Hey, good morning, and welcome to the budget and government efficiency committee meeting of March 4th, 2026.

Our committee liaison, Natalie Kessler will provide information and instruction for the public to participate in today's meeting.

Thank you, Chair.

Well, members of the public are able to attend the meeting in person.

This meeting is being televised and live streamed on the city's website, and the council administration will continue to make arrangements for the public to comment using the Zoom webinar platform.

Members of the public who wish to provide virtual testimony must enter the virtual queue by raising their hand before the virtual queue closes.

The queue will close when the last virtual speaker finishes speaking or five minutes after in-person testimony ends, whichever occurs first.

This will allow for better meeting management between the two platforms and ensure the committee is able to manage and conduct city business.

We appreciate the public's cooperation.

I will now call the meeting of the budget and government efficiency committee meeting of March 4th, 2026 to order.

Natalie, please call the rule.

Vice Chair Moreno.

Present.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

And Chair Foster.

Here.

Also attending the meeting today is Charles Matica and Lisa Byrne from the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst.

Deputy City Attorney David Powell from the City Attorney's Office.

Roland Carvell, Chief Financial Officer, Matt Yagin, Director of Policy from the Office of Mayor Todd Gloria, and Daniel Horton, Chief of Staff.

If you're in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and place it on top of the box indicated at the speaker's lecture and near the public comment microphones.

Please do so in a timely manner to ensure proper meeting management.

In-person testimony will conclude before virtual testimony begins.

Members of the public can join the webinar by computer, tablet, or smartphone by accessing the link listed online in the preamble language of the agenda on the city's webpage.

If you need to participate by phone, please dial 1669-2545252.

The webinar ID is 160-430-8338 pound.

This information is also available on the agenda.

Please note that if you're watching via City TV Channel 24 or online, there may be a delay.

So please participate participate via the audio on your phone and mute your mute your TV or computer when it is your turn to speak.

And if you wish to speak on a particular item, wait for that item to be called and then raise your hand to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon.

Or if you're a call on participant, press star nine on your phone.

If you raise your hand during a non-comment period, your hand will be lowered.

Chair.

Thank you for that.

A quorum is now present.

We will now take up non-agenda public comment.

The council members respect and appreciate the public's input and are fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at council and committee meetings.

Natalie, please proceed with non-agenda public comment.

And we've received one speaker slip from an individual in chambers, Blair Beekman.

Please approach the lecture, and you'll have two minutes to speak to non-agenda public comment.

Sorry about that.

And I thought I thought he gave a great idea.

And it reminded me of the parking issues.

The same with you can I'm understanding you're going to use some funding for Balboa Park issues, but you're denying a narrative that it is going to also be going to general fund things.

Hopefully, is clear that another person from the public, uh regular, uh, has stated that that's money is going to be used for.

Good luck in how we can address that.

And once again, um we don't quite know what we're doing in Iran right now.

We have toppled a leader again, like with Venezuela.

It's the same pattern.

So that has accomplished something, it's not everything.

And we have to really make sure here at the local level that we are practicing peace really well.

And um those give practices how to end war.

Um good luck how we do that, how we work at the local level this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes in-person public testimony.

We will now move to the virtual queue.

I've started the five minute timer.

We have two hands raised in the virtual queue.

Andrea Ebbing, please unmute and begin.

Morning, Ms.

Andrea Ebbing, uh, Blair Beekman, your hair looks great.

Don't worry about that.

Uh uh Charles Modica, I would love to actually connect with you.

Um, about maybe like a year ago, um, you had come out from the County Board of Supervisors meeting and you gave me your card.

Um, and I would love to connect with you at some point.

I just have some questions about the budget, um, and maybe just a conversation with you might help clarify.

Um, I am still interested in learning who is Cheryl, um, the supposed city of uh San Diego attorney that actually Charles Morica and myself both were like, What who is this?

Who is this employee that made um $537,000 in the year 2023 as an admin aid, but there's like no information online about her and no information on the city that I could find.

Um we just don't know who she is.

I'm just curious about that.

Also, uh, you know, if anybody wants to connect, I know that there's a lot of victims, a lot of cases, a lot of issues that uh run in the same vein of issues that I've experienced and that I've uncovered in the city and county.

Um, if you want to connect, my email address is ebbingandrea at iCloud.com.

So again, it's ebbing E B B I N G Andrea A N D R E A at iCloud.com.

Um, any members of the public, media, law enforcement, anybody.

Um, I'd love to connect with you.

These reports and uh items of information that I've been sharing and exposing um uh consistently bubble to the surface.

So um I really hope that if you are receiving my emails daily and you you are understanding now that what I'm talking about is a much bigger issue that doesn't just affect me and my family, but affects every San Diegan.

I implore you to please take action on it.

Um not trying to pound you with this information, I'm trying to beg for help.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And our final speaker in the queue with their hand raised, phone number ending in 870.

Please press star six and begin.

Uh thank you.

Uh Joy Sanyata, uh CD3, uh Blair, uh, welcome back.

Uh okay.

I I am so excited.

For me, today is the day of celebration for our accomplishments of yesterday.

It was an amazing day.

And I bring forth three thank yous into the light.

Uh, first of all, uh Chair Foster the third, uh County Board of Supervisor Montgomery Steph and Vice Chair Marino.

Uh I just wanted to be clear on my thank yous for those three.

Um Chair Foster the third.

Thank you, because I I just want to put out there to the public that you really are a big force for equity.

And I'm just thrilled to have you uh on board.

And I know that your partnership with uh Supervisor Montgomery staff continues to be very, very strong.

And and so she's right there with us and continues our work with us, and I just love her and send her blessings uh on her work.

And uh Chair Marino, Vice Chair Marino, thank you, a big thank you on the uh KPI uh audit, because you're the one that really uh sparked that to happen.

And and I I really wanted to make sure you know that I appreciate and thank you so much for that.

So um let's see here.

Uh excuse me, this is sort of extemporaneous this morning.

Um, and of course, uh committee member uh President Pro Chem.

Your work is excellent as Pro Tim and Ido Rivera, he's roaring, and and we support him on that roar, keep it up.

It was a great day yesterday, uh, committee member uh Ido Rivera.

So we'll quickly, if I can't, thank you.

And Chair, this concludes non-agenda public comment.

All righty.

Um thank you for that.

And we will now move to committee members, mayoral staff, city attorney, and IBA for comment.

Do we have any comments?

Having none, do we have any requests for continuance?

Hearing none, we will now dispense with the approval of our consent agenda.

Natalie, please proceed with any public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for the consent agenda is now open.

The consent agenda includes item one approval of the committee minutes from February 4th, 2026.

And Chair, we have not received any speaker slips in chambers on the consent agenda.

We do have one hand raised in the virtual queue.

I have started the five-minute timer.

Each speaker will have one minute.

Andrea Ebbing, please unmute and begin.

I just uh this is Andrea Ebbing.

Speaking on the approval of the minutes, and um I just wanted to say that we have uh I just see this repeatedly that the names of the commenters are mentioned, but not the comments, unless you post your comment online.

So I noticed that when you go into the agendas, um, there are like comments in a spreadsheet.

If you wrote it out, but but the the comments that are made verbally are not recorded.

So I wanted, I mean, they're recorded like audio recorded, but not transcribed.

I wanted to know if there's a way to access um the information that is conveyed verbally um in a written format in the agenda or online.

And I also wanted to know it like what the procedure is, and and this is uh I'll follow up maybe with an email or a phone call when information that is being reported is like reportable by you guys or by anybody that has a mandated reporting duty.

I'd love to know the process and then what has been reported over this time period.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Chair, this concludes public comment.

All righty, thank you to all the members of the public for participating.

I will now turn it over to the committee members for questions and comments and entertaining a motion.

Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Start with uh council member Moreno.

Happy to move the item, thank you.

So moved.

We have a second.

Uh second by pro tem um Lee.

With that, we will now um have each uh committee member register their vote.

And that passes unanimously 4-0.

All righty, thank you everyone.

We will now move on to our discussion agenda.

Natalie, please introduce item two.

Item two, division of race and equity ordinance revision.

As a reminder, if you're watching City TV or the live stream and wish to call in to speak to item two, the number is one, six, six, nine, two five four five two five two.

The water ID is one six zero four three zero eight three three eight pound.

Chair.

Thank you for that.

Staff, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you'll need for your presentation.

And feel free to begin.

Thank you, Chair Foster, members of the committee.

We only need about 15 minutes, Kim.

All right, getting a sums up.

Um, so interesting to be looking up at you.

I haven't sat at this table for a couple of years, but it's good to get this perspective.

Um, as you are all aware, after being shuffled around the city during the last budget process, the Department of Race and Equity was moved under the IBA's office as part of council's final budget action.

Uh that move has since happened.

Since then, we have worked with the city attorney's office to update the municipal code to reflect that move and to align the responsibilities and roles of the race and equity team with the charter-defined role of the IBA.

Importantly, most of the functions of the Department of Race and Equity that existed prior to their move to the IBA's office continue to exist in the updated ordinance, although some language has shifted to be slightly broader, and there is some additional focus on both analysis and reporting to the public and to the city council.

Um I'm happy to note that shortly after the move of race and equity to my office, we were lucky enough to be able to rehire Kim Dusmond, who initially led the Department of Race and Equity to lead our new division of race and equity.

Um Kim brings enormous expertise and experience with this work, and she has been instrumental in the updates that are before you today, as well as continuing the important work of the division.

