All right, we will call to order the budget and audit committee meeting for here.

March 10th.

It's already March 10th.

Wow.

2026.

You'd be really shocked if I said it was March 10th, 2028, wouldn't you?

Yeah.

Then you'd be worried.

All right, good morning to everybody.

We're glad to have you uh join us.

Um just a couple of items.

Uh if uh you wish to speak on any item on our agenda, you're welcome to do that.

Feel please fill out a form and turn that into our clerk at the front of the chambers.

Uh when your name is called, please come to the the podium and uh keep an eye on the on the clock because you have two minutes for your your comments.

So we want you to make sure you get everything in that you you want to communicate to us.

With that, I think we need to call a quorum.

Uh yes, please.

Councilmember Talamantes.

Yeah.

Councilmember Maple.

Here I select Council Member Gatta momentarily and Chair Dickinson.

Here.

Okay.

You have a quorum.

We have a quorum.

Would you mind uh do and uh acknowledgement?

You are able.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous peoples and tribal lands to the original people of this land, the Nissanan people, the Southern Mai, Gallian Plains, New York, Patwan Wintoon peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

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

Thank you.

It remains standing.

Well, salute and pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

Thank you.

All right, Madam Clerk.

So chair, we move to the consent calendar.

We have items one and two.

I do have one speaker on consent.

Okay.

Do we have anyone who wishes to speak on those items?

I do.

Lambert would like to speak on item two.

Okay.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Item two.

I'm a big fan of the whistleblower.

I wasn't at first, but when uh the former uh person caught some people, then I was really proud because uh I was at arts and culture yesterday trying to get clarity, and they they were they were very uh protective of that, but during the uh whistleblower, which is a great program if it's uh fair, impartial, and they were able to catch a group that actually received a no written agreement.

That's a stickler for a person in business.

A no written agreement, and then they said they couldn't audit it.

I don't know any if uh if you're in business, you should be able to audit anybody.

There's no such thing as you can't audit someone.

The IRS, I've been audited, and they want your bank statements, so they should have the the city should be required to submit bank statements on wide open walls in the other group that was connected to them.

That's a lot of money that they said they couldn't track.

And so my question has been, and will always be, and we're gonna stay on it.

Is who wrote the checks from City Hall?

Who wrote the checks to this group?

Even though you can't audit it, you can't tell me that they wrote their own checks.

Because if they wrote their own checks, then you got a major problem.

So because we've submitted a lot of paperwork to this city, specifically the city manager's department, and we've uh we've run across so much resistance that uh it's inspired me to pursue something like a no written agreement.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Here I have no more speakers.

Okay, that's it.

We have a motion by Councilmember Maple, seconded by Vice Mayor Calamantes.

If there's nothing further, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye, opposed say no, any abstentions, hearing none.

Motion carries.

Thank you, and we'll go on to item three.

Item three is your fiscal year 2026-27 budget survey results.

Okay, good morning.

Is it up?

Okay.

Good morning, Council members.

My name's Marcala Santizo.

Today I'm presenting the results of the fiscal year 27 budget survey.

Okay.

So for this year's survey, we made a few changes to the process.

The first change was the length of time that it was open to the public.

The survey was open from October 22nd to January 20th, which was approximately three months.

And this is one month longer than it was last year.

The survey was also translated into seven languages.

This year we added Russian.

And also for new outreach and communication, the survey was added to the city spotlight employee newsletter and featured on the city's home page of the website during the tenure of the survey.

This is in addition to what we did last year, was which was adding it to the monthly communication toolkit that was sent to neighborhood associations, chambers of commerce, property business, improvement districts.

We also posted the survey link on city social media, sent it to community engagement teams, distribution lists, shared it with our 18 community ambassadors, promoted on the weekly SEC Vibes blog, and various other city websites and news letters that goes out to the community.

So overall, our media and communications engagement team worked hard to get the budget survey out to community and businesses.

The majority of the survey takers uh supported reducing expenses to balance the budget, and that was at 40%.

41% agreed with council's top three priorities that were decided in September.

So public safety, homelessness, and economic development, and then for the uh number of participants did who did not agree, their choices were public safety, homelessness, and housing.

Okay.

So as mentioned in the previous slide, 40% would like the city to reduce expenses to budget the balance to balance the budget.

Um not far behind was 38 percent who believed that a combination of using increasing revenues and cutting expenses could be employed.

So compared to last year's survey, uh the combination option was actually the majority, so this year it switched to cutting expenses.

Okay.

When asked about revenue generating strategies, 50% of the survey takers opposed any increases to taxes and fees.

Uh 31 for 31% felt that increasing city permit fees could be considered.

And last year, those two uh choices were actually tied at 41%.

So we're starting to see just a deviation from people's choices.

Okay.

Um so this year the top five expense reductions are the police department, climate programs, capital projects, uh, homelessness programs, and arts and culture.

Arts and culture is a new one this year.

Uh the other four have been in the top five for the last few years.

And then as mentioned in the highlights, the survey takers who disagreed with council's top three priorities, believe that public safety, homelessness, and housing are the top priorities.

Um, which was the which is one of council's top priorities is uh landed kind of in the bottom half of their survey results.

And then finally, a change from last year's um is the public support of using contractors in lieu of city employees.

51 percent of the respondents uh support it.

Last year, 50 percent of the public said no.

So these were just the highlights.

The entire survey results are in the staff report, but this is the conclusion of my presentation, and I'm available for questions.

Okay, thank you for the presentation.

Uh I I think we should probably should just note that this is not a scientific sample.

It is not, no.

So with that, uh, Vice Mayor Telemantes.

Yeah, go ahead, we take questions first.

Okay.

Um so the top five expense reductions are police department, climate programs, capital, homelessness, arts and culture, but then the top ranking for the community survey are also public safety, homelessness, and housing.

So what I guess my question is the priorities are also where we got a cut, is kind of what the community is saying.

Uh but how do we structure the survey differently so that we can get better answers and better direction from the community, or what's your understanding of the data that we've gotten?

So last year we actually kind of broke up the uh different priorities and kind of extended it a little bit more to maybe see what the public felt in regards to public safety and what that meant for them.

We did not do it this year because of the fact that the um the council's priority change, but we could also do that next year to see you know maybe what they what they consider to be public safety is different than um having the police department at a certain level versus you know other types of public safety methods that they may be thinking.

Okay, thank you.

Other questions?

I thank you for the presentation.

I really appreciate that we do this.

I know it's not something that every city does, but I think it's really important for us to be able to ground our you know our decisions and what we hear from our own constituents with also you know some data um citywide that helps us understand where people fall.

I did think it was interesting um that uh some of the that uh 59 percent don't actually agree of the respondents, noting that that's actually you know it's 525 people, right?

So a little bit different than the totality of the city population, but it was really interesting that that they didn't agree with the top three priorities and actually wanted to add in um housing and homelessness as a part of that, and then not necessarily economic development, though.

Um I think and understanding how those things are uh described is probably important because uh what I found was something like economic development, even on this council is you could probably find like nine different descriptions for what that means.

Um so uh just an interesting data point, but just wanted to thank you for for doing the survey and thank you for the constant improvement um to it.

I think that's really important for us to do too, get that feedback and make sure that we update it every year.

So I know that I'll be taking a look at these as I um consider and the budget.

Thank you.

Yeah, sure.

Um I just want to note that this is the third year that we've done it, so every year we've tried to do something different based off like what the public has told us.

The other thing I also want to note is that um public safety, homelessness, and housing has been the consistent three that the public has chosen, so they haven't really deviated from what they've stated from the very beginning.

