Staci Slaughter is departing as chief of staff for Mayor Daniel Lurie.

On Tuesday, Lurie gave insight into her role — she was a mentor, a guide, the Obi-Wan to the mayor’s Luke (opens in new tab). And, importantly, she helped map the administration’s road to economic recovery. 

“Through it all, she invested the time to give the current and future leaders of our city the tools to succeed and grow,” Lurie said in a statement. “From the youngest mayor’s office staff to the most seasoned department heads, so many people across the government have benefited from her wisdom and mentorship.

“I am no exception,” he added.

Slaughter will stay on through the city’s annual budget process, with negotiations expected to conclude at the end of June. Lurie is expected to name a successor soon.

Slaughter’s departure marks a quiet but significant transition for an administration that bet big on talent from outside government — and largely won. Her exit raises the question of whether Lurie’s business-world leadership can navigate what comes next: a $1 billion budget deficit, restless unions, and a city in mid-recovery.

Slaughter taught a business-friendly cadre of leaders the arcane ways of city government. The outside perspective was always part of the plan, including former Twitter CFO Ned Segal and former McKinsey consultant Kunal Modi, two of Lurie’s policy chiefs. Slaughter helped the administration dream up its big-picture strategy for civic investment. Considering Lurie’s stratospheric approval rating, often in the 70s, it’s fair to say residents approved of her plans. 

While the bulk of her career was in leadership positions with the San Francisco Giants, including serving as the organization’s first female vice president, Slaughter cut her teeth in Frank Jordan’s mayoral administration as his press secretary from 1992 to 1996, serving as a senior adviser. 

Cammy Blackstone, former board chair of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, has known Slaughter since her time with the Giants. Blackstone said Slaughter knows how to keep calm amid the nonstop crises of local government work.

“Her demeanor, she’s unflappable,” Blackstone said. “She really got [Lurie] into his stride.” 

That’s an important attitude when met with the fraught tensions of government. Slaughter stared down a gantlet of negotiators at the bargaining table with the San Francisco Unified School District, in discussions that led to the historic teachers strike. 

Lurie’s office is distinct from past mayors in that he appointed policy chiefs who oversee broad areas of government, like public safety, homelessness, and public health. Instead of overseeing departments, Slaughter served as a strategist alongside those policy chiefs. A review of her calendars, which are public, reveals her priorities: Chief among them, she was mired in briefings with the mayor’s budget director, Sophia Kittler, to chart a course out of what is expected to be a $1 billion structural budget deficit by 2029. 

Slaughter also booked dozens of meetings with Carol Isen, the city’s human resources director and chief labor negotiator. Sources said Slaughter played a key role in negotiations with the police and fire departments, which last month were awarded 14% salary increases at a cost of $100 million annually. Local think tank SPUR warned that those rosy contracts may prompt other unions to make similar demands when their contracts are up next year. 

Leaving was always part of Slaughter’s plan, Blackstone told The Standard. Slaughter wanted to get Lurie’s administration up and running and see it through this most recent budget.

Because of her onetime leadership position at the Giants, and her husband’s role as a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, Slaughter didn’t need the money, most City Hall insiders speculate — she joined Lurie’s administration purely out of loyalty to San Francisco.

“This was truly government service on her part,” Blackstone said.