We're gonna we're gonna get started, guys.

Alrighty, good afternoon, and welcome to the special budget review committee uh meeting of May twenty-ninth, twenty twenty-six.

Before we go over instructions, I just want to take a moment and thank uh vice chair, uh, council president Locava and my colleagues for keeping the budget review committee meetings going while I was at Hampton University for my son's graduation.

So thank you for the robust uh discussions uh thus far.

And thank you for your attendance today to complete the last of the department presentations for the fiscal year twenty twenty-seven budget process, as it is important for the council and the public to provide feedback regarding the mayor's proposed budget.

With that, I will turn things over to our committee liaison, Natalie Kessler, to go over instructions for today's meeting.

Thank you, Chair.

This special budget review committee will convene to hear the remaining departments trailed from the budget review committee hearings held from May fourth, twenty twenty-six through Friday, May eighth, twenty twenty-six.

The public may comment on any departments that were not listed for a formal presentation throughout the budget review committee hearings during sub item S additional department review.

This information and instruction is also available on the budget review committee agenda on the city's webpage.

While the public is allowed to attend the meetings in person, this meeting is being televised and live streamed on the city's website, and council administration will continue to make arrangements for the public to comment using the Zoom webinar platform.

Additionally, members of the public who wish to provide virtual testimony must enter the virtual queue by raising their hand before the 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 council is able to manage and conduct city business.

We appreciate the public's cooperation.

Chair.

I will now call the special budget review committee meeting of Friday, May 29th, 2026 to order.

Natalie, please call the role.

Vice Chair Council President Lakaba.

Committee member Campbell here, Committee Member Whitburn.

Here.

Committee member Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Committee member Campillo.

Committee member Moreno.

Present.

Committee member Ila Rivera.

And Chair Committee Member Foster?

Here.

Also attending the meeting today, Charles Modica from the Independent Budget Analysts Office, Assistant City Attorney Michelle Garland from the City Attorney's Office, Chief Financial Officer Rolando Charbell, and Director of Policy for Mayor Todd Gloria, Matt Yeah.

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 at the front of the room.

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

In person testimony will conclude before virtual testimony begins.

And if you need to participate by phone, please dial 1669 2545252.

The webinar ID is 160 332 6900 pound.

This information is also available on the agenda and will appear on the screen during the public comment period for each agenda item.

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

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

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

Or if you're a call-in participant, press star and I on your phone.

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

Chair.

Thank you, Natalie, for reviewing those instructions for the benefit of the public.

A quorum is now present.

We will now move to committee members, mayoral staff, city attorney, and independent budget analysts for any comments.

Hearing none, we will now take up our information agenda.

As a reminder, these are informational items only during our budget review committee hearings, so no motions are required.

As Natalie mentioned, public comment will be heard after each sub item.

After each department's presentation, council members will have an opportunity to ask staff questions at the conclusion of the sub item and after public comment, council members will have the opportunity to provide concluding remarks.

With that, we will begin with item one fiscal year 2027 draft budget department presentations.

Natalie, please introduce sub-item Q.

Subitem Q is personnel.

Chair.

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

Good afternoon, committee chair and committee members.

David Dallaguer, personnel director.

With me today is assistant personnel director and Lemen Aban, and we would request six and a half minutes for a presentation.

Ah.

All right, good afternoon, Council Committee Chair Foster and Council Committee members.

The personnel department's main responsibilities are to provide supervision over the selection, promotion, and removal of all classified employees who make up more than 91% of the city's workforce, and to maintain a competitive merit system that provides equal opportunity for all applicants.

These main responsibilities are what drive our department mission, which is excellence in personnel services, and our vision to champion the principles of the city's merit system and provide equal employment opportunities.

The personnel department currently has 77 budgeted full-time positions and one unbudgeted payroll audit specialist position.

We only have one vacancy and office support specialist position that became vacant in November 2025.

We also have no standard hour positions equivalent to 3.49 FTEs, 0.5 of which is for an employee and empowered intern should we decide to utilize one.

In the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget, we are not adding a position and we are losing three filled positions.

This slide highlights some of our department's accomplishments in fiscal year 2026.

We pilot tested some hiring process improvements with outstation departments involving expanded support from personal analysts when it came to departments filling their vacancies, as well as better utilization by department hiring managers of our applicant tracking system, the NeoGov Online Hiring Center.

We found that the hiring process improvements and expanded support reduced time to hire by 94 days compared to non-pilot departments.

As part of our efforts to convert paper-based processes to online, we recently converted the transfer request form into an online application form in NeoGov.

This will allow employees to track the status of their transfer request application, and it will allow the transfer candidates to schedule themselves for an interview in NeoGov when the cell scheduling feature is offered by a hiring department.

We are also pilot testing two additional personnel change requests or PCR approval workflows in SAP, the org reassignment and pay change actions.

Payroll specialists have already been using online PCR approval workflows for new hire and rehire actions for over two years now.

Finally, we updated and centralized more than 700 online class specifications for classified jobs.

