CITY OF SALINASFinance CommitteeCITY OF SALINASFinance Committee
CITY OF SALINAS
Finance Committee
CITY OF SALINAS
Finance Committee
DATE: February 7, 2023
DEPARTMENT: Administration and Human Resources
FROM: STEVEN S. CARRIGAN, CITY MANAGER
RUSS BRANSON, (RUSS BRANSON CONSULTING)
jim pia, assistant city manager
Marina Horta-Gallegos, Human resources Director
TITLE: The Salinas Plan Refresh
RECOMMENDation:
Provide The Salinas Plan Refresh initial presentation to the Finance Committee for information and Committee input prior to the finalized report to the City Council in March.
DISCUSSION:
The Salinas Plan
The Salinas Plan is a Ten-Year Plan designed to provide the City with a path forward on maintaining a long-term balanced budget while preserving City services and addressing the affordable housing crisis. The Salinas Plan was presented to the City Council by representatives of the National Resource Network, including Russ Branson, on December 4, 2018. The Salinas Plan represented over a year of work analyzing the City's fiscal situation and current housing policies.
The Salinas Plan included 32 recommendations. These recommendations covered a wide variety of topics, to be phased in over a ten-year period. Since its presentation in 2018, City staff has been systematically exploring the recommendations made, in order to determine whether or not each recommendation is the right fit for Salinas and verifying the amount of potential savings from such actions.
In addition to individual items being considered, staff provides updates to the Finance Subcommittee on a monthly basis. Further, the full City Council receives updates from staff regarding the implementation of the recommendations.
At the time, The Salinas Plan then identified potential solutions to in order to preserve core City services and address the housing crisis. Utilizing a ten-year budget model, the Salinas Plan identifies the 32 specific recommendations that, taken together, would eliminate the City's structural budget deficit and establish resources which can be utilized to address the housing crisis. These recommendations include plans to reduce current expenditures, find ways to implement current efforts more efficiently, and identify potential new revenues. Additionally, the Plan included recommendations to increase the supply of affordable housing and decrease the number of residents living in overcrowded and unsafe living conditions. Recognizing that it's impossible to provide public services without employees, the Salinas Plan did not recommend any layoffs.
The challenges facing the City of Salinas are real and need to be addressed; This Salinas Plan Refresh examines progress to date and, post the COVID-19 Pandemic, identifies where we are on the recommendations and further considers and proposes additional needs, which will ultimately be presented, in person, at the City Council meeting of March 21, 2023.
Attachments:
Salinas Plan Refresh PowerPoint
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