Stockton City Council Special Budget Study Session – June 5, 2025
Stockton City Council Special Budget Study Session – June 5, 2025
The Stockton City Council held a special budget study session on June 5, 2025, from 2:15 PM to 4:50 PM to continue reviewing the Fiscal Year 2025-26 Annual Budget, Fee Schedule, and Capital Improvement Plan. The meeting focused on addressing a $15 million general fund deficit through reductions and reallocations. Council heard a detailed presentation from the Office of Violence Prevention, debated departmental budget requests, and gave staff direction for a balanced budget to be adopted on June 24, 2025.
Consent Calendar
- Item 3.1 (25-0626): Approved a motion authorizing a contract with Peckham & McKenney for executive recruitment support services to the Administrative Services Department (CFO, two ACFOs, budget officer, assistant budget officer, procurement manager) for a total not-to-exceed amount of $137,500. The motion carried 6-0 (Councilmember Ponce absent).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Mary Elizabeth (central Stockton resident): Expressed concern about the 6% utility tax applied to Cal Water customers, while city-provided water/sewer customers are exempt. She noted that many disadvantaged communities lie within the Cal Water service area and requested the city seek a breakdown of utility tax revenue and become more involved in California Public Utilities Commission proceedings to represent affected residents.
Discussion Items
- Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) Presentation: Director Lora Larson reported key outcomes of the Ceasefire model over 25 years (1997-2022): participants were 40% less likely to be reshot; overall recidivism reduced by 25%; violent recidivism reduced by 32%; homicides decreased by 30% (with a 13% reduction during COVID). Year-to-date as of June 2025: 17 homicides (29% decrease from prior year) and 44 non-fatal shootings (10% decrease). OVP’s total budget is $2.1 million ($961,181 general fund; $1,809,669 Measure A). Highlights of services: 172 employment services (12% increase), 208 social services (44% increase), 456 individuals engaged in therapeutic services (173% increase), 53 high school diplomas, 131 conflict mediations (134% increase), 93 shooting responses (16% decrease). OVP is pursuing Medi-Cal certification and grants (CalVIP and Prop 47) to fund school-based peacekeepers, a 24/7 crisis hotline, and expanded mental health/substance use programming.
- Police and Fire Recruitment: Council discussed recruitment challenges, diversity, and retention. The fire department lacks a dedicated recruitment division, and retention is difficult due to higher pay and lower call volumes in the Bay Area. Council expressed support for the $35,000 annual recruitment budget for the fire department and suggested exploring preference points for local hires. Vice Mayor raised concerns about the elimination of the DEI officer position and the need for intentional recruitment from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
- Budget Reduction Options: Staff presented a list of non-safety budget requests totaling $4.5 million that were not approved (e.g., charter office evaluations, federal lobbyist increase, library materials, parks maintenance contracts, traffic camera software). Safety-related requests totaling $4.9 million (fire telecommunications, police software, animal shelter support) were approved. Council also directed reducing the general fund contribution to the Capital Improvement Plan from $3.35 million to $1.35 million, with staff to prioritize projects.
- Discretionary Funds: Vice Mayor questioned the city manager's discretionary budget, revealing a $150,000 allocation. Council agreed to reallocate these funds to council districts: $20,000 per councilmember and $30,000 to the mayor for community support activities.
- Charter Review and Civil Service: Discussion on the rule-of-one (mandatory promotion of top candidate) and rule-of-three (choice among top three) for promotions. The Charter Review Commission has been tasked with examining the civil service section of the charter. Council requested a timeline for potential ballot measures.
Key Outcomes
- Motion 2025-06-05-0301 approved 6-0 for the Peckham & McKenney contract.
- Budget Direction: Staff will incorporate the following into the final budget for adoption on June 24, 2025:
- Approve $35,000 for fire department recruitment.
- Explore funding for two full-time and five part-time OVP positions (school-based peacekeepers and lead peacekeeper) by reallocating existing general fund vacancies.
- Reduce general fund CIP contribution to $1.35 million.
- Reallocate $150,000 from city manager’s discretionary fund: $20,000 per councilmember and $30,000 to the mayor.
- Follow-up Requests:
- Staff to provide a report within one week on discretionary funding policies and the charter review timeline for civil service promotion rules.
- Council requested monthly reports on contracts approved under the city manager's $100,000 discretionary authority, to be presented at Audit Committee meetings.
- Next Steps: The balanced budget will be presented for final adoption at the June 24, 2025 City Council meeting.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to call this budget study session, our second budget study session, uh, to order. Uh let's go ahead with roll call. Councilmember. Present. Councilmember Enriquez. Present. Councilmember Ponce is absent. Councilmember Padilla? Present. Councilmember Via Padua. President. Vice Mayor Lee. Present. Mayor Fugazi. Present. We have a quorum. Okay. So I would like to take things out of order today. But if we have a general public comment, I will go ahead and entertain the general public comment first. Mary Elizabeth. Hi, Mary Elizabeth. I live here in uh central Stockton. And I am served by Cal Water. And so I uh noticed on the slides, you know, that I think 16 to 19% of the revenue comes from utility taxes. And I want to make sure you know that uh you're all aware, and maybe something that you could ask for is a breakdown on uh which utilities uh you're getting those that six percent and I know you know uh there was an overage uh last year because of the increase in utilities related to the uh heat wave that we had, and so when we have more uh heat waves, people have to use their electricity electricity more to try to stay cool, and so they're paying on top of that an extra six percent on that extra, and so the city of Stockton uh provides uh wastewater, storm water services throughout the city, but only water services in the north of uh the town and in the south of the town. The middle part, the older part of the town is served by cow water that's been here uh over a hundred years, and uh cow water uh for some reason is the utility that uh people are paying uh extra six percent. If you are provided water, sewer or wastewater by the city of Stockton, you're not paying six percent utility tax. And so, you know, there was an issue that came up in regards to the uh water hydrants and uh the fire, and you know, a comment made well we don't get any money, you know, from Cal Water on that, and uh there's all kinds of complicated uh California PUC uh hearing uh meetings that I hope that the city might get more involved in uh to represent the people in uh the central part of town. But that six percent uh is uh significant amount of money when you uh count it over. And if you look at where we have disadvantaged communities, many, many, many of those disadvantaged communities are located within the Cal Water Service area, and so I'd like you know, at least some point, you know, that the city could take a look at those utility taxes and what they're paying for and who's paying for them. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Okay, wonderful. Um so we are going to move things out of order slightly, only because I want to make sure uh that we get our the item we need to vote on done, and of course I don't have uh my agenda sitting in front of me, but just give me five seconds and I will it is 3.1. It's 3.1. 3.1. Okay. Uh so we're gonna go ahead then and move forward with item uh 3.1, which is to approve a contract uh with Peckham and McKinney. I'm going off the top of my head for hiring of a CFO. Uh a FC okay. Okay, yeah, administrative services department recruitment through Peckham and McKenney. It just came to me. Hello, Rosemary Reeves, Director of Human Resources. Um we did initiate a formal RFP to recruit for the six vacancies in ASD, which is a CFO, two ACFOs, budget officer, assistant budget officer, and procure procurement manager. We did get nine responses. Um we did have a group of um representatives from the HR department that did review all of the um submissions for the recruitment, and then we did uh select Peckham and McKenney. Okay. Are there any questions from council on this contract? Any public comment?
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