San Francisco Budget and Finance Committee Meeting - January 24, 2024
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San Francisco Budget and Finance Committee Meeting - January 24, 2024
The Budget and Finance Committee, chaired by Supervisor Connie Chan, met on January 24, 2024, to consider 15 agenda items, including grants, contracts, budget reserves, and reimbursements for the APEC summit. The committee approved most items, often with recommendations, and heard extensive public comment on mid-year budget cuts and APEC spending.
Regular Agenda Items
- Item 1 (Grant for Overdose Prevention Initiative): Ordinance to accept $1,086,740.83 from CDPH and amend salary ordinance. Continued from last week and amended; passed unanimously (2-0-1, Melgar absent).
- Item 2 (CleanPowerSF Bank Credit Facility): Ordinance to authorize amendments to credit facility for up to $150M over 10 years. Passed 3-0.
- Item 3 (Contract Modification – Alameda Electrical Distributors): Resolution to increase contract by $600,000 to $10.5M. Continued to January 31, 2024, at department request. Passed 3-0.
- Items 4 & 5 (DPH Grants): Retroactive grant agreements – $6,774,965 for crisis stabilization unit at 822 Geary St and $3,973,298 for Tobacco Prevention Program. Passed 3-0.
- Item 6 (Declaration of Restrictions – 1450 Owens St): Resolution to establish no-build easement on city property for fire access, with annual payments of $72,000. Passed 3-0.
- Item 7 (Pretrial Diversion Contract Amendment): Resolution to increase contract by $499,000 to $19.8M. BLA report noted lack of audited financials and program performance concerns. Committee forwarded to full board without recommendation, accepting BLA recommendations including a cost-benefit analysis. Passed 3-0.
- Item 8 (Port Grant – Amador Street Infrastructure): Resolution to accept $9.6M federal grant for road and utility improvements. Passed 3-0.
- Item 9 (Loan Amendment – 1000 Market St Affordable Housing): Resolution to increase MOHCD loan by $1.9M to $12.8M for rehabilitation of 58-unit SRO. Passed 3-0.
- Items 10-12 (State Housing Grants – 850 Turk St & 750 Golden Gate Ave): Resolutions to accept $8.1M Infill Infrastructure Grant, $32M Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities award, and support for $10M Local Government Matching Grant application. Total of 167 affordable units planned. Passed 3-0.
- Item 13 (Appropriation Reserve – Mid-Year Budget Cuts): Ordinance to place $48.4M of mayor's mid-year cuts on committee reserve, allowing further review. Passed 3-0.
- Items 14 & 15 (APEC Funding): Resolution to accept $6.5M grant from Special Events Committee for police overtime, and hearing to release $6.5M from reserve to cover APEC costs. Net city cost after philanthropy estimated at ~$20M. Item 14 passed with recommendation; Item 15 passed without recommendation (hearing filed). Passed 3-0.
Public Comments
- Item 13: Multiple speakers, including representatives from Larkin Street Youth Services, Latino Parity and Equity Coalition, ECS, Compass Family Services, Housing Rights Committee, and former Supervisor John Avalos, urged the committee to restore cuts to community programs, food security, workforce development, and legal aid, citing disproportionate impacts on communities of color.
- Items 14 & 15: Extensive public comment opposed to releasing APEC funds, with speakers citing police brutality, displacement of unhoused people, losses to small businesses (estimated $3.5M+ loss in Yerba Buena area), and calling for funds to be redirected to housing, worker rights, child care, and community gardens. Supporters of APEC highlighted its positive global visibility and economic impact ($62M estimated).
Key Outcomes
- All 15 agenda items were approved or continued as noted. No items were rejected.
- The committee accepted BLA recommendations for Item 7, including a cost-benefit analysis of contracting vs. in-house pretrial services.
- For Item 15, the committee released $6.5M from reserve without recommendation, acknowledging the ongoing budget deficit and community concerns.
- Chair Chan and Supervisor Dorsey announced a supplemental proposal to create an APEC Small Business Resilience Fund to compensate affected businesses in the exclusion zone.
- The committee placed $48.4M in mid-year budget cuts on reserve to facilitate further negotiations.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the January 24, 2024 meeting of the budget and finance committee. I'm Supervisor Connie Chan, Chair of the Committee. I'm joined by Vice Chair Raphael Mendelman and shortly by Supervisor Mirna Malgar. Our clerk is Brent Halipa. I'd like to thank uh SFGov TV for broadcasting this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcement? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a friendly reminder to those in attendance. Uh to please make sure the sounds all cell phones and electronic devices so as to not to enter proper proceedings. Uh should you have any documents to be included as part of the file that should be submitted to myself, the clerk. Uh 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 by left, provide along those curtains. And uh while not necessary to provide public comment, we do invite you to fill out a comment card and leave them on the trade by the television uh to your left uh by the doors. Uh if you wish to be accurately recorded for the minutes. Uh alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. Email them to myself, the budget and finance committee clerk at B R E N T dot J A L I P A at SFGO V dot O R 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. That's one, Dr. Carlton B. Good place, room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102. And finally, Madam Chair, items acted upon today, are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of January 30th, unless otherwise stated. Madam Chair. Thank you. And just a uh simple reminder as we always have uh the budget and legislative analyst report, and today we have it forth uh quite a bit of items actually on today's agenda 3789, 13, and 15. So we will have the department presentation followed by the budget and legislative analyst report. Then we'll take uh committee questions, then public comments. And with that, Mr. Clerk, please call item number one. Yes, item number one is an ordinance retroactively authorizing the office of the chief medical examiner to accept an expanded grant in the amount of approximately one million from the California Department of Public Health Substance and Addiction Prevention Branch in amending the annual salary ordinance for fiscal years 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 to provide for the addition of grant funded class 2403 forensic laboratory analyst class 2456 forensic toxicologist in class 2457, forensic toxicologist supervisor positions as required for the period beginning December 1st, 2023 through June 30th, 2028. Madam Chair. Thank you. And today we have um do we have the city administrator's office here. That is weird. Okay. Madam Chair, I believe this was uh continued as amended from last week. Uh okay. All right. Um, so then let's go to public comment on this item. Uh yes, we now invite members of the public who have joined us today who wish to speak on this item to line up now uh to speak uh right along to your right. Um and please come forward to the lecture and all speakers will have two minutes to speak. Madam Chair, we have no speakers. Seeing no public comments, public comment is now closed. Okay. Uh we did have amendments from last week. And uh with that is because I actually also have to amend the uh ASO with the uh annual salary ordinance to uh include the position, and that was substantive and we continue from the last week.
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