Okay, good evening, everyone.

I like to call the unincorporated service committee meeting for June 24th order.

Clerk take the role.

Supervisor TAM, excuse Supervisor Milan.

Can we have instructions, both the translation instructions and then instructions for participants?

Claudia.

Yes, miss.

Welcome everyone.

We will be providing interpretation at today's session.

I will be making this announcement in English and in Spanish.

Bienvenidos.

We invite everyone to please select English if you have limited Spanish proficiency.

This way you will be able to hear the interpreters from Spanish to English.

If you're on a computer at the bottom, you will see a globe that says interpretation.

You can go ahead and put a check mark on your preferred language.

If you're on your cell phone or tablet, you can locate the three dots.

You can tap them lightly and put a check mark on your preferred language and be sure to click done in order to activate and begin the interpretation.

Thank you very much.

Back to you.

And for remote participation, follow the teleconferencing guidelines, post it at www.acgo.org, and use the raise your hand function.

Thank you.

All right.

So good evening.

Sorry, running a little behind.

Got caught in traffic coming out of Oakland this evening.

So everything on our agenda tonight is informational.

And which is good because we just have one representative from the committee here.

So our first informational item is um the budget update.

Thank you, Supervisor.

Um good evening, everyone.

Melanie Atendito from the County Administrator's Office here to provide an update on the fiscal year 26-27 proposed budget.

Um the board is in uh did conduct uh budget hearings and deliberations this week.

So um for folks that were tuned into that process, a lot of this content will look quite familiar.

Um so just a brief overview of what I'm covering this evening.

I'll start as always with an economic update as well as uh state and federal updates.

Uh we'll then move to a little bit of county 101, um, talk about the county's responsibilities, uh, a little bit about the difference and differences between counties and city structures, uh, as well as county financing and uh really stress the point about how uh limited our revenue raising ability is.

Um I'll then move to move on to summarize the fiscal year 26-27 proposed budgets, um, do some highlights on uh the unincorporated area investments as well as some enhancements we have continued to make to the unincorporated special budget, uh, and then close with pending factors and looking ahead.

So in terms of the economic outlook and state and federal updates, um really the top lines here that you're seeing um in this press coverage center around the technology sector trends remaining mixed.

Uh there's continued investment in AI uh all while workforce reductions continue to happen.

So this is a reflection of productivity gains but ongoing labor market disruption.

Economic uncertainty persists due to federal policy changes, market volatility, concerns about the federal debt, and the potential for renewed inflationary pressures.

A lot of economists have highlighted that we have what is referred to as K-shaped economic growth.

This is a reference to higher income households benefiting from asset appreciation while many lower and middle income residents face affordability challenges and labor market pressures.

Federal immigration policies and demographic trends, including lower birth rates and housing constraints, are affecting labor force participation and contributing to slower economic growth in the state.

And the state's unemployment rate remains elevated.

I think California is now tied with two other states at the top of the list in terms of its unemployment rate at about 5%.

That's above the national rate of 4.3%, while the counties Alameda County fares somewhat better at 4.1%.

Though we have noted in previous presentations that East Bay employment in particular continues to lag regional trends.

So cost pressures remain significant, particularly in labor, health care, construction, and contracted services, despite inflation moderating a bit.

These conditions underscore the need for continued fiscal discipline to sustain core services while maintaining long-term stability.

So we are operating under multiple simultaneous pressures that require balancing stakeholder expectations, fiscal realities, policy mandates, and board priorities.

We must respond to the needs and expectations of our various stakeholders, residents, labor, community-based organizations, advocacy groups, civic organizations, and government partners.

Counties face increasing service demands while managing structural funding challenges, aging infrastructure, unfunded mandates, state and federal funding uncertainty, and limited revenue growth.

In terms of policy pressures, new legislation, regulatory requirements, compliance obligations, governance changes, and modernization initiatives.

All continuously reshape the operating environment.

And then our board, the Board of Supervisors advances strategic priorities that require resources, organizational focus, and implementation capacity across county departments.

So these pressures obviously don't occur independently.

They often compete for the same limited resources, staff capacity, and leadership attention, and success requires balancing our immediate operational demands with long-term strategic goals.

So the challenge with all of this is to remain fiscally responsible, policy compliant, responsive to stakeholders, and aligned with our board's priorities while continuing to deliver high quality services to our residents.

This slide is a high-level summary of the newly finalized state budget agreement and how it directly impacts county operations, local revenues, and our safety net programs.