There are plenty of things wrong with the way SF is run, with the members of the set depending on political and economic viewpoints. But if they can manage to keep city worker costs down to about 1/2 of revenue they're doing doing something right, especially if "benefits" includes retirement contributions. Better than most cities I've seen or lived in. 2/3-3/4 of budget for salaries and benefits is very common, and in a lot of smaller cities that cost is primarily for fire & police services.