League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	San Francisco County, CA June 8, 2010 Election
	Proposition B Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond San Francisco County Bond - 2/3 Approval Required Pass: 117553 / 79.41% Yes votes ...... 30484 / 20.59% No votes See Also: Index of all Propositions

Arguments For Proposition B

Arguments Against Proposition B

YES ON B + EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE SAFETY FOR SAN FRANCISCO Proposition B rebuilds and restores our aging emergency fire-fighting water system and prepares San Francisco for a major disaster. After the great 1906 quake, San Francisco burned for 96 hours -- the sixth time our city had burned to the ground. To prevent San Francisco from burning down again, citizens constructed the world's best emergency fire system. Today, the 100 year-old system's reservoirs, pump stations, cisterns and pipes are deteriorating. This led to major failures during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Equally troubling, our police command center + vital for disaster response and coordination + is housed in a seismically unsafe building that will be unusable after a major earthquake. Proposition B: Ensures a steady supply of high-pressure water following an earthquake, giving firefighters the tools to fight major fires; Replaces deteriorating pipes, reservoirs and pump stations, and builds new cisterns throughout the city; Improves seismically deficient and unsafe neighborhood fire stations; Constructs a new public safety building for emergency command operations that can withstand a major earthquake. Proposition B has been carefully drafted so that, in these tough economic times, it will NOT increase property tax rates. There will be independent citizen oversight of spending and regular financial audits. Specific legal requirements encourage the use of local construction businesses, which could provide up to 2,900 jobs for San Franciscans during the worst recession in decades. Earthquake scientists say the odds are two in three that a disastrous earthquake will strike San Francisco before 2040. That's why your support is critical. Please help us improve earthquake and fire safety by voting YES on B. Mayor Gavin Newsom Board of Supervisors President David Chiu Police Chief George Gascón* Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White* Fire Commissioner Victor Makras* San Francisco Firefighters Union Local 798 Vice- President Joe Moriarty For identification purposes only; author Rebuttal to Arguments For Vote No on Proposition B! San Franciscans know that there's a good chance that a disastrous earthquake will strike here in the next few decades. So why are the proponents of Prop B sounding the alarm to sink addition monies into fire houses and a new "public safety building," while leaving our jails and courts to fend for themselves in the seismically unsafe 850 Bryant? The answer is politics. The proponents of Prop B don't think that San Francisco voters are willing to fund the construction of a new jail, and they don't want to touch the controversial topic of our City's outdated and mismanaged crime lab. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, the politicians are charting a political strategy with the top bosses from the firefighter union to move forward their political agenda. Unfortunately, their agenda means that there will be political losers. And it won't just be the people that we have locked up fighting for their lives in a major earthquake. It will also be the Deputy Sheriffs, District Attorneys, Judges and jurors, and members of the public who are unlucky enough to be there when the next big one hits. Presented with the facts and the complete picture, San Francisco voters would opt to do the right thing and make sure that every component of our public safety system was safe. Don't let the politicians sell you short. Send this one back for a rewrite. Vote No on Prop B! Chris Daly

Make sure that everyone at the Hall of Justice is safe. Vote No on B! The proponents of Proposition B say they are concerned about seismic safety issues in our public safety system + especially at the Hall of Justice. The City knows that a major earthquake could turn 850 Bryant into a deathtrap. But Prop B doesn't fix this problem. Instead, it would only move police functions out of the Hall of Justice + leaving the Courts and jails, and over 1000 people there, at risk. The proponents of Prop B claim that they have a plan to rebuild the rest of the Hall of Justice. Their idea is to issue debt to pay for the rebuild, asking the next generation of San Franciscans to pay for it. But that plan is not included in this measure, and they have known about the seismic problems there since 1992. The truth is that there is no live plan to rebuild the Hall, and the best opportunity to fix the whole problem, this measure, has willfully omitted the complete fix to accommodate "political realities." These "political realities" include a belief that San Franciscans don't want to spend money to build jails. As one of the leading advocates for community-based alternatives for non-violent offenders, nothing would please me more than to be able to close jails and help people reenter society. But the real-life realities are that over 750, mostly black and Latino, lower-level offenders are locked up on the top floors of 850 Bryant. In the event of a major earthquake, they are the most at-risk. In San Francisco, I'd like to think that we'd do better. Vote No on B. Supervisor Chris Daly Rebuttal to Arguments Against PROTECT ALL SAN FRANCISCANS FROM EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. VOTE YES ON B. Proposition B isn't about the safety of 1,000 people + it's about ensuring that EVERYONE who lives, works and visits San Francisco is safe in the event of a major earthquake. That's why Proposition B is supported by our fire, public safety and emergency response leaders, including the San Francisco Firefighters, Fire Chief, Fire Commissioners, Police Chief and Police Commissioners. Because Proposition B protects residents throughout the city, it is also supported by the broadest San Francisco coalition: the Democratic and Republican Parties; the Labor Council and the Chamber of Commerce; the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors. Proposition B is critical to San Francisco because it strengthens our 100 year-old emergency water supply system, ensuring that firefighters have the high-pressure water supply they need to put out a major fire, even after an earthquake. Prop B also moves the seismically unsafe police command headquarters to a new public safety building, ensuring that emergency response and public safety are maintained after a major disaster. Supervisor Daly would have us put off these safety measures until there is a proposition more to his liking. The fact is, we cannot do everything at once, and we cannot afford to wait. Please join us in protecting San Francisco and vote YES on B. Mayor Gavin Newsom Board of Supervisors President David Chiu Supervisor Carmen Chu Police Chief George Gascón* Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White* Fire Commissioner Victor Makras* San Francisco Firefighters Union Local 798 Vice- President Joe Moriarty For identification purposes only; author is signing as an individual and not on behalf of an organization.