stream.
>> We will call to order the
Budget and Audit Committee
meeting for MAY 26th, 2026. And
welcome to those of you who
have joined us. Why don't we
call the roll to establish a
quorum?
>> Thank you. Council member
Talamantes. Council member
Maple. I am here, Council
member Guerra and chair
Dickinson here. Quorum.
>> Thank you. And Council
member Maple, would you lead us
in the acknowledgment and the
pledge?
>> Please rise if you are able.
Rise for the opening
acknowledgments in honor of
Sacramento's indigenous people
and tribal lands to the
original people of this land,
the Nisenan people, the
southern Maidu Valley and
Plains Miwok, Patwin Wintun
peoples and the people of the
Wilton Rancheria. Sacramento's
only federally recognized tribe.
MAY we acknowledge and honor
the native people who came
before us and still walk beside
us today on these ancestral
lands, by choosing to gather
today in the act of practice of
acknowledgment and appreciation
for Sacramento's indigenous
peoples, histories,
contributions and lives. Remain
standing. Salute and pledge. I
pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
it stands one nation under GOD,
indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
>> All right, all right. Thank
you all for joining us this
this morning. If you wish to
speak on any item on our agenda,
you're welcome to to do that,
you need to, to fill out a
speaker form and deliver that
to our clerk here at the front
of the chambers. And then we'll
make sure to call on you on the
item in which you are
interested. Please keep in mind
that public comment is limited
to two minutes, and you can see
the clock ticking now as you
stand at the podium, so be sure
to keep an eye on that so you
time your remarks so you get
everything said that you that
you want to get in. And with
that, I think we can move to
our consent calendar. So do we
have any items that members
wish to address on the consent
calendar?
>> I'll move consent.
>> And we have a motion and a
second on the consent calendar.
Do we have any members of the
public who wish to address. I
have no.
>> No speakers on the consent
calendar.
>> All right. If there's
nothing further, then all in
favor, signify by saying aye.
Aye. Opposed? Say no. Any
abstentions? Hearing none.
Motion passes unanimously.
We'll go on to item six, which
is the audit of emergency
medical services. And because
it's an audit, here's our
auditor. This. Good morning.
>> Good morning, Chair
Dickinson and members of the
Budget and Audit Committee. I'm
your city auditor. With me
today is Joe Fleming, who is
primarily responsible for
completing this audit. And the
recommendation that's before
you is to accept the audit of
the Sacramento Fire
Department's emergency medical
services and forward it to the
full City Council for approval.
So first, I'd like to provide
some background information
regarding ems operations and
trends in ems in demand for ems
services. The ems division
within the Sacramento Fire
Department provides basic life
support, advanced life support
and ambulance transport
services for the city. 911
calls first go to the
Sacramento Police Department
Dispatch Center, and then
they're transferred to the. For
fire and medical calls to the
Sacramento Regional Fire ems
Communications Center, who then
provides the alert to the
stations for units to respond.
Sfd does not always respond to
incidents with ambulances,
trucks or engines. More
recently, for non-emergency or
low acuity calls, there are
other teams that MAY respond,
such as cases for substance
abuse or mental health crises.
And since fiscal year 2019,
Sacramento Fire Department
incidents for both fire and
medical have risen about 15%,
which is more than double the
6% growth that fire operations
and ems staffing have seen.
During that same period. The
number of fire stations is also
stayed the same at 24 since
2018. And then to help address
this, ems has more recently
also contracted with ambulance
services to provide basic life
support services, and many ems
operational policies are set by
the county ems agency, though
Sacramento Fire Department does
maintain its own policy manual,
and the state also provides
guidance and coordination. In
addition, there are outside
groups such as the National
Fire Protection Association,
nfpa that suggest performance
standards that are widely
accepted. So our audit
objective was to evaluate the
quality of the Fire
department's emergency Medical
service services delivery and
identify opportunities for
improvement. To do this, we
looked at ems processes from
all stages of the operations.
So from the point when the
dispatch enters the 911 calls
to when ems personnel mobilize
and respond to the incidents,
and when patients are offloaded
for care at the hospitals, if
applicable. This provides the
perspective of both the
provider and the patient. And
to do so, we review data on
call answer times from the
dispatch center. Turnout time
data for Sacramento Fire
Department personnel responses
from patient surveys provided
by the city's ambulance billing
provider, and accreditation and
licensure data maintained by
the fire department.
Additionally, we reviewed the
various policies maintained by
the Department, operational
standards established by county
ems agency, state ems
guidelines and regulations,
state codes, and best practices
that are suggested by third
party organizations such as
nfpa. So, for our first finding,
we address the impact of
non-emergency calls or as I
mentioned, low acuity on sfd
operations. So we reviewed data
on the disposition of all the
different types of 911 calls
that sfd responded to in
calendar year 2020 for. So as I
mentioned, low acuity calls are
things like minor pain or flu
like symptoms or other non-life
threatening medical concerns.
And then of the more than
98,000 incidents that we
reviewed, most, 61,000 were
medical and about 18,000 of
those were low acuity. So in
other words, for the most
common type of incident,
personnel were responding to
non-emergency or non-life
threatening about 30% of the
time. And that means that
personnel MAY be tied up with
non-emergency calls when other
actual emergencies are
occurring. And this can create
additional workload burden on
ems personnel and financially.
Rough estimate shows that
responding to these incidents
costs about $4.6 million across
ambulance, fire, engine, fire,
truck maintenance, fueling,
repairs and staffing, and a
combined unit spent 1.2 million
minutes responding to these
calls. About 20% of the
incidents were homeless related,
meaning that as a share of the
city population, there were
about four ambulance responses
for each personal person
experiencing homelessness,
compared to about 0.15
incidents for non homeless
individuals in the city. And
many of these calls were
located in the downtown and
midtown areas of the city. As I
mentioned, ems now utilizes a
multiple types of units that
are designed to respond to low
acuity incidents, with an
alternative approach designed
specifically for different
needs. So, for example, they
have teams of paramedics that
respond to substance abuse
related incidents with harm
reduction kits and provide
follow up visits. So our
recommendation for this finding
suggests that there is further
collaboration that could happen
with the dispatch center, which
could allow for dispatch to
directly dispatch alternative
response units to calls, which
is not currently a level of
authority that they have. This
would also include continued
exploration of models like the
nurse triage line, where
non-emergency calls are
potentially routed to a nurse
over the phone, rather than
sending out paramedics or emt
to respond in person. In our
conversations with the fire
department and the dispatch
center, they have indicated
that they've researched this
option and have identified some
certain obstacles, but we
believe that there might be
additional consideration there.
And then other strategies could
include building out the
existing behavioral Health
Crisis hotline, which responds
to individuals in mental health
crises or rideshare options,
where we can send a rideshare
to transport individuals to
doctor appointments or urgent
care instead of taking them to
the hospital with an ambulance.
And additionally, we recommend
that the fire department
continues to expand its use of
alternative response units like
the Mobile Integrated Health
Team, which did roll out
earlier this month. So one of
the challenges that they've
indicated for these types of
units is that the city might
not be able to bill for some of
these services. And so
expanding their usage could
benefit with also working with
state officials and legislators
to build out a way that we can
get reimbursed for for those
services. Our second finding is
that while ems providers and
hospitals county wide have
reduced the time it takes to
offload patients from
ambulances into the care of the
hospitals, there is still room
for improvement to meet the
offload standard time set by
the county policy in 2023,
Assembly Bill 40 was passed to
streamline the transfer of care
between ambulances and
hospitals and added
requirements like establishing
a threshold for how much time
the hospital has to take in
clients. So the for example,
you could set a 30 minute
patient offload time for 90% of
incidents, and it requires
hospitals to develop protocols
to reduce the patient offload
times. When we looked at the
2024 data, we calculated that
an additional 21 minutes per
patient on average ambulance
waiting times above that 30
minute offload time, which was
about 7000 hours in total and
$970,000 in terms of ambulance
operating costs. More recent
data in 2025 shows that that
time has gone down
significantly from the even
2023 data, which was 73 minutes,
and the county standard, which
was 30 minutes at the time we
looked at it, has slowly
reduced to get to a 20 minute
standard. So for fiscal year 26,
that standard was 25 minutes.
At the end of this calendar
year, it's going to be closer
to 23 minutes. And then JANUARY
it's going to be 20 minutes. So
our recommendation is to
continue to work with area
hospitals to ensure that we are
they are in compliance with the
patient offload times to reduce
wait times for the ambulances.
The fire department does
currently meet monthly with
representatives of the area,
hospitals and insurance
providers, as well as
neighboring fire chiefs to
discuss additional strategies.
So we believe that continuing
those discussions is going to
be helpful. And they have
mentioned that there there have
been some changes implemented
by the hospitals. And so
continuing those changes will
also benefit the city. Our
third finding is that the fire
department has not formally
adopted turnout time standards
to measure their performance
against. So the nfpa standard
is for units to begin traveling
within 60s of being notified of
the incident 90% of the time.
Our review of the turnout time
for 2024 was that we were
meeting that 60s 60% of the
time, and the performance was
generally faster during the day
and slower in the early morning
hours. And at the dispatch
level, the dispatch center is
is also not consistently
meeting the call answer times,
which again set by the nfpa,
90% of calls answered within 15
seconds between JANUARY 2019
and MARCH 2021. They did exceed
that benchmark. And then
they've kind of fluctuated over
the last couple of years on
meeting that. So our
recommendation is for the fire
department to work with the
dispatch center to regularly
reach the call, answering
benchmarking times. The
dispatch center did state that
they are planning to add
personnel, which could help
expedite call answering and
processing times. And then we
also recommend that the fire
department formally adopt the
nfpa standards specifically,
especially for turnout times of
60s 90% of the time. And then
our final finding is that the
fire department's Continuous
Quality Improvement Committee
roles and responsibilities
could be strengthened. The key
Key Committee is currently
exceeding the standards set by
county policy to review patient
care reports to look for things
like gaps in service delivery
or identify conduct violations.