So thank you.

Well, I I too appreciate the the presentation, although I do think in contemplating whether we do this next year, we it would be wise to take a step back because uh we're getting inform uh although all information is useful to some extent, uh I think the question can fairly be asked whether this is information that's useful given the time and expense put put into it, and that comes not just from from this fact that the the sample is not representative.

Uh it's it's also quite skewed in terms of what parts of the city it comes from, for example, as well.

Um but when it's done, so so when doing it even starting sooner in December into the into the early part of the year is really to a certain extent in a vacuum from the budget perspective.

Um we get some information about the what the budget looks like, but for people who are trying to decide, gee, should we should we think about raising fees?

Should we not?

Should we do this?

We're getting we're getting more, I think, just general feelings about that as opposed to situational specific feelings because of the time when you're when you're conducting the survey.

So uh whether or not we we continue to do this, uh I think is a fair question, and if we do, then looking at how it might yield some uh results that that would we'd have some confidence in as as reflecting sentiments of those in the city, I think is is an important consideration.

So um, but I appreciate the work that's done.

I know you I know you you put in a lot of work on this, so um, and a lot of effort to try to get response.

I don't I don't want to minimize the effort you go to to try to get get response as well.

Um so I think that's all the questions we have.

This is uh I'm assuming it's a receive and file.

I didn't look and we have some uh members of the public who would like to address us on this.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

I have two speakers, Lambert and Keon Bliss.

No, I'm I'm really inspired, Mr.

Dickerson, that you are the chair because you're using words that I use, which are skewered.

See, when you look when I look at these graphs, and I'm not doubting whether they did a good job or not.

Think about this.

You spent money, I would so assume you spent money to put all of the questions in different languages, and you received zero responses in those languages.

So, what was the expense used to do that?

What made people in different languages not respond when they said it's in different languages?

See, that's part of your structural deficit.

Uh also um, and I will say this and say it with confidence.

I go to a lot of commissions.

I was at a commission last night, arts and culture, and I all of the commissions I go to, 90% of the times I see one person there that's always there, and that's why she should be the highest paid at City Hall, and that's Minty Cuppy.

And I'm not saying that because she pays me, I'm talking about earning your stripes.

You shouldn't get a raise if you're not doing anything.

You should, as a matter of fact, I believe uh people working remotely, and I've said this, and we have the millennials looking into this.

How much money could be saved not giving people a raise working remotely?

Not laying them off, but not giving them raises.

I mean, there have been studies on 60 minutes where women and men are starting to take their children to school in their house clothes.

They didn't used to do that because when they dropped their children off, they had to go to work, and they're getting raises for that.

And I've heard that they get raises for the internet by using it at their home.

Thank you for your comments.

Keon Bliss.

Morning.

Morning.

531 respondents for this year's survey.

Last year it was 796 respondents, and the year before was 1,587.

Why is that?

I can tell you a uh novel theory.

It's probably because people have lost real any real faith that anything comes about these budget surveys because for the last three years in a row since we've done them, council and city management has effectively ignored all of the priorities that were listed as well as uh the priorities for reduction cuts, which notably all three years in a row, the police department have and capital projects have sat up at the top of four priorities.

But and yet each year, the department's budget raises and other programs that people care about, programs that actually would address homelessness, end up getting cut.

I don't think that we should simply dislike go do away with survey results.

Anybody that's thinking that is simply afraid of what the answer is going to be the fourth year or the fifth year coming up.

What we actually need is to make this a priority to re like to reach out to as many community members as possible, which this council absolutely has authority to do and power to do.

It's called budget town halls.

There are cities like Oakland that do budget town halls in every single city council district, seven districts.

Before like leading up to the budget hearings uh that they have.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Chair, I don't have any more speakers.

All right, thanks for the comments.

Uh and uh we've reviewed, commented, and provided direction.

Clear as mud.

Okay, we can use my move on to the next item.

Uh we're gonna take uh item five first, and then item four.

So we can talk about the uh proposed work plan uh first.

So if you can read that item for us, then we'll see item thank you, Chair.

Item five is the city auditor's proposed work plan for fiscal year 2627.

Morning.

Good morning.

All right.

I'm Farisha Rari, I'm your city auditor.

With me today is Kevin Christensen, my assistant director, who helped me put this work plan together.

The recommendation that is before you today is to review the potential audits and pass a motion selecting the audits to be included in the city auditors proposed work plan for fiscal year 26-27 and forward to the city council for final approval.

Before we go into the details of the proposed audits, I want to do a brief overview of the agenda today and note that the work plan development process is a little bit different this year.

In the past years, my office would typically present our work plan to the committee for acceptance and approval.

This year I wanted to structure the process in a way that affords the budget and audit committee a greater opportunity to provide input on the audits that ultimately make it onto the work plan.

To help ground the discussion, I'll start briefly reviewing some of the audits and projects that our office has completed over the last few years, as well as those that we expect to complete by the end of this current fiscal year.

And this will provide some context regarding the types of projects our office undertake and have recently completed.

Next, I'll walk through the projects that are currently on the fiscal year 25-26 work plan that have not yet been initiated, but that we plan to begin before the end of the fiscal year.

And as you know, the work plan is developed with the intention of initiating all approved projects during the fiscal year.

However, over the past couple years, our office has been working to catch up from prior staffing vacancies and transitions.

And in addition, audits often take longer than anticipated, and unplanned work, such as investigations or emerging issues can require us to redirect some of our staffing resources.

So because of this, there are some projects on the current work plan that we will not be able to initiate before the end of the fiscal year.

These projects, they're typically rolled over to the next year's work plan.

However, the committee will have an opportunity to recommend whether any of those projects should be removed in order to make room for new priorities.

And finally, I'll walk through six proposed projects that have been submitted for consideration for fiscal year 26-27 work plan.

These proposed projects were developed through discussions with council members, conversations with the executive team, and the results of our internal risk assessment process.

So let's start with the quick overview of some of the audits that we completed.

During fiscal year 23, we completed the audits of code enforcement, the cannabis code enforcement unit, city's financial condition, and wide open walls and David Sobon events.

We also completed our language access gap analysis, survey results and policy recommendations.

During fiscal year 24, uh we completed the projects listed here.

This was the first year in which we conducted uh the report for the Sacramento Children's Fund, where we calculated the baseline funding expenditures.

We also conducted our community survey, diversity assessments, and audit of the police department's sexual assault kits.

We also released our first review of the city's homeless response.

During fiscal year 25, we completed our next report on the city's homeless response, which reviewed the city motel program.

We also conducted audits of police department's military equipment use policy and inventory practices, animal care services division, and the Sacramento Ethics Commission.

In addition, we conducted fund reviews of the water and wastewater funds and completed our charter mandated annual audit of cannabis business operations tax revenue and baseline funding verification for the Sacramento Children's Fund.

This current fiscal year, we've completed our cannabis business operations tax audit and the baseline funding verification for the Sacramento Children's Fund.

We also just completed our community survey, which we will be presenting next.

And we anticipate completing the following projects before the end of the fiscal year.

Audits of emergency medical services, evidence and property division, our 2025 workforce diversity and salary trends, our Department of Utilities energy use related to power purchase agreements and solar shares, and costs and outcomes of the city's homeless shelter shelters.

Sorry.

As you can see, we'll be quite busy for the next few months.

By the end of the fiscal year in June, we anticipate that we will still have the following projects in process in progress.

The audit of the city's transient occupancy tax, which we anticipate will be completed early next fiscal year.

