Measure U Community Advisory Committee Meeting Summary - September 19, 2022

The Measure U Community Advisory Committee met via Zoom on Monday, September 19, 2022, from 6:04 p.m. to 8:58 p.m. Chair Flojaune Cofer presided until 7:01 p.m.; Vice Chair Kimberly Williams then chaired the rest of the meeting. Cathy Creswell and Alice Perez were absent; Noel Mora arrived at 7:58 p.m. and Dana Kivel left at 8:24 p.m.

Special Presentation

• Chair Cofer recognized former committee member Gina Alatorre Lujan for her service since April 2019. Members Dana Kivel and Marjorie Dickinson added thanks.

Consent Calendar

• The committee approved the August 15, 2022 meeting minutes and the updated Agenda Log in one motion. The live roll call was unanimous; the draft minutes are internally inconsistent, listing Noel Mora and Alice Perez as both voting yes and absent, while the live roll call recorded them as absent.

Public Comments & Testimony

• On Item 6, Keon Bliss, vice chair of the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission, opposed the City Council's elimination of ad hoc committees, saying it was intentionally designed to stymie effective volunteer bodies; his commission had produced over 100 recommendations since 2016 with only one up-or-down vote. Lambert Davis and Barry Boyd also criticized the council action.
• On Item 3, Dr. Diane Wolfe asked whether the city had considered buying into market-rate housing to create affordable units and whether $100 million planned for a mobility center could instead support transit to make housing areas more affordable. Keon Bliss, as a District 4 resident, criticized the lack of downloadable presentation materials and said a few hundred units were not enough given about 9,200 unhoused residents, a 67 percent increase in unsheltered residents since 2019, including about 1,300 families with children and 464 youth, and an average studio rent of $1,958 versus an average income of $34,000.
• On Item 4, Lambert Davis stressed the importance of tracking public funds, saying untracked money could have gone anywhere, and praised staff for acknowledging that some FY2020/21 recommendations could not be traced.
• On Item 5, Lambert Davis said he and about ten people he invited were not selected as participatory budgeting delegates despite attending multiple outreach meetings, called the process suspect, and opposed directing PB funds to services for unhoused residents. Barry Boyd, a Southeast proposal delegate, asked for confirmation that an entrepreneurial program and a combined arts/culture proposal remained on the ballot and supported the proposed implementation review panel.
• During Matters Not on the Agenda, Lambert Davis asked for an audit of Measure U spending in Del Paso Heights and said the neighborhood should receive a PBID like District 2. Barry Boyd publicized the Planning and Design Commission's September 22, 2022, 5:30 p.m. meeting on the proposed 2023 planning and zoning work program.

Discussion Items

Item 6 – Future Committee Workload Needs and Ad Hoc Committees Membership Roster

• Chair Cofer reported that City Council voted 5-4 on August 29-30, 2022, to end ad hoc committees for boards, commissions, and committees effective January 1, 2023. She drafted a memorandum to the Personnel and Public Employees Committee requesting formal subcommittees.
• Committee members expressed disappointment. Dana Kivel said she was inclined to leave the committee; Marbella Sala urged members not to resign and hoped a new council would revisit the decision; Marjorie Dickinson said the committee should file its request promptly.
• Assistant City Attorney Brett Witter confirmed that subcommittee meetings would be Brown Act meetings requiring quorums, while informal gatherings below a quorum are generally permissible if not a concerted effort to discuss committee business.
• The motion passed 9-1-0, with Theresa Riviera abstaining; Creswell, Mora, and Perez were absent.

