I don't know the answer to that.

Sure.

Okay.

So I'd like to call this meeting in order at 2 or 3 p.m.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Here.

Councilmember Dickinson?

Here.

Vice Mayor Telemontes?

Here.

Councilmember Plucky Baum?

Here.

Councilmember Maple?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Gera.

Councilmember Jennings.

Here.

Councilmember Ving?

Here.

Mayor McCarty?

Vice Mayor, we have a quorum.

Wonderful.

Uh, Councilmember Dickinson, we please lead us in the land acknowledgement and pledge of allegiance.

Please rise if you would and are able.

This is the opening acknowledgement in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands to the original people of this land, the Nissanam people, the Southern Maidu, the Valley and Plains Miwok, the Hampton Winton peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federal federally recognized tribe.

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

Thank you.

And now if you would join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, moving along.

Uh we had no closed session, so there is no closed session report to for the city attorney's office and uh consent calendar.

We have members of the dias that would like to speak on any item.

Councilmember Kaplan, what item?

Uh comment on item two and a question on item nine.

Anyone else?

Seeing none.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Um, I am really excited on the consent item.

It's establishing the capital improvement project and putting money aside for the shore Vista Way overcrossing traffic signal.

It might not seem like a lot, but if you've ever been in my district, the North Lake area is isolated, and the only exit is really Elkhorn.

This is the start of building the bridge within the community to connect it from over 99 from community community.

So I am really excited to see that this is one step closer, and I really want to thank staff for going above and beyond on this project uh for putting in the capital improvement project.

And then on item nine, do we have somebody who can come on up and and answer a question for me?

This is uh a grant agreement for the state homeland security grant program, importance of connectivity.

Um for coming up.

Um I just want to clarify and make sure while this is a minor grant and it's uh to help with drones that it does say homeland security, uh, that none of the information gathered will be shared with ice.

Okay, so nothing shared, data is secure.

We don't have to worry about that.

Yeah, there's no requirements within the grant um application that requires that.

Okay, perfect.

I just wanted to make sure that that was clear and on the record.

I appreciate it.

Okay, thank you.

Umor, I'll move the consent.

Second.

There's a second with Councilmember Dickinson.

Uh all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

No.

Abstentions, uh, one abstention.

Mayor.

Okay.

Moving along to public hearings.

Item number 14, the enclave at Airport Road in my district.

All right.

Good afternoon to the Vice Mayor.

I'm so sorry, I forgot.

Was there any public comment on the consent calendar?

Okay, none.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

All right, good afternoon, Vice Mayor and fellow members of the city council.

My name is Zach Dalla, senior planner with the community development department.

The item before you is the enclave at Airport Road project, uh, which is to construct 32 uh detached single unit dwellings on a two acre site um northeast of the intersection of Airport Road and uh Tanzanite Avenue in North Natomas.

Um to facilitate the development, the project requests the approval of a development agreement, a reason of the site from R1A to R1A PUD zone, a PUD schematic plan and guidelines amendment to add the project to the Natomas Crossing Area 2 PUD, and to establish development standards specific to the development.

A tentative subdivision said a tentative map to subdivide the site into 32 lots and eight common lots and site plan design review for the construction of the development.

As outlined in the staff report, staff finds the proposed project integrates well with the surrounding environment, is appropriately scaled in heightened massing, and provides quality architectural design compatible with the adjacent residential neighborhoods.

Uh the planning and design commission heard the project at the January 22nd, 2026 meeting and forwards a unanimous recommendation of approval consistent with staff's recommendation.

Uh this concludes my presentation.

Staff's happy to answer any questions, and the applicant team is here as well.

Thank you.

Okay, so I'd like to move to open the public hearing.

Second for that.

Second.

Okay, second for that.

Um, and then public comment on this item.

No public comments for this.

No public comments on this.

Okay.

Um, well, as a council member representing this district, I'm supportive of the project.

We need more infill development and excited to have the land be utilized and not just have it be empty.

So uh thank you so much for working with me and the community and making sure that everyone felt heard and happy to close the public hearing and move this item.

Okay, and then we'll do a roll call vote for this one.

Okay, since it's a planning project.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Aye.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Telemontes.

Aye.

Councilmember Plucky Baum?

Councilmember Maple.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tum Gera?

Aye.

Councilmember Jennings?

Yes.

Councilmember Vang?

Yes.

Uh Mayor McCarty is absent.

So the public hearing passes with all yeses except for the one absence.

Okay.

And moving along to item 15, Delta Shores Finance Plan Development Impact Fee Udate.

Can you open this before starting?

I'd like to open the public hearing.

Uh good afternoon, uh, Vice Mayor Telemantes and members of council.

This item before you, uh, this item before you is to open the public hearing for the Delta Shores Finance Plan and Delta Developmental Impact Fee update.

Uh, my name is Jessica Steinhairam with the finance department.

In 2019, council approved the Delta Shores, the current Delta Shores finance plan and established an associated Delta Shores impact fee.

The finance plan is required to be updated periodically as more recent costs, funding, and land use data becomes available.

The current update reflects land revised land use assumptions, additional fee funded infrastructure, and updated costs compared to the existing finance plan.

These revisions result in an overall fee increase across the residential land uses that will be subject to the Delta Shores impact fee.

In addition, a sub-area in Delta Shores that was previously referred to as Stone Boswell in the finance plan and city code is now referred to as Stone Beatland.

Therefore, the city code should be updated to reflect this change and stay consistent with the updated finance plan.

No other changes to city code are being made.

Staff's recommendation is to open the public hearing and upon conclusion pass the motion and adopt the resolution and ordinance included with this item.

City staff and our consultant um EPS are here to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you.

Clerk, is there any public comment on this item?

No public comment.

Okay, moving on.

Councilmember Bang.

Um, I like to close this item and move the item uh for uh for our vote, and I support the project.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

And Councilmember Dickinson.

Thank you.

Um I just had one question, and uh in the body of the of the report, and um just looking for the reference now.

Um it says that certain uh items will not be included in the Delta Shores infrastructure plan, but but will be the obligation of um uh of the developer of Stone Beatland.

And I just wanted to confirm that that there is a funding mechanism for those those improvements as well.

Uh there is what it what and what is the is there a separate fund than the or Melarus district that that covers that?

There's the there's two sub-areas, the Delta Shore sub-area and the Stone Beatland sub-area impact fee.

So there's a there's a separate account for those things that are being uh not covered by the the Delta Shores infrastructure finance.

There could be.

I'm sorry, I couldn't quite they could use a Melarus CFD to finance those improvements.

They could use developer equity.

It's just not included in the impact fee program.

But they are obligated otherwise to cover those whatever vehicle they they choose, but that vehicle doesn't yet exist, it sounds like well, if developer equity is used, then it could exist currently, yes.

But yeah, it's not uh they don't have a CFD out there at this time.

Um, but it just is not included in the fee program.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

Okay.

And Eric, will you introduce yourself that way just in case we have to do that?

Eric Frederick with finance as well.

Thank you.

Like you have a nice title.

So okay.

Okay.

Council.

Thank you.

Okay.

Wonderful.

So we have a motion and a second.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

No's and one uh absent.

Motion passes, or I'm sorry, the public hearing passes with just one absence, Mayor McCurdy.

Okay.

Moving along to the SHRA item, item number 16, 2027 Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment One Year Action Plan Federal Programs Allocation Process Workshop.

Welcome.

Okay, good afternoon.

My name is Stephanie Green.

I'm the Federal Programs Manager at SHRA.

Today's presentation is the first workshop for the City of Sacramento's 2027 annual action plan for their federal entitlement grant programs administered on their behalf by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, or SHRA.

The purpose of today's workshop will be to provide information on the federal programs and their requirements, and to provide an opportunity for project ideas and feedback.

I'll start by providing an overview of the grants and their objectives.

I'll share some estimated funding amounts for 2027, the anticipated allocations by program, examples of past projects we've approved, and then lastly, we'll discuss the process and the schedule moving forward.

So as a high level overview, SHRA has been delegated authority by the city council to administer the formula program grants received from HUD on their behalf.

These grants include community development block grant or CDBG, home investment partnership program or home, emergency solutions block grant or ESG, and housing opportunities for persons with AIDS or HOPWA.

CDBG can use be used for a wide range of activities, which I'll touch on a bit later.

Home is used to create, rehabilitate, or maintain affordable housing for low-income families.

ESG can be used for street outreach, emergency shelter, rapid rehousing, or homelessness prevention.

HOPA is used for housing and supportive services that benefit low income persons living with HIV or AIDS and their families.

And these are all entitlement grants, meaning that HUD uses a formula to determine how much the city will get each year for each or how much I'm sorry, each jurisdiction gets, so how much the city will get each year.

And as part of accepting these grants, um there are certain actions that HUD will require us to take.

The consolidated plan identifies objectives for the best use of the grant funds and the activities that we fund in the action plan need to align with those objectives.

So this slide shows the objectives developed during that last consolidated planning process.

And overall, these objectives help to create ladders of opportunity for our low and moderate income residents through the following avenues affordable housing, public facilities and infrastructure improvements, as well as public services and fair housing.

For community development block grant, in addition to meeting consolidated plan objectives, we also need to make sure that the projects we fund also meet a HUD national objective.

The m vast majority of CDBG expenditures meet a national objective of being an activity that benefits low to moderate income persons, uh which is generally accomplished three ways.

First, it could be an activity that benefits all residents in a low to moderate income area.

Um so this means it needs to be in a location that's primarily residential, and at least 51% of the residents in that area need to be low to moderate income.

So this, for an example, would be an infrastructure project, uh like a park project in a low to moderate income area.

Secondly, we could provide funding to low to moderate income clientele, which would be individuals or households at or below 80% area median income.

So this, for example, would be homeless shelters or meals on wheels.

And lastly, low to moderate low to moderate income housing would be another national objective.

So this would be a project that helps provide housing to low to moderate income households at or below 80% AMI.

So this is usually provided in the form of gap financing for affordable housing rehab projects.

And finally, in addition to meeting a con plan objective and a national objective, CDBG projects must be an eligible activity.

So this is where we get to what projects are eligible for CDBG.

So the broad categories of major eligible activities include public facilities and infrastructure.

So these could be your community centers, playgrounds, ADA curb ramps, pedestrian improvement, street lights, community gardens, those sort of things.

Public services, so this could be meals on wheels, shelter operations, public services at housing developments, acquisitions.

So this could be acquisition of a property for a public facility or housing.

Clearance and remediation.

This could be for an affordable housing site that may have some toxic remediation that needs to be cleaned up.

Homeownership assistance and planning administration or staff costs and environmental studies.

So for example, we can't pay to renovate city hall, operating and maintenance expenses, purchase of equipment and furnishings, new housing construction, so we can do rehab, but we can't do new construction, political and religious activities, regional parks and facilities.

So this is regional being the key word here.

We can do parks and facilities, but they need to be more at a local impact, not regional.

And supplanting of funds is on there as well.

That's not really an activity, but I did want to mention it.

You can't substitute available funding for CDBG to free up for another use.

And then before I move on to the next few slides, I also want to note there are some other things we have to take into consideration when evaluating projects to include an action plan.

And one of the more important factors here is project readiness.

We have an obligation for HUD to HUD to spend down funds in a timely manner, meaning we need to see projects spend funds usually within 12 to 18 months.

So we need to have projects that are ready to go and ready to spend those funds down.

So this slide shows the estimated 2027 funding entitlements for the city.

We typically receive our final approved amount from HUD in the spring or summer of each year.

So for planning purposes, we base this estimate on our most recently approved entitlement amount.

Just recently, they did finally approve our the 2026 HUD budget, and thankfully all of the grants were fully funded at the full HUD budget, the full budget.

So we are hopeful that 2027 will also remain at the steady level.

So for 2027, we're estimating we will get 4.6 million in CDBG, about 2.1 million in home, 400,000 for ESG, 2.1 million for HOPWA, so overall about 9.2 million for these programs.

For CDBG, the annual entitlement is divided up among several categories that align with our COM plan objectives.

And for estimating purposes, we allocate the maximum allowable for both public services and admin, and then work backwards from there to determine how much is available for the other categories.

So we're allowed to allocate a maximum of 15% to public services, so this will be about 690,000.

And for the past two years, we've included public services at Capital Park Hotel and Meals on Wheels, so that's what we've been allocating that towards.

A maximum of 20% to planning and admin, so this is 920,000, and this is used to pay staffing and admin fees as well as planning activities, and also for fair housing, which is our renters helpline and project Sentinel.

1.2 million will be required this year for our HUD loan repayment, so that's our repayment of the Section 108 loan for Marisol Village.

And then that leaves 1 million for infrastructure and public facility improvements and about 690,000 for housing development, which again goes towards multifamily rehab, and also our homeowner repair programs.

