You know, we uh didn't bring it to the end.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

If we can get some quiet in the chambers, please.

Thank you, thank you.

When you're done, wonderful.

Allow me.

Councilmember Warren, Councilmember Harris, Councilmember Hanson, Councilmember Carr, Councilmember Jennings.

Councilmember Guerra.

Councilmember Schneer.

All right, can we all rise, please?

And I will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Ready to begin.

First is the adoption of the inclusive economic development framework, the mayor council budget priorities for fiscal year 2019-20.

Second is the uh adoption of the operating budget and the capital improvement program for the city, and third is the an audit of the Department of Utilities Vehicle Fleet file fleet issues.

This again, just for those who haven't been following this, following the passage of Measure U, I believe that this year's budget and subsequent budgets are so important to the city that we decided to constitute the budget and audit committee as the full city council.

And so whatever decisions are made today will actually go to this same body next week for uh a final adoption of the 2019-20 budget.

And that's how we intend to proceed.

I want to begin with file item one, which again is the uh proposed adoption of the inclusive economic development framework and the mayor council budget priorities, and I have been designated to uh to present this item as the mayor of the city.

So I I want to, and I'm gonna take a few minutes, hopefully not uh too many minutes, but I want to explain how it is we got here and the recommendations that uh I am making to the committee and ultimately the council this afternoon and next week.

I begin with this.

In February of uh this year, I gave my annual State of the City address at the Pennell Community Center in Meadowview.

And in that speech, I told a story about the late Nathaniel Collie, who was Sacramento's first African American lawyer.

And I told the story about how Sacramento, because of racially restricted covenants back in the 1950s and and beyond, and obviously prior to the 50s, was largely a segregated community.

I told the story of Nat Collie passing on his experience of what it took for an African American family to buy a home in segregated Southland Park in the 1950s.

His son Nat Jr.

told the B reporter that white friends of the Collie family agreed to act as the actual purchasers for the collies, since no one would sell to them directly.

When my mom would check on construction, Nat Jr.

said, she would let them think she was the maid.

After we moved in, there was a cross burning on the lawn, but it was a fairly quiet experience after that.

I told that story, and though our problems may not be as stark, I reflected on a report that came out from the Brookings Institution just last March.

Preceding that report in 2018, the Brooking Institutions institution, the nationally recognized uh foundation that studies economic development and the performance of cities.

In 2018, they published a study which said that Sacramento ranks 84th out of a hundred cities in income growth for low and moderate income residents.

This March, they updated their report.

While the nation's median income increased 1.5 percent, Sacramento's median income decreased 3.8 percent.

That single statistic, along with many other trends and statistics, capture why this budget debate has been so intense this year.

We aim as a city to change the direction of those numbers.

I want to explain the context of the mayor's budget memo.

This is not anything brand new or something I made up.

This is actually the fifth year that the mayor of Sacramento, and obviously it was preceded by Mayor Kevin Johnson, but this began in 2015 with council uh approval and acquiescence over the course of the last five years, where the mayor, as a citywide elected official, has the ability to lay out a framework in a city of prior and a and a statement of priorities.

And then it's obviously up to the public and the full city council then to take those recommendations and approve them up or down or to modify them in any way that the council sees fit.

This first item today is merely a continuation of the process that the City Council and the prior mayor put forward starting back in 2015.

I would like to take a moment to describe my approach and my recommendations in the letter and memorandum that I put out last Thursday to my colleagues and to the public.

First of all, I just want to say clearly, I removed nothing from the city manager's proposed budget.

No projects were removed from the city manager's budget, and none of the $10 million or so that the city manager proposed for police and fire for public safety services was removed from my set of recommendations.

They remain.

The memo reflects the emergent consensus through our intensive public process to set aside 40 million dollars a year for five years for neighborhood investments, for job creation, for affordable housing, for youth, for the creative economy, for small businesses, and for active transportation.

Not all, and this is an important point, not all of the 40 million dollars comes from the second half of measure U.

In fact, thanks to the city manager and the creativity of the finance staff, they have worked endlessly, and I want to say thank you again on a series of spreadsheets that allow, for example, the innovation and growth fund dollars to be put into the economic development fund so that there isn't such a stress on the second half of measure U.

But the commitment is 40 million dollars a year, and I believe that that is the correct number.

There is this year approximately $50 million of available resources for the council to consider to begin this drive towards investing in our neighborhoods in affordable housing and job creation and youth, what we call inclusive economic development.

Now, the city manager and his deputy, uh lead deputy, Michael Jasso, in charge of economic development, will soon appoint an investment committee of leaders in housing, in job creation, youth development, and in other sectors to help guide the city's investment strategies going forward.

The council has appointed a citizens advisory committee to do the same.

All decisions with extensive public input ultimately reside with the elected officials in this city council.

Like I did in February in the mid-year, I am recommending modest sums of immediate investments in our neighborhoods to achieve some demonstrable early wins.

Most are focused on neighborhoods, which have received little investment over the course of many decades.

Some have citywide application and benefit.

What is in the memo.

First of all, we seek to expand our very successful Sacramento Youth Pop-Up project, where we acknowledged six months ago we don't have nearly enough for our young people to do on Friday and Saturday nights.

And now with the partnership with Sierra Health Foundation and our other community partners, we're able to have 10 to 15 sites Fridays and Saturday nights so that young people, thousands, have good and safe places to be.