With that, I'm happy to turn this over to Kim to walk us through the Muni code changes that are before you, as well as to give you a brief overview of some of the work that race and equity does on a day-to-day basis.

So take it away, Kim.

Cool.

Good morning.

Thank you, Chair Foster, Pro Tim Lee and Elo and everyone in the room, all members of the council.

I want to just start out with saying I want to acknowledge the Dre team.

They're in the audience here, and I want to give a shout out to my colleague Gillian for her role in supporting the integration of the work as well.

And so as we get into the agenda today, the briefing will be in this order.

We'll talk about the proposed changes to the ordinance, and then we'll go over my favorite topic, tactical equity plans.

I know it is a mouthful, and we'll definitely also pivot to the context for KPIs, and then we'll move into the budget equity framework.

And so what Charles shared, then we'll talk about the activating the equity implications and how we address those disparities throughout the way and giving guidance to council.

So with that, I wanted to, I will always acknowledge the role that council president at the time, Monica Montgomery Step played in the creation of the office.

Also want to acknowledge Chair Foster for your role, which is a huge role in terms of not only contributing to the ordinance creation, but also the positions that were allocated in the equity fund, all the things.

And so as long as I'm in this position, I will always reference the people who was the foundation for pushing this work forward.

So acknowledgements there.

And the only thing that is constant in city local government is change.

And so, as Charles referenced, we are now in the IBA, and I'm actually excited about that.

I will be very candid and honest with we now have the opportunity to talk about equity implications in a way that frames your work in partnership with addressing the clear disparities.

And so I'm excited about this new role that we have in this space.

So just acknowledgments and again shout out to Margaret Step for her role in this work.

I will always speak that into space.

So the action that we are looking at is amending chapter two of Article 2 of the municipal code by adding the division 23 and amending chapter 2, Article 2 to Division 55 by amending the Section 225505 in the Office of the Independent Budget Analysis.

It's a mouthful, but that is the word that we use.

Thank you, City Attorney, for giving us that guidance.

That is the proposed action in front of you.

I want to walk through some of the ordinance revisions and give a high-level summary.

Let me just say this.

With the integration of race and equity to the IBA, we are not detracting from our commitment to dismantling systemic racism.

That needs to be stated.

So that does not change in terms of the core focus of this division.

And so, in that, as a matter of fact, what we did was is that we clarified in this ordinance revision the actual definitions of the terms.

And so just wanted to just really point that out where we definitely are not walking away from any language around our work around racism in the ordinance.

That also includes the finding social equity.

Now, social equity is a term that goes back into the civil rights movement to contextualize.

We didn't just make up equity, right?

It's Calps in doing civil rights work historically, and so we give some definitions around just that and what equity, social equity means and the responsibility of social local government work.

And so some of the changes that you will see here is looking at the way in which we will give feedback with budget implications more concisely to council around a five-year outlook, any financial planning that occurs.

We also will look at ways to make sure we are providing impacts around equity to revenues and expenditure and any proposed legislation the council puts forward.

And so our team will be readily available to give that level of analysis around those topics.

Last but not least, we also, and I'm looking at Chair Foster here, contracting and contracting practices.

So we just streamline some language.

However, that is still a cross-cutting large disparity, so we're not detracting from the work there.

And last but not least, the city workforce.

The way that we deliver programs and services is connected to our staffing resources.

And so city workforce is a key part to how we deliver the work.

Everyone in the DIEs has participated in the workshop in our since staff, and so I appreciate that.

And we have had robust conversations around the tactical equity plan structure.

And so we talk about that is still our goal there.

The other part is with the original ordinance, there wasn't a word around tactical equity plans.

The original ordinance talked about racial equity action plans or equity plans for us in partnership with the current city structure, that's where you get the word tactical equity plans.

And so it's just the language correction in the ordinance.

The other component is budget equity impact statements were not created at the time of the creation of the ordinance, but the intent was still there clearly.

And so most certainly it was always intended looking at Chair Foster to make sure that we're looking at impacts to budget to equity work.

And so all we did was make sure we align that with our framework.

Now I know and you know that doing equity work is not discriminatory, right?

I will just say this.

To some people, equity feels like oppression.

And I say that purposely to some people, equity feels like oppression, in their opinion, and equity work is not discriminatory work.

It is work that is needed to dismantle systemic racism.

And so that's some of the changes that was recommended from the city attorney's office in the context of this current political landscape.

So I wanted to just point that to the tenting of council where that update came from.

And so yesterday's conversation around KPIs, I always say this data without context is just information.

And so we are continuously partnering with Panda to address the clear gaps in our infrastructure around KPIs.

That is very much so needed.

And the way that we track and do our work has to be under that data umbrella to track disparities, gaps, and deficiencies.

We'll still offer learning and development, and we offer different types of training, which includes equity plan training, implicit bias training, we offer training around identifying systemic racism, and so we will still do those offerings as well.

And of course, the policy work, this is the part that comes with our positioning in the IBA's office that I am much excited about, which is providing that analysis around how policies and practices impact and reduce equity disparities, which then goes into our budget equity work and how we analyze the work and have taken a lot of feedback from council regarding the ways that we enhance those tools.

So just know that this is an evolving plan for our team to make sure that we're responding to the needs of council in ways that are equitable and making sure that your feedback is incorporated.

If you don't hear anything from me today, I always say equity is an outcome, and equity is about addressing disparities, racial disparities, it's about addressing gaps, and it's about addressing deficiencies in our infrastructure.

And so when our team uses the word equity, we're usually pivoting between these three things, and we are always centralizing the cumulative impact of systemic racism.

That is always the lens that we are coming from when we're doing our work with the equity lens.

One thing that I am excited for, and I always tell my team, we can't solve or we can't address what we don't see.

And so the tactical equity plan, it is available so we can make sure that we are pointing it with the ways in which we work with our departments to identify gaps, disparities, and deficiencies.

We are spending a lot of hours with our departments to refine their tactical equity plans.

This gives us a place to then critique their perception of their program and services around how they do their goals and objectives.

By doing this activity, we actually found out that across the city departments, goals and objectives were not connected to KPIs.

So our feedback was around I don't know how you accomplish goals and objectives if they're not measurable.

And so the TEP work has allowed us to have that conversation.

So thank you, um Moreno, for your contributions to that audit, because we cannot do technical equity plan work without sound KPIs.

And so with that, just know that in the ordinance, we are going to continually update tactical equity plans with every department.

They're looking at the mayor's office.

There's a lot of conversations that are happening with departments around how do you enhance your technical equity plans to make sure we are measuring and identifying concise outcomes.

So with that, then we get to this light around measuring what matters.

And so when you look at this slide, data without context is just information.

The tactical equity plan is a repository for the way that we do our work.

And so if you look at this to give you some examples, what we're doing with departments, take for example, the stormwater department.

Their goal around building resilient communities to ensure our stormwater infrastructure is safe, connects to their objective to remove the accumulation of sediment in our stormwater channels.

And then if you go to the inputs, you're thinking about the staff and the resources that we need, which is an input to then clear those channels out.

The activity then becomes the resources for us to do so with staffing resources.

If you pivot to that, then you look at the budget equity impact around this conversation where what we have discovered, we need all these things to work in consortium with each other.

Sometimes our departments only give you inputs and not outcomes.

And let's have a goal, right, around just what that means and a target.

And so this work allows our departments to be more concise around just offer us inputs without outcomes, right?

We want to make sure that we are really having flood resiliency communities where we see higher flooding in we all know the story around that, around where that located at.

And so I'll also do one more plug around parks and recreation in the context I'm looking at, Charles, and I see, and we know that we are in a structural deficit looking at Rolando, and that we're gonna make some tough decisions.

And so the ways in which we position equity using data is gonna be imperative.

And so, with that, we've been working with Parks and Rec, the mayor's office, your team around saying what will be the analysis and approach to when you close down RECs and park centers.

So just know from an equity perspective, we're coming with some very sound and robust opinions and thoughts around when you have districts four, eight, and nine, for example, they're already inequitable.

So you have to be clear about your approach and how you're using data around utilization percentages when those locations already have sound and clear disparities.

And so with this slide, just know that our work around that is key.

Last but not least is our budget equity work.

With limited fiscal resources, there is always ways to address disparities in your book of business.

And so with our departments were saying, if you are, I'm thinking about transportation, for example.

If there are ways to re-kind have there are ways to reprioritize the way that you look at signal maintenance or traffic fatalities in areas that are namely in looking at D4, A, and D2, then we're saying, how are you prioritizing investments to make sure that our kids are safe when it looks at doing traffic studies?

And so just know that there are things that we can do without a budget to address gaps in our services, which may include how you're prior prioritizing resources, and then when we get adjustments, we want to make sure that we are addressing those things accordingly.

A lot of our work actually goes into the ongoing operations, questioning how folks have done things and how those things are not always equitable.

And so then, with that, if we do those things, we do want to celebrate and highlight how we have brought equity to the equation.

But just know that our team is always toggling between how we adjust ongoing operations and when we do have fiscal resources, how do we allocate those things?

And with the IBA's office, we now can give you the equity implications to those two buckets of work.

And so these are the ways in which our work will manifest in our revisions.

And I will close with this.

We should strive to make decisions that produce equity in our budgets and also our organ operations.

And so welcome any comments from you all.

That's presentation.

Have to turn it back to you, Chair.

Alrighty.

Thank you for that.

And thank you.

Again, I just really appreciate the work that's been done thus far by the independent analyst.

The Office of the Independent Budget Analyst and the Division of Race and Equity for the work reflected in this ordinance and for your continued efforts to strengthen our use of key performance indicators as we head into what will be a very challenging budget season.