Previously, class specs were housed as PDF links on the internet, and minimum qualifications were stored within NeoGov.

Now, class specs and minimum qualifications from the most recent job bulletins are combined and stored within NeoGov.

Wherever someone accesses the class specs online, it will take them to the same NeoGov class spec site.

Listed on this slide are a few of our equity successes from the current fiscal year.

Since July 1st, we have been able to schedule non-sworn candidates at all 13 Concentra facilities for their pre-employment medical appointments.

We gave access to Concentra to view the appointments live instead of our staff waiting until the end of the day to send the following days' appointments to Concentra.

Our staff no longer had to notify Concentra of any changes manually since they could now see the calendar.

Number two, we conducted several one-stop shop events for both new hires and volunteers, who were in we brought our mobile fingerprinting machine to a more accessible location than here downtown.

New hires were able to get their ID picture taken, complete their pre-hire paperwork, and schedule their medical appointment if one was required.

And third, our our outstation section was very productive in assisting their departments with conducting joint interview processes among divisions and across departments.

Joint interview processes streamlined the hiring process by eliminating the need for multiple interviews for the same classification, saving the hiring department's time and resources by collaborating with other departments and potentially shortening the overall time to hire.

During fiscal year 26, our department had a budget reduction of six full-time positions, which included our two-person recruiting section.

The negative impact, which included, the reduction included our two-person recruiting section.

The negative impact of this budget reduction was that we were no longer able to organize recruiting events in the various communities by visiting all library branches.

And it reduced opportunities for individuals who rely on outreach efforts for access to and guidance on city employment opportunities.

The reduction also impacted our ability to implement a performance audit recommendation related to setting up a bank for interview factors and questions.

During fiscal year 26, we reduced all of our promotional advertising budget.

Since the loss of our recruiting section, we still attend job and career fairs when we are able, but we limit our attendance to those that are free.

The proposed reduction of three outstation positions in the fiscal year 27 will roll back many of the hiring process improvements the personnel department has implemented in departments with an outstation personnel analyst.

These positions are critical to maintaining the momentum in lowering the vacancy rate, reducing time to hire, and ensuring equitable hiring practices and fair access to employment opportunities.

Because of the outstation's proximity to the interview process, they have been instrumental in identifying identifying artificial recruitment barriers and reducing the city's liability exposure stemming from errors during the hiring process.

The significant reduction of promotional advertising funding in fiscal year 27, combined with the elimination of the recruiting section in fiscal year 26 will further diminish the visibility of city employment opportunities.

The personnel department's core services will continue to include delivery of cities citywide services, including classified recruitment and examinations, classification and compensation, payroll and classified and records management, equal employment investigations, policy guidance, on-site departmental hiring support for some departments, SAP org management and personal administration, and data analytics.

For fiscal year 27, the personnel department anticipates expenditures of approximately 859,000, provided that the request to fill process continues to slow down hiring, reducing pre-employment, medical and fingerprinting costs.

This concludes our presentation, and we're available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you so much.

We will now turn to our IBA for comments.

Thank you.

I'm Trisha Tackey from the Office of the IBA.

As you've just heard, the proposed budget includes reductions in the personnel department that are expected to limit applicant outreach, make it harder to build a workforce that reflects the city's diversity, reduce support for process improvements in outstation departments, and increase hiring times.

When we think about the personnel department, a lot of times it's in terms of hiring.

One thing I'm hoping won't be lost is the role that personnel plays in times of reductions.

For example, since the release of the proposed budget, the personnel department has quickly opened recruitment lists to provide opportunities for staff impacted by the reductions included in the proposed budget.

The proactive step is just one of many that the personnel department will take to support impacted staff and departments.

Personnel will also play an active role in the reduction of fork in force process.

For instance, matching vacancies citywide with positions that are being eliminated to minimize or avoid layoffs, determining seniority and bumping rights, and creating the formal layoff list and providing that information to key stakeholders.

And finally, meeting with impacted employees to make sure they're aware of their rights, among many other required actions.

Given the magnitude of the position reductions included in the proposed budget, some of which have been restored in the May revise.

Personnel will no doubt need to focus its attention on supporting the staff who continue to be impacted.

Council may want to learn more about how the department plans to support this effort.

And I'll hand it over to Helen to further outline the equity implications of these reductions.

Thank you, Tricia.

Good afternoon, Chair Foster and members of the budget review committee.

My name is Helen Weldegorges.

Pronounced she, her, hers, with the IBA's division of race and equity.

Our budget equity implications within the department review start on page 260.

Two of the FY27 proposed adjustments for personnel include equity implications, both of which are tied to reductions.

As mentioned, the proposed reduction of the outstation section, including three FTE, eliminates outstation support for the six departments with dedicated outstation staff.

In FY25, these six departments experience lower average and median hiring times compared to departments without outstation support, as shown on the table on page 260.

