The person who has run San Francisco’s elections for 20 years isn’t having his contract renewed for “racial fairness” causes.
Town’s Elections Fee voted 4-2 final week in opposition to reinstating John Arntz, who’s White, because the director of the San Francisco Division of Elections, in line with a Monday report from Mission Native.
Mr. Arntz’s function will finish in Could, however he’ll have an opportunity to reapply for the place.
“Our resolution wasn’t about your efficiency, however after twenty years we needed to take motion on the Metropolis’s racial fairness plan and provides folks a possibility to compete for a management place,” learn an electronic mail from Elections Fee President Chris Jerdonek to Mr. Arntz, per Mission Native.
Bay Space politicians have largely decried the choice.
Mayor London Breed instructed Mission Native that Mr. Arntz has served town “with integrity, professionalism and has stayed fully impartial” and has prevented “the online of Metropolis politics, which is what we’re seeing now because of this pointless vote.”
Aaron Peskin, who serves on town’s Board of Supervisors, instructed the outlet that the choice was “malfeasance.”
When John Arntz took over as Director of Elections, the Division was a multitude — keep in mind poll field tops floating within the bay?
Arntz turned it round. It’s now one among our greatest run departments.
Why on earth is the Elections Fee shifting to dump this sturdy elections chief?
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) November 22, 2022
The managers that Mr. Arntz oversees wrote a letter of assist to the Elections Fee earlier than its assembly final week. They implored the fee to maintain their boss in his place.
The letter stated that when Mr. Arntz took over in 2002, he introduced respect to a division that “noticed 5 totally different Administrators in as a few years, the Division’s finances was within the pink by thousands and thousands of {dollars}, San Francisco’s elections infrastructure was in disarray [and] the general public lacked confidence in Division operations resulting from varied election irregularities.”
Mr. Arntz has overseen 4 elections in 2022 and 5 up to now 12 months. Throughout his tenure, he has overseen greater than 30 elections within the metropolis.