This work is not easy.

And oh hold on.

I'm sorry.

Let's go to public, not let's go to public comment, please.

All righty.

I'm ready to go.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for item two is now open.

And we have one speaker slip who has submitted a flip here in chambers.

Lawyer Beekman, please approach the lecter and you'll have two minutes to speak to item two.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

This was really nice to hear this item and everything you're working on.

It was um encouraging.

And I just I want to be learning about these things.

Good luck that you're you want to also be working on KPI issues.

I'm really hopeful from the sessions of yesterday that we can be building a philosophy of KPI in the future, that we will be more fact-based and information based to use that word.

And it and it sounds like your program has a list of how you can then reference you know the fact-based approach of KPI and what race inequity uh wants to be doing.

Um sounds like a great system you're developing.

Good luck on those efforts.

Um I had a few more comments about about items.

Uh I guess to begin that um we have been working on race and equity, local city governments in California have since pre-George Floyd things.

In fact, there was a really good uh city government movement going on uh pre-George Floyd, and um uh on on race and equity issues, where you know it's questions that we've been asking for decades, basically, and we finally have developed a language and a framework to call equity to more clearly address you know long-time systemic problems, and we're really doing that now, and I and I hope that is uh respected.

And that is questions about how low-income uh places often can have opportunity, not just with dollars, but with uh you know, good living situations, how all of that can be uh continue, and it's always in our minds.

I think we have to be considering these items.

Um good luck how we work on these things together, and uh thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes in person public testimony.

We will now move to the virtual queue.

There are three hands raised in the virtual queue.

Phone number ending at 870, please press star six and begin.

Uh thank you, Natalie.

Uh Joyce and Yata C D3.

Wow.

To see Mr.

Matica and Kim sitting there next to each other as leaders now on this issue uh in this new structure is so great.

I'm thrilled.

I'm just absolutely thrilled.

I've got to say the rest of this, but there's so much I want to say to you.

Um my like and focus, update the Muni Code DRE responsibilities number two, providing training and technical assistance to city council and city staff on identifying service disparities and gaps and tracking programs and addressing those gaps through key performance indicators, KPIs, and equity tools.

This relates to the TEP, the tactical equity plans, which you love, Kim, and I do too.

Uh now for me, uh Kim and everybody, can the KPIs be both not can, I believe they can, they are, they shall.

Uh, can the KPIs be both quantifiable and qualifiable?

So we'll continue to look at that.

Um, request during the budget cycle, make available to the public all department budget equity impact statements that hasn't been done recently.

Montgomery step uh I think instigated that, got it started.

We gotta get that back and be transparent on that.

Please, please, please.

Um, I like uh context of operational decisions.

Um I love the word context, Tim.

I love the word candid.

You're it's just good, such good stuff.

A question about updating our policies and drafting perhaps a new one.

I don't know where we're going on this.

Thank you, Natalie.

Thank you, Natalie.

Becky Rapp, please unmute and begin.

Yes, good morning, Chair and committee members.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I'd like to ask that as you review the ordinance and consider restructuring the division of race and equity.

Carefully evaluate its cost and overall necessity within our current budget deficit.

San Diego continues to face serious financial needs, decayed infrastructure, public safety demands, and overdue maintenance in neighborhoods, parks, and recreation centers.

Every dollar we allocate to administrative roles is a dollar not going directly to those core necessities.

We must ask whether the main responsibilities of this department duplicate work already being performed by existing departments.

True equity means ensuring resources are prioritized for services that benefit every neighborhood.

Safe streets, reliable infrastructure, and responsive public safety.

This committee is charged with efficiency and accountability.

And I ask you to conduct a thorough cost-benefit review and consider whether restructuring or removing this division could free up critical funds for essential city services.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our final speaker in the queue with their hand raised, Andrea Eving, please unmute and begin.

In some ways, you know, I think that there is some there is some potentially redundancy or hard perhaps priority um concerns here in terms of like the spending.

However, I want to say that the there's a lot of ways that we can um like try to bridge the gap or um work on bringing to light the disparity for black and brown citizens in San Diego, black and brown residents in San Diego, uh, and the racial divide that can lead to life without parole uh for black people in San Diego is only growing.

So unfortunately, I think there's ways we need to like look at how the criminal justice system is handling cases with black and brown individuals that I think that be far more impactful that we need to um prevent profiling, prevent these falsified cases, prevent the alteration of court records, prevent prosecutorial wins just because they have people in their hands that won't speak up for themselves.

I appreciate the work of Tasha Williamson or Tasha Williams because she does bring forth these issues, and I think there would be a lot more self-advocacy by uh individuals of color who are being discriminated against by it's very very clearly due to the fact that either A, they don't have the they're afraid to use their voice to speak up and out because it's just gonna result in more charges, more discrimination.

Um, and then B, they they're looked at as if they don't have the means right off the bat.

So they're gonna just pump them through the system.

And um, it's just really sad and unfortunate.

So I think that if we are going to impact these communities, I think we really need to uh get the Brady listings of our top prosecutors out to everyone that is currently incarcerated.

That's the duty of the prosecutors to let people know that they have been impeached.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Chair, this concludes public comment.

All righty, thank you for that.

And um again, apologies for my missteps um earlier, but um again, this work is just so important to me, and I'm excited to be here.

Um, and and quite honestly, it's work that keeps me coming back to the city of San Diego every day.

So with that, um, we do have um members on the lights.

Um, however, um I will um step in and kick this off with some comments.

Um again, thank you to the independent budget analyst and the division of race and equity for the work reflected in this ordinance.

Um this work is not easy and often and is often met with significant resistance, as can be seen by the efforts taking place at the federal level, and as you look at the history of the city of San Diego.

I will also add just listen to the public comment that we receive today.

Immediately it's recommended that we review the department and put it on the chopping block.

That to me is disappointing.

But this work is necessary, and I will continue to bring this work to the forefront.

We must change the culture of this city and ensure we are serving all residents, not a select few.

This item formalizes council's prior budget action by moving the Office of Race and Equity into the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst and aligning its duties with the IBA's charter role.

It is critical that the division of race and equity continue its core responsibility of identifying racial disparities, institutional racism, and structural racism within city policies, programs, and budget decisions.

The work of developing equity tools, reviewing budget equity impact statements, analyzing who's who benefits and who bears burdens, and tracking progress through tactical equity plans and key performance indicators must remain, and we must do that from a data-driven perspective.

As stated in our adopted our adopted budget principles, we have committed to maintaining an equity lens.

That commitment becomes even more important as we face structural fiscal constraints.

I also want to highlight the importance of codifying recent new budget tools and implementation through a council policy.

While this ordinance establishes a framework in the municipal code, a council policy will provide operational clarity, particularly around tackle tactical equity plans, expectations for departments, and reporting standards.

Establishing a council policy will ensure consistency, transparency, and accountability across administrations and budget cycles.

I do want to address a few areas.

Tactical equity plans should be further detailed in the council policy to clarify roles, timelines, and expectations.

I do have just a couple of questions.

One is for the Department of Race and Equity.

Can you elaborate on the intent there?

And how do we have both equal and equitable?

I appreciate the question.

And the having both of those things is from a data standpoint, you have to set the equal standard.

So I'm thinking about stormwater channels, for example.

You have to say what percentage or how much.

What is the equal standard?

Once you set the equal standard, you can then identify the inequity in that.

So when you put those two things together, I always tell folks I can't give you the equity without understanding what should be offered equally.

And so with the definition, it allows us to set the standard and consistently you see that standard is not met in D4A and 9.

And that is not an opinion, that is a fact.

And so when people ask our objectivity, I say, tell me where it's not true.

If we're equal, then we're equal.

Then we don't need to do anything else.

But in our departments, we're not equal, and we provide services and programs.

So I do appreciate the question around the coupling of the two.

And thank you for that, and I appreciate that clarification.

Also, um, just one last question to the Office of the City Attorney.

Um Kim pointed out some changes that you um made.

Can you elaborate on the need of the change from your office?

As we do have council policies in place and uh statutes in place that address our what I will call non-discrimination um standards.

Why are we um injecting that specifically here as it currently already exists?

David Carlin with the Office of the City Attorney.

This recommendation came about at is recognized in your comments, um, Chair Foster, regarding the current Federal Administration and in particular an executive order that President Trump signed immediately taking office for his second term, as well as a subsequent memorandum issued by the attorney general.

It was thought that this language, though not perfect and maybe not even necessary, might help the city if it were to face litigation somewhere down the line from the federal government.

That's showing that again that the actions of this division are non-discriminatory.

They're not meant to advantage or disadvantage any particular individual or protected class of individuals.

That's the sole means for the inclusion of this language.

Alrighty, I appreciate that.

I think as we continue the work, um, Kim and my office has already I'm gonna say done a quick cursory review of extent of existing policies, council policies, existing municipal code, um statutes.

Maybe we need to go back and just tighten up or or make sure we're um in a good place as we um I want to say um uh make sure we just have the synergies in place that we need.

Um also um I just want to make sure as we as we um maneuver um the federal government that um one I have a commitment or that we have a commitment from the city attorney's office that um as we work through this as we move to continue to bring equity to the forefront and do this work, um, that we have a solid commitment from your office that um as we have the discussions, we don't simply just get what we cannot do, but we get um engagement um and we actually get assistance in a path forward to achieve our intentions and what our overall goals are.

Can I have that commitment from the office of the city attorney?

Or can we have that commitment?