Our storage storm drainage fund review, potential cost savings and revenue recovery audit of the city's telecommunications and utility services, and the audit of the EEO complaint investigation and resolution practices, which we recently reinitiated.

And as we complete some of our projects prior to the end of the fiscal year, we also anticipate that we'll be initiating these projects before the end of the year.

The audit of pedestrian safety, code compliance night team, the city's radio systems, and we also plan to start our project regarding the comparative cannabis code analysis.

And as I mentioned, we do have some recurring projects that our office conducts, such as the annual audit of cannabis business operations tax revenue and the baseline funding verification for the Sacramento Children's Fund.

These projects keep our entire office busy from about September through December each year.

And the City Council has also requested that our office regularly conduct diversity assessments.

So for fiscal year 26-27, we'll be conducting our triannual diversity review of employment applications, hires, and separations.

The first two items listed here, they're mandated by the city charter and are required to be completed by our office.

But the city council does have the authority to change the frequency of the diversity reviews or direct our office to no longer conduct these if you'd like.

So these um these are projects that were included in our current fiscal year work plan, but will not be initiated before the end of the fiscal year.

And so consistent with past practice, these projects are proposed to be carried forward to the fiscal year 2627 work plan, unless the budget and audit committee recommends removing or reprioritizing any of them.

Brief language on the objective and scope of these audits is included in the fiscal year 2627 proposed work plan staff report.

One that I do want to point out is the business operations tax project on our research analysis side.

The objective of this project was to evaluate the financial impact of BOT and provide some benchmarking analysis and consider equity factors and the potential updates to the BOT.

In discussions with the finance department, it appears that they've already undertaken some of this work as part of the ballot measure discussions.

So my question is whether or not the committee wants me to roll this project over to the next work plan.

So now I'm gonna go over the six proposed audits for the committee to consider adding to the upcoming work plan.

So the first proposed audit is another audit of the city's homeless response.

If you recall, our preliminary report on the city's homeless response identified several areas that we could audit.

And this is one of those areas that is focused on the city's homeless response protocol and the effectiveness of our interdepartmental coordination efforts.

I'm not gonna read that entire objective and scope in the proposal, but the audit would evaluate whether our response protocol and department coordination is operating efficiently and effectively.

And I want to note that we do have another audit of code enforcement's night team that I mentioned that we start we plan to start before the end of June.

So if this one is approved, we would have two audits of code enforcement back to back.

They are two different audits with two different areas of review, so we could do them both, or if the committee wants to replace one with the other, that is also an option.

Then I believe you all attended the state of downtown event last month and heard the speaker discuss the walkability of downtown Sacramento.

So this proposed assessment will determine whether the city has designed, implemented, and prioritize policies, street design, land use strategies, and capital investments that make downtown Sacramento safe and walkable.

And depending on what you'd like to get out of this assessment, this project might need to be contracted out.

And if that is the case, we would need to identify funding for the project if it's selected.

The next proposed audit is of the Department of Public Works, Urban Forestry Operations and Maintenance.

This audit would assess whether the city's tree inspection and trimming program is effectively and efficiently designed and operating to protect public safety and meet service level expectations.

The audit will evaluate whether service requests are prioritized and completed timely based on risk, whether the tree registry is complete and reliable, whether inspections and trimmings occur within established cycles, whether work is scheduled for geographic efficiency, and whether staffing levels and skill mix are aligned with workload demand and backlog prevention.

We typically try not to have multiple audits of the same department in the same work plan.

So I do want to note that the pedestrian safety audit would also involve the public works department, and if selected, so would the walkability assessment.

So that's something to consider when determining which audits you want to select.

And the last proposed audit is an external review of financial management and budgeting practices.

As you heard during uh last week's city council meeting, several council members and the city manager have discussed a desire to get an external forensic audit of the city's financial management framework, budgeting practices, financial reporting processes, and internal controls.

This audit would be contracted out but managed by my office.

And as you know, the city does receive annual audits of its financial statements that include assessments of internal controls.

So we would try to work on the scope of services for this project to be different than what they already get done in that project.

And so again, if this audit is selected, um I would need funding for contracting it out.

All right, so those are all the proposed audits.

Uh I'm looking for direction on three to four projects to add to the fiscal year 26-27 work plan.

Um if the projects that are contracted out are selected, I can add four.

Um, otherwise uh I would ask that no more than three get added to the work plan.

Um and as a reminder, if we do want to select more than that, we could remove some of the projects that are being rolled over or have not started yet.

And then one final thing to note is that this proposed work plan does not reflect the potential impacts of the 15% budget balancing strategies that were submitted by my office.

Um if those strategies are ultimately selected by the council, um, the office would lose one senior uh auditor, and uh this would impact our ability to complete the work plan.

Um in addition, the proposed strategies do include discontinuing the biannual community survey, which wouldn't impact our next year's work plan, but it would impact the fiscal year 27-28.

Uh, this concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Okay, thanks for the presentation.

Uh there's a lot to chew on here.

Um before I turn to my uh colleagues.

I just wondered first to is there essentially a one-for-one trade-off if we if we decided uh to recommend to the full council that we delete something that you have scheduled uh to begin in the 26-27 year and then substitute for it something among those suggested that you just outlined for us.

Is it is it really does it work pretty much as a one-to-one trade?

Um it could be not necessarily on the research analysis side, they're not full on audit, so we do anticipate that those projects take less time to complete and less resources, um, whereas the ones that are being proposed, most of them, except for the walkability assessment, which would potentially be contracted out, um, are pretty much full full on audits.

They will take longer to complete than the BOT um project.

Okay, then I think as we go through this this conversation that that uh you should advise us if we're getting a one-to-one trade-off.

If somebody if one of us says, hey, why don't we not do this and do that instead?

Tell us whether whether that really equates for you as a one-to-one or something less than that.

Sure.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Um Mayor Pro Tem Gera.

Uh do we have any public comments on this?

Uh why don't we go ahead and ask our questions?

Okay, it's your first.

I I think well, I was just gonna express my uh my uh interest in um uh in the homelessness response plan, and I think you know, this is unfortunately one of those that has a lot of uh council members responding to uh they're being pulled throughout the entire city in different directions, and so I think figuring out our our most effective way of uh being able to uh deliver those services is is important.

So for me, I think you know, how do we do process improvement?

I I really appreciate all the work that Brian Pedro has uh done, and and it's it's uh it's made a significant impact and changes in impact.

So um uh and I'm recommending not so much that I think that we're not doing well.

I just I know that there's a lot of challenges when uh every council office is is has a different challenge in how to pulling the uh pulling those limited resources.

So for me, I think given top of mind of what I'm hearing from constituents a lot right now is that responsiveness, and how do we address that responsiveness?

This will also help us also, I think identify where where the demand is, you know, and are are we appropriately you know staffing the demand for the office as well.

So um I don't know if there's uh thoughts on that, first of all but uh um not so much of a question, but at least an interested line, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, all right, and Councilmember Maple.

All right, thank you, Chair.

Um well, I have um I organize my thoughts in a few different ways.

Um the first one, and I know we'll have more discussions about this in the general budget discussions, is um I'm really concerned about any cuts to the auditors department.

Um they they've already they're already operating on bare bones, like many of our other um departments that that uh report directly to the city council, and so especially with the importance of the work that you do.

So I just want to state that out loud that I think you know it's relevant to this conversation because we may say, hey, we want you to do all these things, and then if we end up cutting your budget by 15%, you can't do the things that we've committed to, and then we're just going back and doing it all over again.

So um that's just something I want to say outright.

Um so going into the the audit, some questions I have.