Along with the impacts felt by departments without station support, this reduction would also decrease the number of trainers and bilingual test raters in the personnel department, likely increasing the time it takes for city staff to qualify for bilingual pay and complete both the appointing authority interview training and employee performance review program training.

Moving on to the proposed reduction of eighteen thousand dollars for promotional advertising, the table on page 261 of the report shows games the city has experienced with job applicants both citywide and by council district from FY22 to FY25.

The loss of promotional advertising would diminish the department's recruitment capacity, including the elimination of activities like ads and community papers.

Put into context with the FY26 reduction of the department's recruitment section, this reduction may slow down the job applicant progress the city has made in recent years.

That concludes my comments.

Happy to answer any questions.

Alrighty, thank you for that.

Are there any council member questions or comments at this time?

We will go.

I'm sorry.

We will start with Councilmember Whitmart.

Thank you, Chair.

Um let me just start by thanking the personnel department staff for acting quickly to provide opportunities for staff who will be impacted by the workforce reductions.

Uh and uh as was expressed, there will be uh a bit of a workforce reduction within the personnel department.

Let me ask about that.

Is it the case or is it not the case that while there is a workforce reduction in the personnel department, there may be less work for the personnel department because there will be a smaller workforce and therefore less recruitment uh and less hiring, or does it not work that way?

Uh what we've found is in the short term it does not work that way.

What ends up happening is our work ends up shifting.

So while the city may not be hiring as many people, what ends up happening is administratively departments will then want people to do out-of-class assignments or other things to fill the gaps in their departments, which all require our analysts to touch those areas, and we have to shift our priorities and work over to them.

In addition to that, during the uh reduction and force process, we also tend to get more complaints to our EIO office.

And so what we find is while our recruiting team is doing slightly less work, but we still have to have these positions and lists ready to go.

We find our other areas and other sections ramp up at this time.

So we have not found where it's like, hey, we're doing less hiring, we need less people.

It just tends to shift the work around to other sections.

Thank you.

Thank you, Trevor.

Thank you.

Councilmember, we will now go to Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I just wanted to one kind of echo the appreciation shared from Councilman Whitburn in terms of the very quick action on making sure that uh we're taking care of folks who whose jobs have been impacted by either have been impacted or maybe impacted by the the budget that we are facing.

Um and then also just kind of bigger picture, the significant improvements that we've seen in in terms of uh getting folks who want to work for the city who are qualified to work for the city to actually begin working for the city.

Um it's it's significantly significantly improved the last couple years, and I want to say thank you for that work.

Uh that concludes my comments.

Thank you for that.

We will now go to Council President Lukava.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh, thank you for the presentation of the work and trying to write size uh in a difficult budget conversation.

Uh, can you remind us again?

So, one of the big talks is about cutting clo uh unclassified positions.

Um, is it correct that if the decision from a budgetary point of view is to move a position from an unclassified down to a classified?

And I don't use the word down as have to have any implication, but that individual can't just move into that position that they actually would have to apply like anybody else.

That's correct, and not to give too personnel on anybody on the diets.

There is no such thing as moving an unclassified position and changing it to classified.

You know, charter lays out that it has to be exempted separately, but yes, so it create it causes the department to Councilmember Whipurn's question earlier to submit a PC one or a request to uh create a classification, which then we have to study and make sure should be doing that work.

Um so that adds work on our table as well.

But yes, the the people do not automatically get it, they have no rights.

We have to open up a list, they have to get on it, get on the list with the same minimum qualifications.

Everybody else has access to apply, interview, and be selected as a top candidate.

Okay, and that comes through the civil service component, the the larger conversation that we have about how we fill positions that has to be open to everyone, and everybody gets equally evaluated.

So correct, it's a keystone cornerstone of the barrier system.

Okay, fair enough.

Thank you.

Uh, I know it's very difficult during budget cycles where we're having to reduce positions or reposition them.

So thank you.

Thank you for your good work.

Thank you, Sher.

Thank you for that.

Seeing no other members on the lights, Natalie, please proceed with public comment.

The public comment period for sub-item Q is now open.

We've received two speakers' lips here in chambers.

Corrine Wilson, please approach the lector.

You'll have one minute to speak to subitem Q, and you'll be followed by Joyce and Yada.

And we're passing out your written statement right now.

Good afternoon, Corrine Wilson with MEA.

Uh personnel is an incredibly important department that has been systematically and intentionally starved over many administrations.

However, this has started to change under this mayor and this council, so thank you.

Personnel has done an amazing work while being severely understaffed, yet they can fulfill only a portion of their chant charter mandate because of this.

They've been a vital component to the improvements in the vacancy rate and the total compensation that is a main driver of recruitment and retention of city workers.

But quickly, I want to thank the mayor's office, the CFO, and HR for making sure that the credit for essentially turning the city around is given given to everyone who's helped make it happen.

So that's the mayor, the council, personnel, HR, the hiring departments, and of course the REOs.

So good teamwork, everyone.

Thank you.

Um, one final thought very quickly.

The pay equity study identifies um lack of fairness as an issue with retention.