The last category is capital reserve, and this is a contingency bucket for which we've reserved 100,000.

So this is just an example of some types of infrastructure projects.

We've funded in the past with CDBG over the past five years.

It's organized here by district.

I won't read through each individual project, but as you can see, this represents quite a breadth of investments in projects and the types of projects that we typically fund.

You'll also see here some districts have more projects than others.

This is generally because projects must be located again in an eligible low mod area, and some districts have larger eligible areas than others.

This next slide is districts four and five, which includes 88 restrooms, street improvements, a light study, site remediation, park improvements, walkways, and some other projects as well.

And in this one, you can see there are some projects that span multiple districts.

For example, on this slide, there's Broadway Complete Streets in both districts four and seven.

And then this slide is district six through eight, which includes street and park improvements, including a park restroom and fitness equipment.

And I don't have a total number on this slide, but this represents over 10 million in CDBG investment towards infrastructure improvements over the last five years.

So this final slide outlines our process moving forward to identify projects for the action plan.

We have already initiated the process with city staff to start thinking about the projects.

This is our first workshop at City Council, and then through May, we'll continue to meet with city staff to identify projects for and review them for eligibility.

In June, we head back to city council with a draft list of projects to present at the second workshop.

And then in June through August, we'll continue to meet with city staff as needed to finalize these projects.

And the action plan budget needs to be completed in August, so that we were so we are requesting that any final project ideas be submitted by the end of July.

The final action plan will be presented at City Council in October, and then we submit our final action plan to HUD after it's approved.

This concludes my presentation.

Once again, we welcome any input you have for the action plan project ideas either now or you can reach out to us anytime.

Thank you for your time, and I'm open to any questions.

Thank you so much.

Do we have a public comment on this item?

No public comment on this item.

Okay.

First step, we have Councilmember Dickinson.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, I have uh questions in a couple areas.

One, first of all, with respect to the ESG funds, um, which are rather small in com in comparison to the need, certainly.

What can you describe what is being done uh using that money for um prevention purposes?

And what I mean by that is um preventing people from becoming homeless.

So I'm not talking about rapid rehousing or the other uh elements, but can you can you go into depth a little bit more on that?

So ESG, we actually are allocating all of it right now in the city to the rapid rehousing component, so we can allocate um up to I think it's um 60 percent for uh rapid rehous or 60 percent for shelters, the rest for rapid rehousing.

Um but since we're not allocating any to shelters at this time, it is currently all going to the rapid rehousing component.

So no additional towards prevention besides rapid rehousing.

So is it is it correct to say now that SHRA is is not uh dedicating any money to rental assistance or other prevention activities, or are there other sources that that the agency is putting into those kinds of activities?

So I think as part of the rapid rehousing program, there are some prevention activities that are part of that.

Um I would have to get uh more details from you from that scope of work and I can provide that information.

Um we are going to be doing a um uh a new um RFP this year for our rapid rehousing component, um, so we can potentially include some more prevention requirements as part of that scope if that's something that you're interested in.

So as you go through developing the plan as you outlined your schedule, um I as one member of the council would be interested in seeing more emphasis on on the prevention side on uh helping people stay in housing they're in rather than up in the street and uh even for a minimum, a minimal period of time and and becoming candidates for rapid.

There's nothing wrong with rapid rehousing, but if we can keep people from being in that position in the first place, it seems to me that that that would be important to do.

So maybe as you go through the the plan development, you can dig into that a little bit and can consider that that aspect.

I I'd uh I I certainly would appreciate that.

Um I'd also appreciate as you go through the planning uh what uh what the the ESG program in particular uh uh augments or supplements or what else what else uh it's connected to.

Um are there other sources of funding, for example, for what uh um ESG is is going to that make a bigger whole than just the the 400,000.

The other the other thing I wanted to ask about and give me a minute, it goes to um it goes to your if I get this thing to move uh schedule that you that you laid out in one of your your slide on uh hang on the end process the the it goes to the slide I thought was in a slide there it is okay CDBG activity and uh it shows 920,000 going to planning and administration.

My first question is uh does the planning uh element on that line uh item uh correlate to the planning activities that you showed in the chart for for C D BG where you said some things were some projects you were paid for, just the planning was paid for, or is this a different planning that's going on?

That's a great question.

Um yes, so if if CDBG if if uh we get a request to use CDBG just for a planning activity and it will not result in an actual infrastructure project, then yes, it has to go under that planning and admin category.

If we can guarantee that it will result in an actual project, then we can put it under the infrastructure category, um, but we have to be able to guarantee that it actually will result in a project because we have to um have that end result in order to categorize it as that.

So then on your chart where you showed the CDBG projects, if it said planning only, that came from that line item.

Yes, so we don't generally um anticipate many planning action planning only projects for CDBG because we don't generally get too many requests, um, but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't entertain you know, a request for a planning only activity.

And I'm not on counselor Dickinson.

That that's just our the maximum we can spend in that category at this point as the plan evolves, whether we'll see if we get any planning activities, standing alone, you know, alone activities that need to be in that category, we'll bring it forward to you.

But right now for planning purposes, we just do the maximum.

Okay, so um looking back now at the chart.

So for uh as an example, in 2022, it says would like park design.

Would that at that time have come from this line item of planning or or is planning something so uh so sometimes um if we know a project is going to go after design and engineering and then we'll later come back and also want funding to actually implement the construction of the project, um we may um not fund the entire design engineering and construction all at once because again we want to spend down these funds quickly, so we don't want to set aside all that money at one time, but we know that it will eventually result in an actual project.

So in that case, we would fund it under the infrastructure and public facilities improvement category because we know they will come back at a later time and either finish the project or request C D BG to do the actual construction.

So it is actually likely that for the design and engineering component, we funded that under infrastructure and public facilities.

Um there are other there's very few that I think we've actually funded under the planning.

Um I think there was like a um a lighting study that we maybe did.

Um usually there are studies uh that we'll fund under the um planning activity.

So uh what is the what is the split on that light item between planning and administration?

How much goes to planning and how much goes to administration?

It really just depends.

So the planning again, uh we we categorize it as planning at admin because it's sort of a catch-all.

If somebody does come to us and wants to do a planning or a study activity, it will go under that category.

Most of that's admin.

Um we do have, you know, if we have a consultant, you know, we that we want to use for something, we'll have them under that category, but I would say most of that is administration.

And fair housing is the fair housing company.

That's a big chunk of the money.

Yeah.

So uh as you again uh go through your process and come back, can you can you uh subdivide this money so we know that yes, absolutely.

I uh uh you know I think uh well again I won't speak for anyone else, only myself.

I I would hope that we would minimize to the extent possible the money going to administration and maximize the money that's going into projects planning and construction of projects.

So it would be helpful to know what that what that's that's uh subdivision is of that of that line item.

And and I hope as you go through the process again that you'll you'll bear that in mind that what we want to do is deliver projects.

We don't get much CDBG, frankly.

We're getting the same the city is getting the same amount of C D BG as it was 20 years ago, which means it's getting a lot less due to inflation.

So every uh literally every dollar of this money is precious.

Uh and um my interest uh uh is seeing as much as possible get into things that improve and help communities and neighbor neighborhoods.

So that's one area that caught my eye.

And uh so I'll look for more information on that as you as you go through your process and come back to us.

Uh thanks, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Captain.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I want to echo Ditto on what council member Dickinson said, especially.

I I think we need to really start looking into more of investing in helping people stay in their housing.

Um we know and studies show that it costs significantly more when they're on the streets.

So I think we have to do a balance and not having any money going into keeping people into housing as we saw the benefit during COVID and the pandemic.

Um I think we're missing opportunities.

So what that could potentially look like would be good to see, as well as uh the breakdown on the administration.

And then I just uh want to echo my strong support for uh CDBG funds that are going to Robla community park, uh the planning stage, and then now uh funding the the construction of the restrooms that that community park has been waiting almost 20 years for.

Um thank you.

I've been asking that since the beginning.

So, you know, persistence and consistency matters, and it's good to see that on it, and I'm supportive of that.

So thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, when I first got here to the dais, I drove around my district and wrote down all the projects that I think could potentially be C D BG funding.

And I know I submitted a list of like 18 items, and you went through and you said, yes, this is eligible.

No, this is not eligible, and you went through, and you really helped me uh narrow it down um to see what could be funded.

So I just want to thank you for your work on that.

And I just want to thank you for your work on this and being fair to all of us, you know, looking out the all the districts and looking at the need and you know, using our funding through an equity tool like lens is so important, and I just want to thank you for being fair and to for like considering all our requests going through and seeing what the need is and really delivering with dollars.

So thank you for your work.

Councilmember Guerrett.

Uh thank you again.

Uh you know, uh one point I want to uh thank staff for looking at was particularly how to the concern that uh council member Dickinson brought it how do we maximize more over administration?

And I brought up the issue of uh of bathrooms and how we can do that, and I'm glad that we're doing a good chunk of those.

Earl Warren Park uh as well.

I mean, that one is has been um in its condition since it was built in the 50s, and uh so I think the the upgrade on that is is critical.

Also want to uh uh uh thank for uh putting in their Danny Nunn Park for folks that remember Glenn Elders and the Glend Elders community is built at a time when red aligning was a significant issue, and so that community has had uh a lack of investment um uh for many decades until I think council member uh mccarty at that time helped secure some funding for the Georgetown Community Center in that area, and now um I think with uh the improvements to Danny Nunn Park for the seniors, uh I think that's gonna be important uh upgrades there.

Um I wanted to clarify also here um on the the Hopwa funds.

Um is it uh is the Sunburst project um eligible for uh for that funding there to support uh individuals who have HIV and AIDS?

Yes, and we do fund the Sunburst project.

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

And then finally, um on the other question I had was on the um you know the renters help uh helpline.

Where are uh where are we in funding and in the capacity level?

We had you know there was a time when it was part of self-help housing that obviously fell through.

We funded self-help housing and put after their um uh their disillusion, then SHRA took it over, and I think we've been trying to expand that and make it more robust.

Uh what's the status of the renters help uh uh yeah?

So 211 took that over.

Um so 211 is managing the renters helpline now, and as far as they they submit regular quarterly reports, um, and they've been doing as far as I can tell a wonderful job.

Um, they've been um really eager to take that project on.

Um, and uh they they seem to be really involved in the process.

Um they're eager to report out on the you know their goals and their accomplishments, and they're always providing um information on additional ways that they can improve um the work that they do.

Um so uh it seems to be going really well.

In this funding allocation, or is there are there funds or eligible funds that we could move to support that even more so because some of the challenges that we've had is to prevent people from falling into eviction or getting an unlawful detainer or um or just you know knowing their own rights, um you know if we're trying to prevent homelessness, educating folks and getting them to resolve problems sooner will help us and address some of those challenges.

Are there funds additional funds that can be moved to say maybe make that more robust so that we can support that effort countywide?

Uh so we do fund it, it is funded under our grant planning and admin, so we would have to um see what what we would move around to fund that.

So for a future follow-up, what I'd like to maybe understand um is um uh what's the what's the demand and what's the capacity and and if there is an ability to to do that.

And I and I've spoken to a number of the obviously we have the nonprofit affordable housing folks and also the on the market rate um apartment multifamily housing folks uh who want to make sure that they're they're all working to increase education so that we can avoid any uh any any disruption when renters are falling into situations.

And the my understanding is the demand has been increasing, they have got been getting more calls.

Um and if you are interested, we do like I said, we do get quarterly reports from them.

So if you are interested in seeing those, you know, we could connect you with them and we can you could send them to me that would that would be fine.

Um, and I appreciate that.

So thank you, uh Mr.

Mayor.

And um uh, you know, that those are just my comments for now.

I appreciate the uh the the work that's been done and uh so far with the dollars that we have.

Okay, thank you.

This was not a uh voting item uh receive file and provide direction, ask questions, which we did.

Thank you for your presentation.

Next item we have item 17, the early budget work session and budget context and balancing scenarios.

So good afternoon, mayor, council members.

Oh, sorry.

Let me get started.

Thank you for um so I just want to thank everybody for being here today.

I want to first begin by acknowledging our staff, uh the finance team, budget team, department directors, and um all the staff who had a hand in today's um curating this this budget presentation and the presentations moving forward.

Uh so typically these discussions would not be brought to you until May.

Um, but it's my purpose and my plan to make certain that we begin these discussions early so we can have some meaningful and strategic conversations around the budget.

I want to be able to align this budget with your priorities, incorporate your feedback, and also include the public's feedback as well as I begin to curate uh a proposed balanced budget for you.

Um today's discussion is only around the current state, and it's to provide an overview and some direction to staff as we start to develop some reductions.

So again, these next few weeks are designed to be workshop driven.

This is not the city manager's proposed budget.

So I want to say that again, it is not the city manager's proposed budget.

