SEC. 9.120. FINANCIAL POLICIES.
§ 9.120
The Controller must propose long-range financial policies addressing reserves, volatile revenues, debt, and disaster recovery; the City cannot adopt a budget inconsistent with these policies. The Mayor and Board of Supervisors must approve policies by two-thirds vote, and may suspend them annually by two-thirds resolution.
San Francisco's Controller recommends financial policies covering four main areas: keeping money in reserve, managing unpredictable revenue, borrowing money, and planning for emergencies like earthquakes. The City cannot create a budget that goes against these policies. Both the Mayor and Board of Supervisors must vote to approve any new policies (with a two-thirds majority). Once adopted, the Board can vote to temporarily set aside these policies for a single year if they get a two-thirds vote.
- Complex:The section involves multiple actors (Controller, Mayor, Board of Supervisors), procedural deadlines, voting thresholds, and cross-references to other administrative requirements that require careful reading to understand the full process.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) The Controller shall propose, and the City shall adopt, long-range financial policies that are consistent with generally recognized principles of public finance. The policies shall address, at a minimum, the following issues:
1. Creation and maintenance of adequate reserves;
2. Use of volatile revenues;
3. Issuance of debt; and
4. Institution of extraordinary financial and budgetary measures to facilitate the City's recovery from earthquake, fire, flood, or other physical calamity.
The City may not adopt a budget that the Controller determines is inconsistent with one or more of these policies.
(b) The Controller shall recommend an initial set of financial policies to the Mayor no later than March 1, 2010, and may recommend additional financial policies or amendments to existing policies no later than October 1 of any subsequent year. Within 60 days of such recommendation, the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors shall consider the recommended policies. The City shall adopt individual financial policies only upon the approval of both the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors by a two-thirds' vote. The adopted policies shall be framed as ordinances that shall be codified in the Administrative Code and identified as financial policies adopted under this Section.
(c) Upon a two-thirds' vote, the Board of Supervisors by resolution may suspend, in whole or in part, any ordinance containing these policies for the succeeding fiscal year.
(Added by Proposition A, Approved 11/5/2009)