Fairness is the purview, it's in the charter, it's what personnel does.

So I beg you to give them staffing so that we can implement the uh recommendations from the pay equity study.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Joy, please approach the lectern.

Okay, thank you for the presentation.

Yes, to employ and empower interim program.

Uh, we're gonna maintain it.

And the revenue is a negative negative, it's very small, four thousand three hundred and seventy-eight dollars.

It's related to grant funds.

Hope I get that right.

Uh, so question on that are grants less available for this work, and then a yes to uh personnel, personnel's active role during layoff process.

This is very crucial.

Uh, yes to how to monitor the EEO annual report as a data-driven tool to examine the diversity of its workforce and identify any underrepresentations.

Uh, just a quick question on that.

Are you going to or do you already include qualitative data?

Thank you so much.

Love to all.

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.

As a reminder, each speaker will have one minute to speak to personnel.

The original, please unmute and begin.

Yeah, Henry, I wouldn't be too happy about the way that the meetings were run while you weren't there because they were actually being run illegally for two days, four times when Kent and Joe were running the meeting.

So everything that happened during that time is you can't, I mean, it shouldn't even be, you know, it's not legal, whatever.

At least you guys are, of course, correcting, but uh, you know, the things that you were doing prior are not acceptable.

Anyway, as far as this personnel, I'm wondering if you are giving the people informed consent when they are uh filling out or going through the hiring process with all of their biometrics, things like their fingerprints, and that data is actually being given internally to BlackRock and Vanguard.

You guys are concerned about ALPR and the data.

Uh yet we're getting into all these contracts with software programs that uh companies have a monopoly with so that they can have the data of all the governments.

It's very negligent.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Andrew Hollingworth.

Please unmute and begin.

This is Andrew Howingworth.

I'm speaking on behalf of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, which we oppose the 2027 budget.

Um in part because the city needs to conduct more physically sustainable labor negotiations.

The uh union tribune reported that the municipal employees association tenant labor agreement included two percent 3.5 and 4% wage increases in 2027 through 2029, and the PCB regret uh rejects those types of budget uh gimmicks.

And uh so we recommend that the salary and wages be held constant during that period with no furloughs.

Thank you.

And there should be no further tax and fee increases on already overstretched household budgets.

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you.

And Chair, this concludes public comment on sub item Q.

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

We will now move to any final council member concluding concluding remarks on sub item Q.

Seeing no members on the lights, thank you to my colleagues again.

Uh we will now uh move on to here sub item R.

Natalie, please introduce sub item R.

Subitem item one, sub item R is commission on police practices.

Chair.

Thank you.

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

Good afternoon.

I am Roger Smith, the executive director for the commission on police practices.

As of May 7th, I had been working with the city for 100 days.

And senior budget analyst Jaime Jacinto is off attending to an urgent time-sensitive matter, so he won't be joining us today.

Today I will be both the starting pitcher and the closer for the commission.

Just by way of introduction, in November of 2020, Measure B, which created the commission on police Practices, was passed with 75% of the vote.

And in April of 2021, the Office of the Commission on Police Practices was created.

Last year, the council approved the operating procedures for the Commission.

So in every stage, this operation is in its infancy stages, but important progress has been made to date.

In fiscal year 2027, the OCPP will strive to maintain staffing and expand its operations to support the commission in fulfilling its mandated duties under Measure B, conducting independent investigations and making policy recommendations.

The OCPP and the Commission will also submit the Commission draft operating procedures to the City Council and engage in a meet and confer process.

I should say continue the meet and confer process with the appropriate recognized labor organizations affected by the procedures, and that would be specifically the MEA and the POA.

OCPP will also implement a complaint and investigation management system, which I will discuss a bit later.

The mission of the Commission is to hold law enforcement accountable to the community, to increase community trust in law enforcement, and also to promote law enforcement practices that have proper regard for the rights and needs of the San Diego community.

And we will do this by conducting independent investigation of officer involved shootings, in custody deaths, deaths resulting from interactions with the San Diego police officer and other critical incidents.

A few facts on the budget.

And our draft budget for 2027 is 2.524 million dollars.

Those budgets do not include any additional positions.

The difference in those numbers comes through numerical adjustments that are automatically triggered and not based on any adjustment of commission action.

A couple of key accomplishments from fiscal year 2026.

The commission has already reviewed in the fiscal year more than 45 cases and communicated findings with the complainant on those cases, and the commission continues to actively review cases on a monthly basis in the regular business meetings.

Also, OCPP staff and commissioners participated in the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement Annual Conference, benefiting from the best practices and the knowledge and experience of national practitioners in the field.

In addition to that, OCPP staff developed requirements and specifications for complaint and information, excuse me, a complaint and investigation information management system, and is currently initiating the process to issue an RFP to acquire this important new system.

A couple of key highlights also to include from fiscal year 2026.

At the beginning of this year, the objective was set to increase and become more efficient with the review process, and there was significant success on that front with the number of cases that were returned to the police department, with more than 90 days remaining on the statute of limitations, increasing from 8% to approximately 70%.