Um, this is your biggest priority, and it is important that each of you provide some feedback to me so I can move forward in the direction you would like to see the city go under the circumstances that we are in.

There are going to be some trade-offs.

We all know that.

Um some of the trade-offs will be difficult, but um, with your guidance in your direction, we're hoping that I'm able to present you something that uh not only you but their residents and the community uh can be able to agree with as we work ourselves out of this budget deficit.

So Pete, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to you.

Thank you, City Manager, and uh good afternoon, Mayor, Council members, members of the public.

I'm Pete Coletto, the city's finance director.

Joining me at the podium is Mirthala Santizo, the city's budget manager.

And as the city manager mentioned, we are doing things a little bit differently this year.

Um so throughout the month of March, we're having these early budget work sessions.

Again, uh just echoing the city manager's comments.

These aren't decisions, these are to begin a robust conversation so that council can have a very focused uh budget hearings in May and then ultimately adopt a balanced budget.

Um, we we heard from council uh, you know, you while you love the departmental presentations the last couple of years.

Uh, this year we want them to be much more uh budget focused and much more focused on the impacts of budget balancing strategies.

So uh before you is the schedule for the early budget work sessions.

Again, today we're just looking at the context of our current budget.

We're not real, we're gonna look at some alternative scenarios, but we're not really going to be discussing any budget balancing strategies in the presentation today.

Um next week, we will outline the overview, what I would call the baseline uh budget balancing, and then you'll hear from each of the departments on uh what the impacts would be to their operations of the strategies contained in the baseline.

Uh so again, just to set some general context, uh our current year budget budget is 1.7 billion dollars uh for all funds.

We it supports uh just under 5,000 full-time equivalent positions.

Uh we closed a 62 million dollar funding gap to balance this year's budget.

Uh the city's general fund is just over 872 million dollars.

Again, this is where uh council has the most discretion.

So not total discretion in the general fund, but is the most discretionary fund.

Um, and the city has over 300 active funds.

You know, how is our budget structured?

Well, first it's structured by fund.

Uh, you know, as I mentioned, that different funds have different restrictions on them.

Uh, within the funds, there are departments.

Uh, within the departments, there are spending categories.

These are these are things like salary and benefits, services and supplies, property, things like that.

And then under that is a the account level.

So office supplies, uh, pension payments, salary payments, things like that.

Uh we kind of group our funds into these broad categories.

So, you know, the general fund is general government operations.

This is the 872 and a half million dollars.

Uh, enterprise funds are uh they're they operate like businesses.

So when you park in a parking garage, uh you are paying into the parking fund, and that fund can only be used for parking operations.

Uh, the same with water, weight uh solid waste, storm drainage, et cetera.

Uh, internal service funds are funds where uh we bill city departments for services rendered, so these are things like fleet and risk management.

Um, and then the other restricted funds generally have a specific revenue stream, so uh like development fee funds, uh, the library parcel tax, which voters approved last year, uh, or the children's funds, things like that.

And uh speaking of the children's fund, I promised a children's fund update.

Um, you know, we've had some discussion since our mid-year financial update uh with those lower cannabis tax revenues.

Hey, what is the children's fund looking like?

Are we going to be able to meet our obligations from that first round of funding that council approved?

Uh, as I alluded to uh last week, that answer is yes, uh, but here are the numbers behind it.

Uh you know, really we uh we had collected over a year's worth of tax receipts before council even made that first round.

It was two years, yeah, before council made that um first round of allocations, and even with the lower projected revenues, uh, we are we are projecting to be well in excess of our needs for the first round of allocations.

Uh, we've had some discussion at council around you know, do we want to put some policies in place because it's really you know, this is a somewhat volatile revenue source, and it really hurts uh our community-based organizations if kind of midway through a program we have to cut their funding.

And so, you know, our recommendation is that when we get when we're preparing to come back with round two, uh, that prior to council allocating those funds, uh, we bring forward some options for council to consider.

And these could be things like a minimum fund balance or only allocating out a certain percentage of projected revenues just to give some buffer in case of volatility.

Uh and you know, when we look at uh how our 1.7 billion, how is that broken down by fund?

Uh, you can see you know, the general fund is the largest, uh, the enterprise funds are significant, and some of our bigger departments, like the Department of Utilities, uh, you know, they live entirely in the enterprise funds, they're not in the general fund.

So, what we've been discussing this year as we began the budget process are our fiscal challenges.

So, the most immediate one is we need to balance a budget year.

That's a charter mandate.

Um, in the near term, we're in what we call a structural deficit.

We've been talking about this over the past couple of years, where there's a fundamental imbalance with our expenses growing faster than our revenues, and so we want to um we need to ultimately solve that in an environment where we have risks to our federal funding and and the economy.

Um, and over the long term, we have significant unfunded pension liabilities and capital needs.

Uh so this is again a reminder this is the mid-year financial forecast uh of our structural deficit.

Uh, as I always say when I put up this chart, we are not gonna be uh in a 102 million dollar deficit in fiscal year 30 because between now and fiscal year 30, council is going to take actions with ongoing balancing strategies that will improve the out years of this forecast.

Um, and again, this incorporates what we had on the table uh with some of our labor unions who we're in negotiations with at mid-year.

Um, so there's there's some risk around what finalizing agreements would be, and we'll talk about that in a little bit.

One of the questions we get a lot is well, how do we have a deficit if we're not in a recession?

And uh, you know, there are a lot of causes uh to why we find ourselves in a situation that we're in.

And again, we're not alone.

This is something we see up and down the state with our peer cities, uh, and some of the causes are very similar.

Um, you know, we have new spending commitments, and these are really in reaction to community needs and demands.

Um, the biggest is homelessness, which we'll talk more about in a minute, uh, but also the voters approve the children's fund, which moves monies from the general fund to the children's fund.

Uh there are also things that we can't control, these bigger macroeconomic factors.

Um, you know, the biggest one is inflation, and we've been talking about that over the past couple of years.

Not only does that cause all of our costs to increase, uh, but we see what it does to sales tax, which is one of our major revenue sources.

You know, it tends to flatten out sales tax uh as people tighten their belts to deal with inflation, and we're really um experiencing that.

And then we have other costs, right?

So our labor increases are related to inflation, our employees are experiencing inflation, our retirement liabilities, and uh you know, another big one is the reduction in our state funding for homelessness through the HAP program.

We've seen that go down, and and we'll show that in a second.

So uh the short answer, I gave you guys the long answer.

The short answer is we're doing more things, and everything we're doing is more expensive, and our revenues aren't keeping up.

Uh so uh this slide is really showing the changing in the structure of our homelessness services funding.

Uh this is these are our sheltering programs.

And if we go back in the time machine to fiscal year 23-24, uh, we were only putting in 12 and a half million dollars of general fund.

Uh yeah, that blue box is state HAP funding, and that gray box, the other funding, it's other things like whole person care, uh ARPA savings and things like that.

Uh but we come back into fiscal year 25-26.

You can see we had that big reduction in our HAP funding in fiscal year 26-27.

There's uncertainty on when we'll receive HAP funding and how much we might receive.

So we didn't include that in the forecast.

We'll have more updates for that later about that as we learn more throughout the budget process, but you can really see how our general fund commitments have uh grown over the past three years.

And I'll pass it off to Mirthala to talk about this year's budget.

Okay, thank you, Pete.

Um, so for the next several uh slides, we will just be going over the breakdown of fiscal year's 26 budget and revenues.

Um this chart here shows us the fiscal year 26 approved budget and the breakdown of the general fund departments.

It should not be a surprise that our public safety departments, fire and police have the two largest appropriations.

Uh, what you don't see here is our two other larger departments, public works and utilities, and that is because they rely mostly on other funds.

Um, while we do see public works has a small amount, you can also see that utilities doesn't have any general fund appropriations.

But this is our breakdown for all the different departments.

This next chart shows the breakdown by spending categories.

So since many city services rely on people providing a direct service to the public, uh our biggest category is salaries and benefits, it takes up about two-thirds of the appropriation.

And so with supplies and services and operating projects also in there, that makes up the majority of the 870 approximately appropriation.

Okay.

So as we go through the budget process this year and determine which reductions will be used, there are just some costs that are non-discretionary and cannot be cut.

So this chart is showing what they are.

And what this is essentially showing is that if the city were to shut down, there are costs that still need to be paid since they're tied to retirees pensions, retirement medical payments, and existing claims.

So as shown in the pie chart, 195 million is non-discretionary.

And of that 195 million, unfunded pension and retirement medical accounts for 111 of it, risk fund and workers' comp account for 66 million, and the remainder goes to debt service.

So that leaves approximately 678 million for discretionary use.

Okay.

So if a department brings in revenues from fees or reimbursements, their revenue, I'm sorry, their general fund reliance goes down.

While our public safety departments are still the largest part of this pie chart, their reliance for general fund has gone down, and you can see that especially in fire.

Okay.

The last pie chart shows a breakdown of the fiscal year 26 approved general fund revenues by funding sources.

The largest sources are sales and use tax, which includes both Bradley Burns and Measure U, property tax and charges and fees and services.

The three revenue sources make up approximately 68% of the general fund revenue.

And these next two slides will show you the trends of our two largest revenue sources for property tax.

We have seen ongoing growth for the last seven years, which is attributed to the increase in sales and of course property value.

And this next slide shows us what has been happening with sales tax.

So as Pete mentioned before, we have been seeing a stagnation of growth in sales tax.

But what we're seeing here, and as you can see in the chart, is that the point of sale and destination of sales are both stagnant.

So what this is showing us is that the stagnation is happening due to the macronomic macroeconomic issues that are happening across the state, meaning that inflation is having a huge impact on people's spending habits as we move forward.

So at this point in time, we will be paying attention to sales tax very closely to see how it will look in fiscal year 27.

Thank you.

And you know, we'll have another update of our sales tax revenues before we come into budget hearings in May.

And so, you know, we're very we're cautious, very, very, very cautiously hopeful that maybe uh we'll get a positive uh be able to have a positive adjustment.

So another thing we were asked uh was you know, we put we approved a budget development count uh policy, which we'll get to in a minute.

But what what were some alternatives?

What are some alternative scenarios we could look at to balance a budget?

Uh so the first scenario we want we wanted to look at was uh council identified three priority areas economic development, uh homelessness, and public safety.

And what if we had zero reductions in those three areas?

How would we balance the budget?

Um so the way we went, we approached this is we said, okay, well, let's look at the while all departments may support those priorities in some way.

Let's look at the departments that are primarily uh responsible for those uh those priorities and have zero reductions for them.

Um and so what that would result in is all of the other departments having to hit a 56% net general fund uh reduction target.

And so when we broke that down by department, you can see how it looks.

Um really the the bulk of the reductions at dollar amount are in uh Yipse in information technology, in community development, uh, and city attorney's office.

But again, for everyone, this is a 56% net general fund use um reduction.

And so we reached out to some of the departments to talk about it.

Um, and you know, the short answer is this is not feasible.

Uh, we would not be able to meet uh state and charter mandates.

I just know even in my own department, I would struggle to you know make an AC for a budget and make payroll uh and pay bills.

We would struggle to do that, and that uh kind of exists throughout uh throughout the departments.

Uh we would have to close all our neighborhood pools and community centers, uh parks without Mel Roose districts who are already in typically in more disadvantaged areas, would not be able to be maintained to safe standard.

We'd eliminate vehicle towing, the zero dollar impact fee program for affordable housing, the NDAT teams, animal adoptions, and homeless outreach.

We'd have to cut back permit hours, we'd struggle to provide IT services, and uh we would most likely not meet our Measure L baseline spending target.

So this again, not very feasible in staff's view.

The other scenario we looked at, and this is something a lot of jurisdictions do, which is uh let's just look at proportionately uh what we have to cut and assign every department a reduction target.

Uh so we would be dis we would be assigning everyone a 11.6 percent of net general fund use reduction target, uh, and they could be uh revenue increases or expense decreases.

So this is how it uh kind of falls out by department.

Um in this scenario, you police and fire, they're the biggest share of net general fund use, they would have the biggest reduction target, police almost 29 million, fire over 18 million.

And you know, with the staff report, there's the list of all the scenarios of up to 15 percent reductions.

So you can go and look in for the departments, see what would an 11% reduction uh look like for police and for fire and for our other departments, and you know, for public safety, there would be some pretty severe impacts.

Um, you know, we'd be eliminating traffic enforcement, the internet crimes against children team, reducing burglary and robbery units, the POP teams, uh things like that.

Uh on the IT side, some of our critical systems would be at risk.

Uh, we'd be reducing pretty severely some of our equity programs, and we'd reduce our funding for um old Sacramento from our community and cultural services department.

Uh so the third scenario, this is what we call our baseline.