Well, I would have to defer to the city attorney herself, but I can make that commitment, and I have worked with both Kim and Charles in this endeavor to bring the division of race and equity into the independent budget analyst office.

So that is a commitment that I can personally make to you.

Okay.

Um I appreciate that.

Um the the last thing that I will say um as I work to conclude my comments um that I too appreciate Supervisor Monica Montgomery Step for having the courage um to start this process to continue this process.

Um and and as we have the conversations that we are having, um I think it's really important for folks to understand that um Monica Montgomery's supervisor Monica Montgomery Step was elected as the first black woman to serve at the county board of supervisors, and that was in the year 2023.

So we need to make sure that we understand that there is work needed in the city of San Diego and in the county of San Diego.

Um so with that um I move um to approve the proposed ordinance and request that the independent budget analysts and the division of race and equity work with the District 4 office on developing a council policies specific to tack tactical equity plans, budget equity framework, and equity implications, or updating council policy zero zero-02 budget policies, whichever is deemed more appropriate.

Um with that, um again, I appreciate um the work um Charles of your office um and uh really look forward to bringing change um to the city of San Diego.

Um thank you.

Um Chair, if I could, just want to say happy to do follow-up work on a council policy.

I do also think it's actually important as you started to do to address one of the comments about whether or not this work is duplicative.

Um my office's core role is ultimately to make sure that this council has the information that it needs to make policy and budget decisions, and that means informing you of the potential implications of those policies and decisions.

There are fiscal implications of your decisions, and there are also policy and operational considerations and impacts.

And in my mind, equity analyses really are part and parcel of making sure that you have the information.

Uh so to that extent, I would disagree and push back pretty strongly with the concept that this work is either duplicative or unnecessary.

Uh it really does fit uh in many ways into our core role of making sure that you as a council are asking all the questions and frankly getting all the information that you need to be making fully informed decisions and to understand the potential implications of those decisions.

Just thought that should be said.

Yes, thank you, and very well said.

Um with that, we do have members on the lights.

Um I will turn to Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

All right, thank you, Chair.

Um thank you, Charles.

Thank you, Kim.

Charles, it is a little weird to have you over there.

I I like reflexively turned to my left when I heard your voice.

Um I am very glad to see this in in front of us.

Um I think you know, the path to get us where we are today was was uncomfortable at times and and um tumultuous at times.

Um, but I I think the end result is actually really important, and um what I see is the council being even better equipped to ask some of the most important questions that we could possibly ask ourselves as we're making the the decisions that we need to make.

Um Charles, I appreciate the last statement you made because I think to imply that the work of the Office of Race and Equity, the division of race and equity is a nice to have or uh an excess that can't be afforded during a time of financial struggle demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of why the work is important.

There is no more important time for us to anal uh to understand the impacts of our decisions from an equity standpoint than when we are in tough financial times.

It is easy for folks across the city to um do better when the city is is doing well and and awash with resources is that is definitely not the case when we're in a situation like the one that we're in now.

And the um the notion that I just I I think some folks really need to take a tour of the city.

That's what I think.

I think that um one thing that has has astounded me in this role is how close folks can live to very, very different circumstances.

I mean close in proximity to very, very different circumstances circumstances than the ones that they're living in, and have no clue about how different things are 10 minutes away from where um where you might reside.

Um I won't take too long to belabor this point, but um we know we've hosted office hours throughout throughout my time in in office, and we've tried to do those more often than not in very diverse district, and we've seen the the looks on folks' faces when they um drive 10 minutes south in District 9 from the northern parts of our district to a place like Dennis v.

Allen Park or Stockton or parts of City Heights, um and we saw the disconnection between parts of the city probably in its most alarming form immediately after the floods uh in in January.

And again, people who lived five or ten minutes away from what was a humanitarian crisis having no idea the level of suffering that people were experiencing, or the incredible disparities in investment and infrastructure and other essential city services that had occurred over generations.

So all that is to say is if someone is asking themselves why is the city doing this this year in a tough financial situation, um it could not be a more important moment for us to be doing this and ensuring that this the council has the information that we need.

So I do have a a couple questions.

Um and and we heard a little bit about this, but the as Charles was alluding to the IBA is is typically reviewing city actions under this fiscal lens.

So Kim, if you don't mind kind of helping us understand how you we're gonna differentiate between the work that's fiscal in nature and the work outside of that kind of fiscal lens, acknowledging that equity itself is not just numbers on on a page, that there's there's more to the more than that.

It's a both in.

There is a cost to which you just stated to inequity.

And so from a fiscal perspective, equity is tethered to that.

So when you look at some of the things that we see around disparities and gaps, there are investments financially that need to be made.

What comes to mind is the five-year outlook, for example.

When we're looking at the way that we plan for our fiscal resources to address inequity historically, there's a lot of investments that's needed in more districts than others, and we're clear about that.

So you can't untether the fiscal allocations that are needed to address the historic fiscal neglect that has occurred in this city.

So that's the fiscal perspective.

And so in our office, we definitely partner to say what is the equity implications to not making the fiscal allocation or adjustment.

And then what are the implications to making that adjustment?

Now you also make a good point around, I'm thinking about outreach, for example.

The way that we conduct engagement and outreach, that may not cost us anything in terms of like making sure we are being inclusive with you gave the example around there are different perspectives based on where you live.

And me participating in some of those activities with different departments.

When we say that we're using feedback, let's just say, for example, for district one to inform needs in district four and eight.

I'm like, you don't even live in that neighborhood to tell me how you're experiencing that infrastructure.

So what our department able to accomplish is saying, how are you making sure that your engagement is inclusive?

And then I caution saying that you use 400 people to inform a large decision.

And so there are some times when there's not a cost to the way that we do our work.

And we see a lot of that, and that can be around how we prioritize our fiscal decisions.

And so from our standpoint in the IBA, we plan to point out those operational decisions that don't have a cost, and then we plan to point out the equity implication to the fiscal parts.

So those things go hand in hand.

Councilmember, I hope that answers your question in that way.

Thank you, Kim.

I appreciate that.

Um Councilmember Foster, Chair Foster, I want to appreciate your commitment to pursuing other policy changes as necessary to make sure that we have the tools that we need.

The IBA and Division of Race and Equity have what they need.

I think that's super important.

And the work that Councilmember Montgomery steps started to make sure that we're we're doing this with real intent and strategy and commitment.

That was incredibly important then, and it and it we need to like make sure that we are continuously building upon that.

Um I think that's one of the most important ways of honoring that work is building upon it and making sure that we don't we don't rest on our our laurels.

Um the last thing I I wanted to mention, um, I appreciate you asking the questions you did about the anti-discriminatory language.

I understand why we would include that.

I also don't want us to kid ourselves.

This is a racist administration that sees acknowledging the existence of racism as a direct threat on their white nationalist goals.

We see that time and time again, and so there is no clause that we can write into anything that we do that can shield the city from that.

This is an administration that tore down the acknowledgments of slavery in Philadelphia as they attempt to literally whitewash American history.

Um they have continuously attacked institutions, cities, states, individuals for having the audacity to just tell the story of this nation's history, and attempting to I won't even say um appease them because I don't think we're trying to do that, but there's no there's just no clause that we can write that will avoid um their ire if they decide to turn it in this direction, and so I think it's important for us to be clear about that.

We know that this is not to be discriminatory, we know that this is actually to do the opposite, um, and we should stand on that with our head high and our chest out and acknowledge that if the racist Trump regime decides to attack San Diego for having the audacity of ensuring that we're being fair to all people and correcting for injustices of the past, um, that we meet them in the courtroom as City Attorney Perbert has been willing to do, and we we beat them there and we explain to our residents that we are doing this because we're looking out for the best interest of everyone in this city, um, and we're not gonna hide as we attempt to do that.

Um so um fully respectful of our desire to to cross our T's and dot our I's but I want to make sure that we're clear-eyed that this isn't about law, this isn't about um policy nuance, this is about their retrograde worldview, and then trying to impose that on the rest of us.

And so um let's move forward um without fear because we're doing the right thing, and I could not have any more certainty that we are on the right side of history by pursuing this work in this way.

Uh with that, uh Chair, I will second your motion.

All righty, thank you for that.

Um, council member um Ilo Rivera.

Um, and I do appreciate um your comments and and sharing this sentiment.

I think I myself have sat here and said I mean this from a place of love.

I don't care about this president and his antics, and I think it's totally ridiculous.

And I am more than willing to meet him in a courtroom or anywhere else to have direct conversations on what's right and what's wrong.

I mean, with that I will throw out to the committee.

Um I am more than happy to entertain um as you guys think this through before we in this item if we need to remove that item from the um coordinates.

So um I will leave that there and let that uh marinate a little bit, and then we will move to Vice Chair Moreno.

Thank you, and um thank you for the presentation.

Um thank you in advance for the important work the division of race and equity will continue to do to make the city better for our underserved communities.

Uh welcome back, uh Miss Desmond.

And also um thank you uh to Charles for really um owning, right?

And and and allowing um the vision of the city council to come to fruit uh to come to fruition.

So just wanted to point that out.

Um last year's budget included across the board cuts.

Uh while those reductions may have appeared equal on paper, the impact was not felt equally across our city.

Uh the effects uh depend greatly on where residents live.

Um an audit a few years ago showed that Carmel Valley Rec Center had 146% more um park and rec activities for um their residents, their students, kids, elders, than uh Robert Egger South Bay.

Um needless to say that in District 8 um cuts were felt very deeply.

Uh they affected people's day-to-day quality of life.