In addition to that, we established regular community listening sessions to gather community complaints and listen to their concerns regarding SDPD officers and policy.

Our one request, and it's a critical request for the budget adjustments for fiscal year 2027, is a an addition of 200,000 in order to implement a complaint and information, excuse me, a complaint and investigation information management system.

And this system will operate as the informational nervous system of the agency, and the funding will provide support for the initial implementation of that system and any data migration that is necessary to establish this centralized platform, which is necessary not just for case tracking and managing, but also for responses to inquiries for necessary record keeping and to enable consistent rapid response to information requests both from the public and from the police department.

The core services of the agency, as uh previously mentioned, we will provide in independent investigations of critical incidents.

We will also provide policy review and independent evaluations of all complaints made against members of the police department.

In addition to that, we will provide active and regular community engagement so that we have a steady line of information regarding community concerns, regarding police practices, and also any community concerns regarding existing policies.

That concludes my presentation, and I am here to answer your questions.

Thank you.

Alrighty, thank you for that.

We will now turn to the IBA for a comment.

Thank you, Chair.

Very few comments, and as much as the uh mission on police practices budget is essentially unchanged from the prior year.

Uh, I would just note that you saw the request for a complaint investigation management system at $200,000.

We plan to address this in our final budget modifications report.

Uh, it's likely that that amount can be covered by salary savings associated with a budgeted commission on police practices position that is also expected to be vacant over the next year.

So it's very close to a one-to-one swap.

We will have that in our report on Tuesday.

Other than that, uh, I'm here, and Backup Patel is online if there are any questions as well.

All righty, thank you for that.

Do we have any council member questions for this department at this time?

We will turn to Council President McConnell.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh, well, congratulations, Roger, for getting to the 100 day uh that.

Uh I don't know.

Uh I'm very proud of what you've been able to do in the short amount of time that you've been there in at so many uh different levels.

Um can you remind us whether the commission actually has all the authority they need to execute your mission?

I think there's still a meet and confer process still going on.

Can you talk a little bit about what the timeline for that is and how much that interferes with your with the commission's ability to do its work?

Thanks for that question, uh Council President.

Yes.

We are in the meet and confer process.

The meet and confer process at this stage is in what I would call a language stage, which is essentially a conversation with the city attorney regarding the language of the operation procedures that uh this council passed last year.

And where that stands right now is that the there are no legal differences regarding that language.

There is nothing that's been identified as a legal herd in the language.

Uh we're dealing with fine-tuning at this point, so the expectation is that the final language will be presented to the council prior to the end of June.

Okay.

And to that point, since there is part of what you are intended to do, but can't do yet.

The I've noticed that the commission has actually made extra efforts to get outside of its normal meeting schedule and trying to get out in the community.

Are you getting do you feel like the public really is aware of what the commission does?

In terms of either just interest or complaints or bringing things to your attention.

I think it's a consistent challenge to ensure that the public remains uh informed about what we do.

They do have questions.

Uh we anticipated that as part of the process, but we do have regular communication uh in which those questions are being answered both by the commissioners themselves and also by uh office staff.

Uh in fact, uh June on June 6th, I have a public presentation scheduled at Livwell uh Community Center 5101 Market Street, where just those types of questions will be addressed, and there are regular opportunities for the public to engage us regarding their questions.

But you're right, at this point, there is a need for greater information to the public, and one of the things that would facilitate that is an information management system because it enables us to access the information that we have more quickly and be more rapidly responsive to inquiries.

Okay.

Um and to that point, not really a question for you, and and maybe uh question for Charles.

I think maybe I just didn't pay attention in the past or the question never really came up.

I do not understand why each department has to go fight for a case management system.

I am not an expert in that particular kinds of software, but the fact that each department has to go and fight that as opposed to IT providing that.

I mean, we don't ask for word processing software, it's just provided to us.

So, is there a better way for a more efficient way for departments to have who need a case management system?

Uh I'll get back to you with more additional details.

I'll know that I different case management systems depending on the use case of the departments may have very different requirements, particularly on the commission on police practices.

I expect there may be additional um privacy requirements or kind of firewalls that we don't necessarily have in our other case management systems.

Um that said I am not an expert on that and would be happy to get back to some more information.

Okay.

Uh, and then I guess the last question uh I've noticed that you hired outside legal counsel uh while you're searching for um to fill that position.

Does that seem to be meeting the need for momentarily, and is that actually a more cost-effective way to meet the the legal needs of the commission, or do you really want to get that in-house person?

Uh to accomplish the needs of the commission, the general counsel is critical.

Okay.

Uh typically outside counsel is used when you have a novel question or a question that comes unusually close to lines uh connected to the commission's authority because their uh purview is limited.

Uh the budget for that position is uh limited as well.

So you try to accomplish as much as you can through the general counsel inside, and then to the extent there are any remaining questions, remaining concerns needing analysis, you then turn to outside counsel for that.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense to me, but I wanted uh wanted to ask the question.