This work is done by staff on a
volunteer basis, as funding
constraints are always an issue,
and it limits their ability to
do fuller reviews of other data,
such as patient feedback
surveys and those that
information is not currently
utilized to improve or change
the policies and practices of
the operations. Additionally,
in our review of the licensing
and accreditation data, we
found that there were some
credentials that were listed as
expired and the fire
department's internal tracking
system. Two of those 44 that we
had identified were for
paramedic licenses. And then
lastly, among the fire
department's internal policies,
many of the them were outdated.
About 85% of the policies in
the ems division had not been
updated in more than 25 years.
We recommend for this finding
that the committee roles and
responsibilities be clarified,
that the Committee is
satisfying internal policies
and those guidelines set by the
state ems authority. We
recommend that patient data
survey data be incorporated
into the quality improvement
process and be provided to the
Office of Public Safety,
Accountability and Fire
Department's internal
investigators were warranted,
and we recommend that processes
by which employee
certifications are reviewed to
ensure that their current and
to reinforce processes that
prevent certifications from
lapsing and we also recommend
that the fire department
perform a gap analysis to
identify any missing policies
that need to be added to their
manual of operations. In
addition to working on updating
some of their policies that
they currently have. This
concludes my presentation. I'd
like to thank the Fire
department for their
collaboration and assistance
throughout this audit. The
response from the department is
included at the end of this
audit report. And as you can
see, they've already begun
working on and addressing many
of the issues we identified.
And before we conclude, I
believe the fire department did
want to say a couple of words.
>> So thank you, chief. Good
morning.
>> Good morning everyone. I'd
like to start out by just
thanking Forrest and her
auditor team for what they help
us with. As we went through
this audit. The Sacramento Fire
Department has significantly
strengthened its ems division
by taking part in the audit.
Many of the community medical
services that we didn't have
before we have today because we
work through this audit. It
showed us places where we could
either enhance or be innovative
in the region. And you heard us
talk about The Epoch Times, the
ambulance patient offload times
at the hospitals. That's
something we have to
collaborate with the hospitals
with. And although there MAY be
penalties for us, there's no
penalty for the hospital for a
slow patient offload time. So
we have to foster that
relationship with every
hospital in the region to get
the times that we do have. And
as of APRIL, we're down to 28
minutes, which I would have
told you would have been
unheard of several years ago
when we were seeing sometimes
for six hours, sitting for
patient offload times. Many of
the advancements are through
our communication center. We
have the backbone here in
Sacramento County, a fire
having a dedicated fire
dispatch center is unique in
Sacramento County that we use
the whole system. And what I
mean, the whole system, it's.
We share a borderless boundary.
So companies from the city and
the county move across lines as
well as medic units. That also
gave us the ability to
integrate with the 988 suicide
crisis hotline, develop nurse
navigation pathways with those
other units that you hear us
talk about. So the street
overdose Response Team, the mcu,
which is a crisis unit, and now
mih, which the two previous
ones sort and mcu, they are
dispatched through text from
dispatch, but the mi units are
dispatched by radio, so that's
something new. Since the audit
started. I talked about we're
actually a leader in the region
in the ambulance patient
offload times. We meet monthly
with all the clinics, the rehab
facilities, insurance providers,
the hospitals, and sit down and
work on ways to reduce those
times, which makes our
ambulances more available more
often. Modernization and I, we
talked about a lot, 10,000
certificates that we manage
with two people. A lot of those
certificates, certificates that
we hit on the 40 that were
expired. Some of them are
people that are, are employees
that are going from emt to
paramedic. Their emt license
will lapse when they move to
paramedic. We did not have
anybody work on an ambulance
that was not certified. So some
of the other certifications
that were lapsed were, I think
there was 14 or 17 reserves
that were licensed in our
system, and we no longer have a
reserve program. So those
licenses go on. That lapsed
category. I think when we talk
about nfpa, nfpa is a.
Recommendation across the us.
If it's not adopted locally,
then it is not something that
you would typically use. Our
dispatch center uses Apco,
which is a public safety
officials that regulate the
times that we measure and
dispatch. So for us as a city
to adopt one nfpa
recommendation, we would have
to go through council to do
that. And it would be there's a
litany of nfpa books that it's
it's daunting when you look at
nfpa and the requirements of
nfpa across the nation. So we
tread lightly with nfpa, I
guess is what I'm trying to say.
So. And then the 62nd times
that you see for ems calls,
that's because you're not
having to turn out in full
turnouts before you get on the
equipment. So you're, you have
less time to get ready. And
daytime versus nighttime, I
think it's obvious that they're
coming from a bedside versus
being maybe out on the street.
So those types of times do slow
in the evening times or night
time. If you have any other
questions, I'd be I'd just like
to finish by thanking both
again for this team. And the
ems team is behind me and
answer any questions you might
have for us.
>> Thanks, chief. I would say
don't don't go too far. There
MAY be some questions for you.
And as we get into discussion,
we'll we'll see whether some
questions come up or not. So I
think first of all, do we have
public comment on this item.
>> We have no public comment on
this item.
>> Okay. Let's go to Mayor Pro
Tem Guerra.
>> Great. Thank you very much,
chair. First, you know, and
maybe chief, if you can come
back up here because.
>> You didn't get very far, say
exactly.
>> And one I let me just thank
the auditor and the team.
Obviously the audit is intended
for process improvement. You
know, how do we how do we look
at improving our response
issues. But I want to hone in
on, on the finding number one,
I think is the most significant
that, you know, that 30% of
those calls were of
non-emergency were in the
downtown area. And I think it
was 20% were primarily on
homelessness calls. And there
were non-emergency calls. And
in essence, there wasn't a rush
to the emergency room for an
immediate life threatening
situation. And, and I guess let
me break it down into three
places, a, a place to call
person to respond and a place
to go here. And so first off,
in the, you know, a place to
call the nine eight, 8911, you
know, for lack of a better term
coordination here. How is that
evolving? So if there's a
mental health call of, of, you
know, most of the time it's our
first responders that are out
there. Someone sees somebody
that's talking to themselves
walking in the middle of the
street. You know, that's
obviously a dangerous situation.
And, and how are and clearly
it's a visible mental health
call. How does 988 and 911, how
are they coordinating those
calls together?
>> So at the surface level nine
eight is 988 is a suicide
prevention hotline in
Sacramento County. 911 means if
someone's call doesn't get
answered right away, they MAY
go to 91198 8th MAY divert a
call to 911. So if they can't
handle the call themselves with
their navigators, they're going
to divert it to the fire
department. So we have those
units out on the street now
today, which I'm not sure of.
The measure, the the metric
that we use, but between sort
mcu and mih, those are our
alternative response units that
can take that call. Now, where
before we were answering all
those calls 100% with either an
engine and a medic unit, we
still MAY require a medic unit
for some calls, depending on
the severity of the call, if
the person's cut themselves or
something like that, and
there's bleeding. So it's it's
not a simple answer, I guess,
is what I'm starting to say.
But we do have more tools to
answer the calls with, and the
coordination comes at the
communication center.
>> Okay. The communications are
good. And then when we're
looking at the response here
now, and I appreciate moving
forward to the mobile crisis
unit as well to reduce the
amount of personnel that's not
responding to an emergency call
as well. And how, how are how
are you guys looking at at
where to deploy those? Because
clearly, I mean, downtown
obviously has the largest
number of calls when it comes
to that population, but we're
seeing it throughout the entire
city. Can you maybe talk a
little bit about what, what the
effort is to reduce the number
of non-emergency calls by ems
by using the, the, the mobile
crisis unit?
>> Yeah. So let me back up just
a little bit to go forward.
There's actually three
different units out on the
street. There's a street
overdose response team. There's
a mobile crisis unit that deals
with psychiatric problems the
most. And then you have the mih
unit, which could be
non-emergency in-home. Say a
loved one needs a prescription
filled, that would be an mih
call. They can go in the home,
help them with their script,
and get it placed. There's a
litany of calls that m h can
run because they have a
clinician with them, and a
paramedic. Mcu handles the
calls across the city as well,
which is the crisis unit.
They're handling the
non-emergency psychiatric
problems that sometimes elevate.
And we have that continuity of
care because we have a
paramedic on the unit along
with a navigator. So those are
employed a lot in the downtown.
But our companies as well, they
have the ability to call what
we call a Tad provider. And we
have over 50 Tad providers that
are working in the department
now. And that number is growing
daily, but that's transport to
alternate destination, and it's
a paramedic that can make the
triage call that says, hey,
this person needs to go to this
type of a facility and the
company on scene will stay and
wait for a transport. And that
transport can happen with a
number of different units,
including the sort and the mcu
units.
>> Okay, good. And then I guess
the final and more and more of
a, I guess, direction or your
you MAY be already doing this
or moving in this direction,
but one. MR. Chair, I'll go
ahead and move the
recommendation to the Council.