This is the development uh process that council approved, and this is where we want to try to define and preserve our core services while advancing those priorities and minimizing impacts on uh the community and on staff to the extent possible.

Uh to do this, we asked every department to give us a 15% reduction uh plan.

And the reason we did this is we wanted to have more balancing solutions than the size of our problem.

Uh, that would allow us to be more strategic than just an across-the-board cut.

So, if you know, I'm not spending out my travel budget, I'd rather just reduce that than uh you know, lay off a firefighter or something like that.

So, this was to give us a broader universe of solutions.

And at the same time, uh, we looked centrally at what I call citywide solutions.

So these are things around debt service uh payment structure, uh reallocating funds from projects maybe we finished or we didn't start yet, um, things like that.

These tend to be more one-time in nature, uh, these citywide strategies, but not all of them are.

Um, so again, we're gonna we're not going to talk about the specific baseline reductions that you're gonna hear from the departments.

We're going to uh start that next week.

Um, this is again to give that broader framework.

Uh but we are trying to uh really advance council strategic priorities, and so we want to continue some of these uh innovative economic development programs and innovative ways to finance projects like tax increment financing, uh supporting entrepreneurs, things like that.

Um you're gonna hear more.

I'm gonna tease it a little bit, we're gonna hear more from Brian Pedro next week about some of the efficiencies that we've generated in our homelessness services program and how we can capture some budget savings while maintaining our level of service.

So, again, we're gonna talk more about that next week.

Uh, we're gonna continue the uh single role program and fire.

Um, and then a couple of issues that have come up through the process where people have asked, we have identified funding for the community prosecutor for an additional year, and we are going to recommend maintaining fuel network service levels for an additional year, and given the nexus to federal policy utilizing uh the federal funding reserve that council established in this budget.

Pending factors.

So the biggest one right now is labor negotiations.

So we are in negotiations with almost all of our bargaining units.

Those may have impacts both on the current year and on the budget year.

We will come back throughout the process with updates as you know agreements are reached and we know what uh the financial impact will be.

Uh our unfunded liabilities we talked about earlier, as well as the future of the HAP program.

I think as council knows, um, the state does have uh HAP round seven in their budget.

The issue for us is is one of timing, so we may not get it until fiscal year 28.

Uh, we don't know what additional restrictions might be on the funding.

Um, and it is half of the HAP 6 allocation.

So uh there's I know there's a lot of negotiations that are going to be going on at the state house, and uh you know we've seen reductions in our point in time count, and we hope that the state will continue the program at at least the current the current level.

Um, and then we have a lot of economic and geopolitical uncertainty right now.

There is always the risk of a recession.

Uh we have not modeled that in, but it is something that would make our problems a lot harder.

So again, uh beginning next week, you're gonna hear an overview of what I would call our baseline balancing uh plan, which we want to hear council and the public's feedback on, and then you'll hear these uh very budget focused presentations from the departments where they're going to articulate the state of the current budget, uh what the impacts of balancing strategies would be, and then how are we going to align with council's priorities?

And this is just a more detailed uh upcoming budget schedule, so we have the early budget work sessions in March.

Uh at the end of April, we will release the proposed budget and have hearings in May for budget adoption in June.

And with that, we are happy to take any questions and hear input from council and the public.

Yes, we'll have plenty of questions, but first we want to allow the 20 or so speakers to share their perspective as well.

Please call the first item.

Okay.

We have 17 or I'm sorry, 18 speakers for this item.

I know we have some new to council folks, so we're gonna call a couple names at a time.

You'll line up in the aisle, and when it's your turn to speak, you'll come up to the podium and you'll have two minutes, and you can see the timer behind us.

Our first speaker is Lambert, and then we'll have Diamond and Caitlin Zavala Contreras.

Uh, first of all, I would like to commend the new city manager for speaking to the public like she did forcefully, because uh we haven't had that in years when Howard Chan was here.

He was as though he was beneath saying something like that.

That's very commendable of you.

You have to take the lead now.

Uh as far as homelessness, I was on the road and my family showed me an article in the V.

Shout out to the B.

State Senator Ashby has something on the agenda about homelessness.

It should be looked at, it should be studied.

And uh another thing I was gonna bring up, and he made it crystal clear for me just now, is that I think that uh Mr.

Plucky Baum should be reprimanded for leaving the Rostrum as much as he does.

And he just left again.

Uh, if he doesn't want to be here, he should resign.

Uh rarely did Katie Valenzuela leave the rostrum.

And I don't see many people on this rostrum that leaves.

You're here for a reason.

Otherwise, why are you here?

Uh the article in the B.

Shout out to the B, the B is on the ball.

Uh, it shows Mayor McCarty, uh Plucky Baum, and this other guy who's over uh community response.

Uh, that needs to be looked at because they've already had a chance to do it their way.

I'm not talking about Mr.

McCarty, Mr.

Plucky Baum, but the they've had a way to do homelessness, and it didn't work.

It's obvious.

So you have to maybe possibly go a different direction, even bringing finding out who were the uh contractors and do an audit on was that mismanaged.

Something happened because the money was there, and also the general fund should also be called measure you because they're combined.

Diamond Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Uh, my name is Diamond Lulu, and I want to be speaking on the behalf of the budget on Law Academy and every school district or the Magma Academy, as you guys may know it.

Um, I want to first off by saying that I am so very grateful that my school and all the schools around us that had the opportunity to have this law academy.

I've been in the law academy since my sophomore year, and I am now a junior, and I want to say thank you to Officer Davis for all giving us an opportunity to be able to have fun in this academy and be able to make a community with this, as well as passing down all his teachings and knowledge and having a bright smile on his face every day.

You can notice every time when you walk into our classroom that he just loves to be able to teach us everything he knows about the law enforcement.

And since Officer Fourier Bach has joined us this last past summer, our academy felt complete.

At Hiram Johnson, our academy has a tremendous like tremendously needed us.

Our football and our cleaning around our campus makes so much use of us, as well as our school needs needs us to the point where I wouldn't know what our academies would do without us.

Our academy brings people together and closer as a family.

This academy brings me pride and joy, and I'm willing to do whatever I need to to keep our academy running smoothly.

Thank you, everybody, and have a good evening.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Caitlin.

After Caitlin, we'll have Jenny Chen and Annalina Martinez and then Kayuri.

Am I saying that right?

Kayuri Jones.

Go ahead, Katie.

All right.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

I want to start off by saying I'm so glad to be up here as a voice representing my academy.

I've been in law since sophomore year and have learned many important skills.

Skills essential for the career I want, the career I want to help people in, the career I had spent multiple times thinking about.

I have made many friends in this academy who I would never replace.

I have made many experiences.

These moments and skills get carried with me as I grow older and find my way in this world.

Law Academy has taught me authority, accountability, how to command respect without begging for it, and how to stand tall even when I feel unsure inside.

Officer Davis didn't just see me as a student.

He saw leadership and trust in me before I even saw him myself.

When adults in authority trust you like that, it changes how you see yourself.

It tells me I'm capable, I'm reliable, and I'm strong.

Officer F has impacted me by showing me what true leadership and professionalism look like.

He has trusted me in being a lieutenant and an honor guard commander.

Watching how he carries himself with discipline and confidence has influenced the way I present myself.

And thank you.

Next speaker, Jenny.

Good evening.

I am alumni of John F.

Kennedy High School of the Magnet Academy.

I would like to speak on behalf of our Kennedy kids as that we would much prefer to have our officers in the classroom more often than just once a week because a lot of what we learned, we need an officer to give us a personal insight of what they know with their experiences, because a lot of what we do, we help with the community, we kind of further our education and what law is and how it actually operates, because a lot of miscommunications and misconceptions of what the law enforcement does can be found on the internet, and having an officer in the classroom mainly helps with kind of learning what it really is.

I'll also like to speak on sorry, a lot of like CSI.

We do some experiments with those, and it really helps with our understanding.

Our officers also help us connect better with our community as my officer at Kennedy has driven a lot of our kids around to community services that they otherwise would not be able to go to because it might be family issue.

A lot of it helps us connect with our community.

Thank you.

Next, Annalina.

Good evening.

I'm Annalina, and I'm also uh alumni of John F.

Kennedy's Magnet Academy, and I am here representing John F.

Kennedy's Magnet Academy.

I would like to say that we do need our officers in the classroom as it kind of gives us more of an immersive experience.

Like said before, CSI, mock trials, quiz bulls, these experiences are what we need for the real world.

It teaches us how to present to, I mean, council members here and other things with our adult life.

It teaches us how to be professional, respectful, and leaders.

I would like to also mention that the field trips and community services we do need our officers for as well.

Um, because it kind of just creates a sense of a safe space along with your officer.

Um it also makes us more communicative with the law enforcement as well.

Like said online, there is a lot of discourse on whether an officer or the police force is good or not.

Um having the opportunity to discuss and get to know these people as they are outside of their uniforms, um, really does impact how we view what the authority is.

Thank you.

Sorry if I pronounced that wrong.

No, you pronounced it correctly.

Good afternoon, all.

My name is Kyrie Challenge.

I am currently the company commander for John F.

Kennedy High School, and I'm also a current senior.

Throughout the four years that I've been in this academy, it has extremely helped me, especially with now with college, FAFA.

We all know how hard it can get.

With in our high schools, there's not many people to help us.

Teachers are focused on teaching their classes and gradings.

So counselors are obviously showing classes.

They are bringing new students into the school, also showing them tours of the school, but not many workshops to teach us how to do these things to get through life.

My officer, Officer Vasquez at John F.

Kennedy High School has helped us tremendously.

We also have an amazing teacher named Chris Herner, my favorite teacher personally.

He walked us through how to do FAFA, which a lot of students don't know how to do on their own.

He also walked us through the tea the parents portion, which coming from me.

I have a mother who is an immigrant.

She immigrated from Thailand.

She doesn't know how to do many things in California or can help me with things like college.

So excuse me, sorry.

My teacher has helped me a lot.

Excuse me.

My officer and my teacher have become very close to me.

Oh.

You're doing great.

Thank you.

They have become like a family to me.

They have become second parents.

I also have a godfather who was my mother's magnet officer at Grant Union High School.

He is now one of the people I look up to most in my life.

He has taught me how to get through life and also how to get through college and how to do certain things, and it also has taught me communication with the academy.

Like here we have Hiram Intercom.

They have taught me many things which I wouldn't have been able to learn without my officer.

Please do not take that away from all of us.

Thank you.

Our next our next three speakers are Rose, Sean, Christopher Herner, and Azir.

Sorry.

Um I really feel feel for these kids.

My comment is not on theirs, but it is relevant that in the city of Sacramento, we have public parks with sport courts.

A sport court is like tennis, pickleball, basketball, skate parks, and foodsall.

These are courts that use the same amount of electricity as the other courts.

There are more than a hundred sport courts in public parks in Sacramento, but only for the food cell courts is the city requiring people to get million-dollar insurance policy, go and get a permit in advance and pay for it in person.

This is not equitable for community members, especially for a lot of the members of the community in districts two and three.

Just for me to even attempt to create an opportunity for kids to play on these public courts.

I have to get a million-dollar insurance policy.

I have to go fill out the permits, I have to go pay in person.

There's no way to pay online for these food call courts.

But if I want to go play tennis, pickleball, basketball, or go to a skate park, I can just show up and use those amenities with lights.

A majority of the members of the community want to use these facilities after 5 p.m.

Why are we discriminating against certain members of the community to use a public asset and other members get to receive public lighting?

It is very inequitable.

My ask to the council is to treat court sports fairly and equally.

If you're going to require people to get a million-dollar insurance policy and get permits, why are not all sport courts required to do that?

Or if you're just going to let all of them enjoy the amenities.

So I'd like to know what is the actual budget per year for the sport courts, and how do we get these other six food cell courts on the budget?

Thank you.

Christopher and then Azir.

Hello, I'm Christopher Herner.

I'm the lead instructor of the criminal justice academy at John F.

Kennedy High School.

Um, I don't know if you guys know, but it's a partnership between SAC Unified and SAC PD, and I'm the SAC Unified Half.

We also have a California Partnership Academy grant that we get that we get through the department of Ed.

Um, the officer currently is critical as far as the business match, right?

It's the school has to match the money that CDE gives, and then our business partner, which is Sacramento Police Department, they then match um the third part.

Without the officer, it's just a program taught by a teacher, which is exciting enough in and of itself.

But what really makes it pop is the officer.

And I know there's a lot of focus in policing on community policing.

And you know, people want police to be more hands-off, and they want police to talk more to the community.

Our program literally does that.

That is what the kids get to do.

They get to meet officers, they get to talk to them.

They don't see them as just a uniform.

Uh, they don't see him as you know, officer Vasquez.

They see her as Lillia and they know who she is, and there's a connection there that you wouldn't normally get.

So I think it works on multiple levels.