Um I know there's been uh some surprise vacancies there.

Um thank you for stepping in uh trying to navigate those, fill those positions uh and uh navigate the steps you have to do to make sure the commission really has the authority to do everything that the voters intended.

So I'll leave it there.

Thank you, Roger.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much.

We will now go to Council President Brotherton Lee.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for the presentation as well.

So I uh we certainly a group of us included um the uh the system within our budgetary memo.

And I and I just note that you know voters stood up this commission what feels like a generation ago now, and it's been a long time coming to try to see it come to fruition, and I think as as you're setting up to actually ensure that the work is is gonna get done, having all the necessary tools to accomplish that from the get-go seems to be only the responsible thing to do uh on our end.

And and I do want to share my appreciation that even in the budgetary process as you envisioned for the future that you've sought to try to to work within the city's budgetary challenges to uh as you look to grow.

Um, but ultimately I think as as we seek to have a functioning commission uh moving forward, we are gonna need to plan for that growth in the years ahead so that it actually does the work that voters approved for it to complete um in the charter.

So that would be my only note.

I know that's not gonna be the case this year, and hopefully we can find a way to actually at least address some of the technology needs for the time being, and then in future years to also recognize the need for the continued growth of the commission.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Um, not seeing any other members on the lights.

I guess um I'd just like to follow up on council president's um question regarding meet and confirm.

I'm a little confused.

Can what is the meeting confirm?

We we passed an implementation ordinance, correct?

So why are we discussing the implementation ordinance?

So the issues raised uh by the implementation ordinance uh it's not something that the individuals involved believed you could exclude as questions related to the uh working conditions of the members of the two unions that are impacted.

So that's what paved the way for the general discussion.

There were two stages of it.

That piece of it is unusual.

Uh so right now there were issues with the language where essentially the city, the commission, and everyone involved wanted to be on the same page.

That's part one, and part two is ensuring that once everyone's on the same page with the language, that the conversation with the union can be completed efficiently.

And so the first stage, the language questions, those are concluding now.

And so the second stage, which is the conversation with the union to see exactly what their grievances and concerns are, that is beginning.

We expect that that will begin once the language is brought in front of the council by the end of June.

So I guess I'm still I'm still not following.

Are we talking about the city's implementation ordinance, or are we talking about the commission's um policies and procedures?

Because uh here's my concern.

We followed our processes to the T.

We went through meet and confirm with all of our REOs.

We have a document that was approved by the council, and I'm lost if we are being held up for this period of time over an implementation ordinance, a section of the municipal code that went through a complete process, has been has been approved, and has been, I guess I'll say chartered by said madam clerk and is now part of the municipal code.

So I don't know if you can shed some light or do we need the city attorney's office to shed some light?

Because if the city attorney has opened up our implementation ordinance, I am very disappointed and I don't understand how we got here.

So someone I would ask that someone please provide some insight, because this is clearly causing, as my colleague has said, this was passed some time ago, and we are still struggling to move this department forward.

So I can provide a bit of clarification.

What's being discussed in this process are the operation procedures that uh the commission created created and were approved by the council last June.

That is specifically the document being discussed.

So just so I'm clear, it is not the implementation ordinance that is being discussed.

It is the operating procedures of the commission that that is being discussed.

That's correct.

Okay, and your attorney, I guess we have someone that is assisting you on your side in regards to the legal conversations that are associated with that.

Well, the way the process is working, uh, our conversation regarding the language is with the city attorney's office and with human resources.

And essentially the city attorney's involvement, if we can see that as assistance, yes, we are being assisted.

Okay.

Um I don't know if there's something you want to add, um, but I guess uh I guess do we have a a time and date when this will be a more firm time and date as to when this will be done and when we will be able to move forward and continue this process?

Thank you, Chair.

Uh the Commission on Police Practices is correct.

The issue currently in the meet and confer process are the interim operating procedures, not the implementation ordinance.

We have been working together, and we do intend to return before the council in closed session in June with a version seeking the direction of the council to further the meet and confer process.

So we are hoping that that can move forward quickly.

How long that meet and confer process will take cannot be predicted because it is unknown at this time what sorts of issues may need to be worked through with our recognized employee organizations.

Understood, but when will we have when are we targeting the item to come back before the council?

At the end of June.

The end of June.

Okay.

Um and you use the term interim operating procedures.

What is it going to take for us to get out of interim into?

I don't know, what do you want to call it?

Final, full, comprehensive.

I don't know what the proper term is, but how do we move from interim to to permanent or or final?

It is the uh there were interim operating procedures for the time being, but what is currently being pursued and waiting to be finalized through meet and confer will be the permanent operating procedures that will allow everything to move forward.

Okay, thank you for that clarification.

Um I will pause there.

Uh seeing no other members on the lights.

Natalie, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for subitem R is open.

It looks like we have four speaker slips here in chambers for subitem R, and there are two hands raised in the virtual queue.

