Good afternoon, everyone.

It's Thursday, June 25th.

Welcome to the special meeting of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

We are continuing this meeting from June 23rd.

I'll ask the clerk to begin the meeting by calling roll to establish our quorum.

Supervisor Marquez.

Present.

Supervisor TAM.

Present.

Supervisor Miley.

Supervisor Fortunately.

President Halbert.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you very much.

The next item is public comment on closed session items.

I will note that we will recess briefly into closed session today.

And so any item that is listed on closed session, if you'd like to speak to that, you may do so now.

Open session items, we will talk.

So this is on closed session items only.

Any speakers for closed session?

No speakers.

With that, we will recess in the closed session.

We're in recess.

Supervisor Martez, I'll start.

President Supervisor Tam.

Present.

Supervisor Miley.

Supervisor Fortunato Bass.

President Halbert.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Just out of an abundance of caution, I just would like to clarify.

I believe Supervisor Tam, you are participating remotely under just cause provisions.

Is that correct?

Yes, President Halbert.

I am participating remotely under government code section 54953.8, the just cause provision because of recovery from a medical procedure.

And there are no adults 18 or over present in the room.

Excellent.

Thank you for that.

County Council, is there any reportable action from our closed session?

Thank you.

Your board took no reportable action to closed session.

Thank you for that.

We are now to our open session part of the meeting.

Adopting of a fiscal year 2026-2027 final budget.

Again, this meeting is continued from the other day, June 23rd.

I note that we are sitting as the board of supervisors of Alameda County, as the board of directors of the Alameda County Fire Department, as the Board of Directors of the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, and as the Board of Directors and Trustees of the County Service Area Districts.

I'll now turn the meeting over to our county administrator, Susan Ranishy.

Thank you, President Halbert, members of the board.

Today is the fourth and final day of your formal public budget hearings, deliberations, and adoption over the 26-27 proposed budget that was initially submitted to your board and the public for review on May 28th of 2026.

We're before you today recommending adoption of a balanced 6.7 billion dollar final budget that incorporates final adjustments and your board's direction after your hearings and deliberations.

Before entering the final budget letter into the record and providing my formal thank yous, I do want to acknowledge and thank each member of the board for your leadership.

I want to acknowledge President Halbert and Supervisor TAM who led the budget work group.

I want to thank our elected and appointed department heads and their staff for their collaboration and partnership with special thanks to the auditor controller and her team for their support and guidance and to the CAO budget team and the entire CAO staff for their diligence and commitment to developing a responsible balanced budget that enables the county to continue providing mandated and essential programs and services to our residents and communities.

While there is a core CAO budget team of analysts and others that are crunching numbers, working around the clock with department staff on budget development every day, including those in chambers today and those that presented earlier this week.

The entire CAO office is engaged during budget season, and it is a true team effort, and we rely on strength in numbers.

So I'd like to make that acknowledgement before I read into the record your final budget for fiscal year 26-27.

The final 2627 budget reflects the priorities and direction provided by your board throughout this year's budget process.

Despite significant fiscal challenges, the budget is balanced and continues to support the essential services that residents rely on every day.

The final budget totals $6.7 billion across all funds, a 10% increase, and supports more than 10,400 full-time equivalent positions.

The general fund totals $4.3 billion.

The final budget is balanced and closes a projected 184.8 million dollar funding gap through a combination of expenditure reductions, revenue enhancements, and the strategic use of one-time funding sources.

Every program area, as you can see, contributed to these solutions, guided by your board's vision 2036 values and commitment to equity, access, and responsible stewardship of public resources.

Budget balancing strategies include salary savings adjustments, elimination of funded vacancies, revenue increases and revenue maximization strategies, use of one-time revenues, and countywide revenue and expenditure adjustments.

The net cost reductions required to close the funding gap are summarized on the slide, and as you can see, include contributions from each program area as well as some countywide strategies and notably one-time retirement rate savings.

Approximately 50%, slightly over 50% of the budget balancing solution relies on one-time savings due to retirement rate reductions, while the remainder is achieved through a mix of additional one-time strategies and ongoing structural adjustments.

