Sparks fly over budget cuts at D8 supervisor forum

Elizabeth Lanyon, left, and Tom Temprano, moderated a May 7 forum among the four candidates running for San Francisco District 8 supervisor seated on stage: Darshini Patel, Gary McCoy, Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel, and Michael Trung Nguyen.

Photo: John Ferrannini

Austerity was the hot topic at the May 7 forum featuring the four candidates vying to represent the Castro, Noe Valley, and other central San Francisco neighborhoods as District 8 supervisor. There was disagreement among them about a June ballot measure that would increase taxes for certain companies.

The forum at the Randall Museum was hosted by the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and the San Francisco Young Democrats. Current District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, a gay man serving as the Board of Supervisors’ president, is termed out and will leave office in early January.

“We're seeing clinics closing, we're seeing healthcare access being limited with the budget cuts, and I can't understand how, in one breath, we talk about, ‘We're not going to make these cuts for all these public health services,’ and then the next breath, we say we can’t pass Proposition D,” said Gary McCoy, a gay man and former longtime political aide to Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) who is currently campaign manager of Pelosi’s Save Our Health Care Campaign. 

McCoy was going after fellow candidate Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel, a gay small business owner and former member of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board. Yekutiel had said if elected he would fight against budget cuts to LYRIC and Larkin Street Youth Services – organizations that have sustained city reductions in recent years – but was the only candidate to say he opposed Prop D, which would raise the taxes the city collects from some large businesses when their highest-paid executive earns over a hundred times the median compensation.