Um we we mainly pull from Meadow View, so we are literally structurally and in Ed Law.

Actually, we're required to take kids that are considered at risk, so have they they have lower GPAs.

We have with that particular group, we have 100% graduate.

That's unheard of.

I mean, it is it is outrageous how well that goes.

And a lot of that has to do with the officer being in there, setting that example, just being there consistently.

And part of what happens is the kids like Kayuri talked about, they do become like a family, and they get really, really connected to each other.

And once you had that, then sort of the teacher, I can kind of stand back, and the kids just push each other.

I mean, it's amazing to watch it.

Um, we always talk about peer pressure or something negative.

In our case, it's something positive because with the officers' help, we're pushing them towards success.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Isir Banta.

I'm Lieutenant of Intercom High School Magnet Academy.

I'm here to say that Officer Frank Lay has been a great officer to all of us in Intercom.

And uh, I honestly don't know what I'd do.

He has helped me between mentoring and he has gave me the trust and capabilities to be a lieutenant in this um program.

Um he has taught me many different things to stand up, be confident.

I am so proud to just go to other companies in our school, just be like, you need to go up, do better, be more confident.

And that's what that's what I do now.

I just go up, tell all my all the cadets out there, be like, you just need to be more into this program, which this program we we are hands-on with every single thing we do.

We are we go to field trips, community service, we go out to the community and we help out the community.

We get more closer.

I have seen many stories of students who really hated the fact that they are close to officers, but now this program has exposed them to those fields, and then now they have a different view upon these police officers because of this program.

Um, I would like to thank the fact that my teacher, um, Mr.

Hale has also been there with me as a also a teacher of correctionals.

But um, those two, they have helped me a long time.

When uh a few months a month ago, I have collapsed, and uh I had those two right beside me helping me out, assisting me when I was in a very grave amount of uh emergency.

I have officer Lay right next to me as he uh gets transported, as I get transported, sorry, to the um hospital, and I have liked the fact that he has been there like a family member to me, as he has been there to be to make sure I was safe throughout my whole entire year in the school.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next three speakers, Celeste, Natalie, and then Marilee.

Good afternoon.

My name is Celeste Hogal, and I am captain in the public safety pathway at Intercom High School.

I have been a part of this program for nearly three years, and during that time I have grown into a new cadet to a student leader.

Officer Frank Lay has not only been a supervisor, but a mentor, a role model, excuse me, and consistent source of guidance for all of us.

He has shown us that law enforcement is more than what is portrayed.

It is about service professionalism and building trust within a community about service.

His leadership has helped shape my decision to pursue a career in law enforcement, possibly the military, and to attend me a training in criminology.

Officer Leigh has introduced me and many others and continues to guide in honor guard as honor guard commander.

As honor guard commander, I have had the opportunity and others to participate in this extracurricular activity, an honorable role.

Because of his involvement day to day for years, I have seen friends and fellow cadets pursue college, the military, and the next steps towards a career in law enforcement.

His presence has changed many lives and continues to give purpose and meaning to every cadet in this program.

During a very difficult time in my life, Officer Lay's presence and this program gave me life.

With his mentorship, I did not just get through that period.

I flourished.

I have seen him provide that same steady support to other cadets who needed it most.

This program has also helped me personally.

It gave me structure during challenging times in my life.

It helped me build confidence, responsibility, and leadership skills.

I've seen other cadets grow the same way from uncertain students into focus-driven young adults.

Most importantly, it gave me my participation in service meaning due to this program and officer lay at Mr.

Hill.

Beyond personal growth, this program actively serves our community.

We assist at marathons, city races, and major public events throughout Sacramento.

We represent our school and city with professional.

I'm sorry, I have to cut you off.

That's your time.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Natalie?

Hello.

My name is Natalie Turn.

And I'm a cadet from Hiram Johnson's Law Academy.

A little closer.

Can't hear you.

Yeah, I can pull it down.

There you go.

The academy is important to me because of multiple opportunities that students get.

For instance, in our academy, we get to learn about many, so many aspects of about law enforcement.

Some of the multiple things we experience in the law academy are community service competitions, events like law ball, and law enforcement procedures such as Pat Down searches.

Without an officer, this would fall apart.

In this moment, this academy feels like a class rather than an academy due to the long period from last year in which we did not have an officer, which is why it is crucial to have an officer in our academy.

Having an officer helps our academy to have pride and discipline in which it needs.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you.

Marilee.

Okay.

Um good afternoon.

My name is Madeli, and I'm the commander of Hiram Johnson High School Law Academy.

I'm speaking today as the highest ranked leader in our academy and as someone who has experienced our program with and without a consistent officer.

Last year, our academy didn't have an officer and just one teacher to not only focus on curriculum, but on community service, partnership with law enforcement agencies, and real world experiences.

That is just too much for one person.

As a result, our program suffered.

We had fewer hands-on learning, limited experiences, and like practice in our competitions.

Most importantly, we like the connection to the law enforcement base, our academy's design and prepare us for.

This year, with Officer F here, the transformation and impact has been incredible.

Enrollment has grown within our academy, and student engagement has increased because of his presence.

For example, we won the All Academy Challenge, and our honor guard team improved.

As commander, I experienced this change personally as well.

See, leadership without mentorship can be isolating.

I carry responsibilities that required guidance and more support.

With Officer F, I gain more consistent support.

I gained accountability, structure, and professional mentorship.

That support strengthened me as a leader and strengthen our academy as a whole.

Our officer goes way beyond what he's just paid for.

After his long shifts, he still prioritizes us and shows up for us.

He comes in on weekends to clean our academy space.

He helps our senior class fundraise for our senior trip.

He connects students with jobs, and he ensures that no student is left without access to opportunity.

Officer Ed brings in officers from specialized units across the department to expose us to the full scope of law enforcement careers and makes us feel like we can do anything we want to.

Even when he saw their uniforms didn't fit correctly, he set up a day for them to be corrected because he believes we should represent our academy with the pride and discipline it deserves.

Reducing officer presence from four days to one would not just change the schedule, it would reduce consistency, mentorship, and compromise the draft and compromise the drastic progress our Academy has made.

As commander, I respectfully urge you to maintain the level of four days.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next three speakers, Maria, Layla, and Brianna.

He's the final speaker.

Five left.

I think so.

No one, one more on this.

Hello, good afternoon to everyone.

My name is Maria Gutierrez, and I am the parent of María Leo Gutierrez, who holds a title as a commander in law at Hiram Johnson High School.

I am here because as a parent, I would like to let you know the accomplishments and the wonderful things that are currently happening to my daughter because of programs like these at school and also for having an officer involved at school.

My daughter started a law program when she was a junior, and there was no officer involved, which was last year.

She would overhear other students mention that the program is awesome when there's both a parent and a and um sorry and a law um officer involved.

Um over the summer, she learned that this year in her senior year, an officer will become part of the law program.

She was really excited and could not wait for her senior year.

So she has been overjoyed.

And um, now I can I'm actually gonna stop reading because I have a lot of sorry in there, so I wanted to just kind of talk to you guys directly too, just to let you know that this has opened so many opportunities for her.

Like having an officer involved and learning of all the opportunities she has.

She just grew love into the law program.

And um she's just so um happy with it that she's actually trying to pass this on for the future kids that come to Hiram Johnson.

Um, thanks to all of that, um, she's been you know into law so much that she's been doing attorney general's programs here.

She's been engaged in so many things that now I'm just I'm just excited.

I'm emotional because I get excited because she's been accepted to um sorry, my dearly, I don't know where you're at, but I'm happy for you.

Two, three UCS, I mean UCs, and and also four CSUs.

So I'm really happy because of programs like these.

Please do not take away this from kids.

These kids have been through so much through COVID that right now it's it's sad to see that you know these things are making them up.

I mean hearing them talk, it just breaks my heart for them, you know.

It's it we should not remove these things from them.

Please, please.

Um, and keep off I'm sorry, I have to cut you off.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, I am Layla Rowden, a freshman from John F.

Kennedy High School.

I've been brought here today to defend the positions that Magnet officers hold in this district.

These officers have protected, guided, and encouraged many students and cadets while positively touching their lives and encouraging them to join law enforcement.

My question is: how will you allow these young adults to be robbed of a form of education?

Would you prefer students who see their future in law enforcement, such as myself, have a hand have a hands-on educator like this be taken away?

These officers aren't just educators, they're a foundation to all criminal justice programs that help young adults for the real world.

They're role models that have a purpose and deserve to be recognized and appreciated.

Though I've attended Kennedy and their criminal justice program for only eight months, I've seen magnet officers bring life to campuses and to the classrooms, whether it's leading cadets in marching, telling stories, or teaching.

They have a purpose.

They educate, protect, and guide students like any other teacher would.

So why?

Why do you feel the need to cut a piece of something that can be the new generation of police officers that can help the new generation of police officers evolve?

I say we keep our beloved and appreciate our educators in our classrooms, allowing them to keep their jobs and inspire new students every day.

If this matter wasn't so important, I wouldn't be missing school to address it.

And that is it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Brianna.

After Brianna, we have Yvette and then Henry Harry.

I just want to start by saying how proud I am to stand here as your administrator and watch these students and listen to them speak.

It's it's incredible.

So good afternoon, Mayor and Council members.

My name's Brianna Wells.

I'm an assistant principal at Hiram Johnson High School.

I'm here today to speak about the importance of maintaining school-based police partnerships as you consider these upcoming budget decisions.

Officer Foyerbach, the officer assigned to our Magnet Law Academy, is far more than a visible figure on campus.

He's a vital part of our students' growth and development.

He mentors students, collaborates with teachers, and provides community service opportunities that they all just spoke about.

He provides enrichment activities and real world experiences as well, all preparing students for future careers in law enforcement and in public service.

Officer Foyerbach is currently on our campus four days per week.

And the Sacramento Police Department is now looking to reduce that presence to just one day per week.

I ask you to consider what that really means as you make these decisions moving forward.

How will officers build and maintain meaningful relationships with students and their colleagues when their time on campus is so limited?

Our students at Hiram Johnson High School need strong mentors.

They need positive role models, and they need consistent adult figures in their lives.

They need adults who show up, build trust over time, model integrity and accountability, and help guide them through critical decisions during some of the most formative years of their lives.

That kind of mentors mentorship cannot be sustained on one day per week.

This program is more than a class, it's a pathway, one that builds leadership, accountability, and purpose, while creating a pipeline of students who may one day serve in the Sacramento Police Department or other emergency responder agencies.

You bet.

Good evening.

I'm Yvette Mendoza from the John F.

Kennedy from John F.

Kennedy, um, and I'm the lieutenant of public service and public information branch.

Up until a few months ago, I wasn't lieutenant.

I was a regular cadet.

But thanks to Officer Vasquez, she trusted me to become a lieutenant.

This academy has shown me that I'm much more than what I thought I was.

I joined my junior year.

I joined my junior year, and I was able to learn so much from Officer Vasquez and Mr.

Herner.

The first day that I met Officer Vasquez, instead of just saying welcome in or something like that, she hugged me and said, I'm gonna be like your new mom.

And that's exactly what she's been.

She spends so much time with us, and she dedicates a lot of personal time that she could be with her family to be with us because of how much it means to her that we learn what it is to be part of law enforcement.

There's a lot of misconceptions about law enforcement, and half the time, us younger generations, we're on social media and we see body cam footage that is unexplained.

But when we are with these officers, I know not just only me, but other magnet academies, we get real perspectives of what it means to be an officer.

The academy has helped me realize my place in law enforcement and public service, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

If you take away the amount of time that these officers are with us, you are harming us.

We need these officers.

They're not only there to mentor us, but they are there, they're our family.

So please, I ask you guys to not go forward with this because this is something that would really damage future generations.

I know my time in the academy will be done in a few months, but this academy has been at least at Kennedy for more than 15 years.

Layla, she's a freshman, she needs the time with the off with Officer Vasquez.

I know not in all not only in our academy, uh John F.

Kennedy, but the other uh schools.

So please, I urge you guys that you listen to our plea.

Thank you.

I want to say thank you to all you future police officers.

It's gonna be a great ride for you.

Um I am glad that we are doing these budget scenarios.

But uh we could have gotten here a year ago when I was in this chamber, and I'd asked a mayor to do some budget hearings with citizens in this chamber.

We also need another scenario.

We need one showing a 3% cut to workers under $70,000, 4% under $90,000, 7% under 11,000, and 10% under 200,000, and 12% over 200,000, including this council.

These are just placeholder numbers.

What does a scenario look like if we get two tax measures passed?

And I hope this brings us to a conversation about a law enforcement tax deal that results in separate and ongoing funding stream for law enforcement.

Now, anything is possible because politics is the art of the possible.

Now I'm shifting gears.

I have to believe that these talks about staffing cuts are real and it's not political posturing.