During budget deliberations, your board provided direction regarding final budget actions.

Based on that guidance, the proposed budget submitted to your board in May has been updated and is presented today for adoption as your final fiscal year 26-27 budget.

In addition, your board advanced several policy actions related to Alameda Health System based on the attached letter from Supervisors Miley and Fortunato Bass.

Those recommendations include approving a one-time allocation of up to 19.3 million to Alameda Health System to eliminate the proposed reductions in force for the remaining 92 full-time equivalents set for July 6, 2026 for the entire fiscal year 26-27, supporting a performance audit of AHS by an outside firm that is mutually agreeable to AHS leadership and labor partners with required progress updates to the Board of Supervisors and extending the PHP IOP program through October 31, 2026.

The recommendations also direct the AC Health Director to convene a planning group with AHS leadership and key stakeholders to assess the feasibility of the PHP IOP program and ensure that all patients continue to receive appropriate care.

The third recommendation is that your board extend the AHS ad hoc committee to continue its work to address future AHS budgets, support a collaborative and transparent process to create fiscal stability at AHS, and engage the entire health ecosystem to support AHS.

The ad hoc committee will provide a status update to the Board of Supervisors by the end of the 2026 calendar year.

The fourth recommendation is to support the 28 PHP IOP staff if the program is determined to be infeasible within AHS to explore potential county employment, including vacant positions in Alameda County Health or the Social Services Agency.

And finally, direction that the CAO work with the auditor controller and AC Health Director to identify options to provide a one-time supplemental allocation of up to $19.3 million to Alameda Health System during fiscal year 2026-27 to help address its remaining funding gap by eliminating proposed reductions in force, funding a performance audit, and extending the PHP IOP program through October 31, 2026.

In addition, board members identified additional policy priorities and funding opportunities to help prepare for potential reductions associated with pending state and federal actions.

During your deliberations, your board reaffirms several strategic priorities intended to strengthen the county's long-term fiscal sustainability, improve service delivery, and advance the bold vision set forth in Vision 2036.

These priorities support our shared commitment to building safe and livable communities, fostering a prosperous and vibrant economy, promoting a healthy environment, and ensuring thriving and resilient populations.

They also advanced the county's 10x goals, including eliminating homelessness, achieving health for all, expanding employment opportunities, reducing poverty and hunger, creating a crime free county, and developing accessible and integrated infrastructure.

Recognizing the growing uncertainty surrounding state and federal funding and the potential for economic disruption, your board prioritize continuing to build and maintain the county's reserve funds.

Maintaining strong reserves enhances the county's organizational resilience and ability to respond to emerging challenges while preserving critical services.

The county will continue efforts to achieve and maintain a general reserve level equal to at least two months of general fund operating expenses, consistent with our existing financial management policies, best practices, and the county's commitment to long-term fiscal sustainability and responsible stewardship.

Your board also emphasized the importance of securing ongoing supplemental funding for senior services.

As Alameda County's older adult population continues to grow, ensuring the long-term sustainability of programs and services that support healthy aging, independence, and quality of life remains a key priority.

These investments directly support Vision 2036's goal of creating thriving and resilient populations by helping older adults remain healthy, connected, and self-sufficient.

Your board also directed continued review of operational efficiencies across county government.

This work builds upon the ongoing efforts of agencies and departments to identify opportunities to improve service delivery, streamline their operations, and reduce costs.

Agencies and departments have recently identified $125 efficiency actions, resulting in an estimated $114 million in cost savings, many of which have received recognition from the California State Association of Counties, the National Association of Counties, as well as other public sector associations.

These efforts reflect the county's commitment to vision 2036's principles of innovation, continuous improvement, and rethinking how government delivers services in a rapidly changing world.

By maximizing the value of every public dollar, the county is strengthening its capacity to invest in outcomes that matter most to our residents.

To further advance transparency, accountability, and community engagement, we've prioritized redesigning our special budgets, starting with enhancements to the unincorporated services budget and now expanding to the children's budget and human impacts budget.