Item 3 – Overview of City's Affordable Housing Efforts

• Danielle Foster, Housing Policy Manager, and Greta Seuss, Associate Planner, presented. Housing is affordable when a household pays no more than 30 percent of gross income for rent and utilities; a two-person household earning $45,000 annually would find $1,000 monthly rent plus $100 utilities affordable.
• Sacramento's area median income is $102,200 for a family of four, up 12 percent in one year. Income categories: extremely low 0-30 percent AMI, very low 50 percent and below, low 80 percent and below, moderate up to 120 percent.
• A 2019 California Housing Partnership study found 91 percent of extremely low-income households in Sacramento County pay over 30 percent of income for housing, and 81 percent of those pay over half. More than 58,000 low-income renter households countywide lack access to affordable housing.
• The regional housing needs allocation for 2021-2029 is 45,580 units, about 5,700 units per year, with production about 2,000 units behind. Meeting the lower-income housing need would cost about $7.5 billion, with a city share near $2.5 billion using about $100,000 per unit in leverage.
• The city uses Measure U and other funds for its housing trust fund, is reviewing the mixed-income housing ordinance, and supports ADUs and missing-middle housing. In the Aggie Square area, $5 million in city funds and $5 million from the university support anti-displacement programs.
• Committee members asked about stalled lots in Oak Park, transit access in North Natomas, and extending Aggie Square-style anti-displacement programs to neighborhoods like Gardenland/Northgate. The report was received and filed; no vote was required.

Item 4 – Approval of the Measure U FY2020/21 Annual Report

• The Spending Oversight and Budget Development 2022-23 Ad Hoc Committee presented the draft report. Members found that roughly $60 million in the committee's FY2020/21 recommendations could not be traced to the final budget because the city was not tracking them programmatically at that time. The auditor was later identified as Masias, Jeannie and O'Connell, LLP.
• Members supported the report and future tracking. The motion to allow the ad hoc committee to finalize and forward the report to City Council passed with 11 yes votes; Creswell, Perez, and Cofer were absent.

Item 5 – Consideration of Amendments to the Participatory Budgeting Pilot Program Playbook

• Christania Dilian, co-executive director of the Participatory Budgeting Project, reported that more than 550 ideas were collected and Northeast and Southeast delegate groups developed proposal slates. Northeast proposals include youth services, education, parks, elder services, and community gardens; Southeast proposals include education, parks, library services, services for unsheltered residents, and community gardens.
• Proposal delegates recommended that after the public vote, a review panel with equal numbers of proposal delegates and Measure U committee members select implementation partners through funding solicitations, with conflict-of-interest rules and priority for focus-area-connected participants.
• The committee voted to amend the Playbook to add the implementation review panel. The roll call transcript records 8 yes votes and Theresa Riviera abstaining, with Cofer, Creswell, Kivel, and Perez absent; the minutes list Riviera as absent rather than abstaining.

Committee Reports and Updates

• Participatory Budgeting Implementation Ad Hoc: the community vote is scheduled to begin October 3, 2022 and run about three weeks, with multilingual ballots and events.
• Marketing and Communications Ad Hoc: Member Sala asked that the proposed Measure U logo be agendized for approval next month; 52 community survey respondents volunteered for focus groups to inform FY2023-24 budget recommendations.
• Investment Committee: the next meeting will be October 3, 2022, to discuss community benefit agreements for city-supported projects.
• City Manager's Office: staff outlined a Measure U communications campaign with a web page, quarterly articles, social media, signage, flyers, and digital toolkits. Denise Malvetti noted small business technical assistance programs and Economic Gardening 2.0 applications are due October 4, 2022.
• The committee welcomed new District 8 member Duke Cooney and discussed recruiting a youth member for the vacant seat. Theresa Riviera also requested that staff and contractors turn on cameras when presenting.

Key Outcomes

• Approved the consent calendar, including the August 15, 2022 minutes and the Agenda Log.
• Approved Item 6 (9-1-0) authorizing the chair to finalize and submit the subcommittee memorandum to the Personnel and Public Employees Committee.
• Received and filed the affordable housing overview.
• Approved Item 4 (11 yes votes) granting the Spending Oversight and Budget Development Ad Hoc Committee authority to finalize and forward the FY2020/21 Annual Report to City Council.
• Approved Item 5 (8-0-1 per roll call transcript; minutes show Riviera absent) amending the Participatory Budgeting Pilot Program Playbook to include the implementation review panel.
• Received updates on participatory budgeting, communications, the Investment Committee, and economic development programs.