So, against this reality, why is this council fighting to pay 1.5 million dollars or 500,000 a year for illegal immigrants and their attorneys with about 300,000 of that money going to pay those attorneys and to pay for their training.

And our tax dollars are being sub-granted from that group to other entities.

And I'm trying to understand this because there's some people in my community that don't have sidewalks and they can't get their potholes fixed.

Thank you.

Mayor, I have no more speakers.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh first of all, I want to give a acknowledgement to our amazing future leaders from all of the high schools around Sacramento.

Thank you for showing up to your city hall.

This is not our city hall, so thank you very much for being engaged.

I'm not sure whether it's a future career in law enforcement or maybe a council member, uh, mayor or city manager.

Uh we'll see.

We're all on the horizon.

Just stay and stay engaged.

Um, and thank you for your perspective.

We're we're we're weighing all these issues as you as you walk out the door, and so this is all part of our uh of our process.

Thank you.

I'm about to say, thank you.

Take a 10-second break here.

Okay, so that was maybe an a good perspective because we now have the hard work to do.

So I asked the city manager to agendize it like this, and I spent some time with Pete and the team, and I spoke to a lot of you on the council up here at the DIES.

Uh last year's budget process was fine, but I I think after last year and the year before, which was the first year of having to make some reductions, and three of us are new here.

Um, I thought it was important just to have a more budget one on one and lay out there uh what we've done, what you know what's on the horizon, and what options uh exist.

And so this was the start of the process.

And some, I think I said this last year, you know, they're all bad choices we have before us.

None of these are great choices.

The only good choices are doing things that we do other nights like last week, and talked about economic development and growing our economy and getting more money in the city coffers.

Um, so we have limited options, of course.

So uh minor saying 24 was the first year that we made reductions, and then last year was a second year, and use a lot of our one-time uh resources and our economic uncertainty reserve, um, swept a lot of vacancies, increase some fees, recovery from fire and others, and so those were I think the easier solutions.

So now are the tough options.

And you know, some of some have called us, me and others the last couple days and says, you know, why would you do scenario one versus two?

And and we we may have a lot of these values, but I think it's important that we just focus on mathematics 101 and lay it all on the table and have an unvarnished perspective as what the choices look like, what it would mean if you left some departments um unscathed, like you said in scenario one or across the board.

And I know a lot of people are fearful that they're on the list, kind of like school districts.

Every you know, from those of you who came from school boards.

I know my lease remember this.

You in tough times you put out those teacher notices, and you people are are scared, and then you have to go and make decisions later on.

You may um not do those, but I think it's important for us to be honest and lay it all out on the table, and these are the choices that we are evaluating with.

So I know that we'll have several more of these down the road getting into scenarios, but tonight I just wanted a big big perspective.

And I also want to tell um the public and uh some people here today, some are watching, and maybe reported too that people have ideas and give us your ideas.

We'll evaluate every idea that you give us.

We will keep it a list of them and try to you know analyze them and put them up somewhere that people can see uh some are things that are like our our council values.

So you talked earlier about you know the fuel network or uh the subsidizing the bus passes, and those are council priorities, and you know, if you even if you did those two, that's $750,000, and we still have north of $60 million.

So I'm not saying we're not gonna do those, but I think it's important to look in perspective.

And some have called us and says, hey, you should do things differently with solid waste and the enterprise funds and contract out.

We could do that, but that would impact the utility fund and the enterprise fund and not the general fund.

So I just think we need to have an honest conversation with us and the public as far as what choices are out there and what that would look like as we go down this road.

So I know that we're we're up for the challenge, and you know, councils across the state are facing the same issue.

You know, we're we are not unique to this.

And um I think that uh we we've been sound the first couple years trying to minimize impact on the citizens of the city of Sacramento, and we'll do that again this year, but make no mistake, there will be some difficult choices in the coming months.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Councilmember Dickinson, the budget chair.

Well, thanks, Mayor.

Thanks for your comments.

And uh I do uh try to approach this uh with that sense of chairing the budget uh committee, and we're we're our responsibility is to is to try to take the a view of this that that's helpful uh ultimately to the to the full council as as we go through this this process.

And I think it is helpful to have this sooner rather than than later.

Uh ultimately I think we need to show people uh exactly um how we have to go about balancing this this budget and uh what that what that means both in terms of uh addressing the structural deficit uh as well as as well as the opportunities to to mitigate the uh chore in front of us uh uh with what's available in terms of of one-time opportunities as well.

And that's that's a balancing process also because as Pete showed with that chart, uh we we have uh if we don't address it a growing structural deficit.

So there's there's there's no avoiding that uh that that reality and and that requires us to uh be cognizant of it and I uh and address it.

I I have a few um thoughts uh that uh uh want to share um uh no in not a particular order uh uh but things that I think are are relevant, at least from my perspective, to looking at at uh this process and the ultimate shape of the of the budget.

Um the first is something that I uh raised last year and I think is still meaningful this year, and that's to do a careful analysis of our vacancies and see where there might be opportunities uh to reduce vacancies that we budget for but never seem to fill uh over a long period of time.

And um Pete's gonna develop that that roster again of vacancies and and uh duration and uh share that with that with us uh uh in the weeks ahead.

Correct.

Yeah, we're working on that now, and we'll have an overlay with um kind of baseline decisions too, so you can see which ones have been who would be swept under the baseline scenario and what's remaining.

And I appreciate that uh Pete.

I I I uh approach budgets uh in this condition with uh a couple of of touchstones in in mind.

One is one is to maintain services uh at the existing, at least the existing level to the maximum extent possible, uh, and and the other is to pr preserve uh those employees who are who uh work for the city to the maximum extent uh possible.

I think those are both constants that as much as we can make them such that are important to provide stability to the organization and certainty uh to to the public, recognizing that that there may uh have to be alterations in those things, but but striving to get to to those two uh elements in the ultimate uh budget.

I do believe the priorities are correct and consistent with what the council uh chose uh to uh elevate as uh priorities uh uh and reflected in uh in scenario three.

Uh I I do think that uh across the board cuts don't make sense.

Uh it is it is easy or to do it that way, but it has impacts that uh I think are are much more uh difficult to absorb for the public when that that approach is taken, and not necessarily uh helpful to the organization uh either.

Uh I I um appreciate the inclusion in this scenario three of of funding for the uh regional transit kids ride free program.

You didn't you didn't mention it, but but uh it uh as I understand it, it's uh 250,000 uh element in the item in the budget.

That's correct.

The city's share is 250,000, and then the other 750 are being funded by RT in the school districts.

And I will say that this program has been enormously successful.

It is as uh my colleagues who sit on the RT board as well know as maybe others of you who who don't.

Up to five million rides a year for for young people.

A lot of those are to school and back, um uh but to other places too, and they get to know the community, they get they get there.

And I I will just say in a small personal side note, growing up I I rode the bus all over, and it was my ticket to freedom to be who who I wanted to be, go where I wanted to go, do what I wanted to do because I could go get on the bus.

Uh and so uh I'm sure there are many young people who have that same experience, and that's important.

Um I I also appreciate uh funding the community prosecutor.

We're we're talking about economic development as a priority, but I think we have to be honest, clean and safe is the foundation to drawing economic investment.

And so if we have neighborhoods or communities, commercial areas where people don't feel or and they aren't clean and safe, then we're gonna have a hard time generating the kind of economic development we would like to see.

So in that connection, the community prosecutor is a very important element of addressing that in uh in uh not just North Sacramento, that's the funding, but but uh here and here in downtown and uh and elsewhere where the community prosecutors are are available.

So I uh I I do appreciate that.

Um I would also say uh and uh hadn't thought so much about this before, looking at some of the potential revenue increases, that shifting uh uh item work items that are in the general fund to the enterprise funds as much as possible, I think is a is a wise strategy from a certainly from a financial point of point of view.

So uh uh it made me recall that that was something we did with uh the county when times were tight as well.

And so I think that does make a lot of a lot of sense.

Um I think it's clear from what you presented and what we all know that our advocacy for restoring to at least a billion dollars, and that may be as far as we can get.

I'm looking at the mayor, who uh I know is working on on this as we all are whenever we have the opportunity to interact with our colleagues uh at this at the state level.

But uh if just by way of of uh uh example, if we realize uh 12.9 million once again uh in the in the in the budget year, um our deficit goes down by 13 million dollars from 66 to 53, basically.

So it's not inconsequential, to say that to say the least.

And I think that that uh should motivate us to to all be very, very focused on uh being great advocates for for that program as the state budget uh develops over the next few months.

Um I want to just talk for a moment about about economic development and uh what we're seeing, if I calculate it correctly, uh, is property tax growing roughly at a little under a 4 percent rate.

Uh and sales tax, as you showed, is basically flat.

If we're going to if we're going to successfully and less painfully address our structural deficit over the next few years, the that that has to change.

We need we need property tax to grow uh more.

We need sales tax not to be flat.

Now, some of this is beyond our control, to be sure.

Market conditions, both locally uh and and nationally, even internationally, uh, affect those things.

But but uh I think if we uh focus on the fact that combined property tax and sales tax provides 55 percent of our revenue, it it seems I I think fairly obvious that it's important for us to focus as much attention as we can on growing those sources in order to help us balance our our budgets uh both in the short and uh intermediate terms.

Uh and again, that means the kinds of investments that we can make that allow our local economy to grow are are more critical than ever.

Uh so the devices and means that we're looking at to be innovative about stimulating economic investment and economic growth, I think ought to be a real priority, and I and I believe they they are for us.

Thanks Mayor thank you council member uh mayor pro Tam Gera thank you mayor uh first let me just uh acknowledge and uh thank the law academy here uh that came for both uh Hiram Johnson Intercom and also Kennedy I've had an opportunity to see many of those students and very moved by uh commander Maria Gutierrez for her uh comments to today um and uh I do think that if we're going to meet our uh what we have said as a as a policy and as a vision for the city that our um that our departments and including our police department reflect our uh our city that this is how we achieve it we achieve it by programs like these um and the the second piece uh I wanted to say is thank you for the recognition on uh funding fuel through the Federal Reserve policy and uh making sure we move more so now more than ever I think we see the necessity um of that um you know I had the the unfortunate conversation to to speak to uh the person who was running some of our Motel Latra programs um uh uh here in Sacramento uh helping citizens who manage um and are in that program in the Northgate area while she was in Tijuana because she showed up and was um picked up during her uh her citizenship application process and so uh I do want to thank the vice mayor for leading um awareness on this and uh and because of the fuel network we also were able to connect her with um with uh legal counsel um and that person has been a taxpayer in Sacramento since 2001 so we're talking about taxes and revenue for our city and the support and helping people get back on their feet uh where does the fuel network fit in this and make sure that we have a a uh not only a respected uh community but a strong and respected workforce as well um on the I have uh um uh one point and then a one question here um on the point of sales tax revenue um you know we saw I see again that Bradley Burns is in a negative direction it was identified by the consultant that we brought in and it has been for the last three years um yes the economy is at play in this inflation is at play but so is the online uh purchasing um uh uh and the the movement that our sales tax is being collected and so I do believe that we have to speed up our retail side of our um of our commerce and I met with some folks in the industrial area in the power in area about them getting their uh paint shop that they do collision repair set up to expand it um and it's been taking them four months to get going so the longer they're not open then that's money they're not collecting but it's also tax revenue we're not collecting either um had a conversation with one of our local coffee shops today at lunch similar issue so I think making sure that on our permitting side on our process development side we're moving as quickly as we can to get people who uh want to get to uh get their business going particularly their retail business where we collect sales tax revenue um that we uh support those efforts and then on the question side uh in your presentation peter um uh you identified 250 million in supplies and in services now obviously on the supply side we're gonna need whatever we need for every department but on the services side um I you know I I have questioned in the past um and I don't I don't this is all lumped into one so maybe not an answer for today but for the future contract services and what what contract services at a lower cost can be brought in-house versus higher cost one-time um services so uh maybe if that could come back into later time we've um yeah we've gotten another question as well about uh what contracts are budgeting than general funds so we're working on a report yeah I appreciate that because that's uh you know 250 million in that in that chunk so um that's it I I appreciate the comments by our our budget chair thank you for those and it is a a long-term effort both on how do we grow our revenue but also manage uh manage our expenses given our current condition yeah so through the mayor um councilman we're also looking at consulting services across the city and seeing how we can bring some of those services back and reduce some of our consulting services and sometimes we probably need to rebid some of those consulting services as well um so that's more of a long term project but we are looking into that as well thank you councilmember maple all right thank you mayor um I want to start out by uh again I know they have already left by thanking the students who came here today I know uh it's not easy to come and speak up in front of

Yeah, so through the mayor, um councilman, we're also looking at consulting services across the city and seeing how we can bring some of those services back and reduce some of our consulting services.

And sometimes we probably need to rebid some of those consulting services as well.

