Drug Court Admissions Triple as DA, Public Defender Clash Over Violent-Offense Diversions

San Francisco's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee spent nearly three hours last Wednesday dissecting two failures of critical city systems: a Drug Court program buckling under triple the caseload it was designed to handle, and a single PG&E substation fire that plunged 120,000 residents into darkness for up to three days. Both hearings exposed sharp disagreements over who is responsible — and neither is resolved.

• Drug Court admissions surged from 180 to 608 in two years, with mental health diversion cases now accounting for 91% of referrals — including violent offenses the DA says bypass the original agreement between her office, the Public Defender, and the courts

• DPH is staffed for 260 Drug Court clients but now manages 420, with monolingual Spanish-speaking clients waiting months longer for treatment beds

• PG&E's direct-cause report on the December 2025 blackout drew bipartisan skepticism from supervisors who say broken ventilation fans were documented for two years before the fire and never repaired

• SFFD was not notified of the substation fire until 72 minutes after the arc flash, prompting PG&E to retrain control center operators

• Video parking enforcement in transit lanes advances toward a seven-year extension after committee backs AB 1837 resolution, 3-0