Uh many residents rely heavily on city services, um, on having the libraries open so that students can do their homework after school, on recreation centers offering consistent programming uh for youth.

Um it's I'm not shocked by this, but I think a few uh people in the city of San Diego would be shocked by me saying that residents have come up to me, uh residents in their 40s and 50s and said this was my haven.

Montgomery Waller was the place that I went to that kept me out of games when I was able to participate in basketball uh basketball programs and and also not to forget the elders.

Uh the elders definitely are active and engaged in our park and rec facility.

And when those services are reduced, the consequences are very real and they're immediate.

Uh the division of race and equity, in my opinion, will play a critical role in helping us fully under understand how across the board cuts impact families who depend on these services the most.

Uh, and um an equity lens ensures that we recognize who is disproportionately affected and also why.

Uh yesterday, council heard the audit of key performance indicators.

Um, I appreciate the division's work in strengthening our KPIs.

So they not only measure departmental performances but also incorporate um an equity lens, ensuring our tools um help us allocate resources fairly and advanced our shared goals of making the city a better place for everyone to live.

Um I will say at the end of the day, I was I personally was elected to represent District 8.

Uh they have given me the authority to speak on their behalf, and oftentimes my community doesn't have time to come to City Hall and voice their opinions and concerns.

And oftentimes the voices that we do hear in this chamber are not reflective of what is out in the community.

We get as legislators to hear that when we're out at Easter egg hunts and uh and you know various activities.

So I'm very, very happy to adopt staff's recommendation and support the motion before us and just thank you for the work uh that you do.

I know that um a lot of what we see might not um uh we might not see your work right away, but I think these are important seeds that we are planting in the city of San Diego to really uh right the wrong of our previous um uh legislators in essence.

So uh with that, happy to support the motion on the floor.

Thank you for that, um vice chair.

We will now turn over to Pro Tem Lee.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh I'll just take a quick moment to echo my colleagues uh in sharing our appreciation.

Uh and I think for me, this is you know, this is obviously a much needed action to help clean up the shift that we made in the budget process this last year.

Um, but I think uh even on a more more personal level, I think the the conscious decision that we've made to retain even a department or division of race and equity is important in the era that we're in.

Um I know the work perhaps would continue regardless, um, but having it outlined with with a particular objective um and now with some independence in terms of how you do your work.

I think is as Councilmember Ila Rivera noted, perhaps more important in this time and era.

Um especially in a year, again where the budget's going to be challenging.

I think the information coming from the office of the IBA with the help of the division will be critical in terms of how we analyze the choices that we do have to make.

So thank you for taking the time to present this to us and have it to support the motion.

All righty, thank you so much.

Um, with that, we have a first and a by myself and a second by council member Ilo Rivera.

Natalie, please call for the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously four zero.

All righty, thank you so much.

Um, with that, Natalie, please introduce item three.

Item three, first amendment to the contract with IgM Technology Corp for Gas V87 lease software.

Chair.

Staff, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you will need for your presentation, and feel free to begin.

Uh good morning, committee.

Uh, my name is Jeff Peel, I'm the chief accountant in the Department of Finance.

I'm here with William Wiseman, the financial operations manager in the uh uh Department of Finance.

We'll need about five minutes.

We are seeking approval to the first amendment uh to the city's existing contract with the IGM Tech Technology Corporation for the lease management software uh that the city uses to manage its lease and subscription-based IT uh arrangements.

Uh we are going to uh we'd like to extend the existing five-year contract to a sixth year with an option for one additional year.

There will be no increase uh in the original not to exceed amount of the contract, the contract cost of 15,844 for fiscal year 2027 and an optional uh 17,174 for fiscal year 2028.

We are currently working on a new RFP uh and should have it completed by the end of fiscal year 2027.

The gravity software was implemented to apply standards enacted with GASPE statement number 87, which was a fundamental change in lease accounting from a reporting's perspective.

Implemented in FY22, the standard moved leases from period expenditures with off-balance sheet note disclosures to the statement in that position.

It created a single model for leases and eliminated the distinction between operating and capital uses.

All leases are now considered financing arrangements.

Um it applies to all assets, including land, buildings, equipment, vehicles, and even subscription-based IT services through Yasby State number statement number 96.

So, as I said, leases were traditionally uh period transactions reflected in the year they occurred.

Uh the standard added them to the balance sheet to reflect the full impact of the lease obligation.

To talk a little bit about how that flows through the ACFR.

Um data that's captured here is reflected in disclosures in the management discussion and analysis.

Uh the right to use assets that are captured through this process are reported in ACFR Note 4 for capital assets.

Uh the leases payable that are amortized here are captured on ACFR notes five and six for long-term debt, and obviously these lease liabilities uh are recorded throughout the actual financial statements.

So to talk a little bit about gravity as a software solution uh for this process.

Uh this is not a lease management software.

Uh this is a tool built uh to respond to the new standard.

It automates the creation and amortization of schedules for leases payable, uh included including principal and interest components with imputed interest.

It automates the recalculation and remeasurement with lease changes, it allows for the bulk creation of journal entries for recording annual entries and SAP, and it provides read access to auditors uh and provides a centralized source for auditable backup to support the annual ACFR audit engagement.

So this really is a tool for staff uh that allows them to kind of capture a large amount of data and implement that um effectively and efficiently.

And that concludes our presentation.

Thank you.

All righty, thank you for your presentation.

Natalie, do we have any public comment on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for item three is now open, and we've received one speaker slip here in chambers.

Blair Beekman, please approach the lectern.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Um tech issues, IT tech issues.

Uh good luck with this item.

You had a good IT tech item yesterday, uh dealing with uh uh smart meter, smart water meter issues that um how to better update those systems for your smart water meter use and its relations with the public.

I don't know if this item is so much related to public or is more internal.

I don't quite know the difference.

Um sorry, but uh from those good practices of yesterday, um, it's connecting with the public, and there's a good to mention uh good tech accountability policies and practices that um create a process of not only uh internal practices but that creates a community practice for these sort of issues.

It's why this item is here today as an idea of community, and good luck how this sort of item can connect with community and um what sort of um good policies and best practices can develop from this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes in person public testimonies.

We will now move to the virtual queue.

We have one hand raised in the virtual queue.

Phone number ending in 870.

Please press star six and begin.

Uh thank you, Natalie.

Do I have two minutes?

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Uh Joyce C D three.

Uh EOC report, no workforce report.

It's subject to the city's equal employment opportunity contract program.

Uh that surprised me.

Uh, I want to make, I hope we make sure that that is uh it's gonna make things happen uh okay.

Um City of San Diego contractor standards pledge of compliance in the backup.

10 pages, I read it.

The bidder must submit this completed pledge previous to execution of the contract.

Thank you, IGM Tech Corp.

I read it, I saw the signature, and I salute you.

Why don't I see this pledge in the backup on all contracts where appropriate?

I really like that answer.

So uh this software is crucial, crucial to the implementing of the gas fee 87 and our ACFR.

So please approve this.

And then if I could once again reinforce our COC and our workforce reports, how critical they are, and I don't think we take another enough of a look at those and point out to the public where there is a lack of equity, and it does persist, and it may even be systemic.

But uh, we're doing the best we can, and I appreciate and love all of you.

Thank you, love to all.

Thank you.

And Chair, this concludes public comment on item three.

All righty.

Thank you for that.

I will now turn it over to committee members for questions and comments and entertain a motion on item three.

We'll start with Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Thank you for the presentation.

Alrighty.

We have a motion to move staff's recommendation.

I see Count Pro Tem Leon lights.

I'll second it.

We have a second.

No further member with no further members on the lights.

Nellie, please have each committee member register their vote.

Thank you.

And that passes unanimously 4-0.

All righty.

Thank you for that.

Natalie, please introduce item four.

Item four, approval of a cooperative procurement contract between the City of San Diego and Conica Minolta Business Solutions, USA Incorporated for Managed Print Services.

Chair.

Thank you so much.

Staff, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you will need for your presentation, and feel free to begin.

All right, good morning, uh Chair Foster, committee members.

We are here today to request approval of an ordinance of a contract contract with Conica Minolta for managed print services.

The contract includes a not-to-exceed amount of $4.7 million and a five-year term with five additional one-year options to renew.

The contract supports the city's multi-function devices and equipment for scan data management, copying, and print services via the Omnia Partners Cooperative contract.

And some are large enough to reach the threshold for council approval in alignment with the Department of IT's strategic plan and technology roadmaps earlier this fiscal year.

The City Council approved an amendment for the city's Microsoft licensing to support operations and innovation, renewal of SAP software and Neptune Mobile software for field staff, Anokia public safety communication contract to support radio services for our first responders.

In addition to the item today, we will be back in fiscal year 27 with contract amendments for the RevTrack automation and change management software and amendments to several of our managed service provider agreements.

I'll turn it over to Sam to revive the details on our item today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Nine market leaders responded to the request.

And after preliminary review of their proposals, the top five responses were invited to sharpen their pencils and provide their best and final offer.

Conica Minolta was determined to offer the best value for the city with the lowest cost key and key technical services.

For contract highlights, the new contract will modernize the city's fleet of multifunction devices and provide on-demand replenishment of consumables.

The new managed print solution also includes robust cloud-based print management software that will replace on-premises print servers and provide real-time data analytics based on current device counts and usage.

The contract will also provide a significant reduction in costs.

In regards to the contract term and not to exceed amount, uh it includes four months to transition to the new multifunction devices from June to October of current year, and then continues for a five-year base term through September 2031.

Five additional one year options are available to exercise at the city's discretion.

