The ballots are out — and the gloves are off — in the fight over whether San Francisco should study draining and replacing its primary water reservoir in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of beloved Yosemite National Park. In the latest iteration of a centurylong fight over the dammed river valley, restoration advocates are accusing The City of dedicating employee time and taxpayer money to defeat their effort, Proposition F, on the November ballot. The use of taxpayer funds and city resources to advocate or speak out against such measures is prohibited by law. Read More

Commission hears about roof repair and other structural plans for the Telegraph Hill landmark. The 210-foot concrete tower, erected in 1933, was the subject of debate in the June 5 election when proponents of the successful Proposition B argued that The City’s Recreation and Park Department was not taking good care of the structure and its Depression-era murals. However, the fixes now under consideration were planned and announced by Mayor Ed Lee in the days leading up to the election and technically have nothing to do with the ballot measure. Read More

Like 911 for emergencies and 311 for potholes, San Francisco now has a dedicated phone line for campaign corruption — just in time for election season. On Monday, District Attorney George Gascón and Department of Elections Director John Arntz called the hotline necessary to “maintaining the public’s confidence.” Read More

Well-documented turmoil at The City’s Arts Commission appears to be smoothing itself out with new leaders at the helm, the Board of Supervisors essentially ruled Thursday. The commission has been marred in recent years by reports of mismanagement of funds, personnel resignations and even hubbub around a sizable city contract it approved for an artist who once shot a dog and filmed it. Read More

Following a nine-month ordeal, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was returned to his post Tuesday night when the Board of Supervisors declined to uphold the rarely used official misconduct charges filed in March by Mayor Ed Lee. A majority of supervisors supported Lee’s push to remove the sheriff over his misdemeanor false imprisonment conviction stemming from a Dec. 31 physical altercation with his wife at the couple’s home. But four supervisors said Mirkarimi’s behavior was not official misconduct under the City Charter and that his removal could make it too easy to oust elected officials in the future. See how the Board of Supervisors voted on whether or not to retain Ross Mirkarimi at the end of the article. Read More

The long legal battle over removing suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi will finally reach some kind of conclusion Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors, as its 11 members decide whether the former supervisor committed official misconduct surrounding an incident in which he bruised his wife’s arm last winter. Read More

Citing a sizable and inappropriate rise in public nudity in San Francisco’s Castro district, Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced legislation Tuesday to expand restrictions on what he called an “ad hoc nudist colony” cavorting around The City’s streets and plazas. Wiener said that while the Castro’s reputation for promoting free expression is part of the neighborhood’s character, some nudists have taken matters too far. Read More