Um so that's more of a long-term project, but we are looking into that as well.

Thank you, Councilmember Maple.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Um I want to start out by uh again, I know they've already left, but thanking the students who came here today.

I know uh it's not easy to come and speak up in front of this dais from the podium, but I thought that they uh strongly made their case, um, especially in the way that we know that this is uh investment into prevention.

So I'm certainly interested in making sure that we can continue that program on uh and looking at other ways that we can save those costs.

Um I also want to thank um our city manager and our budget team.

Uh I really like the way that this is laid out this year.

I uh I do think that in years past we've kind of done it a little bit later, had things kind of crunched towards the end, uh, and it makes it ch more challenging for us um to identify the things that are important in what we want to do, but also for the public.

And so I think this is a great way to have a foray for them to start to understand what we want to do, but uh we're not gonna rush into any decision making, we get a chance to review everything.

Um and so that's one thing I want to make sure that the public knows.

I know the city manager said this, but this is just the beginning.

So if you see that things are being proposed, it doesn't mean that that's necessarily things that the decision that this council will make.

Um there are a lot of different options on the table.

Uh we will consider them, and we certainly do listen to our staff and take their uh opinions into consideration.

But we also have our own priorities and things that are important to us.

So uh don't don't be alarmed if you see something that's on there now, it may not be there in the next month, uh, depending on how conversations go.

So I think that's important.

Um I will speak broadly uh to start in that I I said this last time, I'll say it again.

Uh I think equity is very important and that we have that lens as we have these discussions moving forward on the budget, and specifically because I know that there are proposed cuts to things like pools and community centers, what those mean in c in neighborhoods and areas where they have a reliance on those, like a lot of the communities that I represent.

Um that may be their only meal and maybe the only place that they can cool down because they don't have HVAC in their homes and so on.

And so I will be very keenly interested to see um how we can balance these and ensure that the communities that don't have a lot of those infrastructure resources are not left behind um as we talk about these cuts, uh potential cuts.

Um contracts.

I've brought this up again, um, but I just want to keep highlighting it as we have these conversations.

I would love to see a list of the city's um contracts that we have in each of our departments.

We contract out for a lot of different services, every and consulting contracts and beyond, and um a lot of these are very necessary.

I'm not making comments on whether or not we should have the contracts.

I think it's just important for us to know what those are and especially take a look at if there are ones that we haven't renegotiated in years, um, ones that may not may have made sense 10 years ago, maybe don't make sense now.

I think those are important conversations and it might be a way for us to find savings that we aren't currently looking at.

Um another broad comment is around the effectiveness of programs.

So there's a lot of programs at the city of Sacramento, many of them are really important.

Not suggesting any one program or another needs to be cut, but that we're constantly taking a look at what's working and what's not.

We have the data from those and we're able to take a look at is this program reaching the goals that we first set out then for it to do.

And if not, we should be assessing whether or not that's a program we want to continue to fund, uh, or if it's something that we should pause or take a different approach to.

Um so those are some of my broad comments.

I know we'll have many more conversations as we move toward the budget process, and I look forward to participating in the budget and audit committee at the chair.

I appreciate your comments.

I did uh want to make a couple other things.

I know one of the public commenters made comments about uh the potential of cutting uh cutting salaries for city workers.

I just want to say that's absolutely not something that I support.

I know that there are um everything that happens to the city happens because of the people who work here.

Uh they are the ones that are out cutting the grass in the parks, they're the ones that water the trees, they're the ones that show up when there's a storm and then something falls over or something is flooding.

And so I think it's vitally important that we continue to pay the people who do the work who show up every day.

Uh and that's a part that's a big part of what we do as a city.

Um the other comment I wanted to make, along with Councilmember Guerra is that um supporting the fuel network.

Uh I think it is one of the most vital things that we do as a city is that we continue to support um immigration um and our immigrants and our communities and making sure that they have legal defense and support.

A lot of these people live in our neighborhoods here in the city of Sacramento, and we're gonna stand up for them.

And so that's something I'm really proud is in this budget.

I don't want to see it cut, as well as the ride-free program.

So those are my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Thank you.

Uh Pete, thank you so much for my the number of uh non-negotiable money that you can't touch.

If the city were to shut down, we still have to pay this money.

195 million dollars.

That is a lot of money that we still have to pay, even if the city of Sacramento shuts down.

I know I've been curious about this number for quite some time.

So I appreciate you putting it as part of the presentation.

Actually, to the entire finance team.

Um and then obviously this is the very beginning, and but I do want to say that for next year's uh budget cycle.

Uh doing 15% cuts across the board in every single department where departments only have three employees or six employees or you know, 10 employees, 15% is such a large number for those small departments, and I do think it hurts morale in the city of Sacramento and creates unnecessary panic.

So I know that this year we're doing the budget as is and we're gonna continue plugging forward, but for next year, I think that we have to think more creatively on how we're gonna pursue this.

And we also already have these budget reductions that were submitted this year, so we can use those for next year so that we don't have to do the cycle over and over every single year.

And I just want to give examples of like of you know of how these 15% reductions have have impacts.

You know, first in our city auditor's office just hired somebody new in her management team.

And you know, there was a question of whether to make the hire, complete the paperwork or not, um, because of the 15% reductions.

And I, at least for myself, I said, go ahead, please hire so we can continue moving forward.

And now she's having to submit 15% reductions, and it's like, how is that gonna impact her team?

Or uh say that people are applying for the police department here, and they see all over the news that we have such a large budget deficit, they're gonna say, hey, I'm gonna be first on the chopping block because I'm the newest employee.

Should I apply there or should I apply in Elk Grove or in West Sack or in another city?

And so that's something to consider as you know we move forward in future budget cycles.

Um, I look forward to hopefully making the cuts this year that are gonna be ongoing for next year, so that we don't have to go through the cycle, and like we've talked about here, ripping the band-aid, I think it's time, and it's not gonna be fun, like the mayor said.

In the previous years, we've gone through and we've reduced vacancies, we've cut contracts, we've done small things here and there to meet the budget.

But this is gonna be a tough year for all of us.

And so, for everybody watching, like if you're gonna come here and say, please don't cut this, well, what do you recommend we cut?

Because we have to balance the budget.

And with that being said, I am very thankful that we're starting early and that we're presenting the scenarios with what we were presented today to show the people what we're currently facing.

Uh, I agree with uh Council Member Gera on just you know, on Mayor Pretem Guerra on the consulting services and Councilmember Maple on bringing those in-house.

I think that when we launch new pilot programs or decide to take new initiatives on here in the city of Sacramento, our automatic reaction is okay.

Let's hire a consultant to help us with this.

I think that the city of Sacramento has a lot of capable employees that are smart and talented and ambitious to make the city better, and we need to start using our employees in-house instead of naturally just saying we're gonna get a contract for somebody else to help us.

Um, and then also on homelessness.

I mean, it's just tough to see 35.3 million dollars from our general fund in the state having 12.9 million dollars for the 2025-2026 year.

Obviously, homelessness is one of our number one priorities, so it does need funding, but it's also for us, you know, and relying on our state connections to say, hey, please draw down more dollars because it's not sustainable for us for us as the city of Sacramento, and we're not a health and human services agency, and we should make sure that when we're doing all homelessness, like we're covering the cost of building the homes and everything, but the services is something that we, the city of Sacramento, shouldn't be paying for.

That should be 100% the county.

And so I look forward to Brian Pedro's presentation on that.

Um, but it is a number one priority, so you know it will be in the budget.

Um, but with that being said, I agree with a lot of my colleagues' recommendations on moving enterprise funds to general funds and restoring HAP and bringing consulting services in-house.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to start off again by thanking our new city manager.

Um, you know, barely barely over a month uh or so in and and shaking things up in a positive way so that we as council have more time to be able to have these conversations and digest and ask the questions and get answers.

So thank you for that.

And I do hope that we as a city potentially look at bringing in an outside entity as a certain forensic audit uh of our budget.

How are we spending our money?

Um, is it appropriate?

Because having a set of outside eyes is I think sometimes important when we're looking at how do we change things.

Not that anybody has done anything wrong, but sometimes we get stuck in the way that we're doing things, and it's important to get an outside expert perspective.

With that said, I have been asking for us to look at a two-year budget since I got elected, because I think it is really important that we stop the cycle of passing a budget that we claim is balanced, but the minute the budget starts the next year, there's a structural deficit.

That is not good for our employees, it is not good for our morale, and it's just not good business for the taxpayers and our consumers of knowing how we're spending the money.

So I really uh do hope we push towards how can we get close to balancing the first year and close to a second year.

Um, as we build this budget, not only as we look at what's important to me is of course our priorities, but when we look at cuts, are we minimizing the cuts to our employees?

And what I mean by that is um I support where my colleagues have said, look at our outside contracts and consultants.

It's more important that maybe something uh of an outside consultant takes three years because we have to bring it in-house than cutting an employee.

When I look at if our parks are gonna be decimated, I would rather let go an outside contract than let go our parks maintenance employees, which are some of the lowest paid, and if they lose their job, they may be next in line to be on the streets because they are unable to pay uh their bills.

So I do want to see what that looks like and what are we getting with outside contrast?

Is it essential?

Does it relate to what our charter or city charter is, or is it something while we all agree might be important?

It can be delayed a year so that we can address the budget deficit.

Um I do support if we've got projects, you know.

I don't like this because we all know I like infrastructure, but if it means that we slow down, because it brings general fund savings, then we should probably slow down.

If it means delaying something, then we should look at the priorities of delaying something.

If it means we get to keep our employees and we don't lay them off.

Um again, I call it CCLI, the continuous cycle of learning and improvement.

How can you make decisions if we don't have the data that really backs up the decisions that we are making?

Are we cutting a program that is really successful and keeping something that isn't?

So having data behind what are we cutting and why?

Um I think is also really important that I know through being on uh many committees, and I know measure you is really pushing this, that I think it's it's important that we look at that.

I'd like to be on the table as we look at.

I hate AI, I'm not a fan of AI, but AI is here.

And what are we doing as the city?

Are there certain things where there actually are employee vacancies that AI can help improve our services as a city and save money at the same time if AI has been tried and true?

But it comes with I want to make sure we have stronger cybersecurity monitoring.

Um that we look at staff training on AI tools and responsible uses.

If this is something that we are now looking at best practices, that we have those best practices in-house.

Um, I am fully on board with the leadership of our budget chair of how do we have appropriate use of fund allocations.

Um I know that's if we can decide those and you can see them, but I also know that's something that a forensic audit can't can look at.

And I uh started this conversation with council member Dickinson last year of asking about the vacancies, and I think it's really important because we know we have a lot of vacancies uh in our police department, and that helps us with our overtime to cover things.

Is there a possibility to maybe only freeze some for a year, but not get rid of those positions?

Because it is so important in dispatch and it is so important for recruitment of our officers to have positions open because of the training and how long it takes to bring appropriate individuals on board.

But that may be a use of one time, um, not my favorite, but uh considering public safety is really important.

How do we look at that without decimating a program and getting rid of any officers or programs?

Um Pete, thank you for the one slide on where our how we're spending our homelessness uh funds.

I mean, 35.3 million out of our general fund, um that's that's a lot to take.

One of the things I would like to see further as we have that discussion, uh, when we looked at our motel hotel voucher program and the audit, it was broken down of how much funding actually came from measure you, came from the general fund.

What source of funding are these funds coming from?

Because it goes back to my premise.

Um, we need to be able to fund what we have.

So why are we growing things we don't have the money to support, especially when it may mean we are laying off individuals supporting our employees and what we have, I think is is incredibly important, but getting a further breakdown of where the general fund costs are coming from uh is something I would like to see.

Priorities.

Um I want to take you up on the children funds policy discussions of weighing what do we need as a potential um minimum balance, knowing that uh the cannabis tax income coming in fluctuates.

We don't know if it'll go in or out, but still having 12 million um on hand maybe too much because we want to make sure that goes to good uses.

Um a personal level, uh I was a school board member that pushed and set up the intercom fire and police academy uh as a school board member for Notomas Unified.

And it was uh I was almost like a proud parent watching two of our intercom uh public safety students speak here today for their program.

I have known Officer Frank Lay since he came in to intercom and Officer Velasquez that runs the SAC City program was an SRO officer for Natomas Unified.

Those two officers are the face of what we want our Sacramento police department to be.

They are the future for our creating relationships and for the kids and getting uh that buy-in, that public safety is for everyone, and it's not tainted as some in the community want to say.

So that's a hill I'm gonna die on keeping those programs because of what it does to pay it forward in our community and what it does for the students that take those classes.

I'm on board keeping the ride free at the 250,000 level.

Um, the benefit again it has for our kids and knowing that we now have school district buy-in, I think is really important.