But also one of the concerns is
how, how we're coordinating
with the Community Wellness
Response Team and the homeless
Engagement and response team
that are that are county run
and could be maybe doing some
of that work or maybe a
response to that work so that
we don't have an ems call, as
you, as you mentioned, if the
person, if there's a person
who's cut themselves and needs
a medical immediate response,
well, of course you're going to
have an ambulance there. But in
many of these situations, at
least when I've done the ride
alongs, they're not immediate
emergency response calls.
They're they need to be
addressed. But, but I think
that's I think we still have a,
a coordination issue on how to
maximize both all the different
teams, the, the mih, the mcu,
the the cwrt and then the heart
team. You know, I think that
that I think is the
coordination that I'd like to
see moving forward in that
effort. And I don't know if you
have a you know, Captain Moore,
I don't know if you've got some
thoughts on this because you I
appreciate your your, you know,
the effort that you've done on
this. And I think it's evolved
a lot as well.
>> So Captain Moore is not with
us today, but he's working on
the the care court for us and
we continue to add to care
court. But Deputy Chief Sharon
is here and he does run the ems
division. So I'm going to let
him talk about the heart team
and see a little bit to answer
that question.
>> Great. And the more files is
what I hear, you know. Yeah.
>> Hi, Sharon. Deputy chief, I
oversee the ems and cms
division. So for your question
with 988, so nine, eight eight
gets essentially two
evaluations through the
dispatch center. Law
enforcement has a contract with
nine, eight, eight. They're the
first line. And then we at the
comm center also have a 90 day
contract as well for an
evaluation of 988. So if an
individual calls 911 with a
behavioral health emergency,
our dispatch center will send
it over to 988 for an
evaluation that is done through
phone interview. If that
individual hits certain
benchmarks, they get referred
to the c, wrt, which is ran
through, well, space. And then
they will respond to the field,
to the individual. If. Cwcwt
doesn't feel comfortable with
the incident, it gets referred
back to the 911 system back to
the fire department. And then
with that we will respond to
unit out. Maybe because there
was a scene safety issue, maybe
they identified a medical
component attached to the
individual. So we'll send a
first responder with an
ambulance and then our mobile
crisis unit, which is a
paramedic who has a higher
level of training for the
transport alternative
destination program with a
clinician, a clinical social
worker from sac County
Behavioral Health. That's a
zero cost contract that we have
with the county that they did
specifically with the fire
department, and then those
individuals will go to the
scene. They'll make a
determination on what the
proper transportation to the
for the individual looks like
in the ems division and the ems
division, we took an overview
of. We want to send the right
resource to the right patient
at the right time. Not
everybody needs to go to the
emergency room. So we will try
to identify what's best for the
individual that we're
responding to. And so they'll
make a determination. We have
the ability to take people
strictly or straight to a
behavioral health center for
care. They can bypass the
emergency room, or we'll take
them to an emergency room for
medical clearance if they hit
certain criteria. So that's how
we utilize nine, eight, eight
and cwrt.
>> How many of those are we
actually moving to the crib?
You know.
>> I can I just ask a question
to clarify, at least for me,
what you've just described
would be responded to with with
what would it be responded to
with a, with a truck and an
ambulance. With an ambulance
only a truck. Only non fire
apparatus.
>> So after nine, eight, eight
does their evaluation and if it
gets pushed back to the fire
department, because for certain
whatever reason they do, it's
usually a first responder and
an ambulance that will get
dispatched for it. And then the
company officer, the captain
will make a determination on
what's needed for the next part.
They'll usually cancel the
ambulance. Our mobile crisis
unit will go out and then we'll
they'll do an evaluation on the
individual and determine the
right course of action for that
individual.
>> So so an ambulance would
respond.
>> It could either be a
paramedic ambulance depending
on the individual, or we'll use
one of our contract ambulances.
>> Right. And then a
determination that the captain
would make a determination
whether that really was
necessary to have on scene or
not.
>> And and the lead paramedic
on scene.
>> Yeah, the lead paramedic on
scene. Okay, okay. But
nonetheless, you're you're
you've got an ambulance at
least out there.
>> Yeah. If needed. Yes.
>> Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
>> Oh, yes. And then the final
place is, you know, the crib or
the crisis receiving center. Is
that is that your primary
location to transport somebody?
>> We'll take individuals to
South County Medical Health
Center, or we'll take
individuals to Sierra Vista
down in the South area. And
then there's a couple other
agencies that are coming on
board with the county. The
transports Alternative
Destination program is
organized and run by the county
ems that's been approved by the
state. So we have to operate
within their purview. So they
they're the ones that hold the
contracts with the facilities
that we can transport to.
>> Okay. Well thank you, I
appreciate that. Thanks.
Captain Moore, I just and thank
you for the helping and
bringing the agencies together
to try to coordinate better as
well. And so, MR. CHAIRMAN, I
think one of the the key things
here is any, any, any other
methods where we're diverting
folks to additional like
whether it's the crisis
receiving center here downtown
or Sierra down in the South
area. I think that also helps.
What is, what has occurred on
the off load time? Because if
they go to the er room, they
got to stay there and it's
almost $1 million in, in lost
cost hours that we're losing
there. So thank you CHAIRMAN. I
think we'll move the motion
there and then the direction on
on the further coordination
with the the heart team and the
wcrt.
>> So okay, we have a motion.
>> We have a motion to accept
the order and send it on to the
council. Is there a second to
that motion?
>> I'm happy to second it.
>> All right. We have a second
from the vice mayor and vice
mayor. You're next.
>> Yes. First, I want to
commend the fire department on
getting the wall time down from
6 hours to 28 minutes. That is
huge. And I know it's just, you
know, I used to drive by Sutter
and Kaiser, and I used to see
all the ambulances just parked
outside. And I thought they can
be helping saving people. But
right now they're just sitting
there waiting to offload. So I
just want to commend you on
your work for that. And then
just one question for for our
city auditor. On one of the
slides, you said, it said that
nearly 20% of the fire
incidents in 2024 were flagged
as related to homelessness,
because you're doing the
homeless audit as well. Do you
have a dollar amount of what
that 20% looks like? What would
be?
>> We did a very high level
calculation of what is 20%, the
cost of 20% of the whole fire
ems division budget. I'm going
to have to look it up real
quick, if you don't mind. We
calculated if we just did a
rough calculation of 20% of
their 153 million a year budget
would be about $30 million.
>> 30 million. Okay.
>> I mean, some of those are,
you know, true emergencies,
life threatening. So but yeah,
okay.
>> I think my ask then is for
when you do your audit of
homelessness and you bring it
to council, if you can just
include that number as a
subcategory of city related
expenses, that'd be great.
>> Okay. We can try to think
because.
>> That audit into the staff
report, just because obviously
there are two different audits,
right? But how much money the
fire department is spending
responding to homelessness
related calls, I think is
important to factor into the
audit. I mean, that's still
dollars allocated to this issue
that we're trying to address.
And so if there's a way that
you can plug it into your staff
report, that'd be great.
>> Sure. Okay. Yeah. Because
that is going to be specific to
our expenditures on the
shelters, but I'll see what we
can do.
>> Sounds good.
>> Thank you. I can highlight
it.
>> Okay. Thank you, thank you.
Just on the same point, I'm
assuming of that 30 million
some some of that is is
recovered by Medi-Cal. Is that
reimbursement? Is that true?
>> I believe so, yeah. If they
have.
>> Do you have any kind of do
you have any kind of estimate
on on that.
>> We did not look at look at
their billings or reimbursement.
So I'm not sure. I don't know
if fire has some numbers. No.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Any kind of any
kind of sense of, of. How much,
how much of the, how much of
the homeless response ends up
being covered by Medi-Cal
reimbursements?
>> I think what we could do,
because there are different
focuses. So yes, some of it is
recovered through the Medi-Cal
reimbursements. We need to get
you that number. And we could
drill into the straight line
number of the 30 million as
well. Instead of separating the
two, the homeless audit and the
ems audit, we can work with our
biller and provide those exact
numbers, and we can run it
through, run it by farishta as
well, so she can see the okay.
>> I mean, I think that would
give us a more complete and
accurate picture of, of what
the net cost.
>> Yeah. There's, there's a lot,
a lot goes into it too, because
there's some of that percentage
are people that call us out and
then sign out. They don't want
our medical advice. So there's
a lot that goes into getting
you that final number. But we
can get it.
>> Sure. Okay. Thanks, chief. I
wanted to just explore this
general topic a little bit
further. And I see Brian back
in the the back row, not quite
ducking down, but. I. Brian,
can you shed any further
elaboration on, on this
particular subject of, of
emergency medical calls for,
for homeless.
>> Sure. Brian Pedro director,
Department of Community
response I have the unique
experience and opportunity to
have spent many years with the
fire department and in the ems
division. So I've looked at
this from both sides. The. If
you recall, the Department of
Community Response was actually
brought up to be the
alternative response for the
city to not have exactly what
we have going on with fire and
police going to calls that come
out as 911 calls, but are
alternative response calls
other than what we have in dcr.
So we're kind of running pilot
programs right now. What we
have in dcr, we have also an
alt response going ours, I feel
ties in in that all of our in
our cities that are out
providing outreach also provide
that sort of that substance
outreach along with it. So we
also have the, the kits, the,
the no harm kits that we hand
out as well. We can transport
and we do transport to
treatment centers. One of the
things I'm also looking at is
in our shelters of carving off
the people that that want to
work, getting clean and sober
into a separate part of our
shelters so that when we take
them to their appointments to
get treatment for the
injectables, for the chemical
dependency, that then they go
back into a shelter with others
that are also trying to get
clean, and not just into the
general population of our of
our shelters. So we are in
connection with cw. We work
with the county heart team now,
so we already have the
behavioral health at our
fingertips in our outreach
setting. We also have the
backline to cw if we need a
crisis response, and then we're
looking at JULY to pilot our
program where we're looking at
taking the calls on the sac pd
side, when they come in to 911
and looking at calls that are
Non-priority non-emergency
alternate calls that we can
respond to and then provide
outreach or transport to either
substance or behavioral health,
the treatment to alternate
destination is specific to the
fire department as an ems
agency, because they are an
ambulance ems agency, so they
need the the certification and
and sac County ems agency to
allow them to transport.
