Charlie.

Good morning as opposed to afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the city council's budget and audit committee as we begin a month and more long discussion and deliberation of the city budget.

Would the clerk please call the role of the committee to establish a quorum?

Thank you.

Councilmember Talamantes.

Vice Mayor Gatta.

Here.

Mayor Potem Bang.

Here.

And Mayor Steinberg.

I am here.

Would everyone please rise for the opening acknowledgement?

Which I would be privileged to lead without objection.

All right.

To the original people of this land, the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu Valley, and Plains Mewalk, Paton Wintune peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the Native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples' history, contributions, and lives.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So, members, before I turn it over uh to the city manager to begin uh the presentation and the overview of uh the 2023-24 budget.

Let me uh just welcome all uh those who are watching and all those in the audience, including um the leaders of our city, um our our our city team, department heads and and uh people in various uh degrees of important responsibilities here in our city.

A budget is the value statement of the city, and as such, it probably is the most important thing we do as a city council throughout the course of a year.

I'll save my my uh substantive comments for a little bit later.

This is a little bit different.

Um, it's a little bit more austere, I think, than in the previous years, and yet uh there are always opportunities, and uh we approach that in that spirit in that light.

I turn it over to my partner uh in this endeavor to help lead this city, and that is the city manager Howard Chin.

Great.

Good morning, thank you, Mayor and members of the budget and audit committee.

Uh I'm pleased to be here today to present to you the proposed budget for the fiscal year 20 uh 2023-24.

Uh the proposed budget totals over 1.4 billion dollars at uh for operations and capital projects and is balanced.

Uh I'd like to first take this opportunity to thank all the city staff, many of whom you see are in the audience right now, who worked hard over the last several months to help uh analyze some data and compile the information such that we have this proposed budget before you.

You know, they have really been uh the key to pulling this all together and synthesizing all the information from the departments, and of course, out of my office, Lenny Millstein, uh assistant city manager.

Uh well, you know, we've talked about this uh at length over the last year or so, but we're we're now just coming out of the uh the pandemic pandemic and we're recovering.

Uh and overall, we fared very well.

And you've heard the mayor say that uh, and and I agree, we've uh you know, we've been so fortunate to have received over 200 million dollars in federal aid in the form of coronavirus relief fund, uh, the American Rescue Plan um Act, uh over 200 million dollars to help us weather the storm here, and we're finally at and and heap and happen, which continues uh from the state uh beyond this.

Uh revenues have returned to uh pre-pandemic levels for the most part in some areas, but what we're seeing is that the revenue growth is slowing and it's stabilizing, and that's largely due to you know interest rate hikes and inflation.

Uh you know, the uh this will continue to challenge our capacity to deliver programs and services in the future, provided we don't have additional revenues coming in, uh, whether it's from the feds or from the state.

Uh in addition, all of the city's labor agreements are coming due this calendar year.

Uh and as I've stated previously, and this council has wholeheartedly supported, we need to clearly demonstrate that we value our employees and the employees who are responsible for delivering the vital services the residents expect of us.

Uh valuing our employees and bolstering core services will also help with the ongoing, it's just uh it's been a real challenge with recruitment and retention.

I do believe that through the negotiations process that we're undergoing now, uh, we'll be able to achieve a better outcome.

Uh lastly, uh we continue to implement the city-county partnership agreement born out of measure O in our efforts to ensure the unhoused residents have access to services and shelter.

Mayor, thank you for your partnership in helping us get that agreement over across the finish line.

It was a lot of hard work, and uh, I think it's uh paying huge dividends.

Uh key to those efforts are identifying and utilizing the partners best suited to provide uh the much mediated needed comprehensive wraparound services to address homelessness.

I look forward to continuing to work with our council, our county partners, and the community to tackle this very complex issue.

Uh and so with that said, there's a lot to cover today and in the weeks ahead as we bring the proposed budget back to the council for final approval in June.

Uh I'll now hand this off to Mirthala, who will continue with the overview of the presentation.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Howard.

Good morning.

My name is Mrthal Santizo, and I'm the budget manager, and I will walk you through the fiscal 24 proposed budget.

If it's fine with the committee, I will present both items two and three together as they are related.

Okay.

The proposed operating and capital budget was released on May 1st and is available on the city's website.

This is an with all, I'm sorry, I think we probably need you to move to the podium.

Is this on?

Uh won't go any lower.