SF Budget Committee Hearing on Mayor's FY 2024-2026 Budget and Key Budget Decisions - June 12, 2024
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SF Budget Committee Hearing on Mayor's FY 2024-2026 Budget and Key Budget Decisions - June 12, 2024
The Budget and Appropriations Committee, chaired by Supervisor Connie Chan, held a marathon hearing on June 12, 2024, to review the Mayor's proposed budget for fiscal years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. The meeting featured presentations from over a dozen city departments, discussions on trailing legislation, and extensive public testimony. A central theme was the difficult trade-offs required to close a projected $789 million deficit, balancing core services against cuts to community programs.
Consent Calendar
- Interim Budget (Items 1-3): Heard and filed. The interim appropriation and salary ordinances were forwarded to the full Board with a positive recommendation (5-0).
- OCII Budget (Items 4-5): The interim and fiscal year budgets for the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure were forwarded to the full Board.
- Cannabis Business Inspection Fees (Item 9): Ordinance eliminating unused DPH inspection fees and allowing CPI adjustments moved to the full Board.
- Administrative Provisions, Taxes, and Graffiti Fund (Items 10, 11, 14, 15): Heard and filed; the associated ordinances were forwarded to the full Board.
- Proposition J Contracts (Items 12, 13): Resolutions certifying contracted-out services (previously and not previously approved) were forwarded to the full Board.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Community Ambassador Program (CAP): A large contingent of CAP ambassadors, community members, and service providers spoke in strong support of restoring full funding. Speakers highlighted the program's role in overdose reversal, safety escorts, de-escalation, connecting vulnerable residents to resources, and providing dignified city jobs to formerly unhoused and immigrant workers. Speakers explicitly urged the committee to reject the Mayor's proposed cut.
- Workers' Rights Community Collaborative (WRCC): Several speakers, representing Chinese Progressive Association and La Raza Centro Legal, opposed proposed cuts to the WRCC. They emphasized the program's success in recovering over $985,000 for workers and providing multilingual outreach. Speakers argued that cutting the program contradicted the recent expansion of the Language Access Ordinance.
- Workforce & Homeless Services: Marnie Regan (Larkin Street) expressed concern over collective reductions to workforce programs across HSA, DCYF, and OEWD, calling the cuts contradictory to addressing the rise in homelessness.
- Latinx & Arts Funding: Representatives from the San Francisco Latino Parity and Equity Coalition, Galeria de la Raza, and other organizations protested cuts to arts and culture funding, emphasizing their role in community well-being and the local economy.
Discussion Items
- Budget Overview & Deficit: Budget Director Anna Dooning and Controller Greg Wagner presented the $15.9 billion budget. The Controller noted the budget closes a $789 million deficit using $1 billion in one-time solutions (including a $445M drawdown of prior year fund balance) but warned of a persistent structural deficit of approximately $800 million in future years. General fund spending grows by only 0.4% in FY24-25.
- Office of the Assessor-Recorder: Assessor Joaquín Torres highlighted an unprecedented surge in property tax appeals (nearly 8,000 filed in FY23-24, the highest in 25 years). He argued the proposed budget increase is necessary to defend the $4.1 billion property tax roll and minimize deferred revenue.
- City Administrator's Office / OSEA Ambassador Cut: City Administrator Carmen Chu presented her budget, which exceeded the 10% general fund reduction target ($20M in savings). Cuts include reduced 311 service hours (eliminating in-person overnight call-taking) and the Mayor's decision to discontinue the OSEA Community Ambassador Program (saving $2M in FY25-26). Supervisor Preston strongly opposed the elimination, calling it a "fantastic city program" and questioning why a city-run program was eliminated while contracted programs were not. Chair Chan and Supervisor Walton voiced significant concerns. The Mayor's Budget Director stated it was a "policy decision" to prioritize safety-focused ambassadors over the community outreach role of the OSEA program.
- Health Service System Board Decision: A major debate arose from the HSS Board's rejection of a competitively bid Blue Shield Medicare plan ($67M savings over 3 years) in favor of renewing a more expensive United Healthcare plan ($43M over 3 years). Chair Chan called this a "serious problem" for the deficit, demanding a report back on the next vote. Supervisor Dorsey, an HSS Board member, expressed concern about disregarding the rigorous RFP process and prudent fiduciary duty.