So for the convention and cultural services special event permitting, that's one that has not started yet.

Um maybe I will ask this question of our assistant city manager.

Um it's my understanding that there are some changes that are currently happening under special events.

Correct.

We are in the process of um special events used to happen in two different departments.

You would have uh right-of-way events and then you would have private property events, and now we are combining them to all be under one um uh uh department, and we are putting in place um automated processes to make it easier, setting up new policies and procedures.

Um so we are smack in the middle of that.

We have made some of that transition, but not all of that transition that will continue um throughout the spring and into the summer.

So um you will be looking back at something that does not reflect at what is now current.

So that is something that maybe we want to rethink timing of um and maybe look at new process after it's had an opportunity to run for a while.

Okay, that's really helpful.

So uh one recommendation that I would have um is that maybe we hit pause on that one.

Um all of these suggestions are also me looking at the the workload that you have, knowing that it's pretty intense and making sure that we're prioritizing for you.

Um so that's one that I think that makes a lot of sense for us maybe to hit pause on while they're implementing those changes.

I don't think it would make a lot of sense for us to do an audit on something that everything's gonna change, and then it's the recommendations that come out of that may not be relevant anymore.

Um so you know, I'll see what my colleagues have to say about that.

That's one one comment I have.

The other question I have is around um illegal cannabis cultivation, other question for our assistant city manager.

How do we currently how does that currently operate?

Is there an ongoing program?

Do we do it on a case-by-case basis?

How does the um sure?

We um had early on when there was a substantial amount of um illegal cultivation, somewhat of a program which um has rendered itself moot by virtue of court rulings and what data we have access to in order to implement that.

So um we have also seen a substantive decrease uh in complaints, and now it's really case by case.

Uh so there's not really a program to audit, and you know, PD has their um policies, procedures that they go through when they have a call around illegal cannabis cultivation, uh, work with the code enforcement as needed, but really it's a it's a case by case and there has not been a substantive amount, I would say, in the last couple of years.

So that's also really helpful.

Another recommendation I would have is that either we hit pause or we just eliminate this one.

Um, not again uh recommendation pause um because one, if there's no program, it's hard to see what we're auditing other than how we're responding to case by case um enforcement, which may you know may be different and may depend on the case.

So that's just one thing that I mean, I do think it's important uh if we see it becoming a problem again, and maybe that pause is the right thing to do there, um, because if we do start to get more complaints, we want to make sure that we can address that.

But um at this time, especially given your workload, that's not something I see as a priority personally.

Um and then on the code enforcement rec you did make a recommendation or the suggest that it could be possible to switch out.

My personal preference, just based on my interest, um, is to replace the night team uh audit with the operations audit, because I think that the operations audit could cover some of what's happening in the night team uh and have a a little bit of a bigger scope.

I know that we're um currently uh we're having other discussions in lawn ledge about code enforcement um and you know how we're able to like for specific to a vacant lots and buildings, and so I'm I am really interested in the operations of code enforcement, whether we're being as efficient and effective as possible.

And so I do think it would be great to do an audit um uh there, uh though my preference would be operations over the night team.

And then on the proposed audits, um, I'm only gonna do three because I am aware of your uh workload.

Uh one homelessness response and coordination, I think that's really important.

I know that we have had several audits and one underway on homelessness, but I also know it's the most important issue to Sacramentans.

They want to know.

They want to know how we're doing, what we're doing, what we're spending our money on, if it's working, um, and whether or not we're working well together.

And so um I'm I'm I think we should move forward on that one.

I am interested in the police department overtime question because I know that's been raised many times by this council uh throughout the budget process over the years, and I'm not sure if it's ever been um very clearly stated what the process is.

Uh I know there's been you know answers, and I don't want to say that that hasn't been, but for me, I'm still unclear on what the process is, how we determine when overtime happens, you know, how much you know whether or not it's truly a one-to-one, as we've often said.

So uh be great to have an answer to that.

And then the third one, just because I know I heard our city manager um say that she's very interested in financial management budget audit.

I know we'll have to find money for that, but I do think it's important because I want to support her.

Um, and I think that if she think that thinks that that's a priority, so do I.

Um, and so those are my comments for now.

Those are the three that I would pick on the proposed, those are some of the changes that I would make to your current work plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh first the 250,000 that you had carry over from last year's budget cycle.

Did you incorporate that into this year's budget reductions, or were you able to move forward to be able to hire a consultant for the pedestrian audit?

Um, no, we have not used that yet.

It's it's not prior year savings that's projected for this current year that we're currently in.

Um we didn't, we haven't used it.

It was not something that we were, I think allowed to submit as part of a reduction strategy because it was one time savings, and I think that we're looking for ongoing reduction strategies.

So it's still, you know, anticipated that we'll have some budget savings this year.

And then what would be the cost for the forensic audit for the city budget and or the cost for the pedestrian one?

Like what is typical consultant like how much for contracting it out?

Sure.

I'm gonna see if Kevin remembers how much the animal care audit was.

It was almost 300.

Yeah, I think it was almost 300,000.

Um, I'm not sure what the forensic audit is going to be, depending on the how big of a scope it is.

Just forensic audits are typically more expensive than a regular performance audit.

It requires more, I guess, expertise in specific like CPAs and stuff to conduct those, I think.

Um so it would probably be a little bit more than that.

Um but it also does depend on the scope of that project, which if it is selected, I would work with the council and the city manager um to identify what what the scope would be and what the interests are in that project.

So it would be probably more than the savings that we'd have, so we might need to find a little bit more.

Um so that's my number one priority uh for your work plan uh moving forward.

Obviously, we have the budget deficit this year, we're working on closing that, but for next year, I just really feel like we need to start off fresh and really look at every single department, look at the vacancies, look at any dollars that have not been spent.

Um, and that would be my number one priority.

And just like Councilmember Maple, I'm supportive of you keeping your employees and not putting those reductions on the table so that you can complete the work that you have currently on the table right now, your work plan.

Uh we need to be able to move forward, and that's one thing with the auditor's office.

You help us with efficiencies, you help us with process improvement, and that's cost savings down the line.

And so I know we're gonna be having these conversations that budget on it, or uh you know, in future budget conversations with all our charter officers.

Uh, but for your work plan, we need these projects to get done.

And that means being fully staffed.

So I'll just leave the the audit and to the city's uh departments as my number one priority.

And then I agree with Councillor Maple on the other ones too.

Okay, thank you for all the the comments and just some uh preliminary thoughts.

Um I would I would also entertain either holding or dropping the special event permitting and the and the illegal cannabis cultivation uh uh audits uh in light of some of the things that I think frankly are are more valuable in the the ones that have been on the proposed list for the year.

Um I I have a question about whether whether the department of utilities physical security series is really something that's critical.

What it what is that?

Um so we have a specific uh utilities auditor who can't audit anything else because she's funded by utilities, and so we work with them regularly, the department, to identify areas of risk.

Last year we did a big risk assessment and identified some uh potential audits.

This was one of them that we still haven't gotten to, so we're rolling it over from the previous one.

But it really is.

I think they've had some instances where there were people that were um coming on to do property um with you know without authority to be there, and so they wanted us to look at some of like their physical security processes to make sure that they are keeping people out.

Yeah, but but the the ultimate point is it's not fungible.

I mean that that auditor can't they could do another DOU audit if there's not but not a dead outside of utilities, okay.

Unless there's funding to you know replace the DOU funding, I guess.

Yeah.

Um I do agree with uh uh the Mayor Pro Tem uh with respect to the the homelessness response uh protocol.

Uh I do think the police overtime uh audit makes sense.

