to the public and the 

City’s own internal practices and systems. ORE has enacted a citywide Racial Equity Framework, to direct 

Departments of the City and County of San Francisco to develop and implement mandated Racial Equity 

Action Plans, and to analyze the disparate impacts of pending ordinances, as well as various other policy 

and reporting functions. In addition, the legislation requires that City departments designate employees 

as racial equity leaders acting as a liaison to ORE and requires the Department of Human Resources to 

assess and prioritize racial equity within the City’s workforce. Lastly, ORE centers racial equity within the 

City’s budget process, and can make recommendations on funding of departments should certain racial 

equity metrics not be met.

The City has focused its efforts to achieve gender equity through the Department of Status of Women

(DOSW), which was established in 1975 by ordinance. The department promotes equitable treatment 

and fosters the advancement of women and girls throughout San Francisco through policies, legislation, 

and programs. The Department’s major areas of work include eliminating discrimination in all forms;

promoting family-friendly, equal-pay, and gender equality policies in the workplace; and reducing family 

violence.

In addition, to ORE and DOSW’s work, the FY 2020-21 and FY2021-22 budget includes additional specific 

equity initiatives, including:

- The Dream Keeper Initiative. A $120 million investment over two years into the Black and African 

American community in San Francisco. The goal of the Dream Keeper Initiative is to improve 

outcomes for San Francisco’s Black and African-American youth and their families, and to provide 

family-based navigation supports to ensure that the needs of all family members are addressed 

cohesively and comprehensively. With this coordinated approach, the Dream Keeper Initiative aims 

to break the cycle of poverty and involvement in the criminal justice system for the families in its 
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 5

programs, and ensure that new investments, including in youth development, economic 

opportunity, community-led change, arts and culture, workforce, and homeownership are accessible 

to San Francisco’s families who are most in need. Throughout the past year, the Human Rights 

Commission has facilitated an extensive community-led process to allocate these funds to six focus 

areas – economic and workforce development, accountability and systems change, health and 

wellbeing, housing and homeownership, education, and the arts. The adopted FY 2021-22 and FY 

2022-23 budget maintains the commitment to this community by continuing funding at $60 million 

in each year.

- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the City’s Workforce. This past year, Office of Racial Equity (ORE) 

worked with all City departments to develop racial equity action plans. These plans outline the City’s 

vision, goals, and overarching strategies to address structural racism and racial disparities, and 

advance racial equity. In response to these plans, departments have re-prioritized resources to 

accommodate equity-focused staff, trainings, and other initiatives. In order to maintain a consistent 

strategy and progress toward racial equity goals, the adopted FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23 budget 

includes centralized investments in the Office of Racial Equity and Department of Human Resources 

(DHR) to develop and implement a citywide equity approach and work directly with departmentbased equity staff. Additionally, in order to better understand the experiences of City employees, 

funding is included to implement a citywide equity climate survey. This survey will support a deeper 

understanding of what employees need to thrive and feel supported in their work. The survey 

results will help guide the DHR and ORE coordination of citywide equity governance. Additionally, 

funding is included for ORE to develop and implement a racial equity training. This training is 

expected to reach 5,000 City employees each year and will be digitized to reach more employees. 

This coordinated approach will ensure that all employees are receiving consistent guidance, 

resources, and support in order to make our workplace more equitable. With a more coordinated, 

educated, and equitable approach, our City workforce will be able to better serve the San Francisco 

community.

- Fees & Fines Reform and the Financial Justice Project. Each year, the Treasurer’s Office Financial 

Justice Project, in coordination with the Mayor’s Office, reviews fees and fines paid to the City by 

San Francisco residents. This year, the fees associated with a variety of Medical Examiner services, 

obtaining a City ID Card, owner surrender of animal, and dog license late fees have been eliminated, 

and the costs once paid for by residents are now assumed by the City’s General Fund. Additionally, 

the Street Artist License Fee assessed by the Arts Commission is being reduced to provide relief to 

individual artists. In prior years, other fees and fines have been eliminated including library overdue 

fines.