Because dcr is not an ems
agency, we can simply transport.
So it is much easier for us to
manage all response. And it's
much closer. I mean, as you saw,
20% of these calls are homeless
related anyway. It's likely
people we already have
relationships with, and then
it's just a matter of
transporting them to where they
need is.
>> So is that transport by the
police department or is it by
your.
>> By our.
>> Unit dcr staff? So this just
occurred to me while you were
while you were speaking that I
know in the past there were
lots of instances when the when
the police would be called for
a behavioral health issue and
they would end up transporting
a person, say to Qmc, for
example. And so I'm assuming
that still occurs.
>> Yep. And so.
>> Are we looking. Now this is
making me wonder, are we
looking at the total universe
of, of what we're doing in
terms of response to, to, to
those who are homeless or on
the street or even in shelters,
as you've been describing,
Brian, and who's the, who's the
appropriate entity to respond
and what's the appropriate
intervention and resolution? I,
this is making me wonder about
whether we're taking a whether
we should be taking a look at
that whole, whole picture or
not. I don't know if that's a
question for you or not, but if
you want to say something about
that, I.
>> Sure, yeah. Because most
like if you look at just the,
the, I mean, just homelessness
alone, we're already, we likely
already know all these
individuals. We already offer
the substance care. We already
have connection to behavioral
health. So it's, it's already
there. We just haven't made it
official that dcr is providing
the alt response. We are in
that we have a pilot now doing
essentially what we're doing
now, but we have the ability to
have we have nine teams out
there with any one of them
making contact with somebody
homeless, somebody with
substance, someone with
behavioral health. And then we
have the ability to transport
them if they need. The key is
to, to grab the individual when
they're willing to like I think
today, right now, I'm willing
to go try and help my treat my
substance dependency. And so
you have to be able to just
pick them up then and take them,
which we do have that ability.
Now, if you're waiting for
somebody to call, that's going
to be far and few and crisis,
I'd say there's a little
misnomer on crisis because
people that are actually in
crisis are, are few and far as
opposed to many people that we
see around that just have a
behavioral health concern of
some sort that needs to be
addressed. Those are the people
we're trying to capture.
There's very few actual crisis
events.
>> But you're encountering
those people by being out in
the field, not by responding to
calls. Is that is that right?
>> Say that again.
>> The people you're
encountering and you're
describing, you're you're
encountering them mostly by
being out in the field and in
contact with them, as opposed
to responding to a call that
says, I need help or, hey, this
person's in trouble. Can you
come help? Is that is that
correct?
>> Yeah. So we are responding
to the 311 calls currently that
are called for homeless
concerns. And then the pilot
will be tied into 911 to then
dispatch us to those calls. So
it'll be both.
>> And okay, I see, I mean,
we're a little beyond the scope
of, of the audit, but it seems
to me that if we want to
understand where, where and how
we get more effective and more
efficient, we need to see this
larger universe. And so it's
not so much about what the fire
department's doing per se. It's
it's about how that fits in the,
in the in the broader context,
it seems to me and I, you know,
yesterday morning I was coming
in on on North 12th and at at
Salvation Army, there was a
fire truck and an ambulance,
lights flashing. And I'm, I
didn't stop to inquire, but I,
I make the assumption that that
that was a response to someone
at the Salvation Army shelter.
And I if if if that is so, then
if my assumption is correct,
then could part of that
response be a, a function of
your staff's not out in the in
the in the field on a holiday
morning? Or would it be more
likely the, the nature of the
call that went to presumably to
911.
>> Right.
>> So maybe chief wants to
respond to that to her as well.
>> Sure. And I think what we're
trying to do is grab the call
when it first comes in, because
it'll come into pd first and
get triaged there. And if it's
a low level call that that
doesn't. So it'll get handed
over to fire if there's a
medical component to it. And so
if we grab the call on this
side before there's medical,
then we'll be looking at all
the calls in the city for the
person that's on the corner and
looks uncomfortable and is
bothering. Is it maybe in a
sitting in a business and
they're afraid to make contact
with them or tell them to leave?
That's going to go to pd to go
take that individual out. It's
probably somebody that we know
anyway. And for us to take that
call and go over there and find
out that it's Bob and say, hey,
Bob, you know, I don't want you
here. Can we get you into
shelter? Can we get you into
behavioral health? Can we get
you any kind of treatment today?
Then that clears that call off
of their plate. Pd didn't
respond. Ambulances and fire
trucks didn't respond. That's
the whole purpose of
alternative response is to not
have these units respond. We're
looking at a budget. It's it's
it's a, it's, it's not only a
cost savings, but it's, it's a
force multiplier for police and
fire.
>> Absolutely, absolutely. Okay.
Thanks, Brian. Chief, did you
want to add something to this?
>> Yeah. I think that Brian
sheds a light on a lot of good
things. I think what we are
stuck with as a city is the 24
over seven response that's
needed to address these calls,
like you addressed the other
day, holidays and weekends,
nights, the fire department is
there and in place and has the
backbone infrastructure to
answer these calls. And I think
the other thing that we often
forget is there's no shortage
of calls. So the calls that
can't be answered or do
increase due to being medical
in nature, which a lot of them
do. And we can get those
numbers for you, but they're,
they're the ones that the fire
department is going to end up
answering. Last year, we
eliminated about 8000 calls out
of the fire system. So and
that's not all with our our
alternate response, but that's
us working with dispatch,
working with dcr, working with
all the partners that we have
to reduce the calls to make us
more available. So Brian's work
that he does with alt response
does help both police and fire.
There is that medical component
that's going to come back
around, and that's what we're
there for. That's why our units
have the paramedics on the
units. If a call does increase,
you have the continuity of care
from a no need medical aid to
something that turns for the
worse. You have a paramedic
there that can take them all
the way to the hospital.
>> So. Okay, thank you chief
and, and I think, I think we
all appreciate the work that
that you're all doing to, to
try to, to calibrate the right
response with the right people
and taking the to them if they
need transport to the right
place and, and trying to do
that as effectively and as
efficiently as possible. And i
think, as you know, as Brian
said, to the extent that to the
extent that we can divert calls
from the fire department or the
police department to an
appropriate level of response,
but doesn't require your the
police response that it gives
us a chance to you have the
opportunity to do other things,
as do the police. And there's
no shortage, as you know better
than I, of things that you need
need to do. So thanks for
working. I agree with my
colleagues. Thank you very much
for all the improvements you've
made. I want to thank the
auditor for for giving us a
window onto this, which I think
has been very helpful. I'll let
you sit down and there's a lot
to chew on here. But but my
thought is that maybe in the
context of the homeless audit,
I don't know if this will fit
in the scope, but but exploring
more of this issue of the
appropriate level of response
with the right people getting,
getting the, the person
addressed to the right place,
maybe, maybe that's something
that we should look at in the
in the course of that, that
audit.
>> Yeah. We're getting ready to
release the next homeless audit
next month. Okay. It's going to
be focused more on the shelters,
but I believe the next one on
our work plan is
inter-departmental coordination.
So I think that would be a good
place to, to explore that.
>> Okay. Thank thank you. If oh
mayor pro tem gara yeah.
>> Thank you. And then on the
inter-departmental coordination,
you read my mind. I'd punched
up right there because I, I
want to want to thank Captain
Moore and Brian Pedro for
coming to a meeting that we
pulled together on the pathways
for cares court here. And so I
think what I'd like to make
sure that when we're looking at
inter-departmental coordination,
one of the challenges we've
seen in to address the the, the
cyclical part of, of repeat and
frequent utilizers has been the
ability for us to transfer
information from, from the fire
department, from dcrshis and
also the other agencies that
are contacting individuals so
that when we are going to the
Public Guardian that they have
all of the information because
what sometimes is not available.
And and we tease this out with
our city attorney's office is
that an individual might have
been at the er 5 or 6 times
with at the crisis receiving
center in and out of, say, the
county jail five times. But not
all of that is in front of the
public guardian. When they go
be before the judge or
magistrate. And so the the real
information about how to
provide the best outcome for
the individual isn't, isn't
present. So I think that's an
important piece on the
dysfunction in communication.
So that a person who truly
needs either guardianship,
receivership, or involuntary
conservatorship, you have all
of the information that is
present and that unfortunately,
it seems to be that there's
still a data gap. So when you
get to that point, I'd like to
make sure that that is part of,
of how do we how do we do
process improvement for that,
for the data getting to once it
gets out of our agency into,
say, the county or the county
council or public guardian. So
thank you, chair.
>> Thank you. And thank you for
you very much. We have a motion
by Mayor Pro Tem Guerra,
seconded by Vice Mayor
Telemontes, to approve the
audit and and send it forward
to the full council. Any
further comments or questions?
If not, all those in favor
signify by saying aye. Aye.
Opposed say no. And any
abstentions? Hearing none, the
motion carries. Thanks very
much. We're on to our next
presentation. So let me let's
let me get back to my agenda.
It's the 2025 audit of city
employees workforce diversity
and salary trends. We'll turn
it over to you for.