Um if we're gonna look at code enforcement again, I would I would think it makes more sense to look at the operations than the night the night team.

Um I I uh do strongly uh think it makes sense to to do an assessment of I I wouldn't necessarily call it walkability, I'd call it mobility in in the in the downtown.

So much of our economy uh is either advanced or retarded by the extent to which our downtown flourishes or doesn't that uh having a physical environment that creates the the greatest degree of it of attraction is critical.

And uh so uh I think there is uh there there are a number of steps we could take, some of which were suggested in the talk that we heard the week before last week, I guess it was.

Um and that kind of and that kind of assessment to me could could yield significant uh return on on that investment.

I recognize that that a if we were to contract uh for that, which to me would make sense because I I don't know that there's someone on your team that would say, yes, I'm I'm the person who can do that if specialized kind of work uh that we would need to identify funding.

Um and I do think uh the assessment of the of the city's budgeting practices makes sense, although I also think that since that would require funding, it needs more definition as to scope uh before you can have a meaningful conversation about whether it's a priority and affordable within the the the greater scheme of of things.

Uh the the urban forestry operations and maintenance, I think uh would be useful, but I'd probably put uh a half step back in terms of uh uh priority uh given all the the considerations.

So that's uh I I think we've got a couple candidates.

We'll we'll hear from the public, then we'll maybe then we'll finalize what we want to adopt as a direction, but I think we've got at least a couple candidates uh of the ones on your roster that we could we could at least delay, if not if not let go.

Uh and then we've got some conversation uh about um things we might want to add.

Uh I I also don't know that it makes sense to do a an S analysis of the business operations tax if the finance department's gonna go through that exercise uh in any case, which they can comment for themselves, of course, but I assume that that that's something that's on uh on their their plan of of work to do.

Uh good morning, everyone, P.

Caletto, finance director.

Uh yeah, so we did a survey of our peer cities and nearby jurisdictions uh and what their business operations taxes look like in preparation for the discussion we had at Law and Ledge regarding um updating the city's BOT.

Thanks, Pete.

Okay.

Yes, I have two quick questions.

Uh by the department for the Department of Public Works Urban Forestry Audit, does that include the contractors that we work with?

Um the work that they do.

I mean, we would probably look at that if they're using contractors.

Um my understanding is there are short staff that they have to use more contractors, so that might be part of our analysis or our review.

Okay, and then my other question is the walkability assessment of downtown Sacramento.

Is that the same thing as the pedestrian audit that we had requested?

No.

Um it's a little bit different.

This one is looking at like more like street design and layout of the the downtown uh core, I believe, um, versus the pedestrian safety, it would be more citywide.

What what programs we have, what what are we doing to try to address some of the okay?

I just wanted to make sure that there are two separate ones.

So okay, thank you.

Yeah, okay.

So why don't we take uh public comment?

I have two speakers, Lambert, then Keon Bliss.

This one is really gonna go shake it up now.

Uh first of all, uh I wasn't gonna speak on this item, but then I saw and I was just I told you I was at Arts and Culture.

Now I'm really speaking to the city attorney.

You should really pay attention to what I'm saying here right now.

I was at Arts and Culture yesterday, and I was asking questions about is wide open wall still on the payroll.

Nobody touched it.

I just heard this auditor say in her presentation that wide open walls is still on the payroll or some kind of way.

Now when Mayor Steinberg was here, I went up in front of the council, because I'm not a coward.

I went right up in front of the council and said, wait a minute.

As a business owner, if someone can get a no written agreement and it's not audited, and you don't seem to be aggressive to try to figure out if they mismanage the money, then I went up and said, Well, as a business owner, can I get in that same line and get me an unwritten agreement too?

Or is it just for white people?

I meant that.

And now I'm seeing up here on the screen that they're still on the payroll.

They're getting paid.

We're gonna find out, we are.

We're gonna find out who's authorizing wide open walls and uh bonus or whatever it's called.

Davis Sabonis events.

Who's authorizing that?

Is it the city manager's office who's talking while I'm talking?

Somebody is paying this group, according to the auditor.

I saw wide open walls up on the screen.

What are they still doing on the payroll?

I've often said that the uh deficit is caused by a lot of the staff of this city.

Thank you for your comments.

Keon Bliss.

Before Kian comes up, let's clarify this for Mr.

Davis.

Ask if first it would come up.

Was wide open walls on your list of the case.

Let's just let's just clarify this point for you.

It was just identified as an audit we completed in fiscal year 23, which was the one that you originally talked about, like that we had done an audit of.

Yeah.

So they're they're not saying there's no funding.

No.

No.

Okay.

We're gonna find out.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

All right.

Mr.

Bliss.

Thank you.

Okay.

Majority of salary or majority of the city's budget does go to salaries and benefits for city employees, none of whom are the biggest recipient uh bigger recipients beyond the police department, which as of this uh last fiscal year comprises about 40 percent of our general fund discretionary budget.

Um glad to see that the police overtime practices is on uh just a year later uh than when uh we learned just how much money the city like the police department's overtime has cost us uh in the years.

Um I really want to encourage the council to prioritize not just police overtime practices uh uh audit, but also the budgeting practices audit.

Uh considering the fact that uh you know we're seeing fewer people actually engage in the recent budget survey, uh, which may gives me pause to wonder uh how city management um and the city clerk's office is actually uh putting things out uh to members of the public.

Um and then also uh uh the need to really uh look at how we are apportioning that, the performance metrics in particular uh need to be looked at because as it stands right now, there are barely any performance metrics uh to justify the level of spending for a lot of the departments, particularly the police department, um which we found last year had like the bare like the basic uh performance metric is how many officers there are per city and uh the and some diversity demographics and the response times, which doesn't measure uh anything or account for how like how they managed to collect more than 158 million dollars in overtime between 2012 and 2024.

I think the years of of analysis should extend far like beyond just three fiscal years, considering that 81% of the of this 158 million dollar amount came after 2016 fiscal year, and uh recent investigation showing that no city employees outside the police department and fire department made more than 90 percent of the thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Chair, I have no more speakers on this agenda item.

Thank you.

Thank thank you.

Okay, so let's see if we can if we can work through this.

Um I think we uh had some potential consensus on holding the the illegal cultivation and the uh if I could read my writing special event uh permitting audits.

That is that something that I'm okay.

I'm okay with that because of the changes being made in special permit.

Okay, so we'll okay.

And uh Council Murguer also told me before he stepped out that he sorts up.

Okay, so Frista, we can we can have that as a starting place.

Um sorry, is that removing it or just rolling it over with the intention that we're just gonna sit on it?

Uh uh well, since one was backward looking for something that no longer exists, that that seems that was the uh special event um permitting.

We could it seems to me we could drop that.

Okay.

Um the illegal cultivation seems to have become enough of a minor item that we could drop that.

If I may, um the comment that Council McGuerrett made before he left is that he would like it to be paused but not ended.

Uh and I know that's a particular interest and concern in his district.

So perhaps we pause for now.

Um I don't okay.

So we put that one on hold.

Yeah.

Drop the but drop the special event.

Okay.

Okay.

M V O T was and B O T I think we can leave with the finance department.

Drop okay.

Now we've created all this headroom for you.

Okay, so uh I've lost it, but the list of it's uh the list of possibles.

Um I I do think that before we can uh decide whether to give a if you'll excuse the expression green, red, or yellow light to the walkability assessment or the budgeting practices.

We need we need to have more definition of of scope and potential cost.