For fiscal considerations, the not to exceed amount of 4.7 million includes 100,000 for a four-month transition to the new multi-function devices and 3.9 million for the five-year base term.

The projection also includes $610,000 for additional capacity to accommodate future business requirements as well as for taxes.

As the contract nears the end of term, there is an additional $108,000 of capacity for disentanglement to transition to a new contract.

Our recommendation today is to approve the ordinance authorizing the contract between Connecticut Minolta Business Solutions in the city of San Diego for print services with a not to exceed amount of 4.7 million over the five-year term with five additional one-year options to renew.

This auction action is not requesting additional budget.

Expenditures for this contract are contingent on approval of each annual budget by city council.

With that, um that concludes our presentation, and we're available to answer questions.

Alrighty, thank you so much.

Natalie, do we have any public comment on item four?

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment for item four is now open, and we did receive one speaker slip here in chambers.

Blair Beekman, you'll have two minutes to speak to item four.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Um quick first thought that uh thank you for the previous words of Andrea Ebbing uh asking about the meeting minutes process.

How can that be more clear for the public?

Thank you for her work and efforts.

Uh I wanted to mention uh for this item that um this has a bill uh of of about you know five million dollars over five years, so that's like a million dollars a year.

Um, and then uh extending out for another five years after that.

Um it's a lot of money, and I understand that there is a lot of services that this can uh in uh can be about, but uh is there any way to talk about uh an a million dollar a year price tag?

Is that just a bit too high?

Um, just a question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes in-person public testimony.

We will now move to the virtual queue.

There is one hand raised in the virtual queue.

Phone number ending in 870.

Please press star six and begin.

Natalie, I apologize.

Do I have two minutes or one?

Yes, two minutes.

Thank you so much.

Joyce and Yata, CD3, Director Bank.

Wow, 100 contracts.

How do you do it?

And all the rest of the team.

I have no idea.

Thank you.

So here we go.

Kanaka Minolta under representation, uh, EOC report, uh, under representation, African American, and female in tech.

Latino and female in sales.

The workforce is admin, 40 employees, and here's my focus on the numbers.

16 white males, seven Latino male, nine Asian male.

So as I said, these are such important reports, and I do think we need to pivot and focus our look through the lens of how we're doing on the improvement on the under-representation of these contracts and the people that implement them.

So uh I do approve the ordinance and thank you for this work and love to all.

Thank you.

And Chair, this concludes public comment on item four.

All righty, thank you so much.

I will now turn it over to committee members for questions and comments and entertain a motion.

Seeing no one on the lights, I will um start it off.

Um, Jonathan, it sounds like Ms.

Joy has put you on notice that you got some work to do in regards to your um disparities with this firm.

Um, so I'm sure we will assist in any uh way that we can to make sure we hold them accountable and see improvement.

Um, with that, I will move um staff recommendation.

Uh looks like I have a second by pro tem um Lee.

Any other uh comments from members?

Um, having none, Natalie, please call for the vote.

And that passes unanimously 40.

All righty, thank you so much.

That concludes item four.

Now do you please introduce item five?

Item five authorization to award an as needed citywide contract for electrical lighting equipment and supplies with consolidated electrical distributors incorporated.

Chair.

All righty, thank you so much.

Staff, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you will need for your presentation and feel free to begin.

Thank you.

We'll need about five minutes.

Uh good morning, Chair Foster, Vice Chair Moreno members of the committee.

I'm Claudia Barca, Director of Purchasing and Contracting, and with me is Vanessa Delgado, program manager over the goods and services division.

Uh online, we also have representatives from the Transportation, Public Utilities, Parks and Rec, and Department of General Services.

Should we need assistance in answering any questions related to this contract?

I'll turn it over to Vanessa to go ahead and start with the presentation.

Good morning.

We're here today to request the approval of a resolution authorizing the as needed citywide contract for electrical lighting equipment and supplies in the amount of 24.5 million to be awarded to consolidated electrical distributors or CED.

We're also requesting the authorization to expend the 24.5 million of the full term of the contract.

To be clear, the authorization would allow authority for the not to exceed value.

It would not encumber any funds.

Expenditure of the funds would be contingent upon the annual appropriation ordinance for the applicable fiscal year for each of the departments utilizing the contract.

On August 4th, 2025, the City Council approved amendments to several maintenance repair and operations or MRO agreements, and purchasing and contracting indicated that a separate solicitation would be issued for electrical and lighting supplies within a broader MRO category.

Due to the performance concerns of the prior cooperative supplier, including extended lead times, limited availability of critical materials, and the need for a vendor with a local warehouse presence.

P and C issued a local invitation to bid on June 12, 2025 to increase competition and ensure reliable supply for essential city operations.

Five bids were received, and based on the lowest aggregate market basket pricing for commonly used items, consolidated electrical distributors was determined to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.

Purchasing and contracting then worked with departments to obtain the estimated need for each over the life of the contract.

This slide highlights items that will commonly be used and what is excluded from the contract.

To put this into perspective, transportation uses electrical and structural components such as traffic signal poles, street light poles, fixtures, wiring, luminary accessories to maintain and repair the city's traffical signal and roadway lighting systems, which are essential for roadway safety, traffic flow, and crime deterrence.

Public utilities in the Department of IT rely on electrical materials such as sensors, breakers, relays, wiring, and cable to support water and wastewater treatment operations and maintain the city's communications and technology infrastructure, including radios, network systems, and remote monitoring equipment.

And finally, General Services Facilities Division uses these supplies to repair electrical outages and maintain building electrical systems across city facilities, including libraries, fire stations, police facilities, offices, and maintenance yards, ensuring safe, reliable, and uninterrupted facility operations.

This table here provides information on the anticipated needs of the departments expected to utilize this contract.

For each year, a 5% contingency was included should price increase requests be submitted.

The final total value of the contract was rounded up to the nearest $100,000 for a total of $24.5 million.

If this contract is not approved, departments may face delays in obtaining critical electrical materials needed to maintain traffic signals, street lighting, water and wastewater facilities, and emergency communication systems.

These delays could impact public safety, disrupt essential city services, and create potentially regulatory compliance risks.

Additionally, without a competitive bid citywide contract, departments may be forced to make fragmented purchases at higher costs, increasing both financial and administrative burdens.

To recap what was discussed, we are requesting authority for a 24.5 million dollar contract with CED for electrical lighting supplies and equipment.

The term of the contract is an initial three years with one two-year option for a total of five years.

This contract is citywide as an as-needed contract.

Expenditure of funds would be contingent upon the annual appropriation ordinance for the applicable fiscal year for each of the departments utilizing this contract.

We'd like to thank you for the time this morning and are happy to address any questions you may have.

Alrighty.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Natalie, do we have any public comment on item five?

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for item five is open, and we did receive one speaker slip from an individual in chambers.

Blair Beekman, please approach the lecture.

Hi, Beekman.

This is a nice housekeeping item.

Thank you.

Um wherever um the trust ordinance can apply to this item.

Uh, I hope it can and can be uh applicable.

And just a reminder of uh the importance of the trust ordinance and inventory and all inventorying our technology.

Um, where these wiring items fit into all of that.

Um good luck.

It's a good future to have labels, all our surveillance and data collection tech for our community.

Good luck in the efforts, what you're doing here.

Thanks.

Thank you.

This concludes in-person public testimony.

We will now move to the virtual queue.

There are two hands raised in the virtual queue.

Phone number ending in 870.

Please unmute by pressing star six.

You'll have two minutes to speak to item five.

Thank you, Natalie.

Uh Joyce and C D3.

All right, EOC.

Uh, this is really, really important.

80 employees under representation, female management and financing, Latino Asian female sales, Latino in admin support, Latino and female in laborers.

I'm gonna read you a short paragraph from the bottom of the EOC report.

Please, please listen to every word based on the underrepresentation in the workforce noted above.

Staff has requested an equal employment opportunity EEO plan, which describes the firm's EEO policies and practices to be submitted no later than February 25th of 2026 for approval.

Once approved, once approved, staff will continue to monitor the firm's efforts to implement their EEO plan.

End of quote.

That's a powerful, powerful thank you.

That statement is amazing.

Now, February 25th, 2026 has passed.

So I I'm sure that that's in process.

And uh I would like to have had that uh in the backup.

I don't excuse me, I was doing so much work last night, so I'm not sure if I missed it.

So, but anyway, isn't that a great paragraph?

And that's the kind of work we need to be better at equity on these contracts, of the wall.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Andrea Ebbing, please unmute and begin.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing, and I respectfully request um counsel if at all possible to um place a motion or do whatever action might be appropriate.

Um, I would love to recommend the addition of a sub option for trim lighting.

So Trim Light uh is a company that is based in Utah, been in business since 2010.

Um, Trim Light San Diego is Trim Light San Diego is comprised of a um full team of licensed low voltage contractors that focus specifically on trim light only.

And once the trim light system is installed, it comes with a lifetime warranty.

So any um public property, any city property that gets installed with trim light, then becomes uh under lifetime warranty as well as a service warranty from Trim Light San Diego.

Um, so facilities would never have to worry about changing a bulb.

The bulbs are rated at 50,000 hours.

So if you left the system on wherever it is installed, eight hours a night, 365 nights a year, you get almost 18 years out of it, and then a full replacement.

Um, in addition to that is 12 volt DC, so it's extremely low impact on the uh on the energy consumption.

It's very um uh green, it's it's LED lighting, uh 12 volt DC.

If you left the system on for a month on any building, it's a no-fire risk.

