A San Francisco ballot measure that would revamp the retirement benefits of city-employed nurses and emergency dispatchers appears to be well on its way to passing.
In the most recent count from Friday afternoon, Proposition I was attracting 70.7% of the counted vote. With 117,000 ballots remaining to be counted, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections, that proportion will likely change.
But representatives of the nurses and dispatchers unions said they were pleased with the results so far.
“I think the citizens of San Francisco are realizing the importance of public safety and [are willing] to do the investment in it,” said Burt Wilson, president of the dispatchers’ arm of SEIU Local 1021, The City workers union.
Prop. I would allow San Francisco Department of Public Health full-time nurses who previously worked for the department on a temporary basis to apply the hours they worked on that basis toward their retirement service credits . The measure would also shift dispatchers from their present retirement plan into a more generous one that would effectively allow them to retire earlier.