San Francisco Budget and Appropriations Committee Special Meeting - June 14, 2024
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San Francisco Budget and Appropriations Committee Special Meeting - June 14, 2024
The Budget and Appropriations Committee held a special meeting on June 14, 2024, to hear presentations from multiple city departments regarding their proposed budgets for fiscal years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. The meeting also considered two pieces of trailing legislation: a grant acceptance for the District Attorney's office and a reappropriation of funds for overtime costs in the Police and Sheriff's Departments. The committee heard from the City Attorney, Treasurer, Superior Court, Department of Emergency Management, Fire Department, Juvenile Probation, Adult Probation, Public Defender, Sheriff, Department of Police Accountability, Office of Inspector General, District Attorney, and Police Department. Public comment was taken on the overall budget and on the specific items.
Consent Calendar
- No consent calendar items were identified. All items were discussed individually.
Public Comments & Testimony
- David Moore of the San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project expressed support for a holistic public safety strategy that addresses both the front end (jail population) and reentry services, noting a 30% workload increase due to rising jail numbers.
- Anya from the People's Budget Coalition voiced concern about the mayor's budget balancing approach, stating that cutting housing and food programs while not applying similar cuts to law enforcement agencies is unfair. She urged a holistic approach to public safety funding.
Discussion Items
- City Attorney (David Chiu): Presented a $118 million proposed budget. Highlighted a 1,700% increase in litigation budget reserves for tax disputes, a 165% increase in fallen tree claims, and a 323% increase in flooding claims. The office has 340 FTEs with a very low vacancy rate. Two new positions funded from consumer protection funds will support affirmative litigation (worker protection and consumer protection) to generate revenue. The office also noted increased workload from Care Court and conservatorships (SB 43).
- Treasurer (Jose Cisneros): Presented a budget that deletes 11 vacant positions. The office collects nearly half the city's budget annually, with property tax delinquency at 1% and business tax at 5%. Business tax collections in 2022 were $1.4 billion. The office is implementing the empty homes tax (80,000 property owners) and a business tax system replacement. The office has maintained staffing levels despite new taxes since 2010.
- Superior Court (Brandon Riley): Requested $250,000 for the Civil Grand Jury and $9.6 million for indigent defense administration, with a $200,000 increase per year due to increased case filings (felonies exceeding pre-pandemic levels). The court noted a 2.7 million state budget cut. Discussion arose about potential conflicts of interest if the Public Defender's caseload becomes unmanageable, leading to supplemental requests for the Bar Association.
- Department of Emergency Management (Mary Ellen Carroll): Proposed $141 million budget. 911 call answering time is at 76% against a 90% target, attributed to staffing shortages. The department is holding six academies of 15 trainees each to address vacancies (18 vacancies, 5.7% vacancy rate). The CAD system experienced outages due to aging software; a new system is being implemented but will have transitional instability. The department is focusing on climate adaptation (extreme weather resiliency program).
- Fire Department (Chief Janine Nicholson): Proposed budget maintains operational staffing. Call volume is up 20% from pre-COVID, reaching 200,000 annually. Overtime budget is $65 million. Fleet is aging: over 50% of trucks are over 20 years old, and replacement costs have increased 160%. The department has 1,900 FTEs, including 800 firefighters. The community paramedicine and street crisis team are funded via off-budget positions and reallocation, causing operational strain.
- Juvenile Probation (Katie Miller): Proposed budget remains stable. Referrals returned to 2019 levels after pandemic abnormalities. Caseload for probation officers increased 53% since 2019. Juvenile hall counselors work an average of 11 weeks of overtime per year. The department is investing in community programs (doubled over five years). Progress on reducing custodial bookings: percentage of arrests resulting in custody has flipped downward. The department is working on replacing concrete beds and reimagining the facility. The ranch property is being prepared for RFP.
- Adult Probation (Christelle Tulach): Proposed $70 million budget, a $2.8 million increase from FY23-24. General fund support decreases by $1.8 million due to increased state funding and recoveries. Staffing reduced from 154.4 to 143.6 FTEs. Caseload managed by risk, ranging from 26 to 180 per officer. The department provides housing and supportive services through city grants (28% of budget).
- Public Defender (Manohar Raju): Argued that the office is underfunded relative to law enforcement. The budget is less than 4% of the combined criminal legal system budget. Caseload for felony attorneys averages 75, compared to 40 in surrounding counties. The office needs at least 16 more attorneys and 4 more paralegals to meet constitutional standards. The office has 240 staff with 7 vacancies. High caseloads contribute to jail overcrowding and attorney burnout. The office has a 75% rate of felony charges not resulting in felony convictions due to zealous defense.
- Sheriff (Paul Miyamoto): Presented a budget that includes a 36% increase in jail population year-over-year. Staffing is a critical issue: 713 sworn staff, with over 200 vacancies. Attrition is outpacing hiring. The department is relying on overtime and Proposition F retirees. The department requested $400,000 for recruitment, which was not funded. The office is moving deputies from non-custody roles to the jails. The out-of-custody population (electronic monitoring) has increased 20% to 1,700.
- Department of Police Accountability (Paul Henderson): Proposed budget includes reductions to meet the 10% target. The department has 38.76 FTEs, with 18 investigators. Caseload per investigator is at the maximum of 17 recommended by the Controller. The office has not lost any cases due to jurisdictional deadlines since 2017. The department is concerned that increased law enforcement funding without corresponding oversight funding will strain resources. Prop E implementation will require additional work.
