More than 40 commissions and citizen advisory bodies are on the chopping block after the Board gave initial approval to a reform ordinance targeting San Francisco's famously sprawling commission system. If you didn't know SF had that many commissions to cut, congratulations — you've just discovered one of the reasons this city can't fill a pothole without a two-year community engagement process.

San Francisco has long been the poster child for governance-by-committee. Need to make a decision? Form a commission. Need to review that decision? Form another commission to oversee the first one. Need to evaluate whether the oversight commission is effective? You get the idea. The result is a bureaucratic labyrinth that slows everything down, costs taxpayers real money, and diffuses accountability until no one is responsible for anything.

As one SF resident put it, the city essentially built "a machine designed to turn simple decisions into endless meetings."

Now, let's pump the brakes on the victory lap. The ordinance received initial approval, meaning there's still time for the political winds to shift. And even if it passes, the real question is whether eliminating these bodies actually translates into faster, cheaper, more accountable governance — or whether we just end up with the same dysfunction laundered through fewer letterheads.

The skeptic in us also notes that the Board of Supervisors — not exactly known for their lean-government instincts — is the body doing the cutting. That either means things got so absurdly bloated that even City Hall couldn't ignore it anymore, or there's a political angle we're not seeing yet.

Either way, cutting 40-plus commissions is a step in the right direction. San Francisco doesn't need more process. It needs more results. Let's see if this reform actually delivers them.