This work builds on the county's second year of implementing the ClearGov Digital Budget Book, which has significantly enhanced public access to budget information through an interactive, user-friendly online platform.

The county's commitment to improving budget transparency and excellence was further recognized when the Government finance Officers association awarded the county with the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its annual budget beginning July 1, 2025.

This award represents the highest form of achievement in governmental budgeting and reflects the county's continued commitment to excellence, transparency, and sound fiscal management.

The redesigned special budget documents will further improve public accessibility, better communicate county investments and outcomes, and more clearly align budget information with goals, strategies, and performance frameworks established under Vision 2036.

This will help residents better understand how county resources contribute to achieving our long-term vision and 10X goals.

My office will return to your board with a timeline for implementing the redesigned children's budget and human impacts budget.

Your board also prioritized a comprehensive review of the county's master fee schedule to ensure that service fees accurately recover the full cost of services while maintaining equitable access for residents and businesses.

Urgency will be placed on modernizing the assessment appeals filing process and fee structure, as well as updating fees for regulatory functions administered by departments such as environmental health.

These efforts support fiscal sustainability while helping ensure efficient, accessible, and responsive public services.

Also consistent with Alameda County's longstanding commitment to equity, inclusion, accountability, and responsive government, your board has prioritized the potential creation of dedicated offices and governance structures to address emerging community needs and strengthen county services.

Recent initiatives include proposals to enhance services for immigrants and refugees, the unincorporated area, reparations, and public safety oversight, each intended to advance key policy priorities, improve accountability, and strengthen service delivery.

While these initiatives represent an important investment in the county's organizational capacity, successful implementation will require sustained funding, appropriate staffing, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and effective coordination across departments.

As these initiatives evolve, ensuring they are adequately resourced and integrated into appropriate existing county operations will be critical to achieving the board's intended outcomes.

While these proposed initiatives reflect important policy objectives and community priorities, they also add to an increasingly complex and demanding operating environment.

The county is simultaneously managing significant fiscal challenges, evolving policy mandates, growing stakeholder expectations, aging infrastructure, mounting workforce pressures, and rising demand for services.

Each new initiative, while advancing important outcomes, requires organizational capacity, staffing, funding, and ongoing oversight at a time when resources are increasingly constrained.

Moving forward, difficult trade-offs may be required as the county seeks to balance competing priorities, maintain fiscal sustainability, preserve core services, and advance the ambitious long-term goals established under Vision 2036.

Continued discipline in prioritization, resource allocation, and performance management will be critical to ensuring that the county can successfully deliver on its commitment without overextending its financial and operational capacity.

The $6.7 billion fiscal year 26-27 final budget continues to align investments with Vision 2036 and our shared commitment to equity, opportunity, resilience, and community well-being.

Key investments included in the budget are $2.2 billion for salaries and benefits supporting a diverse workforce of nearly 10,500 employees.

More than 1.25 billion in contracts for direct services delivered through over 270 community-based organizations, including more than 138 million for the Alameda Health System, more than 800 million for behavioral health services, over 440 million for housing and homelessness programs, 477 million in direct assistance payments to residents, $347 million in Measure W investments across Home Together and Essential County Services, and $387 million for direct municipal services in the unincorporated areas.

The final budget also continues longstanding board policy initiatives and investment, the eighth-year allocation of $5 million for the enhancing vision 2036 fund, supporting children, youth, and families with a million dollars allocated to each supervisorial district, the eighth and final allocation of $5 million for the East County Economic Development and Infrastructure Improvement Fund.

A contribution of $15 million to the General Reserves, and a $75 million contribution to the special capital construction fund to continue to address our long-term infrastructure financing needs.

These investments reflect our continued commitment to delivering services in partnership with community organizations, while advancing the county's long-term vision 2036 goals and strengthening economic opportunity, community well-being, financial stability and infrastructure throughout the county.

Although California lawmakers met the constitutional deadline for adopting a state budget, negotiations between the legislature and governor remain ongoing.