- Ethics Commission Reclassifications: Chair Chan questioned a series of position upgrades proposed by the Ethics Commission, expressing concern about approving salary increases during a budget crisis and highlighting a citywide trend of hiring management twice as fast as line workers. She requested further analysis from the Budget and Legislative Analyst.
- Prop I Revenue & Affordable Housing (MOHCD): Supervisor Preston pressed MOHCD Director Dan Adams and Budget Director Dooning, confirming that no net new Prop I funds were allocated for the Housing Stability Fund Oversight Board's recommended priorities. A detailed discussion on the Small Sites Acquisition Program followed, revealing FY25-26 has limited dedicated funding beyond regular impact fees and the housing trust fund, despite heavy investment in the current year.
- Department of Public Works & HSA: Public Works detailed the use of a $16.9M supplemental (expiring at end of FY24-25) to fund 20 temporary FTE street cleaners. HSA highlighted significant state budget risks and the use of Dignity Fund growth to backfill general fund cuts rather than expand senior programming.
Key Outcomes
- OSEA Ambassador Program (CAP): No immediate vote to restore the cut, but Chair Chan and multiple members explicitly stated the program was a funding priority, signaling intent to restore it through the board's budget process.
- Health Service System (HSS): Committee awaits outcome of the HSS Board vote on the United Healthcare renewal. Chair Chan requested a prompt report back.
- Assessment Appeals Board Filing System (Item 16): Appropriation ordinance continued to the call of the chair to resolve accounting concerns regarding potential double-counting of revenue.
- Full Budget (Items 6-8): Hearing on the full budget and associated ordinances continued to June 13, 2024.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the June 12, 2024 meeting of the budget and appropriation committee. I'm Supervisor Connie Chan, Chair of the Committee. I'm joined by Supervisors Miranda Malgar and Shaman Walton and Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who's here in place of President Aaron Pless Peskin, and uh hopefully shortly by Vice Chair Rafael Mendelman, our clerk it's Brent Halipa. I would like to thank Colina Mendoza for broadcasting uh this meeting from SFGov TV. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcement? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a friendly reminder. Uh to those in attendance to please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to prevent interruptions to our meetings. Uh should you have any documents to be included as part of the file? They should be submitted to myself, the clerk. Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called. Please line up to speak on the west side of the chamber to your right, my left along those curtains. And while not uh required to provide public comment, we do invite you to fill out a comment card and leave them on the trade by the television to your left by the doors. If you wish to be accurately recorded for the minutes, alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. Email them to myself, the budget and appropriations committee clerk at B-R-E-N-T dot J A L I P A at S F G O V dot or G. If you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file. You may also send your written comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office in City Hall at one Dr. Carleton because the place room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102. And throughout the budget process, uh in partnership with the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, we arranged for interpretive services to assist us during public comment. Today we have Tinky Wong for Chinese and Arturo Casenza from OCIA and David Cruz from Intergraphics for Spanish. Thank you. And uh thank you, Mr. One second uh one second, Madam Clerk. Gracias. Um helping bow day load tomaepawn, um, thank you much. And finally, Madam Chair, uh some of the items acted upon today are expected to be here on the board of supervisors' agenda of June 18th, unless otherwise stated. Madam Chair. Thank you, um, Mr. Clerk. And before we call item uh the we before starting uh calling items on the agenda, I would like to explain today's agenda and and how it will uh proceed. Um our first few items are related to the city's interim budget and the budget for the Office of Community Investments and Infrastructure, which we should hear about and dispatch relatively quickly today. Um then we will proceed to our first sets of department budget presentations for this week. We will hear these presentations in the order listed on the agenda. With one exception, we will hear from the planning department after the department of elections. Some departments have additional legislation tied to their department budgets, which is often referred as trailing legislation. Those items are listed as items nine through sixteen on today's agenda. I will call those items along with the department's responsible uh and affiliated. And you will hear Mr. Clerk announce those items accordingly. Some of the trailing legislation also have budget and legislative analysts report. For items 10, 11, and 16. We will have the department presentation first, followed by the budget and legislative analyst report. Then we will take questions from committee members before we proceed proceed to public comment on those items only, on those legislation only. That means that for the trailing legislation for the public commons should keep to only related to the legislation, not the overall department budget. Public comments that address any or all or all department budgets will be taken after we have our final department budget presentation today. And also public commons will be limited to one minute.
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