The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee, chaired by Councilmember Kate Stewart, met on April 10, 2026 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (agenda indicated 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., but minutes reflect an earlier adjournment) to review six FY27 operating budgets. The committee heard presentations from department heads and analysts, discussed racial equity and operational challenges, and made recommendations for full Council consideration in May 2026.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this session of government operations and fiscal policy. We are beginning our review of the FY27 operating budget. We have uh six um department budgets to go through this morning, so I'm very excited. I'm thank you uh already to our staff for excellent packets and doing a great deal of work. Uh we're gonna kick it off this morning with our ethics commission. If folks wanna come on down. Um yeah, our first uh review of the FY27 operating budget is our ethics commission. Thank you, Ms. O'Connor, for joining us. And I'm just gonna turn it over to our team to walk us through the packet and what's recommended by the county executive. Thank you. Good morning. The executive recommends an increase for the ethics commission of 312,274, which is 85.36% from the FY26 approved operating budget. Uh that's a large increase, but the vast, vast majority is a one-time expense for the upgrade of the ethics program IT systems. Uh, there are three of those systems. So jumping to page three on your packet where that's broken out in a little more detail. This 273,000 item provides for upgrades to three different different systems, one for financial disclosures, one for outside employment, and one for lobbying. Um this was previewed for the committee last year in terms of the needs of the the um upgrades of the systems. They're old with the most recent having uh last bit having been implemented in 2015, so they're all at least 10 years old. And as they age, they begin to show challenges that affect filers and make it more difficult for them to file with these three systems. Um the commission has indicated that it's most cost effective to upgrade all three of these systems at once instead of considering them in tranches or breaking them out over three, and again, of the total cost of the item, 263,000 is one-time funding to implement the upgrades. The remaining 10,000 dollars of this item will be built into the budget as an ongoing expense for licensing. So council staff recommends placing that item on the reconciliation list for the council president's budget approach. The only other thing that I will highlight, jumping back to page two of the packet is the operating budget equity tool analysis. As the committee is aware, the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice has issued each department an analysis to highlight how its proposed budget and resource allocations support the goal of eliminating or reducing racial inequities and social injustices in the county. ORESJ issued the Ethics Commission a commitment level rating of five on an 11-point scale, which indicates that the department demonstrates an emergent commitment to advancing racial equity and social justice. ORESJ's analysis is provided for the committee's review in the packet and centers uh in large part around the capacity issues due to the ethics commission being such a small office and the challenges with implementing um the additional programs. Um however, the office notes that the ethics commission does have uh has demonstrated a willingness to collaborate with ORESJ on training and um had active participation uh in various ORESJ initiatives. So with that, and with the recommendation to add this single line item to the reconciliation list, I'll turn it over to the committee for questions or to the commission for comment. Great. Thank you very much. Um Director Conner, do you want to walk us through anything or add? I just want to thank everyone for uh speaking with us today and for your continued support of the ethics programs. I will reiterate what I said last year that the systems are definitely showing the wear and tear of the ancient nature of the platforms that they're on. We are experiencing increased issues from users and increased complaints, sadly. And with uh most of us in the room having to use these systems, it is a benefit to all of us to uh maintain them. And not to not to mention the fact that the electronic system for the financial disclosure is required by law. And for it to fail would be uh hazardous for the entire county. Thank you. Thank you for making that point. Um I know um we looked at the um excuse me, the racial equity budget tool analysis and um and we've talked about this in the past as well, um, given the size of the staff and appreciate the efforts that are being made. Um one of the things I just want to lift up is I think from the um analysis was that um the racial equity um department feels like the uh the department's um efforts in this area are stagnant due to time constraints. Um, and are there ways that we can think about in the upcoming year to really move from stagnant to moving? It's a wonderful question. I will tell you that the the full breadth of RESJ's blurb in our uh budget uh packet notes that while we are a two-person operation, currently one I'm hiring for the second. We are both in past iterations and in future iterations, we are both going to be equity leads. We both uh will be uh facilitators for RESJ. I have offered to create trainings for RESJ. Uh we are a small engine, but we are uh doing our level best, and that has been recognized by RESJ. There are some issues that we are in continued talks with RESJ and how to strengthen our performance with their mission.