Budget and Audit Committee Meeting on Measure U Midyear Budget Priorities - January 4, 2022
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Budget and Audit Committee Meeting – January 4, 2022
The Budget and Audit Committee of the Sacramento City Council met on January 4, 2022, at 3:03 p.m. via teleconference to receive and discuss recommendations from the Measure U Community Advisory Committee regarding the Fiscal Year 2021/22 midyear budget. The committee received a presentation, heard public comment, and directed staff to schedule the item for full City Council consideration before the midyear budget discussion.
Measure U Community Advisory Committee Recommendations
Ash Roughani, Special Projects Manager, introduced committee member Lisa Prey, who presented the committee's midyear budget recommendations. The recommendations focused on using any surplus Measure U funds for:
- Affordable housing: Direct support such as rental assistance, down payment assistance, and gap funding for new affordable housing projects.
- Homelessness: Expanding the homeless housing initiative to include older children, youth aging out of foster care, veterans, and additional respite center and safe ground sites.
- Senior services: Expanding service hours, geographic dispersion, and language access for programs like the Heart Senior Center, Triple R, 50+ Wellness, and Caring Neighborhoods.
- Youth programs: Expanding K-12 programming to youth under 24, making services culturally relevant for Native American and Hmong communities, and creating a protected fund for children and youth.
- Branding: Creating a Measure U logo and branding to identify projects funded by Measure U, improving public awareness.
- Participatory budgeting and mapping: Using the city's Neighborhood Development Action Team (NDAT) to produce neighborhood-level reports on program placement and impact, ensuring funds reach underserved areas.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Lambert (representing “to the Bay and Back Cheesecakes”): Expressed concern that Measure U funds are not reaching underserved communities like Del Paso Heights. He urged that funds be prioritized for such neighborhoods and requested that the city produce surveys and graphs to confirm the distribution.
Discussion Items
- Councilmember Vang thanked the committee, asked about current Measure U branding efforts, and suggested mapping place-based investments in coordination with the racial equity ad hoc committee to avoid duplication. She recommended that the item be forwarded to the full City Council for discussion before the midyear budget.
- Councilmember Jennings praised the committee’s work, particularly the focus on underserved populations, and supported bringing the item to the full council.
- Staff (Leyne Milstein, Assistant City Manager) noted that some branding exists (e.g., signage at facilities, patches on uniforms) and that a scan of strictly Measure U-funded programs could be done. Staff also noted that a geographic mapping tool exists but does not currently show dollar spending; they would explore the feasibility with departments.
- Vice Chair Guerra suggested flexibility in scheduling the full council discussion, but Councilmember Vang and Jennings preferred to have it before the midyear budget to allow the full council to consider the recommendations. Staff agreed to bring the item to council prior to the midyear budget presentation.
Key Outcomes
- The committee received and filed the Measure U Community Advisory Committee recommendations (action: receive and file).
- The committee directed staff to schedule the item for full City Council consideration before the midyear budget discussion, which is planned for February 2022 (Budget and Audit Committee on February 1 or 8, and Council on February 8).
- No formal vote was taken; the decision was made by consensus.
- The meeting adjourned at 3:27 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Vice Chair Staff is ready when you are. Thank you, Madam Clerk. If the uh uh we're convening the budget and audit committee of the Sacramento City Council at 3 or 3 p.m. on January 4th 2022. Happy New Year, everybody. If the clerk can please call the roll. Thank you, Councilmember Jennings. I'm here, Madam Clerk. Council Member Vang present. Thank you. Vice Chair Geta. Here and happy new year. Thank you. And we expect Mayor Steinberg momentarily. Great. Thank you, uh, Madam Clerk. Uh, if uh uh we could all rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Salute, pledge. I pledge a leader allegiance to the fire of United States of America and the Republic for which one nation under God with liberty and justice for all thank you, everybody. Okay, Madam Clerk, our first item. Thank you, Chair. Our first item is Measure U Community Advisory Committee recommendations regarding fiscal year 2021-22 mid-year budget priorities. Good afternoon, council members. I'm Ash Ragani, Special Projects Manager in the City Manager's Office. As you know, the Measure U Community Advisory Committee was created in 2018 to ensure that measure U expenditures reflect community priorities. At the committee's November 15th meeting last year, they approved a set of mid-year budget recommendations for the current budget year. And this afternoon, we're joined by committee member Lisa Prey, who is going to present those recommendations to you. So much um Ash. And we have a number of recommendations in the event of excess um budget funds available. And I can either present these to you. I know you have in your packet a uh full copy of our letter, or I can simply answer your questions regarding this, whichever way you feel is more efficient for you. Uh Ms. Prey, if we're the uh for the public that's watching here, it would be helpful if you if you could highlight maybe the the priorities of your letter. I know it was only I think a couple pages long, so you made it simple for us, but that would be helpful. All right, very well. Um aware of is that there are um federal and state funds, uh recovery funds that are coming into the to the city, which we're so grateful for. Um, and we are hopeful that those will not be used to supplant um funding provided through measure uh you funds. We we hope that we find ways to use these recovery funds as a complement to what measure you is capable of doing for the city. So that's um the first part of this. Um we had a few subject areas that we covered um in our discussions. The first one is affordable housing, and we know that currently um measure you funds are being used to staff uh affordable housing city infrastructure, which we're grateful for. This is a critical positions that need to be staffed. If there are additional funds, we would hope that the funds would go toward more direct support for affordable housing through potentially um investments for um rental assistance, down payment assistance, or gap funding to build new affordable housing projects. So that's where we're hoping that we go with the affordable housing. Um, if indeed there are additional funds in the mid-year budget. We also address homelessness, which we know this is a major part. We're really pleased with the expenditures as are being used out of the current budget on that homeless issue. We recommend any surpluses be added to the allocation, the homeless housing initiative allocation to expand the service provision beyond just women and children under 14 to include older children, young adults aging out of the um out of the foster care system, uh veterans, and then add to um respite centers the budget we have now for respite centers to make those a little more geographically dispersed and safe ground spot sites as well. And then finally, if there are excess funds available, we um would like to see permanent supportive housing through Project Home Key or transitional housing. Um so we're hoping that any um excess funds would be supported by measure you um to do those kind of things. Uh regarding senior services, we know that um the measure measure you currently funds about 2.2 million for senior services.
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