SF Supervisor Joel Engardio Recall Petition Qualifies For Ballot

The movement to recall San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio succeeded in qualifying their petition to reach the ballot over the weekend, with the San Francisco Department of Elections verifying enough signatures and setting an election date.

Recall supporters, who initially garnered 14,000 signatures, pared the number down before handing them in a few weeks ago in an effort to streamline the effort and have a swifter acceptance turnaround. The effort paid off as the Department of Elections verified 10,523 of the 10,985 turned in by the “Our Neighborhood, Our Future Supporting the Recall of Supervisor Engardio” organization, well over the 9,911 signatures needed for a recall election.

“We said we were confident when we turned this in,” said field organizer of the recall campaign Otto Pippenger. “We ran a campaign with lots of integrity, and had a good sense of what was gonna happen. We wanted residents in District 4 to have a voice, and that’s what we’ve got. We look forward with excitement and optimism for the coming months.”

Engardio, a former journalist and a Supervisor since 2023, has faced immense ire from the public of the city and his own constituents since last year when he became a supporter and primary of Proposition K. The proposition, which called for the closure of the Upper Great Highway in San Francisco in order for it to be turned into a park, was swiftly opposed by well over half his constituents. The closure of the stretch of highway was already semi-permanent going into November 2024, with the highway there being closed on weekends and holidays, with supporters saying that natural erosion would have made highway closure inevitable anyway, and that it makes the park more safe.

However opponents countered that the closure is inconvenient, sends too much traffic onto neighborhood streets, and creates a safety issue for them. Despite their concerns, Engardio became of the key people behind moving it forward, even being one of the decisive votes in placing Prop K on the ballot. While Prop K passed in November with 55% of the vote, two-thirds of of the voters in his district voted against it. Supporters subsequently formed a recall effort against Engardio, with Engardio stating that he was confident that they would not get enough signatures. When the park, now named Sunset Dunes, opened last month, Engardio himself cut the ribbon and dismissed local opposition once again. As a precaution, he also raised $407,000 for anti-recall efforts, spending about $405,000 before the signature turn in date last month.

Engardio’s recall election

With enough signatures being gathered, Engardio now heads into an election where around 67% of his constituents hated the park coming in, with many living near the highway they can longer use. Despite this, Engardio remained optimistic following the announcement of the recall passage.

“I’m confident the recall will fail because many residents in his district have seen that the park is beneficial, and that the traffic snarls has not been as bad as they had feared,” explained Engardio in a statement. “I’m being recalled because I wanted more people to have a say about a coast that belongs to everyone — that’s it.

“I hear every day from residents who are tired of distractions and appreciate having a supervisor who shows up and delivers. When I helped put Prop. K on the ballot, I knew that I had passionate constituents on both sides of the issue. The ballot measure gave them — and our city — a chance to have a say over the future of our coast. After much public debate, the voters elected to open the park. Attempting to recall me in response will do nothing to reopen the Great Highway.”

Despite this, voters in his district continue to be enraged by him, with many noting that a new Supervisor could help lay the framework to reopen the highway and bring about another public vote on the matter. At the very least, recall supporters have noted that they can remove the Supervisor who “betrayed them” and reclaim their voice.

“It’s about all of us as a community reclaiming our voice,” said recall supporter and business owner Albert Chow during a rally last month. “We fought for something bigger than any one issue.”

The recall vote is currently scheduled for September 16, 2025 in the District 4 area of San Francisco. Should it succeed, Engardio will join other recent San Francisco lawmakers who were recalled, including the 3 San Francisco Board of Education members who were recalled in early 2022 and DA Chesa Boudin who was thrown out of office in June 2022.