And so my suggestion would be that we send those on to the full council, but but on a contingent basis that maybe between now and the time that it's heard uh by the council working with uh the city manager's office, you can you can come up with some thoughts about scope and cost.

Yeah, absolutely.

But I I just a quick question.

Both of those would be um contracted out?

Yes.

So I think on both of those we have as much time as we'd like to take to figure out scope since we'd also need to figure out how to fund them and then provide authority for so you could do a work plan that is the internal where staff is going to be doing the work, and then you could have these add-ons that would be contracted out and and figured out as we go.

That that that'll work.

I I just don't want to lose them in the in the process.

Yeah.

So I wouldn't want them just to be delayed and then we all get on to other things.

Absolutely, just saying when this goes to council, that doesn't need to be decided then either if we still feel like we're not ready with scope or cost.

Yeah, okay.

I have a question, Chair.

Yes.

So uh how do we want to go about the city auditor's work plan and then the budget reductions presentation that she will do at council?

Because you know, we're asking her.

Well, you know, we're going through the typical process of the 15% budget reductions, and then we're also assigning her more work, and then now we have two members here at a four out of the budget saying we don't want to cut her budget and we want to be able to move forward with these work plans.

So, how what's the best way of moving this conversation along?

I I would say that that the auditor needs to advise us in the context of the budget hearings what what her capacity is.

We can't we can't decide that here.

I think I think what we want to do is suggest to the council the kinds of that not the kinds of the audits we're interested in.

And then it'll be up to the auditor to say, yes, I can do all those, or no, I can't do all those, I can only do X minus and then have that conversation in the context of the budget.

And that's what we would do for every department has their work plan going into budget, and you will get that same feedback through the presentations you're gonna hear in March, and then in May and June would be your opportunity to say explicitly if we if it's not clarified through the presentations, um, here's what that impact would be, and then council can make choices around if we're not going to if we're funding this, then we are gonna not fund that because we have to have remember that swap of keeping the budget balance.

And by the way, we uh uh could we merge the code enforcement night operations into uh night team into I'm not looking at it into the overall operations?

We could.

I was going to mention that those like you mentioned, those are not really one for one because um we did try to create our work plan last year to do a little have some audits that are a little smaller in scope that we could turn around quicker.

Um so we could roll it in as just uh you know auditing all of code enforcement is just a bigger audit, takes more resources and time.

Yeah, I I I mean I think to the extent that there's any efficiency at all, it makes sense to rather than bifurcate those and do two, do one.

Okay.

Uh if we do one at all.

So uh my suggestion would be that we pause the illegal cultivation uh audit, we drop the special event permitting audit, we merge how many verbs can I get in this?

Drop continue the special event event permit.

We we uh we merge the uh code enforcement operations into one that would be overall uh operations uh that we uh I I'll say put on a parallel track, the walkability and the budgeting practices for an assessment of scope and and uh estimated cost, uh, and that the remainder of the suggested audits, homelessness response, police department overtime, um, and urban forestry uh we send on to the council for discussion.

Okay.

Does that cover the waterfront?

Yeah.

So we're basically rolling over all the proposed audits, including in the work plan but removing um special event permits and BOT combining the code with the night team one and pausing illegal cannabis, keeping it on the work plan, rolling it over, but not starting it next fiscal year.

Yes, yes, and I uh did you say dropping the special event permitting?

Yes, but Councilmember Talmontes did mention pausing it, so I'm I'm not sure.

Do we keep it on there and not work on it kind of like the cannabis one?

Yeah, because I think that's what Councilmember Guerrera's request was instead of just stopping those events.

That was the cultivation.

Oh, oh, okay.

That was a cultivation.

I mean, the event was the one where the process is changing, and so if we were to do that, that it would be a look back at something that no longer exists, so it doesn't seem to make sense.

Yeah.

I mean, we could also look at their current practices to see if it makes sense, but or we could pause it and wait.

Yeah.

That's something that comes up later.

Um I I would say this that I wouldn't I would drop it for now, and then if it becomes uh a salient issue again.

Let it rise from the ashes as a phoenix.

All right.

Okay.

Makes sense.

Okay.

So we need a motion.

So moved.

What you just said, all of it together.

Yeah.

Second.

Do you have that, madam?

Is that clear?

Madam Clerk, you've got that.

There's a lot of words.

All right.

I'll submit it to you in writing afterwards.

Yeah.

All right.

Any further conversion comment or question?

If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Opposed say no.

Any abstentions hearing none.

Motion carries.

We have an absent member.

Okay.

Now we can go back to the to item four.

Madam Clark.

Item four is the city auditors 2026 community survey.

And uh Mr.

Chair, if it's okay, uh, may I suggest in the interest of time, given that we are um already running into our closed session that maybe we suggest a um sped up presentation.

A truncated presentation.

I do have uh Joyce Chi from my office that's gonna be doing the presentation, so we'll ask her to skip forward on some of the stuff.

All right, uh good afternoon, members of the budget and audit committee.

My name is Joyce Shi.

I'm a principal fiscal policy analyst with the city auditor's office, and with me is Frischia Rari, our city auditor.

I'm here to present the results of our 2026 community survey, which is the sixth time our office has conducted the survey.

For some background, the survey results are comprised of responses from two groups of survey respondents, which is consistent with our previous surveys.

One group, which we call the representative sample, includes those that were randomly selected to participate in the survey for statistically valid survey results, and the other group, which we call the open participation group, includes includes those that were not part of the randomly selected group but decide to take the survey on their own.

For the representative sample, 7500 households were randomly selected from across the city to receive the survey.

Um similar to previous year surveys, we oversampled in some districts two, three, five, and eight due to historically low response rates.

The representative sample uh survey was administered from January 2nd to February 13th and was open for about six weeks.

We received 450 uh surveys, which is a six percent response rate.

This is a statistically significant sample, has a 95% confidence interval and a plus or minus 5% margin of error.

The open participation survey was available from January 23rd to February 13th, 2026, about three weeks.

We received uh 1,454 surveys, and the results are analyzed separately in the report and on the interactive online dashboard.

The link to the dashboard is on the slide here as well as on the city auditors website.

The rest of the presentation focuses on the results of the representative sample, but the results from the open participation group are generally similar.

As a recap, the community survey captures residents' opinions considering 10 central facets of a community, starting from the top and going clockwise.

These are safety, mobility, community design, community connection, health and wellness, economy, utilities, parks and recreation, natural environment, and education, arts, and culture.

This slide shows the proportion of residents who rated the community facets positively for quality and the relative importance of each facet.

Also displayed is whether local quality ratings were similar, lower, or much lower than communities across the country, also referred to as the national benchmark.

Building on the previous slide, this gap analysis chart highlights areas that the city may want to consider as potential areas for improvement by comparing the gaps between the quality importance ratings.

Ideally, FATSIS that are rated high in importance to the community would also be rated high in quality.

Um as you can see in the green box, uh examples include utilities and natural environment.

However, similar to previous surveys, safety, economy, and mobility were rated as high in importance, but lower in quality.

Slides.

First, uh, there is an overall satisfaction with the quality of life, with 68 uh percent of respondents ranking it as excellent or good.

Second, parks and recreation opportunities likely contribute to the high quality of life with a 64% positive rating, and community connection is valued by residents, with residents feeling that the city is welcoming, draws diverse people, and has a strengthening sense of community.

The report also highlights three focus areas.

Mobility-centered results may indicate an opportunity for growth as various ratings remain low.

Governance and city leadership results highlight opportunities for continued improvements, such that relevant positive ratings remain below 40%, and economic challenges persist in the community.