- Office of Inspector General (Johnnie Wiley): The mayor's proposed budget funds only two positions (director and administrative assistant), eliminating three investigator positions. The charter requires one investigator per 100 deputies (currently 713 deputies, so 7 investigators). The office requested $2.5 million for a chief assistant and two investigators to become minimally operational. Without funding, the OIG will rely on DPA support and cannot fully fulfill its oversight mandate.
- District Attorney (Brooke Jenkins): Proposed budget of $93.7 million, a 4.7% increase mainly due to COLAs and lease costs. The office has 293.75 FTEs, including 137 attorneys and 41 investigators. Caseloads: general felonies 83 per attorney, misdemeanors 150 per attorney, victim advocates 347 cases each. The office requested more paralegals to handle discovery (1.3 million pages per year, 2.2 million digital files in six months). The office noted that for every case the Public Defender handles, the DA also handles it, and that the DA's office also handles cases not assigned to the Public Defender due to conflicts. The office emphasized the need to support victims, with 42% of victims being Black or Brown.
- Police Department (Chief Bill Scott): Proposed budget includes a $12 million increase beyond the department's control. Overtime spending is projected at $87.7 million for the current year. The department has 2,337.3 budgeted sworn FTEs. Hiring is improving: 2024 recruit numbers will likely exceed 2021 and 2022 combined. Property crime is down 32% year-to-date, car break-ins down 51%, violent crime down 13%. The department uses overtime to backfill for staffing shortages, exacerbated by protests (since October 7) and special events.
Key Outcomes
- Item 4 (Resolution accepting grant from California Victim Compensation Board for $2,530,992): The committee voted 4-0 (Peskin absent) to recommend approval to the full Board of Supervisors for the June 25, 2024 meeting.
- Item 5 (Ordinance reappropriating $6,862,571 for overtime in Police and Sheriff's Departments): The committee voted 3-0 (Walton and Peskin absent) to recommend approval to the full Board of Supervisors for the June 25, 2024 meeting. The BLA report noted that the FY23-24 budgets did not reflect actual staffing and deployment decisions, leading to overspending.
- Items 1, 2, 3 (Hearing on mayor's proposed budget, appropriation ordinance, and salary ordinance): The committee voted 3-0 to continue the hearing to the June 20, 2024 meeting of the Budget and Appropriations Committee.
- The Mayor's Budget Office announced that a first set of technical adjustments will be introduced, including backfilling Ryan White federal cuts ($200,000/year) and other cleanup items, funded from the technical adjustment reserve and not increasing the overall budget size.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the June 14, 2024 meeting of the budget and appropriation committee. I'm Supervisor Connie Chan, Chair of the Committee. I'm joined by Vice Chair Raphael Mendelman, Supervisors Mayor Nam Melgar, and Shaman Walton. Today, Supervisor Ronin will be sitting in for President Aaron Peskin shortly. Our clerk, it's John Carroll, and I would like to thank uh Corwin Cooley from SFGAU TV for broadcasting this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcement? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Quick reminder to those in attendance today in the chamber, please ensure that you've silenced your cell phones and other electronic devices to prevent interruptions today's proceedings. If you have any documents to be included as part of the file, you should submit them to me, and you can do so by bringing them forward to the rail. I'll meet you there. Public comment will be taken on each item on today's agenda. When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak along the western side of the chamber. I'm pointing it out with my left hand. While not necessary to provide public comment, I also invite you to fill out a comment card and leave the comment card on the tray by the television on your left hand side. If you wish, you may submit public comment in writing, and you may do so by writing them to the budget and appropriations committee clerk, that is Brent Halipa. Brent's email address is B R E N T dot J A L I P A at SFGO V dot ORG. Or you may submit your public comment in writing by sending your comments to the clerk's office. That is in City Hall, Room 244 in City Hall's addresses one, Dr. Carlton B. Goodlit Place, San Francisco, California 94102. Throughout the budget process, we are in partnership with the Office of Civic Engagement in Immigrant Affairs. We have arranged for interpretive services to assist us during public comment today. We have Tinky Wong for uh for Chinese, and we have David Cruz from Intergraphics for Spanish. May I please in uh uh request each of the interpreters to come forward to the lecture and to provide an introduction to their services in language. We could hear from Mr. Cruz first, please. Well my buenas tardes, for favor si usted necessita interpretación de English Espanol, favor idirigirse uhia as personas presentes for favor to formar una fila del lado de las ventanas este para proveerles interpretación consecutiva. Thank you very much for your assistance throughout the meeting today. And Madam Chair, that concludes our preliminary announcements for today's meeting. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and um welcome to our third day of departmental budget hearing. Before we get started, I wanted to I just wanted to uh reiterate for the public how today's agenda will proceed. We will uh hear presentations for departments in the order listed on the agenda. Some departments have additional legislation tied to their department budgets, which is often referred to as trailing legislation. Those items are listed as items four and five on today's agenda. I will call those items along with the department responsible and affiliated with it. And and you will hear Mr. Clerk announce those items accordingly. Items five, uh item five also has a budget and legislative report and budget and legislative analyst report. So for that item, we will have the department presentation first, followed by the budget and legislative analyst report, then we will take questions from the committee members before we proceed to public comments on that legislation only. For that legislation, members of the public should keep their remarks related to the legislation, not the overall department budget. Public comments that addresses any or all department budget will be taken after we have our final department budget presentation. For today, we'll be the police department. And we are also limiting public comment today to one minute. Um and so with that, Mr. Clerk, please call item one through three together. Agenda item numbers one, two, and three consider the mayor's proposed budget for the departments of the city and county for fiscal years twenty twenty-four through twenty twenty-six.
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