The Budget Committee of the Whole met on August 27, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. to review the Community Services & Supports (CSS) Service Team’s proposed 2027 supplemental budget and associated performance measures. Presentations were delivered by four departments: Housing Stability, Financial Assistance Services (FAS), Workforce Solutions, and Veteran Services. Each department detailed key performance indicators, progress toward strategic goals, and challenges, particularly related to federal policy changes (HR1) and funding constraints. Commissioners posed questions on data trends, budget fluctuations, equity, and operational improvements. No formal votes were taken; the presentations informed upcoming budget decisions.
Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, and welcome to the budget committee of the whole. Today's focus would be on community services and support. On August 25th, County Manager Lean Becker provided an overview of the proposed supplemental budget. Today the community services and support service team kicks off a series of presentations that focus on performance measures for each department. The county performance measure process helps the county improve accountability to our community, understand the impact of budget investments, make data-informed decisions, and identify opportunities for improvement. Performance measures are already available for review online in an open performance section of the open of the county's open data quarter. If you want more information about the performance measures presented today, check out the community service and support department dashboard, which have additional charts and background information. And so with that, I'll hand it over to Deputy County Manager Karen Francois to start our community services and support presentations. Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Commissioners, County Manager Becker, those of you here in chambers, and those of you joining and watching remotely. Where are we seeing disparities? What can we do differently? And what are we getting the greatest possible value from the resources entrusted to us? Those questions matter in any budget environment, but they matter even more in the one we're in and the one we're entering. As we make difficult choices, we need to know what's working so we can protect it. We need to know what isn't working as well as it should so we can change it. And before our answer is simply to add more resources, we need to understand whether there are better ways to organize the work, simplify a process, use technology, eliminate duplication, or work differently across departments. And that's operational excellence. A good performance inf good performance information helps us get there. We've seen that very clearly in our recent work supporting residents affected by encampment closures. County teams have had to work across traditional departmental lines and bring financial assistance, housing, public health, social services, and other supports directly to residents. We've had to pay attention to what residents need, what is working, where are the gaps, and to be able to adjust quickly. That kind of response doesn't happen because a single program, because of a single program or a single department. It happens because we have been building a stronger culture around outcomes, continuous improvement, and resident centered service. There is also an important fiscal side to this. Performance measurement cannot simply be a tool for identifying where to reduce spending. It also needs to help us identify what we should protect. If an investment is producing meaningful results for residents, we should know that. Listen for the story behind the measure. What changed for residents? What did we learn? What are we doing differently because of what the data tells us? And what does that mean for where we put our resources going forward? Because ultimately, that's the purpose of this work. As county manager Becker noted on Tuesday, performance will help inform the next budget cycle and future decisions. Given the choices ahead of us, that connection between resources, performance, and results is going to become increasingly important. I also want to thank our department directors and their teams and our admin director and our controller and the office of the chief of staff as well as central finance, the executive team, and county manager Becker. It takes real work to develop meaningful measures, examine your own results, and then use what you've learned to improve. The fiscal challenges ahead are significant. But if we stay focused on what works, remain willing to change what doesn't, and keep residents at the center of those decisions, will be in a much stronger position to make the difficult choices ahead. And with that, I will turn it over to our departments to make their presentations. Thank you. Thank you. So Dr. Wilkins. So we will invite Director Wilkins up to the I don't know. It might be holy. It might be great. Welcome.