Sarah Swanbeck

Sarah Swanbeck is currently an analyst for the City and County of San Francisco in the Office of the Controller where she works with a range of City departments to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their services. She previously worked with the Center on Civility and Democratic Engagement at UC Berkeley where she researched participatory budgeting in California and how involving citizens in the process of prioritizing public spending may result in more efficient, equitable outcomes. Sarah has also worked on local budget issues for the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s Office in San Francisco, as well as Federal budget issues for the Executive Office of the President in the Office of Management and Budget. Prior to her work in public finance and budgeting, Sarah focused mostly on California energy and environmental policy, working for the California Public Utilities Commission, the Sonoma County Water Agency, and the Public Policy Institute of California. During the 2010 election cycle, Sarah co-founded and led a statewide student campaign to generate support for Proposition 25 – a ballot initiative that restored simple majority rule to passing the California state budget. Sarah managed the online presence for the movement, devising a campaign message that would speak to students, designing and maintaining the student campaign website, formulating a social media strategy, and helping to develop content for the campaign and for the website. Sarah holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. She is interested in government reform, particularly methods for improving the long-term stability of state and local government finance by changing the way that the state enacts a budget, raises revenue, and elects its public officials.