We'll begin with Maximilian Schmidt.

Please approach the lectern, you'll be followed by Joyce and Yada, Miss Castranovo, and Blair Beekman.

Here, um hello, my name is Max Schmidt.

Um, I'm in a spiritual war with uh socialist, and uh there's a group of people in SD who believe I could possibly be in the U.S.

House of Representatives in the following decade.

Um, I believe most of you know who I am.

Um, anyway, two and a half million dollars are being used for the police uh budget, and 200,000 is being asked for this investigation management system, and I'm opposed to it because we need to shine a light on Freemasonry where I have reason to believe that the police are funneling money to the Masonic Lodge to hire specifically Freemasons to join the police force.

And this is a problem, and the reason this is a problem is because Freemasons are doing human sacrifices, which are first degree murder in the Masonic Lodge.

So aren't my tax dollars are going towards police hiring um basically people who are doing human sacrifices and murderers?

It's ridiculous, and I'm I pose it.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Joy Sanyata.

Thank you so much, so glad to have you.

Thank you so much.

It's tough work.

And the word is trust.

Thank you so much.

Okay, a big thank you for the four accomplishments.

A big thank you for the three equity impacts.

Love the community listening sessions.

Uh IBA Monica, Charles Monica, thank you for that information on the $200,000 general fund hit.

I really, really appreciate that.

I feel better.

So, you know, that money is for complaint and investigation info management system.

So I'll have a question in a minute.

This will serve as the backbone system for OCPP operations.

That's a great quote.

So here's my question.

Are we fully prepared for the integration of the initial of the initial system and data migration?

Because uh it's a lot of money, 200,000, and I want to make sure that we're ready for the integration.

Okay.

Thank you, love to all.

Thank you, Ms.

Castranovo.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Samantha Casternovo, and I needed clarity on what we were just uh discussing.

I am in opposition to this because I strongly feel it should be an outside council, not the city attorney's office.

Because if I understand correctly, it would be the city attorney's office that would defend any San Diego police issue that would go to trial, and that's a conflict of interest.

Also, the officers should be required to carry business cards with them with the commission information such that any member of public asks about protocols and is not comfortable with what they see going on.

Officers are required to give the business card of the commission throughout San Diego.

Because right now, when I question officers, sometimes it's hard to get their ID numbers or their names.

They do not consistently give that information that's required when asked.

And this has happened numerous times when I've been observing.

Thank you.

Our final speaker in chambers on subitem R is Blair Beekman.

Please approach the lectern.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um thank you.

Uh the work of the PAB, I think can be of help in how uh the the police commission can be moving forward.

I've heard there's been some difficulties with police commission issues.

Uh I don't know where, but they've been having a bit of uh trouble.

Um I I'm really wanting to hold police uh and the mayor's office actually uh accountable for concepts of uh retaliatory measures that I've been hearing uh at this budget time that I hope those sort of issues can be uh considered by the commission as a process.

And of course, with the shootings that have happened, um all sides of our religious communities are having trouble, and we really count on you to be a mediator for all sides, and good luck what you can be doing with that.

We're gonna need it at this time, and that I hope all sides of our communities can trust what the police uh commission can be doing uh for a future process here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes in person public testimony.

We will now move to the virtual queue.

There are two hands raised in the queue.

The original, please unmute and begin.

You'll have one minute to speak to subitem R.

Yes, this is a waste of money because it's there's no authority, and that's the problem with all these commissions or boards that are supposed to be bringing forward policy change, but it's not about policy change, it's about upholding the law and uh holding these officers to the same standard you do to the people and ensuring that they're not committing crimes and perpetrating those upon the people that they're supposed to be protecting and serving.

And you know, it doesn't matter what policy change you bring in, there are still pedophiles working for the police department, and that's something that came through through a grand jury.

So grand juries would be the way to go to add more of those because like the sheriff has like seventy-three different entities that are supposed to bring forward policy change, but we still have deaths, we still have abuse taking place, and it's just the same thing with the police.

So it's like until there's someone who can actually ensure there's accountability and there's some kind of enforcement, not just making recommendations, nothing is going to change because you have officers beating the crap out of women.

Thank you.

And our final speaker in the queue with their hand raised is Francine Maxwell.

Francy Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego, congratulations on your 100 days.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Police officers have to buy their own business cards and they won't.

The Human Relations Commission should be working with the CPP after what has happened in our city.

I have yet to see a call for that.

The city attorney is not our friend.

The city attorney is the police officer's attorney's office.

They're not trying to help us move forward.

The city council, you're responsible for the CPP and all the major things that is not coming and happening right now.

Scott Wall's office blocks tons of requests.

Can a commissioner say that?

No, because they may not be reinstated as a commissioner.

Let's look at the central division bike team.

We were told that we were gonna get staffing changes at the bike team, and yes, it's a very hard job, and we're appreciative of our first responders running in.

But again, there has been no community meetings to discuss building the bridges on a ton of things in San Diego.