>> Yes. All right. Well now
good afternoon, Chair Dickinson
and members of the Budget and
Audit Committee. Again, I'm the
city auditor. And with me is
Chevelle Jackson and who is
primarily responsible for
conducting this audit. And the
recommendation before you is to
accept the City Auditor's 2025
audit of city employees,
workforce diversity and salary
trends, and forward to the City
Council for final approval. All
right, so our office has been
conducting employee diversity
assessments since 2016, when
the City Council first directed
the city auditor to analyze
employee diversity and compare
the results to the demographics
of City of Sacramento residents.
This report contains chapters
and analyzes city employee
gender and ethnic diversity as
of JULY 1st, 2025, and employee
diversity trends from 2016 to
2025. The audit also has a
detailed section on the
improvements the Human
Resources Department has made
relating to diversity, equity,
and inclusion since the last
audit, the Office of Diversity
and Equity integrated into the
Human Resources Department and
continue to continues to focus
on building a representative
and inclusive city of
Sacramento. This slide
highlights just a few of the
improvements identified by the
Human Resources Department.
Since our last assessment in
2021, the report has a lot more.
And then just a reminder that
we did create a city of
Sacramento Gender and Ethnic
Diversity dashboard to allow
users to analyze city employee
gender and ethnic diversity of
the data on their own. We have
updated the dashboard for 2025,
and this dashboard is updated
annually. And again, just
analyzes more, allows you to
analyze the data in more ways
than just how we have it in the
report. First, we want to cover
the gender and ethnic diversity
of city residents, which is
what we use to compare the
diversity of city employees. So
as a chart on the left shows,
the three most populous ethnic
and racial groups in the city
are white, at 28% Hispanic or
Latino at 29%, and Asian at 19.
And then the chart on the right
shows the gender composition of
city residents. There are
slightly more females at 51%
than males 49, and the city of
Sacramento has also updated
Icaps to allow city employees
to update a variety of personal
details, such as gender
identity, sexual orientation
and more. It is a relatively
newer option, so we only had
about 100 city employees report
this information this time
around, so we did not include
it in our analysis for this
year. But hopefully next time
around we'll have a lot more
data that we can report on.
This slide shows the overall
gender composition of city
employees by department
compared to city residents. The
red box shows the gender
composition of city employees
overall is at 36% female and
64% male. And then, as you can
see, highlighted in yellow.
Mayor and council is closest to
the composition of city
residents at 51% female and 49%
male. And then if you are
interested, the audit report
does contain additional gender
analysis for management and
non-management employees. And
then again, you can analyze
more information on the
dashboard. And this chart
analyzes the demographics of
full time and part time city
employees by ethnicity or race
and gender. As of JULY 1st,
2025. So you can see on the
chart, about 31% of the
employees that identify as
white are female, and employees
that identify as two or more
races. Races are the most
evenly split by gender, with
48% female and 52% male, and
that's the closest to city
residents. This table analyzes
gender composition of full time
and part time city employees by
department. As of JULY 1st,
2016 two, 2025. So there's a
lot of data, but just
highlighting one of the
departments you can see there
has some departments. There has
not been much change in those
ten years, and in others there
has been slight changes. So
departments with more staff,
such as the fire department. It
is kind of harder to see
changes very quickly. This
chart shows the gender
composition of legacy staff,
which we identify in this
report as those that were hired
prior to JULY 1st, 2024,
compared to the newly hired
employees, which were those
hired after JULY 1st, 2024. So
the chart on the left shows the
gender composition of all newly
hired staff. There were 953
newly hired employees. During
fiscal year 2025. 52% of them
were male and 48% were female,
which is really close to the
gender composition of city
residents. When you compare
that to the legacy staff for
all staff, and then the chart
on the right shows the gender
composition of newly hired
management staff. During that
same time period, there were
about 20 newly hired management
staff during fiscal year 2025,
and 55% of them were male, 45%
female. This chart identifies
the ethnic and racial
composition of full time and
part time employees by
department, compared to that of
city residents. And as you can
see, there is a deviation from
the city population and many of
the ethnic and racial groups
overall in the city and in some
departments. This chart shows
the percentage point difference
of the ethnicities and races of
full time and part time city
employees in each department in
relation to that of the City of
Sacramento residents. So the
scale
>> At the bottom shows the
extent difference. I do want to
note that the color scale just
reflects the direction and size
of the percentage point
difference. The use of red and
green doesn't really convey
that like one is a positive or
one is a. This chart shows the
trend of the ethnic and racial
composition of all city
employees for the past ten
years. So as you can see, the
white ethnic group has been the
largest each year, but it has
been trending downwards, while
Hispanic or Latino has been
trending upwards over the years.
And then there are other groups,
such as Asian and two or more
that also appear to be trending
up a little bit. This chart
shows the gender composition,
again, of the legacy staff
compared to newly hired
employees. The left chart shows
all newly hired employees, and
as I mentioned, there were 953
during fiscal year 2025. And
you can see of the newly hired
employees, their gender and
ethnic diversity is closer to
that of city residents. And
then the chart on the right is
similar data for the 20 new
management employees that were
hired in 2025. We'll go into a
little bit of the salary
analysis that we also did. The
chart shows the average
salaries of full time employees
by gender and ethnicity for
2025, as shown on the chart.
Male employees, on average,
have a higher salary than
female employees in all ethnic
groups. The lighter blue column
is always higher, pretty much
than the darker blue column.
And in addition, those that
identify as Black or African
American did tend to have a
lower average salary. This
chart shows the average salary
of full time city employees by
gender for the last ten years.
And as you can see there, there
is still a gap between the two
genders. But in 2016, the
average salary for female
employees was 84.5% of the
average salary of male city
employees. And 2025, it
improves slightly to 85.6%. And
then this chart shows a similar
analysis for only the
management employees. In 2016,
the average salary of female
employees was 84.4% of the
average salary of male
employees. And by 2025, it did
increase to 86.6%. And then
finally, this chart is similar
to the last two charts, but
analyzes all employees,
excluding part time and sworn
employees in the police and
fire department. And when we do
that, you can see that the the
pay gap narrows significantly.
So in 2016, the average salary
for full time non-sworn female
employees was 90.1% of the
average salary of full time
non-sworn male employees. And
by 2025, the gap was narrowed
to 97.2%. And then this table
identifies the average salaries
of full time employees by
ethnicity, ethnic, racial
groups, and gender, and the
ratio of earnings relative to
white males, which is the
largest group in the city. And
as you can see, male groups did
tend to be higher on the list,
and female groups tended to be
more on the bottom. We also did
an analysis of each department
over time that contains gender,
ethnic and racial or ethnic and
racial and salary information.
The analysis for each
department can be found in
chapter six of the report. And
again, our online dashboard
allows anyone to analyze all
this data in any particular way
that they would like. This
concludes my presentation, but
I'm going to hand it over to
the hr department, who also did
want to provide some additional
information on their efforts.
>> Okay.
>> Thank you. Good afternoon.
>> Hi.
>> Good afternoon. Budget and
audit committee members. I'm
Samantha Hardy, the interim
human resources director. Human
resources appreciates the
opportunity to highlight our
initiatives supporting
workforce diversity, equity and
inclusive recruitment practices.
This afternoon, Diversity and
Equity Manager Amy Barnes will
provide an overview of the work
being led by the Office of
Diversity and Equity and then
Employment Services Manager at
Ebony. Heaven will review hr. S
recruitment strategies and
ongoing efforts to strengthen
outreach, access and workforce
representation. And so with
that, I will turn it over to
Amy.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Good afternoon. Good
afternoon, members of the
Budget and Audit Committee and
those in the dais and those
online. Glad to be here. So
let's jump right in. Workforce
equity. This is our definition
of workforce equity that we
adapted from the city of
Seattle. It is a workforce that
is inclusive of people of color
and other marginalized and
underrepresented groups. And
the most important piece of
this is understanding
structural and historical
barriers. But also we want to
reflect through the depth and
breadth of the organization.
Workforce equity is very
dynamic, and while our report
definitely reflects the trends
that are encouraging, of signs
of workforce diversity and the
efforts that we are doing, we
know that this is ongoing work
and it doesn't stop. So to meet
our workforce equity goal, it
requires ongoing and sustained
systemic effort that commits to
engaging with staff, leadership
and shareholders throughout the
organization. So I really want
to highlight that workforce
equity is the principle and
it's a practice. It's a process
of ensuring fairness and
justice within the
organization's employment
practices, creating an
environment where all
individuals have a genuine
opportunity to succeed,
contribute, challenge and
advance, regardless of
background, lived experiences
or identity. So the key aspects
that you see on the slide there
are all dynamic nonlinear, and
they're happening
simultaneously. Some of our
goals and efforts are to
eliminate disparities, fair
access to opportunities, career
growth and advancement, fair
treatment and respect, tailored
strategies of support and
resources as well. And of
course, dismantling systemic
and procedural barriers. Our
race, gender and equity action
plan is just one of those
initiatives to help do that.
And I do to make alive and
operationalize all those
dimensions of workforce equity
collectively and citywide. So
I'd like to thank Assistant
City Manager Laney and interim
hr Director Samantha Hardy for
their leadership and
facilitation. Leadership is
critical in this area for to
move these initiatives forward.
I'd also like to extend an
appreciation to former hr
Director Shelly Robinson as
well, for helping advance this
work. From 2020 to 2025,
Workforce Equity Goal was a
central focus of the race,
gender and Equity Action Plan.
