1 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Councilmember Dev Davis
Councilmember Omar Torres
Councilmember Peter Ortiz
Councilmember Bien Doan
Councilmember Arjun Batra
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: March 17, 2023
Approved Date March 17, 2023
RECOMMENDATIONS
Approve the Mayor’s March Budget Message for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 with the additional direction to the City Manager to:
A. Retain Sunday library hours as previously approved by the City Council with the 2022-2023 Adopted Operating Budget.
B. Issue a Manager’s Budget Addendum that estimates the cost to implement the following service enhancements:
1. Provide an additional sexual assault analyst.
2. Add traffic enforcement officers.
3. Prioritize enforcement of vacant building blight.
4. Expand Project Hope (a PRNS program) for all identified Gang Hot Spots.
5. Strategies to increase park safety.
6. Expand Sunday hours to all branch library locations, or according to need as identified by the City’s Librarian.
7. Bolster our hiring and retention work by improving our family friendly policies such as childcare benefits, strengthening our Paid Family Leave program, investing in competitive salaries, and rewarding retention.
8. Maintain funding for the R.O.C.K. after-school program.
9. Maintain scholarships for recreation programs.
10. Support youth workforce development through apprenticeships or collaborations with other partners.
C. Report out during the Council’s Budget Study Sessions any service reductions that are being recommended in the City Manager’s 2023-2024 Proposed Budget to accommodate the direction in the Mayor’s March Budget Message.
COUNCIL AGENDA: 03/21/2023
FILE: 23-405
ITEM: 3.5
2 DISCUSSION
We agree, in principle, with the Mayor’s March budget message. We also agree wholeheartedly with Councilmember Cohen that parks and libraries are basic city services which we would also like addressed in this budget discussion.
The R.O.C.K after school program and other recreational programming at our community centers allow our children a place of refuge when school is not in session. It is a place where they feel safe, where they can grow, and learn new skill sets. It is important that we expand these opportunities to families who wouldn’t be able to afford them by maintaining the number of scholarships we are already providing with ARP funds.
We draw a straight line between our parks, recreation, and library programs and both homelessness prevention and economic development. Thus, we want to ensure that the key items mentioned above are included in the budget to improve public safety, homelessness prevention, blight, and economic development. The items we have included are essential to our strategy for supporting a strong, healthy city.
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member's staff.