Community Engagement 

The City’s CSLFRF allocations are being used to replace revenues that support the Provision of

Government Services (EC6) contained in the City’s budget, as proposed by the Mayor and approved by 

the Board of Supervisors, using existing community engagement processes, including extensive public 

Board and Commission hearings, town hall meetings and other outreach with the Mayor and Board of 

Supervisors, and district-specific participatory budgeting. In addition, the City’s budget website, 
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 6

sf.gov/topics/budget, centralizes key documents and timelines to help community members learn about 

and participate in budget decisions.

Most of the City’s operating departments are governed not only by elected officials – the Mayor and 11-

member Board of Supervisors -- but also by appointed Boards, Commissions, and other oversight bodies, 

each of which holds public meetings with opportunities for public comment on the departments 

proposed budget submission. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, these meetings have been conducted 

remotely, through the City’s two public access channels on television and streaming on the internet. A 

selection of key departments governed by commission includes: the Department of Public Health; the 

Human Services Agency; Fire Department; Police Department; Public Library; Department of Recreation 

and Parks; Department of Children, Youth and Families; San Francisco International Airport; Port of San 

Francisco; Public Utilities Commission; Municipal Transportation Agency Commission; Arts Commission; 

Juvenile Probation Department; among others.

The City’s budget development process sets overall policies and priorities for the City and includes active 

community outreach and opportunities for feedback. Departments submit their budgets to the Mayor’s 

Office in February of each year, after working through their respective commission and board processes. 

From March through May, the Mayor’s Office analyzes each budget proposal, examining policy and 

service implication. Concurrently, the Mayor conducts budget outreach with community members to 

obtain feedback on budget priorities. Mayor’s office staff conduct a comprehensive outreach process to 

understand the budget priorities of San Francisco’s communities; for the budget for FY 2021-22 and FY 

2022-23, the Mayor and her office hosted a public meeting to obtain input on budget priorities and two 

town hall meetings. The Mayor also met with dozens of community groups and stakeholders to 

understand community members’ neighborhood and citywide priorities for the upcoming budget. All 

San Franciscans have an opportunity to share their budget feedback and priorities by emailing the 

Mayor’s Office of Public Policy and Finance. Feedback from these various forums is used to make 

decisions about the upcoming budget. After the Mayor presents a balanced two-year budget proposal in 

June to the Board of Supervisors, the Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Appropriations Committee holds 

public hearings on the budget in June, including opportunities for public comment.

Labor Practices 

This section is not applicable for jurisdictions using funds for Revenue Replacement (EC6).

Use of Evidence 

This section is not applicable to the City and County of San Francisco because the Provision of 

Government Services (EC 6) is not an evidence-based intervention or project. 

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 7

Category Cumulative

expenditures to 

date ($)

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan

1 Expenditure Category: Public Health

1.1 COVID-19 Vaccination

1.2 COVID-19 Testing

1.3 COVID-19 Contact Tracing

1.4 Prevention in Congregate Settings (Nursing 

Homes, Prisons/Jails, Dense Work Sites, 

Schools, etc.)

1.5 Personal Protective Equipment

1.6 Medical Expenses (including Alternative Care 

Facilities)

1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes 

to Public Facilities that respond to the COVID19 public health emergency

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses 

(including Communications, Enforcement, 

Isolation/Quarantine)

1.9 Payroll Costs for Public Health, Safety, and 

Other Public Sector Staff Responding to 

COVID-19

1.10 Mental Health Services

1.11 Substance Use Services

1.12 Other Public Health Services

2 Expenditure Category: Negative Economic 

Impacts

2.1 Household Assistance: Food Programs 

2.2 Household Assistance: Rent, Mortgage, and 

Utility Aid 

2.3 Household Assistance: Cash Transfers 

2.4 Household Assistance: Internet Access 

Programs

2.5 Household Assistance: Eviction Prevention

2.6 Unemployment Benefits or Cash Assistance to 

Unemployed Workers

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral jobtraining, Subsidized Employment, Employment 