Many proposed changes affecting health and social services programs have been deferred, creating continued uncertainty for counties across the state.

According to the legislative analysts office, a ballot initiative regarding local taxes proposes to limit transfer taxes for charter cities and increase the voter threshold for special taxes, further limiting local government's ability to raise revenue.

This measure could invalidate existing property related special taxes that were approved by less than two-thirds of voters and could result in a loss of up to $2 billion in revenues to local government across the state.

For Alameda County, this uncertainty is especially significant given our reliance on voter-approved time-limited sales tax measures that fund many essential and priority programs.

These locally approved revenues provide critical support for services that residents depend on.

Significant questions remain regarding future funding for health care, social services, and other safety net programs.

Anticipated substantial reductions from HR1 and other legislation could have downstream impacts on both state and local budgets.

And given our reliance on the state and federal funding, as well as voter-approved local sales tax measures that support Key County services, we will continue to closely monitor developments in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

while actively advocating for resources that our residents depend on.

As we look ahead, the 26-27 final budget reflects your board's commitment to maintaining essential services while navigating one of the most challenging fiscal environments in recent years.

Through prudent financial management and long-term planning, the county remains positioned to continue delivering core services to our residents, to advance strategic capital investments, to reduce long-term capital pension liabilities, to maintain our AAA credit ratings, to strengthen the county's self-insured risk management programs to protect financial stability and support organizational resilience, and to invest in innovative programs, technology, and artificial intelligence solutions that will improve outcomes for our communities.

These efforts reflect the forward-looking approach embodied in Vision 2036, which recognizes that rapid technological change, evolving community needs, demographic shifts, and economic uncertainty require government to be adaptable, innovative, and resilient.

The final budget also includes $795 million in capital investments supporting projects within the county's five-year capital improvement plan.

These investments help advance Vision 2036's goal of creating accessible and integrated infrastructure while supporting safe and livable communities throughout the county.

While significant progress has been made in establishing a long-term capital financing strategy, substantial unmet facility and infrastructure needs remain and will require continued investments in future years.

As we prepare for continued economic uncertainty and instability at the state and federal levels, your board's leadership remains critical.

Your commitment to sound fiscal policies, strategic investments, and protecting services for our most vulnerable residents continues to strengthen the county's ability to respond to challenges while advancing our Vision 2036 goals and maintaining public trust.

Closing a significant funding gap and developing a balanced budget without major program reductions or layoffs is a significant achievement and a team effort.

I'd like to thank our agency and department heads for their cooperation and commitment to identifying efficiencies, maximizing revenues, and responsibly managing resources throughout the years.

I also extend my appreciation to the budget work group for its guidance and partnership, and to my staff for their dedication, expertise, and tireless work throughout the budget process, and finally to your board for your leadership, collaboration, and commitment to an open and inclusive budget process.

Together, these efforts have produced a balanced budget that reflects our shared values and positions Alameda County to continue serving residents with resilience, innovation, equity, and integrity as we work toward realizing the Vision 2036 aspiration that all residents can live, work, and thrive in safe, healthy, and prosperous communities.

With that, the recommendations before you are that you adopt by resolution, the fiscal year 2627 final budget for the County of Alameda, that you adopt by resolution, the fiscal year 26-27 final budgets for the Alameda County Fire District, the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, excluding Zone 7, and the County Service Area Districts, and that you authorize the County Administrator and Auditor Controller to make the necessary final adjustments and other technical adjustments to the fiscal year 26-27 recommended proposed budgets as presented during budget hearings.

Very good.

Could we uh entertain a motion accordingly?

Anyone want to make the motion?

Supervisor Miley makes the motion second.

I'll second.

Motion's been made and seconded.

We'll now have discussion on the item.

Supervisor Temp, since you're with us, thank you.

Uh any comments about this or questions in discussion?

Thank you.

I appreciate uh the very thorough and comprehensive effort that went into uh accommodating a lot of the comments that we heard, both in the public and from the Board of Supervisors.

