Jen Nossokoff

• Office: DCCC, Assembly District 19
• Election Date: March 5, 2024
• Candidate: Jen Nossokoff
• Due Date: December 23, 2023
• Printable Version

Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the March 5, 2024 Primary Election! GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city via common sense solutions and effective government.

The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco.

We ask that you please complete this questionnaire by December 23, 2023 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.

Table of Contents

• Questions
  • Education
  • Business
  • Public Safety
  • Housing
  • Drugs
  • Mental Health
  • Public Transit
• General questions

Questions

Please mark the box that best aligns with your position. You may explain any position if you so desire.

Education

	Yes	No
Should all students in 8th grade have access to algebra, if they want it?	Yes
Should all students in 7th grade have access to algebra, if they want it?	Yes
Should all high school students have access to AP courses?	Yes
Should the Party adopt or support policies that promote making algebra available to 8th graders?	Yes
Did you support or oppose the recall of Board of Education members Collins, López, and Moliga? If you supported or opposed a subset, please specify below.	Yes

Explain why you did or did not support the recall of each member:

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

I feel very strongly that any child who is ready to learn any level of math, including algebra, should have the opportunity to do so. Math is a passion of mine; I took Calculus II for Engineers as an elective in college and fiercely believe that we should not hold any students back from opportunities to develop critical thinking skills that prepare them for more advanced courses that get them ready to enter a competitive national and global workforce.

Business

Should San Francisco…	Yes	No
Reduce the time to obtain all permits to open a new business to no more than 3 months?	Yes
Reduce the cost of obtaining permits to open a new business?	Yes
Reduce the number of activities which must obtain permits, and expand the number of by-right activities?	Yes
Increase the number of available ABC permits?	Yes
Increase the number of available recreational marijuana permits?	Yes
Try to attract businesses of all sizes to the City?	Yes

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Try to attract businesses of all sizes to the City-> This is really, really important for the city to focus on right now. We need to activate our local economy by reducing barriers to entry and incentivizing businesses to choose San Francisco as their home base. Small businesses need support right now and we need to make it attractive for people to take on the risk of starting and operating businesses here. We need small businesses to keep our neighborhoods lively. We also need big businesses and corporations here to have robust funding for city programs and government. As a member of the DCCC it will be critical for me to advocate for policies that support the redevelopment of our local economy.

Public Safety

	Yes	No
Do you think that property crime in San Francisco is too high?	Yes
Do you support policies commonly referred to as "defund the police"?	*	*
Should the Party adopt or support policies that promote a fully-funded and fully-staffed police department?	Yes
Should police funding be from the general fund, rather than via special taxes and set-asides?	Yes
Did you support the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin?

Please explain why you did or did not support the recall of DA Chesa Boudin:

I did not take a position on the recall at the time. While his mission of helping support/rehabilitate people who commit minor offenses is admirable, the execution of this vision didn't align with the general safety and needs of the city at large.

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Do you support policies commonly referred to as "defund the police"?

I support examining police budgets across the country and allocating city funding in a way that does not over-inflate the police departments. That is what "Defund the Police" means to me. It's important for me to clarify this because "Defund the Police" means different things to different people.

We do not have a path to victory on public safety that does not go through the police, so I do not support excessively defunding our police departments.

Expanding on my view of policing:

I am not in the camp of "All cops are bad". But I do believe that systemic racism and inequities have existed and still existed in policing today, as it does in every aspect of our culture. I also believe that San Francisco has failed in its mission to provide compassionate service to low-level offenders and we need to make some changes. It is not compassionate to let people walk into a store and steal up to $999.99 of goods with no repercussions, because they know the limit on enforcement for theft is $1,000. This is what's happening.

It's important for our society to have rules and for those rules to be equally enforced. It's also important for us to have adequate social support and programs so that people have real options to support their livelihoods and interests other than theft.

