This November, voters across the Bay Area will decide on a handful of measures that can be traced directly back to SPUR’s work. Those measures are the product of years of coalition-building, research, education, advocacy, and follow-through — everything it takes to move a good idea from collective imagining to a ballot question. Here’s how we got here, and why the work doesn’t stop once voters cast their ballots.
San Francisco: From Designed to Serve to Props D, E, and F
In 2024, SPUR published Designed to Serve, a diagnosis of San Francisco’s sprawling governance structure and recommendations to give the mayor real authority to manage the city, clarify lines of accountability, and raise the bar for sending measures to the ballot. The following year, two companion reports built out that agenda: Purchasing Power, which tackled the maze of rules governing how the city buys goods and services (accounting for a third of its budget), and Charter for Change, which translated our earlier findings into 10 specific charter amendments for the city to consider putting in front of voters in 2026.
SPUR didn’t just publish these reports and move on. We served on the advisory board that helped shape the charter reform effort, and we led educational events across the city. These efforts directly informed San Francisco propositions D, E, and F on the ballot this November. Together, this package would give the mayor more authority to hire, fire, and reorganize departments; raise the threshold for putting measures on the ballot; and streamline the city’s sprawling procurement system.
Oakland: From Making Government Work to Measure EE
In Oakland, the path to more responsive governance started even earlier. Our 2021 report Making Government Work laid out 10 ways Oakland’s governance structure could better meet residents’ needs and planted the seeds for the charter reform effort now underway. When Mayor Barbara Lee convened the Charter Reform Working Group in 2025 to address Oakland’s confusing mix of “council-manager” and “strong-mayor” forms of government, she asked SPUR to co-facilitate a working group alongside the League of Women Voters of Oakland.
That group’s recommendations proposed charter reforms that the City Council voted to place before voters this November as Measure EE. If passed, the measure would shift Oakland to a true strong-mayor system, establish an independent Budget and Legislative Analyst Office, and equip the City Council with clearer oversight powers. The measure, the most substantial proposed update to Oakland’s governance structure in decades, draws directly on SPUR’s earlier research and was made stronger through a collaborative, community-informed process that engaged more than 750 residents directly.
The Region: From Connect Bay Area to Prop. RTM
Proposition RTM, the 5-county, 14-year sales tax measure to fund regional transit, qualified for the ballot this year after Connect Bay Area organizers gathered more than 300,000 signatures. If approved, the measure would prevent BART, Muni, Caltrain, and AC Transit from being forced to make drastic service cuts. SPUR has been extensively engaged in regional and state efforts to fund transit and began building the groundwork for Prop. RTM several years ago. We were instrumental in developing the legislation (Senate Bill 63) that made this measure possible by testifying in the legislature, facilitating regional stakeholder negotiations, and providing ongoing education and advocacy. Now SPUR is co-leading the Connect Bay Area campaign supporting Prop. RTM, a regional solution developed in partnership with the legislature, elected county officials, and other stakeholders. Notably, that solution reflects consensus on fair revenue distribution that supports transit and benefits residents in all five counties.
A Ballot Measure Is Not the Finish Line
Good policy research matters only if it influences what actually happens in government. Facilitating change means bringing together the right mix of people to achieve outcomes. It means explaining complicated charter language to the public — as SPUR did at the community briefings it hosted on San Francisco’s and Oakland’s charter measures — so voters understand what they’re deciding. And if measures pass, the work, research, advocacy, and education continue to ensure successful implementation.
SPUR doesn’t just diagnose what’s wrong; we stay through the messy, technical, unglamorous process of turning a recommendation into law, and then we remain engaged to make sure implementation lives up to intent. If voters approve these measures, that’s when the real work of making them successful will begin, and SPUR will continue to be there for it.
In addition to our advocacy work, SPUR provides voter education and analysis on many local and state ballot measures. Stay tuned for the SPUR Voter Guide, launching October 1.