I'm very impressed with the efficiencies that were achieved that was um recognized by the California State Association of Counties and also at the national level, and I'm sure that we'll be talking more about some of those efficiencies in the futures because we're also looking at trying to exceed that 114 million dollars worth of savings and special uh recognition on the effort to um modify our approach in engaging the unincorporated uh community when it came to uh looking at their 387 million dollar budget because that is almost essentially the amount that the county has um paid for to Alameda Health System.

So I wanted to note those incredible accomplishments.

Very good.

Thank you.

Any more comments?

I'll go to Supervisor Marquez.

I'm laughing because I just got a video of my 97 year old grandma, so it's kind of funny.

Sorry.

I'm not gonna turn the audio and scare everyone, but um, just seeing her face and cracks me up.

So, anyhow, um, this is a tremendous amount of work.

I'm just uh really proud of everyone.

Um, as I said in my comments before.

This has been an unprecedented year with attacks coming at us from every direction.

I think, um, in the last since February to just two weeks ago, we probably added, I don't know, 10 special meetings just to tackle everything that's been before us.

So, everyone's been working incredibly hard.

So, I just want to acknowledge and appreciate everyone and really impressed with the creativity around problem solving.

Um, thank you to our colleagues, Supervisor Portano Bass and Miley for adding additional responsibilities to your workload with the ad hoc committee and to Elamina Health System and our labor partners for being a part of that conversation.

I am supportive of that letter, but as I mentioned earlier, my comments are in the entire context.

And uh similar to what the CAO has said, you know, we have many outstanding priorities from the supervisors, and I fully understand that we're gonna have to make tougher decisions at some point.

We can't continue to say yes to everything.

So I think if we continue to find those efficiencies, those cost savings, I'm I'm confident that we'll be able to figure out because there's a lot of great um policy decisions, services going directly to our residents here in Alameda County, but there's also still a lot of stuff missing, right?

So for me, what's going to be priority moving forward is just really looking at strengthening the infrastructure, the healthcare ecosystem, the access system in terms of what's missing in this county.

And I do strongly believe we have a lot of work to be done around the space of immigrant and refugee affairs office.

We know we're going to be hearing from reparations commission next week.

Really impressed with the significant investment that's being made in unincorporated services.

Congratulations to everyone.

I haven't heard from members of that community in a while because I feel like they've been deeply engaged and they're really satisfied to start seeing um meaningful and deep investment.

So, yes, we're moving in the right direction, but also we have to be honest with the difficult decisions that are around the corner.

So I will be supporting this resolution and just looking forward to um honest and consistent conversation so that way we can continue to problem solve together as a county.

So thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Fortnite.

Thank you, President Halbert.

Um, thank you, everyone, uh, to everyone who's participated in this process and especially our staff who've done the very heavy lifting.

Um I want to just start off my comments by saying that I do believe our 6.7 billion dollar budget is a statement of our values and our precious public resources must protect our most vulnerable residents and our safety net services that they rely on.

And as stewards of our public resources and safety net, um I want to make sure that we are continuing to ensure that the board, our county stakeholders, members of the public continue to receive timely information and have ample time to meaningfully participate in our annual budget process.

I do believe over the course of the year and a half I've been on the board, uh, the two years we've had this online budget portal, we have made incredible improvements.

And there is still more that I want to make sure that we do so that more people can participate in this process.

My office did hold two virtual budget forums in April and June, and I really want to thank everyone who participated in those, because we want to be part of making sure that folks have the tools and the information they need to know how we are functioning as the county safety net.

And I'm really proud of the work that we have collectively done, you know, certainly around advancing some of my priorities around equity, transparency, and communication.

I do believe it's more critical than ever under this federal administration to make sure that we are addressing all of the impacts.

And we're not just doing this over the month that we've really dug into this budget since it was proposed.

We've really been doing this since Trump came into office.

Um I think it's important.

The county administrator read uh the budget letter and highlighted a lot of what is in this budget, which is very positive.

Um, it's just really impressive to me that in the face of all of these funding cuts, all of these attacks on our social safety net, we are still able to deliver.

