The Alameda County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting on April 14, 2026, for its annual early budget work session for fiscal year 2026-27. Chief Administration Officer Susan Moranishi opened the session, noting the preliminary maintenance of effort (MOE) budget addresses baseline changes such as salary adjustments, increased operating costs, and revenue constraints. Key uncertainties include federal and state policy changes (e.g., HR1, Prop 1), federal funding cuts, and rising insurance and litigation costs. Departments presented their MOE budgets, highlighting challenges in funding mandates, staffing vacancies, and growing service demands.
Meeting adjourned at 8:38 PM.
Recording in progress. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting, uh special meeting of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to order. This is Tuesday, April 14th. Will the clerk please call the roll to establish our quorum? Supervisor Marquez present supervisor TAM. Present. Supervisor Miley. Can you hear me? Yes. Supervisor Fortunato Baz present. President Halbert. Present. We have a quorum. Thank you very much, and thank you to Supervisor Miley participating remotely. Our first item up for the agenda is public comment on closed session items. We'll now take speakers in person and online for public comment on closed session items. I will note that the main portion of our meeting today is early budget work session. We will have presentations throughout the day, and we will have public comment on those items at the end of our presentations. But for now, public comment on closed session items. Will the clerk please call speakers? Chair Halbert, there are no public speakers for closed session items. Okay, very good. Then we will proceed. I note that we often would recess into closed session in the beginning of our meeting. We're not going to do that today. We will be taking a break and having closed session later in the meeting. But for now, we're going to proceed with our early budget work session. This is an item that we do every year. It's one of the hallmarks of our budget season. I'm going to now turn the meeting over to our chief administration officer, CAO Susan Moranishi to kick us off for today's early budget work session. Susan. Thank you, President Halbert. Members of the board. As you indicated, today is your board's annual budget work session, a key milestone in development of a balanced fiscal year 26-27 budget. Today you will hear from elected and appointed department heads who will each present an overview of their respective agency and departments, focusing on goals and key accomplishments, mandated and discretionary services, key investments in programs and services, and an overview of the preliminary maintenance of effort budget based on policies and guidelines adopted by your board. The preliminary MOE budget provides an early view of some of the changes expected next fiscal year due to salary and benefit adjustments, increased operating expenses and support costs, and decreases in revenue due to limited growth and or funding cuts. Some key issues and considerations for you to consider with regard to the preliminary maintenance of effort budget. Measure W funds are not included as they will be in this in a separate fund and will be incorporated into the proposed budget. We also are benefiting from one-time retirement savings resulting from your board's prepayment of pension liabilities. There are increasing workers' compensation costs in addition to rising litigation risks and costs, and there are adjustments to county council's budget structure and charges to general fund departments. There are also issues that require further review and analysis as we develop the proposed budget, including mandated and discretionary services, which are identified by all departments but not quantified by all. We are continuing our position review to better align funding with billed positions and we'll be reviewing salary savings. We will also be looking at program-wide revenues, particularly related to public safety, where those revenues are budgeted at the program level, not included in the departmental budgets. And there are a few other maintenance of effort issues and adjustments, including caseload and workload considerations. The work session today is an opportunity for your board to learn more about each of the department's operations, funding challenges, and pending factors. Given our reliance on federal and state funding, concerns about looming policy changes and funding cuts at the federal and state level are front and center and largely unknown. We will now set the context and provide background for today's hearing with a very brief update on state and federal issues, an overview of the MOE guidelines, next steps, and the budget calendar, as well as major pending factors. And I'm going to ask Rasley Tadeo to present that to your board. You've each received a binder that was just compiled minutes ago that includes copies of the presentations that will be presented and were prepared by each of the departments.