You walk up, touch the vault, it'll be just as cool as day one.

16 million color options to choose from.

The controller can have an unlimited amount of users, so facilities each person can have.

Every trusted user can have their own um uh app on their phone, access to the controller.

So if there's an emergency in the middle of the night, they don't have to run and try and do anything at the property.

Um, no more dark corners, reduced ADA lawsuits, um, and tons of community engagement.

We know the RTB code of our school colors, um, rivalry teams, FC Padres, whatever we have going on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Chair, this concludes public comment on item five.

All righty, thank you for that.

I will now turn it over to committee members for questions and comments and entertain a motion, and we will start with Vice Chair Moreno.

Happy to make a motion to move staff's recommendation.

Thank you.

All righty.

So moved.

We have a second by Pro Tim Um Lee, seeing no other uh members on the lights.

Now you please call for the vote.

And that passes unanimously 4-0.

All righty, thank you so much.

That concludes item five.

We will now move to our information agenda.

Natalie, please introduce item six.

Item six report from the Department of Information Technology on the City of San Diego's enterprise resource planning modernization project.

Chair.

Alrighty, thank you for that.

Staff, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you will need for your presentation, and feel free to begin.

All right, about 15 minutes, please.

Uh good morning, Chair Foster, committee members.

I'm Jonathan Banke, Chief Information Officer with the Department of IT, along with Arlo McPantai, Deputy Director.

And we're here today to provide updates on the ERP modernization project that's been underway since 2023.

This is a top priority and mission critical project to ensure that the city's SAP system has continuity and support and cybersecurity as it reaches the end of support uh as announced by SAP in 2030.

The transition to a next generation uh cloud-based ERP solution will keep the city supported and secure while providing an improved user experience, opportunities to optimize business processes and efficiencies, and provides a modern operating platform that integrates artificial intelligence and improved data and analytics for operations.

So the presentation today will provide information about why this project is so important and our timeline to complete the modernization before our legacy solution meets the end of support milestone.

And I'll turn it over to Arlo to provide details.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Uh good morning, Chair Foster, members of the committee.

My name is Arlo Meg Panty, Deputy Director in the Department of IT, and my team oversees the city's ERP system, also known as SAP.

We have nine slides this morning that will cover everything from why we believe ERP modernization is required to the importance of an ERP system, uh, benefits of modernizing, and what we learned from Gartner, a leading global information technology research and advisory firm when we began our journey with their engagement in 2023.

We'll provide an overview of our project timeline and reference the work that was performed with the departments that unloadly captured each of their unique requirements and processes, but also illustrated a promising alignment between the city's future needs and our target system.

We also have some information on our approach to project staffing and estimated project costs, and then we'll close this morning's presentation with a recap of next steps to keep us progressing on our ERP modernization journey.

As you might already be aware, the current version of SAP that the city uses is set to reach end of life after December 31st, 2030.

Failure to act accordingly jeopardizes our ability to keep a supported system, as SAP will no longer provide updates, security patches, or support if needed after this date.

We've listed a few potential operational impacts to put this into context.

And although one might argue that all functionality in SAP is important, processes, including employee payroll, payments to our vendors, our employee and customer information, all very critical areas that are at risk of being impacted if we encounter system issues without proper support.

Asset management and public utilities billing and invoicing and other sources of revenue processed in SAP are also at risk.

These are just a sample of operational impacts that we must consider if we are not properly supported by our ERP software vendor.

Our system's age will also start to show as it will be more than 20 years old after this date.

Why an ERP system matters?

On this slide, we wanted to underscore the fundamentals of why an ERP system matters.

I won't go into each detail listed, but I think it's important to realize and agree that a modernized city ERP system is pivotal for city operations, establishes a single source of truth for a holistic and integrated view of our organization, allows us to have clear and transparent financial management and controls, which are important for compliance and auditability, provides data needed for critical decision making, and reduces cybersecurity and compliance risks.

With that foundational understanding of why an ERP system matters, I'll briefly cover the anticipated benefits of ERP modernization.

The first benefit will be to improve our end users' experience.

Over the years, we've heard concerns about the current SAP user interface and are aware that it is rather outdated.

It is not intuitive, it's clunky, it's difficult to use.

A modernized SAP system directly targets this organizational pain point and will transform the look and feel of our system while streamlining how city employees access SAP.

A new ERP system will also increase operational efficiency by eliminating manual processes and bringing more automation, including the availability of artificial intelligence.

Speaking of AI, in a recent survey of city employees regarding the Microsoft Copilot AI pilot program, 84% of respondents concluded that Microsoft's AI offering increased productivity with the pilot program measuring an estimated process optimization time savings of up to 25,000 hours citywide.

Like Microsoft, SAP has its own AI solution embedded in its modernized platform that aims to also deliver similar gains.

Alongside process efficiency is the concept of reducing technical debt or the cost and effort to main customized processes in our system by standardizing how we do work in the city to align with industry best business practices.

Technical debt or customizations we enable to meet city-specific needs also inhibit the ingestion of innovative processes that will be delivered by a modernized ERP system.

A modernized ERP system will also provide better data quality and improve reports and dashboards that will create real-time insights to support clear data-driven decision making.

Lastly, cybersecurity, system resilience, disaster recovery, these technical components are all improved via ERP modernization.

One important aspect to note is that since the beginning of our ERP modernization journey, we've been using information we learned from Gartner as our project framework.

We engage Gartner through an RFP process in 2022 to evaluate the city's ERP modernization outlook given the SAP support deadline and complexity of our ERP landscape.

As part of their executive report, Gartner established a business capability model to not only understand our key business processes, but also to learn about the enormity and the depth of our ERP landscape.

They did this by conducting multiple workshops with over 120 ERP stakeholders across multiple finance, human capital management, and asset managing departments.

Gartner suggested that an ERP modernization project for our organization will require a significant financial and human resource investment.

Also, they noted that a project of this magnitude may require up to three to five years for a complete migration and legacy system decommissioning, and that executive buy-in and support are extremely important for project success.

One of the main findings in the Gartner assessment was that because of the city's complex ERP landscape and requirements, only two ERP solutions were identified as strongly viable to meet our needs.

Out of those two, SAP was determined to be the option with a lower cost and timeline for modernization.

Speaking of timeline, here's a look at our estimated project plan that began in late 2023 with the Gartner Assessment and Executive Report and then transitioned into 2024 and 2025 for business requirements documentation that's going to be used for system implementer RFP development.

Once we complete RFP execution, we are targeting 2027 and 2028 to be key project implementation years, while 2029 and 2030 are earmarked for final project needs and legacy decommissioning.

In 2024, we engaged SAP consulting firm Amic Brown for this effort, and they concluded that 93% of the city's over 1,900 business processes could be accommodated with a modernized SAP system, and that the remaining 7% of processes could be met with a level of customization using SAP compatible tools.

Like Gartner, Amick Brown also met with our key ERP subject matter experts across a variety of city departments to hear requirements, understand pain points, and document city needs.

Building on the Gartner assessment, the business requirements documentation was developed in partnership with department subject matter experts and citywide representatives, demonstrating that the ERP modernization project has been driven by business ownership and informed by operational needs as communicated and led by our department stakeholders.

Here is a look at estimated staffing counts by functional area that we anticipate will be needed for the ERP modernization project.

The ERP team used our ERP business process coordinator framework as a foundation for determining the count of ERP subject matter expertise in operations across the city that are facilitated by SAP today.

Our expected staffing count matches closely with Gartner's recommendations and indicate alignment in approach.

Staff that are assigned to this project will represent departmental requirements and operational needs and will work side by side with our system implementation partner.

Tasks for project staff include requirements validation, process discovery and workflow, and design review.

The project will also necessitate testing, data validation, change management, and training efforts from project team members whose allocation to the project will vary based on the project phase, and who ideally will be empowered by their departments for timely decision making, business process definition, and is issue escalation and resolution.

Here is an updated look at the total estimated ERP modernization project costs that is based on 2023 Gartner provided estimates and that have been adjusted for anticipated inflation.

This detail provides a breakdown of the anticipated general fund and non-gener split of expenses for this project, which include project staffing costs, cloud licensing, license negotiations, system implementation, and project management services.

A few assumptions to keep in mind when reviewing this data.

This data assumes city staff and labor largely to begin in January 2027, along with new ERP modernization cloud licensing expenses.

Keep in mind the amount of time city staff will actively be involved in the project will vary depending on project phase.

Project management and system implementation resources will soon follow in April 2027.

From a budget standpoint, project expenses will be allocated between general fund and non-general fund funding, 44% and 56%, respectively.

We expect to be able to finance $69.5 million of general fund expenses, which translates to an approximately $4.5 million general fund annual impact.

Lastly, due to project expenses that can be debt financed, such as project staff labor and the sunsetting of on-premise licensing and infrastructure costs, we anticipate a reduction in general fund expenses of approximately 14.85 million dollars from the five-year outlook over the lifespan of this project.

Again, these are very preliminary estimates that are based on Gartner input and have been adjusted for the estimated inflation.

In order to continue project momentum in progress, the Department of IT will work with citywide stakeholders to facilitate the RFP processes for a system implementer and a project management resource.

Those RFPs should be ready for publication within the next couple of months.

We are also continuing to work with SAP to outline and finalize details regarding our future cloud licensing bill of materials.

Lastly, we continue to work with the personnel and human resource department as we develop a project staffing charter and finalize details on the approach to eventually assigning city resources to this important project.

This is the end of a presentation this morning and be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that.

We will now turn to the IBA for comments.