Um, and because many members of our community were part of this, I just wanted to lift up the fact that we're allocating millions of dollars through home together and measure W funds.

We're tackling food security and supporting the up to 40,000 residents who are subject to work requirements who were at risk of losing their federal benefits.

We're protecting our most vulnerable residents from the immigrants who we know are visibly being attacked by ICE across the entire country to the people who may be less visibly impacted because they're at risk of losing their health care or other services.

I'm really proud that we've been able to make a commitment to other communities like the LGBTQ community, who we will be allocating funds to hopefully at our next board meeting.

And there's so much that we have done with very vulnerable communities, including seniors, including justice-involved individuals.

I do want to note that I am very much looking forward to the Care First Jails Last update that will come to our public protection and health committee next month, because those recommendations that the board approved are really critical to making sure that we're taking care of people and diverting them from our incarceration system into the actual care, whether it's health and mental health that they need.

And then, of course, I am wanting to touch upon the joint letter that myself and Supervisor Miley put forward.

I'm really thankful that we have been able to have this ad hoc committee process.

While it was very challenging the first couple months, I think we did come to an understanding and a more productive relationship because we had that time to ask hard questions, to be very honest with each other, and to really recognize that we're all in this together.

We have to figure out how we are going to withstand and continue delivering to our residents with these seismic shifts that are happening to our health care system due to HR1 as well as some of the state changes.

So with the joint letter in front of us, I am very hopeful that our colleagues are going to adopt this entire budget, including that 19.3 million dollar allocation that will reduce 92 remaining layoffs, will actually eliminate 92 remaining layoffs, support a performance audit and extend the mental health program for four more months.

I do want to clarify that while I said the other day that I don't want that up to 19.3 million dollars to come from Measure W, I was referencing the Measure W funds that we've already allocated because we've done tremendous work together with community participation to allocate those funds.

I also want to recognize that every one of our departments made reductions to their budgets in order to balance this budget.

And so I hope, and it is not our intention that there be additional cuts to departments.

I would hope that our administration would be able to be creative in finding those resources.

You know, it could be overage above the 19 million we've allocated from the Measure W overage.

Perhaps as we close the books, there are places among various revenue sources where we're over budget.

So I hope we can be very creative without impacting the budget that we are about to pass.

Thank you so much to our coalition partners, probably too many to mention.

And looking forward, it's going to be a long haul.

It's only been a year and a half, but we've got several more years that are going to be very challenging.

And so I know I am focused on making sure that we address the root causes of our structural deficit.

And to me, a big part of that is economic inequality.

It's about making sure the super wealthy and the big corporations pay their fair share.

And I'm very glad that the state budget that is on the governor's desks has the state's fair share for big corporations program within it, so that we can make sure that Californians continue to maintain their health care access and services.

And I hope the governor signs that by the end of the month.

Lastly, generating revenue at the local level is really important.

And so I do appreciate the administration adding the commitment in our budget to look at our fee schedule and to prioritize the assessment appeal fee review.

It is just very eye-opening to know how important our property taxes are and to hear from the assessor, the number of appeals that they are processing together with our clerk, and the over 1 billion dollars that those appeal assessments are worth.

So I look forward to that coming before our board very soon so that we can do everything possible here at the county level and also to the extent possible pushing at the state level to ensure that everyone's paying their fair share, and with that we are able to provide the critical resources and services that we know everybody needs.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Martley.

Thanks, President Howard.

So let me say a few things.

I just want to thank the county administrator and her staff.

She's added a few people to her team and it's provided, I think, a lot of uh expertise and knowledge and insight.

So appreciate uh county administrator and all of our team for helping us get here and appreciate the work of our department and agency heads uh and the work that they've done on this, as well as our partners from the CBO community, our partners with um organized labor, our partners who are unrepresented, uh community-based organizations, and everyone, because as Supervisor Bass pointed out, we're all in this together.

Um, I've had the pleasure of going through 26 of these budgets, which is my number 26, and I've had the pleasure of kind of dealing with 36 budgets, 10 years on the city council in Oakland and 26 years here.

