The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the

executive branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a State (polity), state. In poli ...

of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco. Government and politics The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...

, the legislative branch. The mayor serves a four-year term and is limited to two successive terms. Because of San Francisco's status as a

consolidated city-county In United States local government, a consolidated city-county is formed when one or more cities and their surrounding county ( parish in Louisiana, borough in Alaska) merge into one unified jurisdiction. As such it has the governmental powers o ...

, the mayor also serves as the head of government of the county; both entities have been governed together by a combined set of governing bodies since 1856. There have been 45 individuals who have served as mayor in San Francisco since 1850, when California became a state following the American

Conquest of California The Conquest of California, also known as the Conquest of Alta California or the California Campaign, was an important military campaign of the Mexican–American War carried out by the United States in Alta California (modern-day California), t ...

. Prior to the conquest, Californios served as Mayor of San Francisco during the Spanish and Mexican eras since 1779. The current mayor is former District 5 supervisor and president of the Board of Supervisors

London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who is the 45th and current mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Board ...

, who won a special election following the death of Mayor

Ed Lee Edwin Mah Lee (Chinese: 李孟賢; May 5, 1952 – December 12, 2017) was an American politician and attorney who served as the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco from 2011 until his death. He was the first Asian American to hold the office. Born in ...

on December 12, 2017. Breed served out the remainder of Lee's uncompleted term (until January 8, 2020), after which she is eligible to run for two full terms of her own including the

2019 San Francisco mayoral election An election for mayor of the City and County of San Francisco was held on November 5, 2019. Incumbent Mayor London Breed, who had previously been elected in a special election to fill the unexpired term of the late Mayor Ed Lee, was reelected t ...

which she won.

Elections

The mayor of San Francisco is elected every four years; elections take place one year before United States presidential elections on election day in November. Candidates must live and be registered to vote in San Francisco at the time of the election. The mayor is usually sworn in on the January 8 following the election. The next election for a full mayoral term will be in 2023. Under the California constitution, all city elections in the state are conducted on a non-partisan basis. As a result, candidates' party affiliations are not listed on the ballot, and multiple candidates from a single party can run in the election since a

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

is not held. Mayoral elections were originally run under a two-round system. If no candidate received a simple

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Websterreferendum. The new system, known as

instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the Un ...

, allows voters to select and rank three candidates based on their preferences. If no one wins more than half of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and second-choice votes (and third-choice votes, if necessary) are counted until a candidate captures the majority. This eliminates the need to hold a separate runoff election and saves money. This was first implemented in the 2004 Board of Supervisors election after two years of preparation. In 2007, the new system was implemented in the mayoral election for the first time. In 2022, San Francisco voters passed Proposition H which changed the mayoral elections to the same cycle as presidential elections. This gives London Breed an additional year to her first full term. This change was proposed because of the low turnout of off-year elections. For example, 2019 saw a turnout of only 42%, while 2020 saw 86% turnout.

Salary and benefits

As of 2017, the mayor is paid an annual salary of $342,974,Amy Graff
Here's what San Francisco's highest-paid workers make: 1 tops $500K salary, 9 make more than mayor
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (July 11, 2017). the highest mayoral salary in the United States. Nine city public employees earned higher salaries than the mayor, including the chief investment officer and the managing director of the San Francisco Employees' Retirement System, who oversee the city's pension plan. Unlike a few other American cities, the San Francisco mayor does not have an official residence; in the 1990s, Mayor Willie Brown unsuccessfully pushed to acquire the Yerba Buena Island mansion formerly held used by U.S. Navy admirals as a ceremonial residence for the mayor.

Duties and powers

The mayor has the responsibility to enforce all city laws, administer and coordinate city departments and intergovernmental activities, set forth policies and agendas to the Board of Supervisors, and prepare and submit the city budget at the end of each fiscal year. The mayor has the powers to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, participate in meetings of the Board of Supervisors and its committees, appoint a replacement to fill vacancies in all city elected offices until elections, appoint a member of the Board to serve as acting mayor in the absence of the mayor, and to direct personnel in the case of emergency.

Succession

When mayors die in office, resign, or are unable to carry out their duties, and did not designate an acting mayor, the president of the Board of Supervisors becomes acting mayor until the full Board selects a person to fill the vacancy and finish the previous mayoral term. (In the case that both the president of the Board of Supervisors and the mayor are incapacitated, the order of succession is followed.) This has happened seven times: James Otis died in office and was succeeded by

George Hewston George Hewston (September 11, 1826 – September 4, 1891) was an American politician, educator, and physician. He was appointed the 16th Mayor of San Francisco upon the death of James Otis. He was sworn in on November 4, 1875, and served until ...

, Eugene Schmitz was removed and succeeded by

Charles Boxton Charles Boxton (April 24, 1860 in Shasta County, California – August 29, 1927 in San Mateo, California) served as the 27th mayor of San Francisco for seven days, from July 9 to July 16, 1907. He attended the San Francisco public schools and th ...

