Details
San Francisco is the unusual one. It is a City and County at the same time, which means one government does jobs that everywhere else in California splits between two.
Eleven supervisors, elected by district
According to the Board of Supervisors, the Board has 11 elected members, one for each of Districts 1 through 11. Supervisors are elected by district, not citywide — so the person who votes on a matter affecting your street is elected by your neighbours, and you can only vote for one of the eleven.
What the Board actually does
The Board is the legislative branch of the City and County. Under the Municipal Charter it responds to the needs of the people of the City and County, establishes city policies, and adopts ordinances and resolutions.
Because San Francisco is also a county, the same body handles matters that in, say, Alameda County would sit with a separate county board of supervisors — a distinction that matters when you are trying to work out which agency to contact.
How to find what they are voting on
The Legislative Research Center is the public portal to search all legislation, meeting agendas and minutes. That is the primary record — the place to read the actual ordinance rather than coverage of it.
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Meetings are broadcast on SFGovTV, and the Board’s site publishes the schedule of meetings and hearings.
Why this is worth knowing before you have a problem
Most people first look for their supervisor when something has already gone wrong — a development, a closure, a policy change. By then the ordinance has usually been through committee. The agendas are published in advance, and the Legislative Research Center is searchable, so the decision is visible before it is made.
City-and-county rules still sit under state law
San Francisco sets its own minimum wage and its own rent rules on top of the statewide floor. Where a local ordinance is stricter than the state rule, the local one governs — see the statewide rent cap for how that interaction works.
Verified against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors 25 August 2026.