Paid Parental Leave for City Employees Approved, Expanded Meeting Broadcasts Rejected

While high-profile housing measures got most of the attention on Tuesday’s ballot, San Francisco voters also decided on some other issues including paid parental leave for city employees and whether to require the city to broadcast all policy meetings live on the Internet.

Proposition B, which allows parents who are both city employees to each take the maximum amount of paid parental leave for which they qualify, received about 66 percent of the vote, well over the majority approval required, according to complete unofficial election results.

Proposition E, along with requiring the live broadcast of all city meetings, not just the Board of Supervisors and selected other bodies currently broadcast, would also have allowed members of the public to submit written, audio or video comments during meetings, among other requirements.

However, more than 66 percent of voters rejected the proposal, which city officials said would have been costly to upgrade and expand technology in meeting rooms.

Proposition C, which regulates expenditure lobbyists by requiring them to register with the Ethics Commission, received nearly 75 percent of the vote.

Propositions G and H, two competing measures concerning how CleanPowerSF defines clean energy, ended with Proposition H getting 79.5 percent approval compared to only 23 percent for Proposition G.

The backers of Proposition G, a PG&E employee union, withdrew their support for the proposal after Proposition H, a compromise measure, was placed on the ballot.

Proposition J, which establishes the Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund to give grants to legacy businesses and owners who are at risk of displacement and meet certain requirements, received nearly 57 percent of the vote, above the simple majority required.

The final measure on the ballot, Proposition K, expands the allowable uses of surplus public property to include building affordable housing for a range of households, from the homeless to those with incomes of up to 120 percent of the area median, among other changes.

It received more than 73 percent, far above the simple majority required.

Dan McMenamin, Bay City News

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