Opinion: Political betrayal warrants recall

For almost a year I’ve been in conversations and debates concerning how the safety and quality of neighborhood life impacts of closing the Upper Great Highway (UGH), and the need for mitigation, planning and financing before any closure.

Most recently, I became a member of the Recall Engardio Committee. I joined because I cannot abide by Joel Engardio’s betrayal; I cannot stand by while his actions compromise our safety and our quality of life, and because the west side of San Francisco has had enough. I’ve taken a leadership role in the recall so Engardio can’t do any more harm, and to remind City Hall that they work for us. I also support the recently filed lawsuit to set aside Proposition K, which closed the UGH, so the harm Engardio did can be corrected.

From the time I was 21 years old, I have had the pleasure of being a police officer. Helping others is fulfilling, and service of all types is a noble calling. I’m the fourth generation of my family that’s called the west side home while serving in the SF Police Department. I also had the great-good fortune of serving as the Captain of Richmond Police Station.

During my tenure I enjoyed working with many members of our Board of Supervisors. My lane was public safety, theirs was representing their constituents and advancing sound public policy. We didn’t always agree, but there was always a shared commitment to work together for San Francisco. I never encountered a supervisor that abandoned their duty to the people they were elected to represent. I’m sure there were disagreements between supervisors and their constituents, but none operated in secrecy to conspire against the people they represented or abdicated their obligation to representative democracy – until Engardio came into office.

Prop. K Created in Dark Room

Sometime before February 2024, Proposition K was prepared outside of the public’s view. There is no indication that the city attorney’s office wrote or reviewed Prop. K. Engardio admits knowing about the document for at least three months before he filed it with the clerk of the Board of Supervisors on the afternoon of June 18, 2024, the last possible day to submit a ballot proposition for the November 2024 election. By hiding the document from the public, Engardio prevented anyone from submitting a competing, rational proposal to voters.

I don’t know if Engardio co-authored Prop. K, but from his Sunshine Ordinance daily calendar we know he met at City Hall with Lucas Lux on March 18, 2024, three months before Prop. K was filed. Engardio’s next meeting with Lux was at a private residence on 48th Avenue on June 17, 2024, the day before Prop. K was filed.

Within weeks Engardio was making public appearances with Lux at his side. According to his LinkedIn page, Lux is a former member of the board of directors and treasurer for the SF Bicycle Coalition and president of the Board of Directors of Friends of Great Highway Park. He is an outspoken proponent of Prop. K.

While Engardio was meeting privately with proponents of Prop. K, his constituents were relying on his campaign promises, including campaign literature, which stated: “Joel on parks and the environment: Great Highway: Joel supports allowing cars on the Great Highway on weekdays to serve commuters and opening the Great Highway on weekends and holidays to pedestrians and cyclists for recreation.”

During his 2022 campaign for District 4 Supervisor, Engardio prepared a statement for inclusion in the City’s official Voter Handbook. He promised transparency, to be a voice for his constituents, and to focus on public safety and safer streets for the residents of District 4. Once elected, Engardio betrayed voters and violated his campaign promise of transparency, disregarded the needs and concerns of District 4 residents and muted their voice at City Hall.

More recently, Engardio supported the rapid closing of the UGH. Despite the City’s approaching budget cliff, and his constituents being up in arms over the unmitigated impacts of the closure, he watched silently as city departments (Municipal Transportation Agency and SF Recreation and Park Department) expended significant funds to fast track the closure of the UGH.

In a Feb. 10, email to the Board of Supervisors’ Finance Committee, he requested a UGH-closure-related general fund appropriation of several hundred thousand dollars be quickly calendared for a hearing during the month of February.

Closure Threatens Public Safety

Engardio has compromised our neighborhood safety. Traffic has been routed onto high-injury, congested thoroughfares; commute times have been lengthened; exhaust-spewing vehicles have increased on residential streets; response times for emergency services will increase; a major evacuation route for western San Francisco will be unavailable in the event of disaster or conflagration; traffic congestion has increased in neighborhoods and Golden Gate Park, affecting air quality and pedestrian safety.

Engardio doesn’t want to be recalled. He has friends who feel the same way. Good friends that have given him a great deal of money, including some who financed Prop. K. According to the most recent disclosures filed with the SF Ethics Commission, Engardio has raised $284,144 for his “stop the recall” campaign, including $250,000 donated by just four wealthy people and one political action committee. By contrast, the Recall Engardio Committee has raised $39,713 from hundreds of westside donors. Engardio has generous, supportive friends, but none of them live in District 4 and none of them seem to care about people who live in the west side.

Engardio’s Proposition K subordinated our path for a dream of a better UGH to political gamesmanship and echo-chamber, small-group planning – tactics that assured a few people would be winners, and the great majority would suffer. It didn’t have to be that way. Closing the UGH without mitigating neighborhood impacts, before completing necessary studies and destroying the thoughtful compromise, was bad public policy bereft of social utility.

Make no mistake, residents, visitors and merchants on the west side, and District 4 in particular, are furious. Betrayal and deceit spark anger, but more is going on here. On the west side, there is a deep sense of sadness occasioned by being disenfranchised, misled and having our daily lives subordinated to the desires of a few promoters who have a vision for San Francisco that excludes so many of us.

Recently I walked a nearly empty UGH, and with a cool breeze at my side and the sound of the crashing surf blocking other noises. I felt melancholy. I thought of all the people who would be stuck in traffic, the people worried about their children crossing streets, the emergency vehicles forced to slower, congested routes, and the new patterns that people have adopted out of necessity rather than choice.

Engardio hurt us by being the “ball-carrier” for a well-funded, small, insular group that wants a particular future, regardless of the social costs to others. That is a nice way of saying selfish. San Francisco is better than this, and the west side is saying-enough.

Engardio betrayed the public’s trust and compromised safety on the west side. Unless he resigns, he will be recalled and voted out of office.

Please visit the website RecallEngardio.com for more information, to volunteer or to make a donation.

*Richard Corriea is a retired commander from the SF Police Department, a fourth-generation Richmond District resident, and one of the organizers leading the Recall Engardio campaign.