So I can't say I've seen it all and done it all, but seen a bit and done a bit.

Um, so I'm really pleased uh where we are today and have county administrator uh enumerate all the um achievements and accolades and things uh that um have been uh forthcoming as a result of uh of where we've been and and truly where we're going is I mean when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Um it's not gonna be you know easy uh down the road.

Um, and if we're easy, then anybody could do it.

Um so I'm confident that the five of us at the county supervisors and working with our labor partners and working with us our our our uh employees and county administrators staff and department heads and others, our CBO partners and others will be able to um see ourselves uh through the challenges that uh confront us over the next uh few years because we will have challenges, you know.

I I've often said this over time.

I haven't said in a while, but you know, there's this proverb proverb as you climb the mountain and you get above the clouds, you say, Oh, we've made it, we're above the clouds and there's no more mountains to climb, but then you get above the clouds and you see there's another mountain to climb.

And it's you know it's it's just the fact of life.

Every time you get above the clouds, there's another mountain to climb.

There are more challenges to be uh handled and um and I just think that it's important that we uh face the situations.

I know Supervisor Marquez has pointed out we got a lot of a lot of things on our plate.

Um, you know, we're we might have to triage some things, we might have to manage expectations, we might have to make some compromises, and we might have to uh ensure what is priority and what is in priority, uh, because I know there's some things that might not be as important as other things uh at this particular moment in the context of where we've got to uh go in the near future.

So I'm I'm pleased it's always forthcoming to finish this part of our journey, uh, get the budget passed and adopted so that we can start the journey again.

So I'm looking forward to that.

Come July 1st.

We start a new fiscal year, a new journey, new adventures, new delights, uh, new challenges, new partnerships, new um everything.

So God bless you all.

Let's keep up the good work.

Thank you, Supervisor Miley.

Climbing mountains in Alameda County.

I would like to also thank our county administrator Susan Moranish, you did a great job.

You always do a great job, recognized statewide as one of the best buttoned up county administrators over and over again.

And I see the team behind you, 20 25 professionals working tirelessly to get this done.

I look around and I see our department heads, our sheriff, our fire chief, some members of the public, including union thugs, apparently.

So that's the shirt.

It's what it says.

Oh, for those that can't see, it's a shirt that says a union thug.

Was there a say?

Oh, okay.

Well, thank you for being with us here.

Uh, indeed, we have a budget that is 6.7 billion dollars.

It's uh increased 500 and some million dollars over a year ago.

Some 9.3 percent 300 and some million of that is measure W.

I have to thank the members of our community who voted to support Measure W.

It allows us to spend the money this year that we need to spend to keep people safe, fed, uh well nourished, um, to keep them in health care, to keep them sheltered, to do all the things that we need to do.

But we also recognize that that amount of money is not generated each year by Measure W.

We had uh litigation that stalled the the um spending of that money, allows us to spend a little bit more than we'd normally collect going forward.

We'll have to be very prudent with the measure w dollars because they won't be as plentiful in futures as they are now.

That requires us to be uh mindful of the efficiencies that we can uh gain uh if we can gain them, if we can identify them, and I think we have commitment to do that.

Um, I can't say anything other else above and beyond what my colleagues have mentioned.

I thank you all for I think each one of us mentioned different parts of our budget and reiterated the things that this is a budget that reflects our values.

It includes things that um uh are very comprehensive and all the things Supervisor Marquez that you mentioned, and um uh and so I am uh I am ready and supportive to approve this.

We have a motion on the table by Supervisor Miley.

We have a second by Supervisor Marquez.

Sorry, Supervisor Tam, she beat you out barely by a few half of a second for that second.

Um, but we're enthusiastic about passing this budget, and so I'll ask the clerk to please call the role.

Supervisor Marquez, aye, supervisor Tam.

Aye, Supervisor Miley, Supervisor Fortunato Bass.

Aye, President Halbert.

I vote yes.

The motion passes.

We have an approved budget for everybody.

Seeing that we have uh uh exhausted all business before us, we are adjourned.