As a plan, it facilitated
normalizing and organizing our
equity work across the city and
operationalizing racial equity
and using a shared analysis and
vocabulary, building capacity,
implementing equity tools,
partnering with others, using
data and metrics, and also
operating with a sense of
urgency as well to meet our
goal to reflect the city to
better serve the city. This is
just a brief timeline of those
efforts. Our journey began and
wanted to give you a breath of
this, because this journey
began in 2018 with the
establishment of the office,
but it was also the city's
commitment to advance workforce
diversity, not only inside the
organization, but external. So
the cohort began with the
Government Alliance on Race and
Equity in 20 1819. They're a
cohort of city leaders began to
work apply racial equity lens,
look at data and really try to
understand what was happening
in their departments. And so 14
outcomes and actions of the
race, gender and Equity Action
Plan were created in 2020. And
then that little thing called
Covid hit. And that's right
when we were launching the plan,
but we were still able to do
that through the virtual
environment. We also began to
form and support equity teams,
which began in 2324. And then
we also established our equity
team convening in 23 as well,
so that it would maintain the
ongoing work and capacity
building of our equity teams, a
central approach, which is a
national best practice of the
government. Alliance on Race
and Equity, also known as gear.
This approach is affectionately
called view is visualized,
normalized, organized and
operationalize. It is the
guiding framework that informs
our office and our work. It
shapes strategy, it shapes our
efforts and capacity building.
It's important that we start
off with visualizing, because
it's important to see and
understand. What does it feel
like to have a Sacramento that
looks and reflects everyone,
but also works for everyone?
Normalizing racial equity and
equity as a key value in our
decision making and creating
shared understanding, and then
organizing building staff
capacity and collaboration
across departments to break
down silos in order to make
sure that this work takes root.
And then operationalizing it is
putting into action for
decision making, analysis,
measurement, and accountability.
The gap since 2022 consistently
has had 14 outcomes. It has 15
departments, including two two
charter offices, and we also
were able to do a 43 equity
point department assessment
profile. We're currently
working with city leadership to
actually launch that redone
assessment and profile that
alternates with the employee
engagement survey that is
conducted out of the city
manager's office. It is also
we've also been able to do
in-person as well as virtual
foundational racial equity and
role of government trainings.
And of course, the first phase
of our development equity
leadership through action. The
ongoing work and support. I
really want to thank the equity
teams for their work and
dedication and leadership over
the years. This work is takes
not just the small and mighty
team of the Office of Diversity
and Equity. The hr department
is behind this as well as the
city Manager's office. But the
equity teams in the departments
working and talking with city
leadership and trying to
understand the nuances to this
work are critical to advance
this work moving forward. So
this is just a brief timeline
of the ongoing work and support.
And the two things that I
really want to highlight here
is that this work is emerging
from workforce equity. We want
to look at other systems and
processes and procedures with
the race, gender and equity
action plan, but not lose
workforce equity. The other key
piece is that we are
integrating the results based
accountability framework, which
is Clear Path, Clear Impact
Software program, but it's a
which is also known as rba,
which is about. Identifying key
equity centered performance
measures that advance equity,
but also that tells the story
of what those performance
measures and those outcomes are.
So that's really the
transformation of the gap
moving beyond 2025. What we
learned. We learned that the
most common gap outcomes that
teams resonated with or felt
they needed to work on were two,
ten, 13, and 14. 2 in 10 were
often paired together. As you
can see, this was about career
development or outreach
strategies. 13 and 14 was about
capacity building, career
development and professional
development. And so those were
often paired together as well.
Some of the changes that we
have been able to see has been
better collaboration across
city departments. The
normalization of this work and
in the hiring and interviewing
process, which you'll hear more
a little in for the rest of the
presentation. Departments being
more organized in their efforts
and more thoughtful about
embedding equity at the
beginning of the process.
Expansive in thinking and
looking at external
shareholders and how community
can help and collaborate. And
in terms of advancing messages
around outreach and encouraging
communities of color as well as
marginalized communities, to
see the city as an employer.
While the cohort that began in
2018 reflected the depth and
breadth of our city leadership,
the one lesson learned is that
it's important to develop goals
and performance measures
without the input of staff can
not necessarily make those
performance measures take root,
and that's informing our
process about how we're
transforming the gap currently.
And in that transformation is,
as I mentioned, equity centered,
results based accountability
framework, which we're very
excited about. This is a very
precise framework where you
identify performance measures
that are directly from the
equity teams. They're equity
centered. We've been able to
collaborate with the Sacramento
County Department of Family and
Child Services at the county in
order to access this clear
impact software, which will
enable us to do a turn the
curve strategy on these
performance measures. So we're
very excited about that. That
came off the heels. And as a
result of the networking,
because we had a race gender
inequity action plan, we were
positioned and invited by the
Government Alliance on Race and
Equity to participate in their
jurisdiction evaluation
learning exchange from OCTOBER
20th 24 to 2025. This enabled
us to receive technical
assistance, especially during
budget challenges. To receive
that technical assistance
really boosted the way that
we're going to collect data,
the way that we report the
results and the way that we'll
be able to support the equity
teams. Ongoing efforts 2025 and
beyond. Employee resource
groups want to highlight here
that all of our new hires
receive information about ERGs
during onboarding and through
the city's learning management
system, including opportunities
to get involved. Our office is
also appoint an liaison for all
ERGs as well. In addition, all
employees receive annual
communication regarding erg
opportunities and participation,
and in SEPTEMBER of 2025, the
city implemented the Employee
Resource Group policy to
further the city's goal of
reflecting the community we
serve. And so our office is
currently working with the
office of, excuse me, the
African American Leadership
Employee Council, Asian Pacific
Islander, erg, women's erg, and
the lgbtq plus erg to support
the establishment and
recognition of these structures
under the erg policy framework.
I also want to extend an
appreciation to the efforts of
city staff. Emilio from the
City Attorney's Office, Jessica
from Community Engagement
Council staff. Eduardo from
Vice Mayor Telemontes office,
along with the Vice Mayor
Telemontes and Mayor Pro Tem
Guerra to help bring staff
community together to see the
interest for a Latinx Hispanic
erg. So really appreciate that.
The developing equity action
through leadership, that's our
Delta program. So in 2024, we
did listening sessions with
staff, particularly staff who
are not in offices or have
access to offices. We wanted to
understand how we can help
build the capacity and include
them in trainings and other
initiatives and efforts around
diversity, equity and inclusion
and racial equity in that. And
so we'll be that will be
informing our program. Our
future goals currently right
now are to create managerial
tracks, as well as develop
learning journeys through the
city's learning management
system. We also, in 2025,
implemented our Curiosity and
Open Openness series, along
with with our annual 21 day
Racial Equity Habit Building
Challenge. Lastly, we will be
working with city leadership on
the implementation of an equity
point assessment to measure
areas of organizational
commitment measurement to
continuous quality improvement.
This will not only help us
understand the needs of
departments, but it will help
us elevate strategies to a
citywide level, as well as
inform future work. The gap was
intended to be a five year plan.
We know practices, needs and
strategies need to change. We
are at an exciting time to
strategically, strategically
align and embed equity centered,
be a results based
accountability as an approach
to implement city equity
centered initiatives which are
currently underway. Efforts,
long range planning and
strategic priorities of city
leadership and council. As
outlined in the Sacramento.
Centered on Race and Equity
Work Plan just approved by the
Racial Equity Committee and of
course, the one city, one
Future Strategic Priorities
plan that was just launched
earlier this month as well. So
now I'll turn it over to our
colleague Ebony.
>> Do we have a long session?
>> Good afternoon. My name is
Ebony. Hi. My name is Ebony
Heaven, human resources manager
for employment Services and the
hr department. And I'd like to
discuss a few recruitment
strategies we've implemented to
diversify our workforce.
Employment services has focused
heavily on modernizing
recruitment processes to
improve both efficiency and
accessibility. One of the most
significant advances has been
the expansion of online civil
service examinations, allowing
applicants to complete
examinations remotely and on a
flexible schedule. This
approach broadens access to
candidates who MAY otherwise
face barriers to attending in
person examinations.
Additionally, we've implemented
automated scoring methods,
particularly with training and
development or training and
experience examinations, which
has significantly reduced
manual processing time.
Collectively, these efforts
have shortened recruitment
timelines by approximately 5 to
8 weeks, while also improving
consistency, confidentiality
and overall operational
efficiency. A major a major
priority for hr has been
ensuring that recruitment
practices align with the city's
equity and inclusion goals.
Since 2023, all staff
participating on an interview
panel are required to complete
an implicit bias training
focused on recognizing and
minimizing unconscious bias
during the interview process.
We have also worked to
modernize examination content
and classification
specifications by removing
gender specific language or
exclusionary language, and
partnering with vendors to
ensure equitable assessments
and practices. In addition,
Human Resources is reviewing
minimum qualifications across
classifications to identify
opportunities to substitute
experience certification
demonstrated competencies in
place of rigid degree
requirements where appropriate.
These efforts help to reduce
barriers to employment and
create more equitable pathways
to city opportunities. We
recognize that long term
recruitment success requires
proactive workforce pipeline
development. To ensure this
effort, we significantly
expanded outreach efforts
through social media platforms,
community events, strategic
marketing initiatives,
including the use of city owned
billboards. We also established
a general intern classification,
which allows individuals as
long as as young as 16 to gain
workforce exposure without
requiring minimum
qualifications. In addition,
departments are being
encouraged to strategically
utilize nonunion
classifications to help develop
internal pipelines to fill hard
to feel, hard to fill.