Fuel network does amazing stuff because it is for our community here, um, especially in light of what we're seeing with the federal administration and the smashing of our constitutional rights and civil liberties.

It's important that we as a city of Sacramento continue to stand up as a sanctuary city.

Um that's all I got from now, but I just wanted to give you an overview of of what I thought was appropriate.

But thank you so much for all that you guys have done.

Yes, Councilman Ravane.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um, just wanted to make some comments and uh provide some of my um insight on the budget.

I really want to thank uh Marthala, Pete, thank you to city staff are working hard to present um beginning workshop, and I want to thank our new city manager for bringing this item early to us so that we can we can begin conversations on priorities.

Um definitely want to take a moment to also thank all the public speakers that came today.

Um I have a few comments in particular and um wanted to provide some direction on just a few modification follow-up for next uh conversations on budget in particular.

First, I want to start off with just some of the positive.

I want to uplift items that is in the budget that we are protecting.

Um it's really great to see that we are continuing to fund the field network.

I want to give a shout out to Mayor Pro Tem Ariguera, who has led uh this effort in particular.

Um, and now more than ever, it is incredibly important that we continue to uh support many of our immigrants and refugees, many whom, as you heard from AirPro Tem, uh, who are our neighbors who contribute to our tax base, um, but also because we have residents that uh live in fear and it's important that we have the resources ready in the community to support them.

Um secondly, I also want to uplift the ride SAC RT as well.

I know this program started in 2019, and it's been uh an incredible program for our youth in our city.

Uh, in previous years, it's been um proposed to be eliminated in previous budget, but it's really great to see that it is still in the budget.

Um, and I still, you know, am a strong believer that the city of Sacramento needs to also do our fair share.

Yes, it's great that we have school districts uh participating in the ride free RT.

Um, but what I will also uh say as well is that we have to continue to support it on the city end because I see it as a core city service.

One, I um just want to note that not all our young people uh actually attend our public neighborhood schools, right?

Um we have a low-income youth attending vocational schools or other schools that um that do not attend our public school that are participating in the SAC ride RT.

Uh, secondly, our students just doesn't use SAC RT uh just for school, they actually use it to go to work, and so this is also a component of workforce training as well.

I see it as by violence prevention strategy because as we're gearing up for the summer, young people need to be able to access transportation for work and summer programming.

Um, so really glad to see that that's in there.

And I also want to uh share that 75% of youth ridership actually occurs within the city of Sacramento.

So just really great to see that that's still in the budget.

Um, as we move forward on conversation, a city manager, um, just a few things I want to highlight to bring back as departments come and present.

Um, again, for me, I think it's really important uh to make sure that we budget um we have a budget that center our city services and that we continue to protect um programs that really invest in working families and our most vulnerable neighborhoods and uh families.

I want to echo uh councilwoman Katie Maple in terms of making sure we truly have uh uh racial equity lens as we are uh discussing the trade-offs um and the implications for our families.

Um and we shouldn't be balancing this budget on the backs of low-income families and our youth, because oftentimes that is what we see happen.

In particular, I want to better understand um if there were lessons learned from programs that we implemented last year.

So, for example, we had cut um we had cut some services uh for youth and senior programs, and Yipsey had offer scholarships uh to fill in those gaps, right?

I would love for us to understand if that worked, um, especially because we are gonna be having conversation about trade-offs and terms of services, um hours.

I want to know like what lessons did we learn from these uh what we did last year to really protect our most vulnerable seniors and our youth, and and did it work.

We had the scholarship, but did it work, did it not?

What can we how can we pivot?

Um, I think that would be really great to have that when Yip C comes forth to talk about that or or um what support they need from the mayor and council.

That would be really great.

I also want to uh just flag our diversity equity inclusion staffing.

This continues to re be to remain a top priority for me.

Uh we have passed the racial equity resolution.

We are now in the process of implementing this work with community and care holders.

We have a draft uh scope of work that we just discussed earlier at the 11 o'clock meeting, a roadmap to create the racial equity plan, and we have only three city staff that is operationalizing this work, um, that is beginning to implement this work with um our community.

Um, and I uh if I I saw that one of the positions may be eliminated, and this is we only have three staff in this office, and so I would urge my colleagues to make a request and uh to make sure that this position stays uh within the budget um for us to do this work to build capacity within uh our city staff um and to make sure that we're budgeting, we're resourcing, we're operationalizing across our city departments.

We're gonna need those staff to help do that work, and so um that is uh my ask to this council to consider as we're uh continuing conversations on trade-offs, and then lastly um on public safety.

I know last year we were able to avoid cutting actually any field position, and this year what could be on the table are potentially cutting positions.

Last year I requested for us to have an audit of vacancies in PD.

And I believe the chair uh said he would consider this in the budget and audit committee.

Um, and it was great to hear council member uh Roger Dickinson mentioned this this in his comment as well to kind of do a deeper dive around the vacancies as well.

So it's really great to hear that.

Um I believe our city auditor is presenting a potential scope of work um that's coming to budget and audit.

Um I think this is really important as we consider um how we address the vacancy.

Uh councilwoman Kaplid just talked about perhaps freezing freezing some of these vacancies, right?

Um, but I would say before we do any of that, we really need to have a deeper understanding of these vacancies.

Um, and so just wanted to re-center that because that was an ask that I made last year during budget to consider um analyzing those vacancies so that we could be better informed on you know whether we eliminate these positions, whether um there are other um strategies that my colleagues mentioned.

So just wanted to also uh pin pin this item as well.

And those are all my comments on the budget, and I I look forward to the continued conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Vang.

And I think it's a great idea for the Yep C for the scholarship program to see how it was utilized, especially as we consider parks through an equity lens.

So good idea.

Uh Mayor Pretenkaya.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, you know, I I just I wanted to ask the city manager and I may, you know, maybe also our colleagues to take some caution here on um the trade-off on public safety, because um, you know, one over the weekend we had a number of of great lunar new year celebrations, and what I'd heard of a lot from our uh business owners who own um uh along Stockton Boulevard, how you know proving public safety has increased the confidence and people to uh to uh invest and and build out Stockton Boulevard, and we see a lot of success in uh in that.

to ask the city manager and I may you know maybe also our colleagues to take some caution here on um the trade-off on public safety because um you know one over the weekend we had a number of of great lunar new year celebrations and what I heard of a lot from our uh business owners who own um uh along Stockton Boulevard how you know proving public safety has increased the confidence and people to uh to uh invest and and build out Stockton Boulevard and we see a lot of success and uh in that and then we had the incident that happened in TOCO here most recently and so I I want to caution that balance here because if if uh if one we don't have the confidence for people to come and visit downtown for tourism that's a problem that's a sales tax problem as well not only just the safety issue but second the long term issue we little notice that our property tax revenues are the most stable revenue part we still have vacancies in uh in our core here places that are boarded up and some of it has has to do with you know uh how they feel about uh the security so I think we have to make sure that uh that uh that we're balancing that and I know that our downtown partnership had just uh also they themselves said we want to be part of this and we they with their own resources are stepping up with that uh that combination so I do think we need to have that there's uh there's there's these trade-offs here and I and I appreciate that the business community said that they want to uh step up and do more of their part as well as necessary uh but we have to make sure that we recognize that that trade off is is also critical and I've seen it on in my own district on Stockton Boulevard the benefit of being able to have an extra uh just bike officer when we've had it out there they engage more with the with the business owners many of them who uh you know English is their second language and and being able to engage with them so uh I do appreciate that that work but I wanted to put that on table uh city manager make sure that um it isn't just one or the other like it has a direct effect in in our uh both sales tax and property tax revenue generation so yeah through the uh vice mayor uh I want to address a couple of items uh that a couple of you spoke on so to council member bang I did have those specific conversations with the director of Yipsey and we're gonna bring those scenarios we're gonna let you know how the programs work uh so if we're proposing it already came up as one of the ideas we're gonna provide some context and some additional information um councilmember Kaplan as it relates to the forensic audit I have been talking to our auditor about looking at um it's gonna be part of her work plan we don't have time to do a zero base budgeting exercise um it is my understanding that we've performed some forensic audits in the past so I want to look at what those uh produce and then I can work with our uh city auditor and determine how we move forward with that so while she will be bringing her work plan forward we may make some adjustments based off of some of the audits that we've done in the past and to police um I I completely understand what you're saying about there is a trade off I do have a concern with having less than 600 police officers here in the city um you know the incident that we had last night is a perfect example of why we need more police officers but I'm gonna honestly say police will be touched um we will look at vacancies um what that looks like so to um your point council member dickinson we will look at the vacancies and how we can make certain that you know there are no bodies going home but how we can you know just either freeze our remove those vacancies um it's gonna be tough right um when we talk about people uh losing their livelihood this is not an easy decision um which is why when I work with the mayor to talk about hey let's bring this forward early we can have these discussions um because behind the scenes myself um the finance team and the assistant city managers you know we're responsible for giving those notices to employees and it makes it really difficult to sleep at night when you know that these are decisions that you have to make moving forward and we we want to try not to make those decisions we want to have the less impact on our employees because they're the ones doing the work so we welcome all feedback there will be trade offs you know I'll caution you priorities are public safety homelessness I want to commend the DCR team we have made some changes uh to how we're addressing homelessness you know we're making certain that we're getting out there early making certain we're cleaning up the streets um but also making certain we're having a compassionate approach on how we're uh addressing uh the individuals who are out there as well so um again I want to thank you I want to thank the mayor uh for allowing me to bring this forward in his direction um I do want to circle back with Pete and his team uh to see if you have all the direction that you need moving forward yes we've noted the follow-up items and we'll be bringing them forward either as part of the presentations or supplemental budget information items which we'll put in the staff reports.

Uh looking forward to working with you and the team on this.

And you know, to the members of the public, the list that was published on the city council website is a list and a menu of options.

Not all we're not going to pursue all of them.

They are all options in every single department, including our charter officers, put in some recommendations into 50% budget cuts.

But we're gonna work through this together and achieve something to make sure that we have a balanced budget here in the city of Sacramento.

Okay.

Uh no public comment.

Well, we did public comment on this.

So informational items, none.

Uh council comments, questions, ideas, AB 123, 4 reports.

Seeing none.

All right.

Um public comments on matters not on the agenda.

Yes, I have two public speakers.

Uh Lambert and Henry Harry.

Yeah, well.

Uh lady, outstanding.

I mean, you you're gonna have to look at this thing, and another thing, you're gonna have to consider what type of cuts you're gonna have to take.

As a rostrum, why should you get a raise?

If everybody's gotta take a cut, take a cut.

And I'm also challenging because the millennials took us viral globally.

That's something you shouldn't take lightly.

They took us, they took our cheesecakes viral globally, and I didn't know what they meant until they showed me an email recently where I've been invited to attend a global summit outside the country.

Now, I'm not gonna travel that way.

The millennials, they they're fighting to want to go.

I rather them go.

I I've traveled all over.

I I don't need to travel there.

I met the people that were here during the Super Bowl, and I'm challenging my city councilman.

We are what is considered a goose that can lay a golden egg.

We come in scandal free, A plus rated.

We have a manufacturer in Southern California that has guaranteed that they can get out one million cheesecakes and one million carrot cakes of our mother's situation.

That's instant job creation, and by the way, those two desserts are in demand year-round.

They're not just in demand during the holidays.

So I hope Mr.

Uh Dickerson reaches out to us.

He knows what we're doing, and and my parents voted for him.

So do the right thing.

But great job by the gentleman, the city manager.

Thank you, members of the council.

Uh, I have some kind of bullet point things to touch on for you guys to consider as you're looking at the budget and into the future.

One of these ideas is to use these empty storefronts.

Um, a lot of these big stores, using their parking lots as sleeping and resting areas for the homeless while converting the inside for cubicles, restrooms, and showers.

Um, this will uh hopefully give us an opportunity to get these people out of our parts.

I mentioned today uh earlier in uh one of the committee hearings on uh racial equity.

I talked about a uh level two reserve program, which is a way that we can get some people into police uniforms, boots on the ground.

It's gonna take us a while to do it, but I think a lot of people would like to serve their city in a volunteer capacity when we see how bad things are.

Um I think there's an opportunity to approach people if you did something like this.

Hey, we're gonna do a one-time tax that only raises 15 million dollars.

When we raise that 15 million dollars, we're gonna put it into a fund that's exclusively for um helping people into low-income housing, whether it's on the building side.

Then we tax five dollars onto these people's rents over the next 30 years, and that goes back to replenish that fund.

I'd vote for that in a second if I knew that money wasn't gonna go into one of your pockets on a raise or some other administrator was gonna get it.

I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Create a fund, I'll find we'll fund it, leave it in there and use it for uh that purpose and that purpose only.

This is issue that keeps me up at night, and I'm running out of time, so I'll try this quickly.

I think we're updating our sanctuary policy.