It's official: District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio will face a recall vote on September 16. From the SF Examiner's story:
The announcement came just days after organizers of the recall against Engardio handed in 10,985 signatures to elections officials, who deemed 10,523 of them valid — a margin of about 6% above the required recall threshold of 9,911 signatures.
Engardio won the District 4 Supervisor's seat in November of 2022 with 13,643 votes in a tight contest against incumbent Gordan Mar. The District 4 seat is up for re-election in November 2026.
As readers are surely aware, the recall effort centered on his backing of Prop K, which was supported by a strong majority of voters and established Sunset Dunes, a park in place of Upper Great Highway. From part of Engardio's statement on the recall signatures qualifying:
When I helped put Prop K on the ballot, I knew that I had passionate constituents on both sides of the issue. The ballot measure gave them–and our city–a chance to have a say over the future of our coast. After much public debate, the voters elected to open the park. Attempting to
recall me in response will do nothing to reopen the Great Highway.
"San Francisco voters overwhelmingly chose to open Sunset Dunes and create a beautiful new coastal park. Attempting to recall Supervisor Engardio will do nothing to reverse this democratic outcome," reiterated Sunset Dunes advocate Lucas Lux. "Yes, change is hard, but we're excited that Sunset Dunes is already the third-most visited city park in San Francisco–and we have Supervisor Engardio's political courage and vision to thank for its existence."
Here's Streetsblog's view: in the fight for safer streets and more public space, advocates win some battles and lose some battles. Supervisors and City Council people often vote in ways that safe-streets advocates don't like or even find despicable. But they don't then go gather signatures and waste public resources trying to recall them. Did advocates try to recall Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Shamann Walton when they tried to wreck Caltrain? Did they try to recall Connie Chan over her non-stop lies about there not being enough parking in Golden Gate Park? Are they trying to recall Mayor Lurie because he's gone along with allowing robo-cars on Market Street? No, they aren't, and they won't, because that's what elections are for. Recalls are supposed to be reserved for extreme cases, such as a politician who commits a felony. Recalls that are just about not liking an elected officials' politics are a monumental waste of time and money. The California legislature needs to work on amending the recall process.
"I’m confident that Sunset voters will see through this recall–I hear every day from residents who are tired of distractions and appreciate having a supervisor who shows up and delivers," said Engardio. "I will campaign hard every day and continue to show up for District 4 so I can serve my community for my full term."