Classifications are. These
initiatives are designed to
broaden access to employment
opportunities while
strengthening the city's
workforce. Beyond recruitment,
hr has also focused on
improving the candidate and new
hire experience through the
implementation of a centralized
onboarding platform. This
platform automates
pre-employment tasks,
streamlines document completion,
and provides employees with
early access to important
information and resources. The
onboarding platform creates a
more consistent and transparent
experience citywide, while
reducing delays and
administrative burden. It also
supports equity and
accessibility by allowing
employees to complete
onboarding requirements
electronically and at their
convenience. These improvements
better position employees for
long term success and better
engagement with the
organization. While hr has made
significant progress in
modernizing and improving the
city's recruitment practices,
several workforce challenges
continue to impact public
sector hiring both locally and
nationally. The city continues
to operate in an increasingly
increasingly competitive labor
market, where many employers,
both public and private, are
competing for a limited pool of
candidates. The challenge is
especially challenging for
highly specialized technical
are hard to fill
classifications where candidate
availability and market
competition is strong. At the
same time, hr must continue
delivering high quality
recruitment services while
navigating staffing limitations,
budget constraints, and
increasing service level
expectations. Departments are
seeking faster hiring timelines,
improved candidate experiences,
and greater workforce
flexibility, all while
maintaining compliance with
Civil Service Board rules,
equitable hiring practices, and
operational consistency
citywide. In response to these
evolving needs, hr remains
focused on long term workforce
sustainability and strategic
modernization efforts. We will
continue focusing on
modernizing classification
structures, strengthening
workforce analytics, and
expanding educational
partnerships, and identifying
innovative ways to streamline
hiring recruitment processes,
equity, accessibility, and
workforce sustainability will
remain central to all
recruitment and workforce
development strategies. Hr is
committed to ensuring the
recruitment processes are
equitable, transparent,
accessible and reflective of
the diverse communities we
serve. The city's long term
goal is not only to fill
vacancies, but to build a
sustainable, inclusive and high
performing workforce that is
prepared to meet the future
organizational and community
needs. This concludes our
presentation, and we're happy
to answer any additional
questions you MAY have.
>> Okay. Thank. Thank you very
much for for that very thorough
presentation. And Council
Member Maple.
>> Thank you, chair, and really
do appreciate the thorough
presentation. I think,
especially because, you know, I
think being reminded of a lot
of the work that's happened
over over several years before
some of us were on here on this
dais, including myself, is
important. And then the work
that's happened to address the
things that have come up in
previous audits is important,
too. So I just wanted to open
with that. I remember before I
was elected to this council,
several years before then, I
was sitting in that audience
advocating with then then
Council member Angelique Ashby
and others on the very first
diversity and equity and
inclusion audit. And that was a
huge milestone. And I thought
it was a great way, I believe,
on any policy issue, whatever
it MAY be. You have to
understand first what the
problem is. If there is a
problem, have the data, have an
understanding, and then to be
able to actually address what
comes next. A lot of times some
of some folks will try to come
up with a solution before you
really understand what the
problem is. And sometimes the
solution is not actually the
right one. And so I'm really
glad that that we do this
continuously. I think we've
learned a lot over the years.
And I think that because of
that work, you all have been
able to implement very real
strategies internally in the
city to make sure that we have
we make the changes that we
want to see, and we're already
seeing the outcome of that. And
I think that's that's evident
if you look at the reports over
time. So I just wanted to say
that's exciting. And I'm, you
know, I'm glad I'm looking
forward to future ones and
continuing that work. The only
major question I had was around
the gender pay disparities. So
as I read the report, basically
it's we didn't do like a study
of the actual of actual pay of
gender pay throughout the
entire city. We kind of did an
averages of certain positions.
Is that right?
>> It's very high level. I mean,
doing a gender study by looking
more detailed on every specific
position and, you know,
experience, education,
qualifications of every person
in each of those positions is
just is beyond the scope of
this audit. It's very high
level.
>> It would need to be, you
know, if we wanted to do
something like that, we would
need to have you work on a
different specific audit to do
that work because it would be
okay. I think that's really
important to point out because
I don't want anyone to, to read
this, you know, and I know that
you pointed out in there that
that it's high level. But I
just want to say for on the
record that, you know, it's not
necessarily that we're seeing a
problem here at the city. We
don't actually know that per se.
We just know that there's some
high level trends and there's
trends also nationally. And so
we can we can glean some things
from that. But yeah, I just, I
just think that's a good thing
to point out because I don't
want anyone to take, you know,
I don't want the headline to be,
you know, gender pay
disparities without us really
understanding that. And so,
okay, with that, I'm happy to,
to move this and just want to
say thank you for the work. I
know it's been iterative over
time, but it always gives me I
always get excited when I see
this on the agenda. So thank
you.
>> All right. We have a motion
to accept the audit and
forwarded to this one. Go to
the council. Yes. I'm not
looking at it. Okay. It goes to
thank you. And a second, by the
by, Mayor Pro Tem. Do we have
any speakers?
>> I do have one speaker
Lambert. Okay.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Good afternoon. This is this
is exactly some of the things
that I'm challenging at City
Hall. First of all, I would
like to thank the auditor for
confirming what I already know.
And also Army. Now, there was
an article when I returned home,
there was an article in the
newspaper called Sacramento
News and Review. People should
study this, and my family
showed it to me. When I moved
home, it was called the ancient
r Barnum and Bailey racist
Scandal at City Hall, and that
I have no idea how many years
ago that was. But I'm looking
at the same thing today. They
tried to blame Donald Trump for
resisting dei. But if you look
at these graphs, there's been
resistance we've documented
before he even became PRESIDENT.
Now here we look at blacks are
always at the bottom of
salaries. Are you telling me
that black people who go to
college and get degrees are
still at the bottom? How is
that possible? Also, why are
whites always at the top?
What's that about? Also Asians?
I've often said it was my van
who confirmed that 25% of the
workforce at City Hall is Hmong,
and Hmongs are not 25% of the
city. That's a quota system.
And I put that on record at
City Hall. Quotas are illegal.
Also, it said Army made a good
point. She said the outcomes
can't take root without staff
support, and most of the people
who are implementing this
resistance are still on the
payroll. At City Hall.
>> I have no more speakers.
>> Okay. Thank you for your
comments. Thanks for your
comments. This is this is
important work. And the
commitment has to be. One that
that is. Felt throughout the
organization. So we've taken
some time today, but it's worth
it. And, and it's both
important to, to do this, this
updating every period interval
of, of time on a regular basis.
And it's important to know what
you're doing from a human
resources perspective, to have
the city workforce reflect our
city. We know that we know that
that is meaningful and in every
sense, not, not, not just in
numbers, but, but in pay equity,
in positions of responsibility
and management in every respect.
So thank you for the
presentations. We know there's
still work to do. That's that's
apparent from from what we see.
But but I think the fact that
we examine this is, is also
reflection of, of the
commitment that we have to, to
strive even to be better over
time. So with that, we have a
motion and a second, if there's
nothing further, all in favor,
signify by saying aye, aye.
Opposed say no. Any abstentions?
Hearing none. Motion carries.
Thanks very much. And we're on
to our next item, which is item
eight. Updates on current City
Council member proposals that
have been heard before the
Budget and Audit Committee. And
I think we have, Amy here to.
Walk us through the spreadsheet.
>> Great. Good afternoon, Chair
Dickinson and members of the
Budget and Audit Committee. My
name is Amy Williams. I'm chief
of staff to the City Manager,
and I am pleased to provide an
update this afternoon on our
council proposal log items that
have come before Budget and
Audit Committee. I'd like to
begin first with just a very
brief overview of how the
current proposal process works.
This is a process that was
instituted a few years ago to
where the council proposes an
idea. So Council Member office
proposes an idea and submits a
council proposal, request
submission to the clerk's
office, which then is reviewed
by the mayor, city Manager and
the City Attorney's Office. At
that point, the proposal idea
either there's refinements
being asked back to the
proposals, or it gets assigned
to an actual committee. Once it
reaches the committee, the
proposer office then also
presents this idea to a
committee. So say budget and
audit and then budget and audit.
Here's this proposal idea and
at that point in time gives a
thumbs up or maybe asks for
refinements. But if it gives a
thumbs up, it then gets
assigned to the department to
work on the idea. So, and at
that point is when I start
tracking the log. And at that
point, also, generally speaking,
the staff assigned to that
particular proposal idea
reaches out to that council
office, learns a little bit
more, and again, I start
updating and maintaining the
log as it progresses. As this
council proposal idea becomes,
goes through the system. Just
so you understand, the tracking
log itself is actually housed
in our Microsoft Teams under a
OneDrive, under the OneDrive
account, and is shared to all
staff for visibility. It
includes both current and past
proposal for easy reference. In
addition, just to add, we've
added a new process to this
entire process, which is called
a closeout memo. So when an
item goes through the entire
process and an ordinance gets
amended or a a program gets
launched, we then send a memo
out to formally request closing
out that item and concluding
that item from the act of
tracking log. And it's put on a
concluded log list. This helps
with and it has will help us
with transparency and
accountability through this
process. There are currently 18
active council proposals being
worked on and tracked, and
today we will just be reviewing
the three from the 18. And you
all have copies of a large
spreadsheet here. And there's
copies for the community behind
me if they're interested. So
we'll start with the first item
you'll see on the far left what
happens is the log or the
council proposal gets assigned
a number. And this number is it
marks the year 2025. And it's
the first one of 2025. It was
submit date was actually
JANUARY 31st of 2025. And the
subject item is the authorizing
staff to begin the process of
creating a mechanism to fund
community infrastructure that
boosts tourism markets, North
Natomas, and improves
opportunities for hotels and
businesses. This council
sponsors included Councilmember
Kaplan and Plucky Bomb, and our
department lead is Office of
Innovation, Economic
Development and the Finance
Department. The mayor. This
gives you several times. When
the mayor did review. There's
some refinements, as you can
see in the status notes to the
far right, this. This
particular proposal idea had
lots of refinements, kind of
some some some tweaks along the
way. But the mayor reviewed it
a few times. It went to Law and
Ledge in AUGUST 26th of 2025 to
budget not my apologies. And
meanwhile, what's happening? If
you go to the far right where
my status notes are, I always
start with the item that's the
most recent. So the date this
was last updated was MAY 18th
of 2026, and there has been a
meeting with the hoteliers
visit. Sac is deeply involved
in this process. And so they're
moving towards an assessment
and looking at building out an
assessment for this work. But
if you go again down, you can
see all the different dates and
times that staff reached out.
