No Slack, None Whatsoever

$tand with Joel (Engardio) always hated constituents saying anything he didn't like.

Back in February of this year, as the Recall Engardio Campaign was just getting started, Supervisor Joel Engardio and several key supporters, campaign staff and consultants created a Slack channel to discuss and ideate strategies to curtail negative statements, messages and discussions on multiple social media platforms, including Nextdoor and local Facebook groups.

Joel Engardio weighs in personally at the top of the thread to say, “Hi everyone, we need help on Nextdoor.” Elected officials, at times, participate in their own media and social media communications strategies.

I find, however, this statement by Supervisor Engardio particularly repugnant, “They need us to be the eyes and flag everything problematic.” I wonder how many things that I have written here on my Substack that Engardio would want to “flag” as problematic? Thinking about that is rather mind-boggling. I mean, if Joel Engardio was redacting and suppressing my content, LOL, I doubt any of my words would see the light of day.

This is not my voice I am worried about, it is the voices of my neighbors and friends and family, because they have become my family. Who in the all-fired hell does Supervisor Joel Engardio think he is trying to decide what words and ideas that people in my community get to express? How Trumpian does that sound to you?

As one would expect, within just five minutes Engardio’s search to make Nextdoor safe for, well, Joel Engardio, he turns to a comment that honestly does nothing to bring on the “cesspool on Nextdoor” that Engardio refers to later in the thread.

So, give me just one minute here. Engardio says, “One thread today was especially bad, and the moderators couldn’t see it until it was flagged. Then they were able to begin cleaning it up and removing all the awful comments. Here are two examples of commentators coming to my defense that I really appreciate. It shows there is goodness out there in the online cesspool.”

I will be far fairer than Supervisor Engardio and point out that I cannot see every comment in this example of ND post and comments, so I cannot know the nature of every comment. But I will also point out that the initial person who originally posted here, Diana, did not make a post that is deserving of your vitriol, Joel.

“He will never understand how us parents have to rush out of work to pick up our kids on time!”

Diana, local resident, Nextdoor

And honestly, that is not even close to the point here. What is closer to the point, perhaps even at the heart of the matter, is that you, Joel Engardio have no right to decide what Diana says to her Nextdoor community or her real-world community, or anyone in those communities. Nor do you have the right to tell her how she should say anything whatsoever.

And now we have come full circle, and Supervisor Engardio is now handing out information to those in the Slack channel so they can go out and intimidate voters, potential petition signers and recall volunteers. I can personally attest to the fact that Engardio supporters did come to mobilization events just like the ones in this flyer and try to intimidate voters and volunteers.

And that is just one more example of the Engardio campaign sharing information to facilitate voter intimidation.

I have the screenshots from this Slack thread plus all the Slack profiles for all the members of the “Save Joel Engardio” Slack channel. The San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Standard — Power Play (week of September 14, 2025) — both have them as well.

In addition to Supervisor Engardio himself and several campaign staffers and aligned (and some paid by the Endgardio campaign) Nextdoor moderators, that Slack channel included campaign consultant Maggie Muir and GrowSF co-director Sachin Agarwal.

This entire Slack channel thread bothered me greatly. But I wanted to be certain that I was not alone in that regard. Therefore, I asked some people and there was general consensus among all of us that this is egregious behavior.

“I heard about these screenshots 2 months ago and that was a turning point for me. I was sickened to discover Joel was personally directing aligned ND moderators to silence citizen voices by removing their posts, which is a textbook violation of the freedom of speech.”

former 1st Amendment attorney, San Francisco

She is absolutely right about that, and it sickened me as well. What also sickened me is the cavalier manner in which Engardio and his staff and advisors discuss and exchange information about voter intimidation strategies. We now know that Joel is big into doxxing and voter intimidation. Remember this picture, Joel?

I am not going to reinvent the wheel here. I wrote previously about Engardio’s doxxing and voter intimidation. I will close here with an excerpt from that previous report — Reap the Whirlwind.

… And these are the people that you chose to dox and try to intimidate Joel.

And there is the rub. I said I would help, and I did. The Recallers told me I was welcome, and they made that real. As the Recall Engardio Campaign marched on they became my friends, and then they became family. Last night Joel Engardio held up an “enemies list” plastered with pictures of my friends, my family.

Engardio’s actions are repugnant and reprehensible. But more than that, he has sown the wind, he has written his “enemies list” like some modern-day Senator Joseph McCarthy, and he put the faces of my big, lumpy Sunset family on that list — Lisa A., Lisa T., Heather, Dave, Jen, Stephen, Rich, Tony — and that cannot be allowed. In my world, that is what we call casus belli.

So, I will stand in the breach.

Moreover, it will not be allowed to stand. Just as if he had held up an “enemies list” with pictures of my biological family, I will stand in the breach. I will do everything in my power, everything, to ensure that Engardio is brought to justice, that he is recalled and removed from office and that he is held to account for doxxing and threatening my Sunset family…

He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.

Engardio sowed the wind with his “enemies list,” his betrayals, his deceptions and his corruption. The sides have been chosen, and the battle is joined. I know which side I am on. And the whirlwind is coming, but it is not coming for me and mine, it is coming for you Joel.

Joel Engardio, you picked the wrong side, and you did so in a very bad way. In truth, you have chosen a path from which you will not be able to return. I will, however, say this to you anyway. Do not ever try to intimidate and dox my family again, not ever. Next time you decide to create an “enemies list,” start with me Joel. Here’s a picture you can use. Start with me. Let’s just see how that works out for you.

John Crabtree