Thank you and Chair, this concludes public comment.

Thank you for the comments and all the members of the public for participating.

We will now move to council members for any concluding remarks.

Not seeing anyone on the lights.

Um, I do just have one um question, Roger.

Does IA have a system?

Yes.

And so the commission does not have any access to that software?

That's correct.

And so how do you guys how do the two entities what's the plan to interface or how are you how do you reconcile complaints?

How are you guys making sure you have what you need to have?

And as they are receiving complaints on their end.

So we do receive information from them electronically.

The information goes into Google Drive, but Google Drive is not an information management system, it's really an information storage system.

And what that impacts is response to inquiries, it also impacts analysis.

Uh management systems assist with analysis by packaging information in a certain way to make it easily accessible.

Um with an information storage system like Google Drive, you have to go in and you have to pick out and locate all of the different things that you need in that process comparatively speaking, is much more cumbersome than what you would get when an information management system.

Thank you for that.

I I guess I'll ask Matt why is IA not.

If we have software in place, why are we not allowing access?

And I guess my second part would be how are we ensuring that each of the various that the right hand knows how the left hand that everyone is on one accord, and if we have 100 complaints that both um agencies or departments understand that there are 100 complaints.

Yeah, those are good questions, Chair Foster.

I I don't know the specifics as to uh how that interface happens, but we can certainly engage with the chief's office around seeing if there is a uh a workable solution.

Okay.

All righty, thank you.

I think there's uh just of course, um, sounds like we still have more work to do.

Um, Roger, I want to make sure that you are fully resourced and equipped to make sure that we can deliver what the the voters voted on, right?

75%.

This has been going on for quite some time.

We need to um get things in place and let you start doing the good work that you were brought here to do.

So thank you.

So with that, that will conclude our item regarding the commission on police practices.

We will now move to item one, sub item S, additional department review.

Natalie, please introduce sub-item S.

Subitem S is additional department review.

Chair.

Though we do not have any additional departments here to present at this time, we will not have any public comment on additional departments that were not heard during this year's budget review committee hearings, but are included in the mayor's fiscal year 2027 proposed budget.

Natalie, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for sub item S additional department review is now open.

And as the chair just mentioned, this is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on departments that were not heard during the budget review committee hearings the week of May 4th.

Uh I do have two speaker slips from two individuals here in chambers.

Joyce and Yada, would you like to approach the lectern?

And you'll be followed by Blair Beekman.

Okay, this is exciting.

Um city auditor.

Do we love our audit department or what?

And uh we want to treat them with tender loving care.

So uh I'm very excited about the increase of one FTE for the employee and empower intern, and I'm very concerned about the reduction impact on the training related to re regulations by the government auditing auditing standards.

Uh uh this just I just wrote this this afternoon, so uh that's so important.

So I just want to say the money that our audit our city auditor and the committee and everybody makes for us, it's so much money.

They save us so much.

We just we can't cut them because if you balance it all out, they're way ahead on what they're doing for us and how they're earning revenue and everything.

So thank you, love to all.

Thank you, Blair Beekman.

You're our final speaker on subitem S here in chambers before we move to the virtual queue.

All right, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Um, I just wanted to offer uh one more time.

I've offered it a few times the past month or two.

Um the idea of uh city government staff, city council, and the mayor uh discussing how to take a small pay cut uh in this time of budget concerns.

Um I think can be a real morale booster and and offer yourselves a commitment to uh wanting to work on budget issues when you take when you work towards some some small amount of budget cutting uh of your of your salaries, however small, it it I think will build a sense of thinking of how to be considering best practices in our future of our budget issues, and um I think it can do a good thing uh and uh hopeful thing.

And like I said, uh help with morale issues.

Uh you guys have to want to be willing to make that sort of uh uh effort, and good luck if you can.

It'd be really decent of you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes in-person public testimony.

We will now move to the virtual queue.

We have one hand raised in the virtual queue.

The original, please unmute and begin.

It's very concerning all of the software uh that you guys are using to integrate all your data across all of your departments.

Um, when this information is uh of course seems nice because it's gonna make things more convenient, but the problem is when things are weaponized, and again, when we're engaging with Black Rock and Vanguard, because they have the monopoly on all of these entities that you guys are contracting with, and what is this is leading to it, especially with the biometrics coming down the pike.

That you know this is going to be used uh against the people.

How much water they're taking, and so it is um something is if you're concerned about ALPR data, you should be concerned about all the data is really going to be utilized for, which is not what you guys are letting the public know.

So this is very concerning, and you know the domino effect is going to be enormous.

Thank you.

And Chair, this concludes public comment on sub-item S.

Thank you to all the members of the public for participating.

We will now move to any final council member concluding remarks.

Seeing none.

Thank you to all my colleagues, and thank you to the public for joining us today.

We will now adjourn the special budget review committee meeting of May 29, 2026.

Our next budget review committee meeting is on Friday, June 5th, 2026 at 9 a.m.

We are adjourned.

Thank you everyone for coming.