Ahsha Safai's lifelong mayoral ambition fuels his critique of San Francisco's fractured leadership. As he tackles political controversies and corruption, Safai outlines his vision for a unified city administration ahead of the pivotal election.
Did you have a sense that in 2024 you’d be running for San Francisco mayor?
Ahsha Safai: I wrote in my MIT entrance essay that I wanted to be a mayor of a city one day. When I came here after I met my wife, Yadira, I fell in love with San Francisco and I knew immediately I wanted to be mayor of this city one day. And so I've been working on it for the last 25 years. I started under Mayor Willie Brown and worked for Mayor Gavin Newsom as a deputy department head.
Your wife is a deputy city attorney. Some have called San Francisco politics a knife fight in a phone booth. What is her perspective on you running for office? Did she sign up for this?
I’ll tell you about being attacked. Whether it was a joke or not, a prominent tech executive named Garry Tan put out a tweet that said “die slow.” I knew immediately that someone would run with that. And then someone takes his tweet and makes a flier for themselves that says, ‘Garry Tan was right. I wish a slow death to you and your loved ones.’ So the police have to give extra attention to our house. My kids say ‘why are the police passing by and stopping at our house?’ And then he back pedals. It was a joke. But it's not funny. And it can inspire or ignite or incite people to do harm.
Why is it so hard for the mayor and board of supervisors to work together and build a consensus?
I think you have some outside stakeholders, people who are trying to influence the conversation, that have really fomented this division. And if you listen to Mayor Breed’s messaging over the last four or five years, it's the District Attorney's fault or it's the Police Commission's fault or it's the Board of Supervisors fault or it's the bureaucracy’s fault. She says, ‘If only I had more power directly, I could get the job done.’ And then you have stakeholders that have glommed on to that and promoted that message.
What is your relationship with Mayor Breed these days?
She won't speak to me. She won't even acknowledge me publicly. There will be supervisors and elected officials at an event and she’ll mention the others but won't say my name.
It seems like there is some type of corruption scandal related to the city government every few weeks. Why is so much corruption being exposed and is Mayor Breed at fault for that?
If someone on my staff spent $5,000 or more to repair one of my vehicles, that's a bribe. That's someone who is untouchable. That’s someone who can't be fired. That is the definition of corruption. I'm sorry.
But it wasn't just in that department. It was pervasive. There are 15 department heads and 15 departments that have been impacted by this. And then you get another layer below. As we saw with the police department, one of their biggest and most important nonprofit providers, SF Safe, was just caught. I mean the district attorney is looking into the case now because money has disappeared. People haven't been paid and money was misspent. And so this culture has kind of pervaded this entire administration. And it's very, very unfortunate.
There was a recent article that talked about Siavash Tahbazof, a developer in the city who was a good friend of yours. The allegation is that he paid bribes to building inspectors and plan checkers. Do you feel like some people believe you’re guilty by association?
I hired his former business partner to be the engineer to do my plans. I've never done any projects with him. I've known him and his family as philanthropists, engineers, and builders. Those are the people that I knew. And so to hear about this, it was shocking. I was like, why does he even need that? And then yeah, you're right. There are going to be people who say, ‘Well, he knew them. He's guilty, too.’
You sponsored Proposition B on the March ballot, but the original supervisor who proposed it, Matt Dorsey, thinks you made a ‘poison pill’ that sabotaged his legislation and tried to do the opposite of staffing police. What is your response?
The problem with what Matt was proposing was that we are facing an $800 million deficit and growing. If you come in and say without an identified source that we're going to set aside $30 million dollars, you literally are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Just this past month, the mayor came in and said all of the funds that you've negotiated this past year for multiple projects are immediately cut — things like after school programs, food pantry programs for seniors, and childcare. Why would you want to put a recruitment bonus — a hiring bonus for police — and pit it against these services? That's the worst idea in the world because it engenders more animosity and anger toward police and the police department. So what I said was let's go back to an existing tax. And let's ensure that we're funding this in the right way.
I want to talk about the labor negotiation coming up this summer. Does it have to be a zero sum game where one side wins and another side loses?
A lot of what is missed is the importance of bringing labor and business together. And when San Francisco is at its best, it's when everyone is prospering and when everyone is advancing. So when I worked with the janitors, we worked on the mid-market tax break and we worked on the Twitter tax break. When those office buildings are full, janitors are working and security guards are working. Small businesses in the area are benefitting.
People say I have this great idea. We can do X and it can cost less. But what does costing less actually mean? What does faster mean? It doesn't mean that I don't want faster and I don't want it to be less expensive, because I do. But I also have to consider who is involved. What are the inputs going into that and how is everyone prospering?
Daniel Lurie made news because a political action committee supporting him had a $1 million dollar donation from his mom. Are you concerned about a lot of incoming money coming in and affecting this race?
When his mom gave a million dollars, I tweeted that my mom gave me $150. I said, ‘I love you, mom.’ Money is not going to determine the outcome of this race. San Franciscans are smarter than that. They're not going to let someone come in and buy the mayor's office.
Mark Farrell was acting mayor for six months. Would he make a good mayor in the current climate?
This election is not the same as being appointed the interim mayor. You’ve got to go out and fight for it. You’ve got to go out and convince the voters of San Francisco that you're the one. The city has been in crisis for the last five years and you have to be in the crisis to understand how to get us out of the crisis. It's easy to watch from the sidelines.
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