Great.

Thank you, Chair and Committee members.

My office does recognize the need to replace the city's 20-year-old ERP system as it will lose support after 2030.

And it's also important to recognize that a well and fully supported ERP system really should be recognized as a cost of doing business for an organization of our size and complexity.

That said, the replacement will come with significant cost, as you saw, so it will be important for the city as it moves forward to ensure that we are fully understanding and vetting the costs and requests that will come forward.

It's worth noting that the update that you just heard reflects 40 million dollars in additional cost for FYs 27 through 31, which increases the total project budget from 138 to 178 million, largely due to newly identified city staff and consultant labor needs.

About 17.6 million, uh, with the remainder coming from other funding sources.

That said, to address this increase, the proposal that you have seen presented to you shifts more cost to debt financing, increasing total debt financing to a little over 65 million dollars, which is up 28.6 million from what was assumed in the five-year outlook.

Some key considerations for this committee and council moving forward.

Uh, we would note that the labor estimate in the presentation covers the equivalent of approximately 104 city positions, although that is likely a mix of existing and new staff, and greater clarity should be provided on what costs are included in terms of debt financing, as ERP replacement is a capitalizable project using debt financing to pay for some of those staff costs could provide some near-term budget relief.

You saw that in the presentation before you, but it also will have the effect of spreading costs and interest for those costs over 30 years and could further limit already constrained general fund debt capacity to address other capital infrastructure priorities.

We would also note that cost for the system implementator and the program management office contracts are currently estimates.

Those will really remain estimates until an RFP process is completed, which we understand is expected in the next several months.

Finally, I would note this is an information item, but as it moves forward, our office will continue monitoring the project costs and implementation, and I expect that we'll be providing additional analysis and input as the various components of replacement are actually brought forward for council action.

With that, we're also available for questions.

Alrighty, thank you for that.

Um we have any public comment on item six.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for item six is open, and we did receive one slip here in chambers.

Blair Beekman, please approach the lecture.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Some good house cleaning items today.

Um this item relates um more so I think to the items of yesterday.

Um working on um app issues and to the previous item a few items back.

Um good luck with these efforts.

You mentioned cybersecurity issues that I kind of wanted to talk about previously that can give me the opportunity to offer my reminders that with cybersecurity, um, if we practice well at the local level here, what we do well, that uh discourages you know hacking issues.

If we present ourselves that we're trying to do uh a really decent job about things, um, that gets through to hackers and they understand that they don't have to be messing with San Diego.

So there's a lot of uh important goals of working towards our best practices, and uh the the work that I try to offer here with tech accountability, what really we can be accomplishing, um, I think is boundless uh in its potential of what our for future society can be like in really good things in really good terms.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

This concludes in-person public testimony.

We will move to the virtual queue.

I've started the five-minute timer.

There are three hands raised in the virtual queue.

Phone number ending in 870.

Please press star six to begin.

You'll have two minutes.

Joyce and yeah, the CD3.

Uh thank you, uh, Director Banke uh team.

Thank you, IBA team.

Great, great work.

Uh, my focus, uh, what popped up for me was cybersecurity, cloud-based system, and AI inclusion.

Those are so important, those components.

Thank you, thank you.

I was overwhelmed by both the cost and the need for this modernization.

Then I pivoted to how equal, how equal these two components are cost and needs.

A question for all of you.

In our new virtual world, a 20-year lifetime no longer applies.

How do we mitigate this concern with what we must start in 2030 with this new system?

What is the real lifetime of these systems now and moving into the more now moment?

IT.

You're just what can we say about IT, except that this is our world.

And gosh, we're leaning.

I'm leaning on you to guide me.

And it's really critical that you guide our world, our local community.

Um what we are to do to make this wave of change.

It is happening so fast.

It's just practically unbelievable.

So uh we're doing the best we can.

It is a great time, a great moment for me to be alive.

Never thought I'd see anything like this happening in my lifetime.

And I'm there to meet it, and I know all of you are too.

And I love you all for your work and appreciate all of you and love to everyone.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Our next speaker, Andrea Ebbing, please unmute and begin.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing, and I am so sorry I didn't mean to have raise my hand for this one.

I apologize.

Does this conclude your comment?

Yes.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, our final speaker in the queue.

Hector, please unmute and begin.

Thanks for taking my call.

Hopefully, my internet works.

Hey, due to the recent interview with our governor Gavin Newsom.

Uh any guys you hire on this program that are of color, any kind of colors other than white, I guess.

Make sure they pass are more intelligent than our governor newsome.

He's he was inferring that black people weren't that intelligent, and he was playing down their level.

So when you go about hiring these people, make sure they pass the Gavin Newsom test.

Hopefully only hire people that are more intelligent than him, which it's not going to be too uh hard to find, but you know, give them the Gavin Newsome tests, check their hair, maybe see if they can fog a mere, see if they make sure they don't lie as much as Gavin does.

So he's gonna be uh the prosecuting Gavin for the fires now.

They went ahead with it.

So maybe we can get some money from the lawsuit with Gavin.

So anyway, maybe plus I don't know if you can hire these guys without a pension.

That will save us a ton of money.

If some way you can hire them without giving them a pension benefits, because that's what's really killing the city, the the drop program and the pension benefits.

So that would be something to put on the ballot too to get rid of the drop program if we're gonna survive and be able to build the dams of the future.

Thanks a lot.

And this concludes public comment on item six.

All righty, thank you for that.

I will now turn it over to committee members for questions and comments.

Um, this is an informational item, so no action is required.

We will start with Pro Tem Lee.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, and thank you for this informational update.

I feel like we've actually had a number of these conversations, and I I uh I appreciate them because I know how daunting the transition is going to be, but also how eye-popping the numbers might be as well as they change.

Um and it's hard, I think, for most, I mean it's hard enough for us, I think, to understand what it means to be modernizing our ERP system and what that is for a city.

And so if I remember correctly, in past discussions, we already emphasized the fact that we're moving from this sort of legacy SAP to a cloud-based uh SAP, which I was actually sort of curious if that will help ease future transitions, short of us moving to an all uh an entirely different system that I mean it might make things less flexible in terms of moving, but it theoretically would allow more updates to happen from a cloud-based standpoint as opposed to these 20-year cycles.

Yes, that's correct.

So I don't believe Arlo that SAP has announced an end of life for the version, the cloud-based version that we're moving to.

I think one of the other uh really uh beneficial things that comes as part of that is uh the updates, the enhancements, the innovation that goes on, you know, uh moves into that system, whereas today we'll apply updates on a schedule to the on-premise system.

Um, so I think it does have you know greater continuity and uh you know more innovation available, moving to a cloud model.

I I think the one thing on I I I hope many people's minds is just that technology seems to be moving right as we watch it at a clip that is hard for us to comprehend.

And so I enjoyed it right, these long life cycles um are harder to uh grasp at this point.

And so I think what's important from a city standpoint is ensuring that there's going to be enough flexibility and the ability to adopt even future tools that we may not know of yet.

I I know you mentioned things like AI because I think that's that's now suddenly sort of in every discussion of every software platform that exists.

And so um I think as we look forward, that's gonna be an important piece of it, just ensuring that we're in a position to be as flexible as needed from a city standpoint.

The ERP system's not going away.

Uh, the need for that it doesn't either.

So it's not like that's gonna get replaced, but I think how we utilize it and how we interface it probably will be.

And so that's just what happens to be on the top of my mind.

Thank you, Chair.

All righty, thank you so much.

Don't see any other members on the lights.

Um, I think I will just conclude.

Um appreciate the comments of the IBA.

Um, I do think it's a it's concerning to um receive information here today that it appears we have about a 28 million dollar gap that is not um projected in our five-year outlook.

If I understood the comments um correctly, is that um accurate?

I think that's a fair act a fair characterization.

Okay.

Um committee chair Henry Foster.

Uh, the the there that's true.

However, as we continue to refine the operating costs, we did identify, and it was we laid we shared this late uh in the game with with Charles and his team that there are other savings that were not factored into the outlook.

So there's actually a $50 million uh savings overall when looking at all costs included.

Okay.

Um I think that's even more troubling as I feel like the information we're receiving is not accurate.

So I'll let the IBA uh respond.

Happy to follow up.

There's um some shifts in how kind of unexpected or on reported kind of personnel cost were there.

There is some personnel that are likely existing staff.

There's also a shift in the way that the city could pay for these, and you saw this reflect in the presentation as well.

Uh shifting to debt financing for a number of physicians.

There are policy considerations associated with that, which we noted.

Happy to have follow-up discussions with this committee and with DOF and the department as we move forward, and I think we'll be important, particularly when you actually have uh action items that are being brought forwards.

All right.

I appreciate that and I appreciate uh the your comments um Rolando, I think it's just reflective that we continue to have work to do in making sure that we are um uh subject matter experts as it relates to departments book of business.

I can't say that enough uh because we do have some responsibility here, right?

And um you know we're only as good as the information that we receive as we make the decisions that we make.

Um so clearly there's more work to do, and also I'll say um I am pleased that we uh made the decision that we made previously to um not go ahead and move with an authorization and and to really um uh make sure that we are watching this closely and um as items are are needed to take to to come forward and um for the uh committee and uh council to take action that we are um doing so accordingly.

So um thank you for this.

I think this concludes um this item.

And with that brings us to the end of today's agenda.

Um I'd like to thank um members of the public and staff for your participation.

I will now adjourn this meeting of the budget and government efficiency committee to our next regularly scheduled meeting, which is on Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 at 9 a.m.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.