Housing

	Yes	No
Is it too difficult to build market rate housing in San Francisco?	Yes
Is it too difficult to build subsidized housing in San Francisco?	Yes
Should the Party adopt or support policies that make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build market rate housing in San Francisco?	Yes
Should the Party adopt or support policies that make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build subsidized housing in San Francisco?	Yes
Should the Party adopt or support policies that would loosen the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings? (ie taller, denser, and fewer/reduced setbacks)	Yes
Should the Party adopt or support policies that would abolish the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings?		No

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

The housing crisis is the root cause of a myriad of symptomatic issues facing San Francisco. It is imperative that we have elected officials that prioritize embracing building more places for people to live and who are able to guide the process and negotiate effective solutions. Right now we have leaders who have their heels dug in to single solutions and as result, nothing is getting done. The fact that both Prop D and Prop E failed in the last election is direct evidence of this.

As a member of the DCCC I will work across the San Francisco political aisle to get us out of our current stalemate and drive real progress.

Drugs

	Yes	No
Should San Francisco arrest and prosecute fentanyl dealers?	Yes
Should the Party adopt or support policies that formally request help from the State and Federal governments to bolster our police force (both the officers and the investigators)?	Yes
Should the Party adopt or support policies promoting "safe consumption" sites without altering existing laws and lax enforcement around open-air usage?		No
Should the Party adopt or support policies promoting "safe consumption" sites only if paired with zero-tolerance for open-air usage? (ie consuming drugs like fentanyl on the street would be illegal; and users would be taken to a recovery site until they are sober)	Yes

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Acting in my capacity as a licensed healthcare provider (Board Certified Physician Assistant in California): An evidence-based approach to drug policy is crucial for addressing the complex challenges associated with substance use. Safe consumption sites are a part of this plan.

That said, I do not believe that it is in the best interest of the community at large to let people openly do illegal drugs in the streets. I support a "no wrong choices" approach to San Francisco's drug policy and safe consumption sites with onsite treatment as the best policy.

Note- we also need to address the root causes of substance use, including access to stable housing, food, and social services.

Mental Health

	Yes	No
Should San Francisco place people who are experiencing mental health crises on the streets into involuntary mental health holds at psychiatric facilities?	Yes*
Should the Party adopt or support policies that facilitate the construction and operation of mental health facilities, and permit those facilities to treat patients involuntarily if they are deemed to be unable to care for themselves (as determined by a panel of psychiatric professionals)?	Yes*

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

*This process MUST be done in collaboration with mental health professionals to ensure they are appropriately cared for as patients. Political officials need to be careful not to overstep the boundaries of the medical decision making of healthcare providers.

Public Transit

	Yes	No
Should SFMTA and BART conduct fare enforcement operations and prosecute fare evaders?	Yes*
Should the Party adopt or support policies requiring SFMTA and BART to enforce fare payment?	Yes*
Recent state funding requires Muni and BART to enforce fare payments in order to receive funding; do you agree with this requirement?	Yes*

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

*Fare enforcement is not a high priority for me when it comes to public transit. Yes, if we are going to have rules then we should be able to enforce them, and we should ensure that we are doing so equitably. Fundamentally it's hard to not support that.

Ideally, public transit would be free for everyone (paid for by the government) but practically we have fees because we need to support the infrastructure and operations currently.

I would rather focus on finding larger funding sources for transit than going after people who can't afford to pay for their tickets.

General questions

What needs to change with the Party?

The party has a lot of infighting going on and we need people who have a larger, long term vision that can bridge the gap and bring people together. San Francisco is a global example of Democratic values put into action and it's important that we are able to come together to make those values a shining reality.

What are the top three issues facing San Francisco, and what would you like to see change?

• Housing shortage

• Open-air drug markets and rising overdose deaths

• Economic challenges: losing big businesses/corporations to other cities and barriers to entry/operation for small businesses.

Tell us one thing you think needs to change in SF that the average voter wouldn't know about.

The average voter has no idea there is a Progressive/Moderate divide inside city hall. And most voters don't fall entirely into these buckets when looking at all of the issues each camp pushes for.