Supports or Incentives)

2.8 Contributions to UI Trust Funds*

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

2.10 Aid to nonprofit organizations

2.11 Aid to Tourism, Travel, or Hospitality

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries

2.13 Other Economic Support 

2.14 Rehiring Public Sector Staff
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 8

Category Cumulative

expenditures to 

date ($)

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan

3 Expenditure Category: Services to 

Disproportionately Impacted Communities

3.1 Education Assistance: Early Learning 

3.2 Education Assistance: Aid to High-Poverty 

Districts

3.3 Education Assistance: Academic Services 

3.4 Education Assistance: Social, Emotional, and 

Mental Health Services 

3.5 Education Assistance: Other 

3.6 Healthy Childhood Environments: Child Care 

3.7 Healthy Childhood Environments: Home Visiting 

3.8 Healthy Childhood Environments: Services to 

Foster Youth or Families Involved in Child 

Welfare System 

3.9. Healthy Childhood Environments: Other 

3.10 Housing Support: Affordable Housing 

3.11 Housing Support: Services for Unhoused 

persons 

3.12 Housing Support: Other Housing Assistance 

3.13 Social Determinants of Health: Other 

3.14 Social Determinants of Health: Community 

Health Workers or Benefits Navigators 

3.15 Social Determinants of Health: Lead 

Remediation

3.16 Social Determinants of Health: Community 

Violence Interventions 

4 Expenditure Category: Premium Pay

4.1 Public Sector Employees

4.2 Private Sector: Grants to other employers 

5 Expenditure Category: Infrastructure

5.1 Clean Water: Centralized wastewater treatment

5.2 Clean Water: Centralized wastewater collection 

and conveyance

5.3 Clean Water: Decentralized wastewater

5.4 Clean Water: Combined sewer overflows

5.5 Clean Water: Other sewer infrastructure

5.6 Clean Water: Stormwater

5.7 Clean Water: Energy conservation

5.8 Clean Water: Water conservation

5.9 Clean Water: Nonpoint source 

5.10 Drinking water: Treatment

5.11 Drinking water: Transmission & distribution
City and County of San Francisco 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 9

Category Cumulative

expenditures to 

date ($)

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan

5.12 Drinking water: Transmission & distribution: 

lead remediation

5.13 Drinking water: Source

5.14 Drinking water: Storage 

5.15 Drinking water: Other water infrastructure

5.16 Broadband: “Last Mile” projects

5.17 Broadband: Other projects

6 Expenditure Category: Revenue Replacement

6.1 Provision of Government Services 312,408,671

7 Administrative and Other

7.1 Administrative Expenses 

7.2 Evaluation and data analysis 

7.3 Transfers to Other Units of Government

7.4 Transfers to Nonentitlement Units 

(States and Territories only)

Project Inventory 

The project inventory and performance report is not applicable to the City and County of San Francisco

because the Provision of Government Services (EC 6) is not a project. 

Generally, the City measures and reports its performance centrally through the City Services Auditor 

(CSA). CSA was created in the Office of the Controller through an amendment to the Charter of the City 

and County of San Francisco that voters approved in 2003. Charter Appendix F grants CSA broad 

authority, which includes reporting on the level and effectiveness of San Francisco’s public services and 

benchmark the City to other public agencies and jurisdictions, and conducting financial and performance 

audits of city departments, contractors, and functions to assess efficiency and effectiveness of processes 

and services. The City’s performance group publishes its work through:

• scorecards (https://sfgov.org/scorecards/)

• benchmarking studies (i.e., 

https://sfcontroller.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Auditing/HSH%20Staffing%20Analysis%2

0May%202019%20Final.pdf)

• the Mayor’s Budget Book

(https://sfmayor.org/sites/default/files/FY22%20and%20FY23%20Budget%20Book%20Final%20

for%20Web.pdf), 

• and an annual workplan and report 

(https://sfcontroller.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Auditing/CSA%20Workplan%20FY21-

22%2007.01.21.pdf).