Ratings for overall economic health at 38%, downtown vibrancy at 33%, and employment opportunities at 46 remain below benchmarks.

The next several slides provide trend information for questions asked in the survey about the different facets of the community.

The percentages reported in these slides are the percent of respondents that rated each question positively, generally excellent or good.

The arrows above the 2026 responses represent how the city compares to the benchmark communities with populations over 400,000, which is about 23 communities that have also taken the survey in the past five years.

When the city's response is within 10 percentage points of the benchmark communities, it will show a similar represented by the horizontal gray areas arrows.

When it is more than 10 percentage points difference, it will show a up or down arrow.

You know, these are these are actually quite interesting, but in the in the interest of time, I think we're gonna have to bypass them for the moment.

I apologize for the oh no worries.

Okay.

Um would you like me to just scroll through them or yeah, if you can you can go ahead and okay?

All right.

Well, this is at least what you've covered, so people if uh they can look online and get these results.

So if anyone's watching, they they won't know that they can't access this, even though it's you're not gonna talk to us about it.

So let's let's just highlight which um aspects you're covering.

So this one's governance.

Oh, sure.

Um I'll I'll just say one sentence then.

Um, so uh both for the overall direction that Sacramento is taking and the overall confidence in uh the Sacramento government, there is a downwards trend, but there has been an increase since the 2023 survey.

Uh for economy, we're seeing several um downwards trends for overall economic health, the vibrancy of downtown commercial area, and economic development as highlighted earlier.

Uh for mobility, we're also seeing some downwards trends uh for the overall quality of the transportation system, uh, street repair, sidewalk maintenance.

Uh for also for mobility, we are seeing an increased use of uh public transportation, but the ease of travel other than by car has been trending downwards.

Uh for community design, uh, we're also seeing some downwards trends for well-designed neighborhoods, land use, planning and zoning, and overall appearance.

Uh for utilities, we do see some upwards trends with uh sewer services, drinking water, uh utility billing, and access to high-speed internet.

Uh for safety, although we're seeing some downwards trends for overall feeling of safety and uh in the downtown area since 2023, those have actually bounced back a little bit.

Um crime prevention has also demonstrated uh upwards trends, uh, although the percentage is still on the lower side at 27%.

Uh for the natural environment, uh, most of these are comparable to benchmark uh communities.

However, of note is cleanliness, uh, which is which has demonstrated a downwards trend since 2018, and despite the small increase since 2023, it is still lower than benchmark communities.

Uh for parks and recreation, we see a decreasing trend with city parks, and the ratings for recreational opportunities is lower than the custom benchmark.

Uh for health and wellness, uh, we are seeing an overall increase in the overall health and wellness opportunities since 2022 and uh ratings for overall health has is also on an upwards trend.

Uh for education, arts and culture, we're seeing an increase since 2022 for overall opportunities for education, uh, culture and the arts, um, as well as increased uh opportunities to attend these events and community support for the arts.

Uh, for community connection, um, overall uh residents connection and engagement with the community are on an upwards trend.

Um, however, uh taking care of vulnerable residents is uh rated the lowest on this slide at 22% and also lower than custom benchmark.

In addition to the standard questions, we also have some custom questions that we asked in the survey.

This is about a residents' priorities for how to spend the measure you fund.

And on the second slide is just the rest of the um options and their respective uh ratings.

As mentioned earlier, uh we have an online interactive dashboard that allows you to filter uh the results by a variety of responding characteristics.

This includes council district, income, age, and several others.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Well, uh thank you, thank you.

And I know you had a lot more to tell us.

Okay.

I appreciate you uh expediting uh the presentation.

Uh I'm gonna see questions.

No, we're gonna we're gonna let you off the hook uh this morning, but I I do encourage people to look through look through this because uh there is quite a bit of interesting uh data uh to say the to say the least.

Um so this must be a uh do we have anyone wishes to speak on this?

I do have one speaker, Keon Bliss.

Okay, looks like uh I don't see Keon at the moment.

Okay.

Um I'm happy to make a motion to forward it to the full city council for review.

Okay, we have a motion, chair a second.

Oh, yeah.

All right, we have by the vice vice mayor.

Uh any further comments or questions.

Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye opposed saying no, any abstentions hearing none.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Okay.

Now we go to the act, the active, the active side of the house, huh?

Okay.

M6 is active transportation commission recommendations from 2025 annual report.

Good afternoon.

Um members of the committee, uh, my name is Chris Doherty.

Uh I am the transportation planning manager for the in the sustainability mobility division of public works.

Um, and I also staff the Active Transportation Commission.

Uh, we'll keep this very brief this uh uh for this presentation in the interest of time.

I'm also joined today by uh outgoing chair Arlette Hodel, who will be uh going through the the recommendations for us.

Um again, the item before you today are the recommendations from the 2025 Active Transportation Commission annual report.

This item was heard in uh in front of the personnel and public employees committee um on January 27th, where we were asked at that time to bring this to the budget and audit committee, which is why we're here today.

So, with that, we have uh eight recommendations that uh we uh that the commission is proposing, and I'm gonna hand it off to uh Arlette.

And in the interest of time, I apologize.

I'm gonna scan through the uh the the details and go right to the summary screen.

Go ahead.

Uh our Let Hodel Pass Chair, Active Transportation Commission.

Our recommendations reflect Active Transportation Commission's overriding concern for the safety and health of city residents.

At the top of the list, increase funding, number one.

Help make our city more competitive by doubling the average amount for active transportation grants.

Without a permanent place in the city's budget, this is the best way to gain ground in the grant-seeking world.

Number two, implement traffic calming toolbox.

The most significant benefit is the reduction in both the frequency and severity of vehicle crashes by reducing vehicle speeds, the risk of serious injury or death for pedestrians and bicyclists in a collision is greatly diminished.

Number three, increase funding for the quick build program.

Quick build street design projects, get bikeable and walkable infrastructure projects built fast and affordably.

Number four, implement leading pedestrian intervals citywide.

LPIs allow pedestrians to enter a crosswalk three to seven seconds before vehicles receive a green light.

This enhances visibility and can reduce conflicts with with turning traffic by up to 60%.

Number five, develop a citywide safe routes to school program.

This is a national movement that aims to make it easier and safer for children to walk or bike to school.

Number six, implement no turn on no turn on red policy citywide.

Prohibiting turns on red eliminates conflicts between right-turning vehicles and vulnerable road users in the crosswalk.

Studies have found that allowing right turn on red increases crashes involving people walking and biking by more than 50%.

Seven, pedestrian safety review of proposed transitional housing.

Sidewalks are an important part of our transportation system and should be as important as traffical traffic and bicycle infrastructure.

Number eight, expand the creative crosswalk policy.

Creative crosswalks improve safety and visibility, calm traffic, reflect local culture and neighborhood history.

This is a relatively low cost way for the city to improve infrastructure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you for your service.

So just to wrap up, uh, these uh recommendations consist of about $8.2 million in a one-time year one ask with an ongoing recurring of about $7.7 million in total.

Uh so with that, we are uh that is the conclude our presentation.

We're available for any questions.

Okay, thank you.

And again, I apologize.

I know you sped through that.

You would have liked to have described in greater detail the recommendations you're you're making.

Some of us are uh big fans of the active transportation commission, so we pay some attention maybe to that one more than some of the others.

Uh but uh councilmember maple.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I just want to say thank you, thank you for your service on on the commission and for the entire commission's work on this, and of course, our wonderful staff that work on this every day.

It's no secret that this is something that I care about as well as many members of the city council.

Um I also was you know looking at this, you know, the vision the five Vision Zero quarters in Sacramento and um three of the five are in my district, the other two are in district two.