, Charles Boxton resigned and was succeeded by Edward Robeson Taylor, James Rolph resigned and was succeeded by Angelo Rossi, George Moscone was assassinated and was succeeded by Dianne Feinstein, Gavin Newsom resigned and was succeeded by

, and Lee died in office and was succeeded by Mark Farrell.

List of mayors

To date, 44 individuals have served as San Francisco mayor. There have been 45 mayoralties due to

Charles James Brenham Charles James Brenham (November 6, 1817 – May 10, 1876) was an American politician, banker, and steamboat captain. He served as the 2nd mayor of San Francisco in 1851, and again as the 4th mayor of San Francisco from 1852 until 1853. Early ...

's serving two non-consecutive terms: he is counted chronologically as both the second and fourth mayor. The longest term was that of James Rolph, who served over 18 years until his resignation to become the California governor. The length of his tenure as mayor was largely due to his popularity. During his term, San Francisco saw the expansion of its transit system, the construction of the Civic Center and the hosting of the World's Fair. The shortest term was that of

, who served only eight days before resigning from office. Three mayors have died in office: Otis died from illness, Moscone was assassinated in 1978, and Lee died from cardiac arrest. Dianne Feinstein and London Breed are the only women who have served as mayor, both of them by succession and by election; Willie Brown and London Breed are the only African Americans to serve to date; Ed Lee is the only Asian American to serve as mayor. Three mayors have Jewish ancestry: Washington Bartlett (Sephardi), Adolph Sutro (Ashkenazi), and Dianne Feinstein (Ashkenazi). Thirteen mayors are native San Franciscans:

Levi Richard Ellert Levi Richard Ellert (October 20, 1857 – July 21, 1901) was an American politician. He served as 23rd Mayor of San Francisco, serving from 1893 to 1895. Biography Before entering politics, he had established his own pharmacy in 1883. After ...

James D. Phelan James Duval Phelan (April 20, 1861 – August 7, 1930) was an American politician, civic leader, and banker. He served as nonpartisan Mayor of San Francisco from 1897 to 1902. As mayor he advocated municipally run utilities and tried to protect ...

, Eugene Schmitz, James Rolph,

Elmer Robinson Elmer Edwin "Rob-Rob" Robinson (October 3, 1894 – June 9, 1982) was the 33rd mayor of San Francisco, California. A Republican, he served as San Francisco's mayor from January 1948 until January 1956. Robinson was born in the Richmond ...

John F. Shelley John Francis Shelley (September 3, 1905 – September 1, 1974) was a U.S. politician. He served as the 35th mayor of San Francisco, from 1964 to 1968, the first Democrat elected to the office in 50 years, and the first in an unbroken lin ...

, Joseph Alioto, George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein, Frank Jordan, Gavin Newsom, Mark Farrell, and

. Four mayors are foreign-born:

Frank McCoppin Frank McCoppin (July 4, 1834 – May 26, 1897) was the first Irish-born, and foreign-born Mayor of San Francisco. Career McCoppin was a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1851 until he emigrated to the United States in 1853. In 1860, ...

and

P.H. McCarthy Patrick Henry McCarthy (March 17, 1863 – July 1, 1933), generally known as P. H. McCarthy and sometimes, more jocularly, as "Pinhead", was an influential labor leader in San Francisco and the 29th Mayor of the City from 1910 to 1912. Born i ...

( United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, both born in what is now the Republic of Ireland), Adolph Sutro ( Prussia, part of Germany since 1871) and George Christopher ( Greece). This list does not include acting mayors who are typically appointed whenever the mayor will be out of the city.

Living former mayors of San Francisco

As of December 2020, six former San Francisco mayors are alive, the oldest being Dianne Feinstein (1978–1988; born 1933). The most recent mayor to die is

, on December 12, 2017 (while still in office).

Notes

* Died in office due to diphtheria , Supervisor George Hewston became acting mayor until Andrew Bryant was elected to the office. *Convicted of extortion and sentenced to 5 years in prison. The Board of Supervisors replaced Schmitz with Supervisor Charles Boxton who had also taken bribes. Boxton served for eight days before he resigned. The Board then replaced Boxton with Edward Taylor. *Resigned to become the Governor of California. The Board replaced Rolph with Angelo Rossi. *Assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White. Supervisor and Board President Dianne Feinstein was named acting mayor. She served the remainder of Moscone's term and was subsequently elected to two full four-year terms on her own. *Resigned to become the Lieutenant Governor of California. Supervisor and Board President David Chiu briefly served as acting mayor until city administrator Ed Lee was unanimously appointed on the following day by the Board to finish out Newsom's term. *Died in office due to cardiac arrest, Board of Supervisors President London Breed served as acting mayor until January 23, 2018 when Supervisor Mark Farrell was appointed interim mayor by the Board of Supervisors.

References

;General * * * * ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayors Of San Francisco Government of San Francisco History of San Francisco San Francisco San Francisco-related lists 1850 establishments in California