Vote No on County Measure E

Our position: NO

Measure E bundles two things into one vote: a new county ethics bureaucracy with a guaranteed budget that grows every year, and a permanent charter rule that locks about $314 million a year of county money into one set of programs. You cannot vote for one without the other.

We oppose anything that creates more bureaucracy and more expense. Measure E does both, and it takes the money out of the hands of the officials you elect.

Part one: a new bureaucracy with an automatic raise

• It creates an Office of Ethics Compliance run as its own county department, with a proposed staff of 54.
• It guarantees that office at least $14.3 million a year starting in 2027–28, and the floor rises every year by inflation or income growth, whichever is higher.
• Skipping a raise takes a four-fifths vote of the Board of Supervisors. The office does not need approval from other county offices to spend its budget, and it is exempt from hiring freezes.

We support honest government and real ethics enforcement. That deserves its own measure, with a budget the voters’ representatives control, not a charter guarantee that grows on autopilot.

Part two: a permanent spending lock

• It writes into the charter that at least 10 percent of the county’s locally generated general fund goes to “community investment and alternatives to incarceration.” The county’s 2026–27 recommended budget puts that at $314.3 million.
• The money “shall not be used for any carceral system or law enforcement agencies,” including the Sheriff, the District Attorney and Probation.
• The Board can cut it only with a four-fifths vote in a declared fiscal emergency, and the county’s future elected executive cannot veto it.

The money is not even being spent

The county Auditor-Controller reported $392.4 million in this program left unspent at the end of 2025–26. A program sitting on more money than it can use does not need a permanent guarantee in the county charter.

How we got here

• Voters approved this set-aside as Measure J in 2020.
• When voters rewrote the county charter with Measure G in 2024, the Measure J language was left out, which puts it on track to end in 2028.
• Measure E brings it back, attached to the ethics commission. The Board of Supervisors placed it on the ballot with three votes. The board’s only Republican abstained.

No one filed an argument against it

The official ballot pamphlet says “no argument against this measure was submitted,” and the argument in favor tells voters there is “no new cost to the taxpayers.” A $14.3 million floor that rises every year, and $314 million locked away from your elected officials, is a cost. That is why we are writing this.

Bottom line

Budget decisions belong to people the voters can hold accountable. Measure E puts a growing bureaucracy and hundreds of millions of dollars beyond their reach. Vote No on Measure E.