Um so I think we're the appropriate people serve on on this um committee to have this discussion.

Uh I it's also not lost on me that we're in a budget deficit, and this is very been in fact we have been the entire time on the council.

Um but you know, I do think that people's health and safety and their lives matter and the experience that people have, and I think it's a top, it should be a top priority for this council and the city to prioritize these um these types of investments.

And so it would be um I I would be very interested in moving this discussion forward in the budget discussions for the full city council about whether or not this is something we can take on its whole form or whether or not we can take parts of this um for this year and and uh and maybe leave others for a future year.

I know that's not ideal, but based on the um based on the budget situation that we currently have, I'm very interested in that.

I'm also particularly I want to appreciate the the cost amounts associated with the different items.

I think that makes it easier for us to visualize and understand.

Um I think there's a few things on here that seem like they would be relatively low cost for what they the value that they could bring, including the leading pedestrian intervals.

I think that makes a lot of sense.

I've certainly been in that situation where I've you know walked out when I had a green light and almost been hit by a car by someone who wasn't paying attention because they were only looking at their green light, um, and as well as the the right turn on red.

I think that's problematic in and of itself, and I think that would make a lot of sense.

I've also gotten received some emails about the creative crosswalk policy.

I think that's so before I was um in office, it was something that I looked into as well.

I think there's there's great ways that we could activate community members who are really interested in being a part of the solution, and that is one of them.

So, but you know, in total, I think we should move this, the entirety of these recommendations forward for a full discussion at the council in context of our budget, um, so that we can have that debate uh because I think it's important enough to do that.

Um, and so that I will leave my comments there.

Um that would be my direction, and if if the the rest of the committee agreed, yeah.

Um I think it's just review, discuss, and provide direction, but I'm happy to make a motion.

But we could adopt that.

Okay, well, then I'll happily make a motion to move the entirety of the um commission's recommendations forward for a full discussion at the city council.

Okay, thank you.

Is there a second to the motion?

I'll second that, but I have a comment too.

Um, I said on the personnel committee and the budget committee, and so I made this comment at personnel.

Every single uh commission has their work plans, every single commission has requests for the budget.

And we need to find a way of incorporating the commission's feedback and our oh yeah, I guess I have a C if you guys want.

Um and uh the feedback of the city council as we move forward in our budget process.

Uh, because what I don't want is, and what we've done is every single commission that comes to personnel with like budget asks, we forward them here and then we forward them to the city council.

And it feels like we're just kind of bouncing around and not having these frank, honest conversations like we should, which I mean that happens at the city council dais also, but like we have to find a better process for how we move forward next year on these budget asks uh so that we can be more productive and also respectful of the people's time.

So I guess that's just kind of thinking about both chairs and figuring out what our process looks like.

So uh look forward, hopefully working with you for next year to create a process for it.

Fair comment.

Um you guys can sit down if you want.

You don't have to you don't have to hover.

Um I share the sentiments uh of both of both of my colleagues.

Some of these things I think really do fall into that category.

I am a huge fan of the of the quick build approach.

One, because it makes demonstrable improvements, but two, because it also sends a message to community members that the projects they want to see done aren't years and years away, that something can be done in the in the near in the near term.

I mean, those those things to me pay uh huge dividends and and at a relatively low uh low investment.

Um I will say that with respect to the no right turn on red, I think it needs to be uh calibrated to different parts of the city where it may make more sense than than some other parts, because there are there are parts of the city where I think that if we were to institute that change, what we would generate is more frustration than anything else, and then noncompliance.

So I just think that that's that's uh a cautionary note on uh uh on that aspect.

But but uh in general, I um fully concur that I would like to see this discussed in the context of the of the budget so we can not treat this as somehow distinct and separate from what we're doing otherwise with respect to transportation, and so that we can that we consider where, especially on active transportation, there may be sources we can we can go to uh beyond what what we're already plumbing um today, if any.

So we have a motion.

You want an additional comment?

I'm so sorry, I know we're short on time, but I did forget something that I wanted to bring up, if that's okay, Chair.

Um, and more for the the members of the public and the audience who may be watching, but I I did see that our um city clerk uh announced that there is a citizens group that has um filed uh a measure for potentially November.

We don't know if it'll be qualified, but um it has been filed, so folks want to read the language it's public on the city's website.

My understanding that that measure in part would potentially have funds for transportation act transportation related um projects potentially, and so one request I would have of our staff is um you know to the extent not I don't want to add too much work to your plate, but really maybe helping us understand if that is something that is ultimately successful in November, how could that impact some of the plans that we already have in place, and including some of the recommendations from this commission?

Um if let's say we're unable to find the full funding for this in our in our city budget this time around.

What could that look like next year if that that measure is successful?

So uh I'd love to see some information come back from you on that.

Thank you.

Okay, strictly factual.

Okay, uh we have no one who signed up to speak on this item.

So uh we do have a motion and a second on the floor.

Any further comments or questions?

Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye, opposed say no, any abstentions.

Hearing none, motion carries.

And I believe that completes the business to come before us.

Or do we have off agenda?

Speaker?

Okay.

Sure, I have one speaker, Lambert, for matters not on the agenda.

Okay.

And then if it pleases the chair, we'll need two more council members in chambers, and then we can adjourn to our closed session.

Yep.

Yeah, I definitely won't go past two minutes.

Um what I wanted to say is during that the last time I was up here, there was an exchange.

And the millennials have notified me that uh someone said 2023.

They said that.

A lot of people following what I'm saying before I head out to sell a lot of cheesecakes and carrot cake, which is getting ready to take off in a real way.

I didn't come down here to hear about 2023.

On the agenda, it says 26, 27.

That's why I came.

I I didn't want to see or see anything that says 23.

That's where you made the mistake.

So I have to go study why 2023 was even mentioned to me.

This is this has nothing to do with ego and all of that.

This is a principled approach I'm taking here.

First of all, I want to thank the auditor and also uh Pete Cleto with the uh Department of Finance.

They inspire me because they know what graphs are and they know what results are, and I'm a graph survey person.

But you you made a tremendous mistake if I go study it, and I hear that you were talking about 2023 to me, because that's a waste of my time.

I don't really want to hear about something that's not on the agenda.

Who wants to hear that?

But what you did tip was that wide open walls was up on that screen again.

And I have a problem with that group, not the group.

I have a problem with whoever gave that no written agreement, and we can't get one.

Okay, thank you for your comment.

Uh may I ask one of the city attorneys in the back to um have some council members join us in chambers so that we may adjourn to the closed session.

Can we adjourn the committee meeting?

There's line.

No, I think you want to sit down there so she can accuse you of being done.

There you go.

That's not water.

And then when you have a forum.

Look, five.

Good afternoon.

I call to um we are going to adjourn the budget on audit committee meeting to a city council closed session.

I do have a quorum of council members in chambers or two items on the agenda.

We have no speakers on any of the items on the closed session agenda.

Those items are conference with labor negotiators government code section 54957.6.

Designated representatives are Laney Millstein, Aaron Donato, and Tim Davis, employee organizations or Sacramento City Exempt Employees Association, Sacramento Police Officers Association, International Union of Operating Engineers, Stationary Engineers Local 39, Sacramento Area Firefighters, Local 522, Sacramento Sierra Buildings and Constructions Trades Council, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, Local 447, Automarine and Specialty Painters, Local 1176, Western Council of Engineers, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and all unrepresented groups.

Item number two is public employee performance evaluation government code section 54956.95.

The title is city auditor.

Okay.