And maybe when there were
pauses or questions being asked.
And so this particular item is
moving along. If there's any
questions on that item, do my
best. No. Okay. The next item
we have here, submit date was
OCTOBER of 2025. This is a
request for illegal dumping. It
was a request for staff to come
up with a very specific, a
specific program to address
illegal dumping issues that we
see citywide. We do address our
illegal dumping and one offs,
but this is asking staff to to
look at the numbers, understand
what's going on, and come back
with an overall program,
looking at being more efficient
and comprehensive in our
approach. And this and Council
Member Dickinson, you can
correct me if I'm wrong on any
of those details, but you are a
sponsor as well as Council
Member Vang and Council member
Maple, and the department lead
is our recycling and solid
waste, but it does include many
other departments that are
involved actually in developing
this program. But our lead
person is in recycling and
solid waste. The mayor reviewed
it on NOVEMBER, and then it
went to be an a on the third.
Now, you'll notice on this that
the Council on the Legislative
Body review to the far right,
the council column is
highlighted in green because
when it's done, it's going to
go to council next. So that's
an indicator as to why. You
know, that column is green. And
the last update I got was on
MAY 16th. And they are
finishing up their data
collection. And they're
beginning their analysis.
They're, they're hoping to come
back in the fall. And all of
this is listed, all the dates
are up to date on, you know,
where it's been and where it's
headed. So it's, it's on its
way.
>> I just have a quick process.
That's okay. Michael Benjamin
my office no longer works there.
And so we'll talk offline about
who the best person for my team
is to connect. Thanks.
>> Thank you.
>> Well, we're on that one, MR.
Chair.
>> Okay.
>> I think I, I think I made
the motion on moving that one
and asked to be listed as a
co-sponsor. That's that's all
clarification.
>> Well, I will definitely.
>> Add that. And I will mention
that I do have monthly meetings
now with each of your staff
scheduled and will be ongoing.
So this will always be one of
the items that I just bring up.
So it's just going to be
something we naturally talk
about more often. And I
understand I'm becoming a bit
more. Maybe I'll be coming to
budget a little bit more so we
can just keep tracking these
and moving them along and
making sure the data and the
information is correct. Okay.
And the final one we have here
is an item that came and submit
date of NOVEMBER of 2025. And
this is district two, Enhanced
Infrastructure financing.
District and council sponsors
were Council member Dickinson,
Vice Mayor Telemontes, Council
member Maple and Council member
Gada. And this was assigned to
our Office of Innovation and
Economic Development and our
Finance department. This item
has gone through went to to
budget audit in DECEMBER of
2025, no. 2026 and went to
council this spring. So what I
understand is that we are doing
some fiscal analysis right now,
which is three months of work
was what the estimate was, and
then we'll be bringing it back
to council as soon as we can.
>> Yes, as soon as we can.
>> As soon as we can be.
>> Tracking that.
>> Underlined. Okay, Amy. Thank
you, Vice Mayor.
>> So is this going to become
the new process.
>> Where you come to budget and
audit to present where we're at
on all these policies that we
have passed?
>> I, I don't know, I haven't
been directed to, but Lore and
Legend directed me to do that.
So I would just assuming that
that would be the case here.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's
great because, because I'm not
on lore. And so it's great to
hear like an update.
>> But yeah, so.
>> I think both the chair of
law and legislation as well as
I think it's very helpful to
have these presentations on a
periodic basis, on a regular
basis, even though this
information is accessible in
teams. It's it has a home there,
which I will admit I didn't
know before. We had a similar
presentation at the Law and
Legislation Committee. So we
can look at it any time, but I
think it's still helpful, both
for us and the public to have
these these routine updates on
on how the proposals are
progressing.
>> Well, like, are we going to
do this quarterly or every
other month? Or what's.
>> The plan?
>> I'm trying to remember what
were we talking about quarterly?
>> Well, I can tell you what we
have done at Lore and Ledge,
which was we I think it was
quarterly. It was what we
landed on. Yep. Just to make
sure that everyone's updated in
public about how things are
moving, but not necessarily so
much so that, you know, you're
getting the same updates over
and over again.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> That's a great plan.
>> I think that's the, the, the
plan is quarterly.
>> Okay, great. Thank you.
>> Any other questions for Amy
or comments? Thank you Amy. Who
keep them keep them moving. And
do we have some members of the
public who wish to address this
item?
>> Yes. I have five speakers.
Lambert, Douglas McPherson,
Gail Silva, Greg Chapman and
Ann Amato.
>> This is outstanding. This
long paperwork that they gave
us because it gave me an
opportunity to comment on who's
on here. Now. We it's been me
who actually brought up that
we're concerned about MR. Baum
not being on the rostrum a lot.
He's late. He leaves a lot, and
he shouldn't be part of any
sponsorship till he tightens
that up. So a lot of people
watching his behavior, by the
way, now on district two, I
like the people that are
connected with that. MR.
Dickinson, Vice Mayor
Telemontes Maple and Guerra. I
know they care about district
two, so they should be able to
get a lot of things
accomplished. Now, what
concerns me about that is that
somebody mentioned the
Department of Economic and
Innovation. That department,
during measure u. And I went to
a lot of measure u commissions.
They did not properly allow the
measure u Commission to q and a
them that's a violation of the
Brown Act. They should have.
And when MRS. Dickerson was
here, we never had that problem
because she knew the procedures
and minty was not there that
night. So that's why they
panicked. And they let that
department. And by the way,
that department receives a lot
of economics from measure u.
They receive a lot of money.
And and guess what? I was
scheduled to speak to them and
ask for. And the rest of them
panicked and they decided,
we'll let the last nine minutes
of the commission go to that
department. And they didn't.
Nobody had a chance to talk to
them, so they should have to
come back in front of the
committee before.
>> Next speaker is Douglas.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Good afternoon. Thank you,
Chair Dickinson and members,
for letting me speak this
afternoon. It's not morning any
longer. My name is Doug
McPherson. I live in Midtown.
I'm here to advocate for a
public bank in Sacramento. As
you know, this body approved
$250,000 in MAY of 2023 for the
completion of a viability study
and business plan for public
bank. That money was put on
hold. A public bank is needed
now more than ever in
Sacramento, given the budget
deficits, federal rollbacks and
deep cuts in housing and
climate funding that we are
experiencing. I know this is a
tight time for budgets, but I
believe that our team of public
bank advocates from our
community have found sources
for these funds, which we have
shared with you in written
comment and would not affect
staffing. I would ask that you
reintroduce the $250,000 into
this year's fiscal budget,
given that it was a great idea
in 2023, and it's an even
better idea today. And, Chair
Dickenson, I would ask that you
agendize this topic on future
budget and audit committee
meetings. Thank you so much for
your time. I appreciate it.
>> Thanks, speaker.
>> Thank you, chair, members of
this committee for the
opportunity to speak. My name
is Goldie Saba. I'm a volunteer
with Sacramento Public Bank
project of sac and Sacramento
Climate Coalition. As you're
aware, funding for an rfq, as
my husband mentioned, was
passed unanimously by by the
Budget Audit Committee. You
already know that the community
members and organizations have
been working for preparing for
early on in this budget process
to reissue funding for the sac
public Bank rfq in MARCH 20th,
the MARCH 24th, the mayor and
Council were supportive and the
mayor asked for a timeline of
the past rfq and said that you
would determine whether to
place it on the agenda, on the
Council or the Budget and Audit
Committee. Just last week, the
treasurer responded to us
stating that he had no
reservations based on his
interest or time on this
project, but just mentioned
that no council member had
submitted this in their budget
request. So here's our ask. We
request this committee to
reaffirm their previous
commitment with another motion
to place the 250,000 for an rfq
for a viability and business
plan on this year's budget. Of
all of the budget asks, this is
the 1 or 1 of the few that,
when functioning, can actually
bring back millions and
multiply our precious tax
dollars to help fund our
community's needs, we
understand that this is a
deficit budget year, and that's
why we've researched and
submitted a document with
multiple options. There's a, b,
and c. I'm not going to go
through the whole thing with
you, but just to mention that b
and c do not involve any sort
of cutting from any staffing. B
basically takes it says,
earmarking funds from community
reinvestment grants. There was
a we would take 250,000 from
the California Natural
Resources Agency Community
Reinvestment Project.
>> Thank you for your comments.
Your time is complete. Next
speaker is Greg. Then an. Thank
you for your comments.
>> Thank you.
>> Is Greg here? No. Animoto.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Members of the Audit and
Budget Committee. I'm an
amateur. I'm a retired social
worker and member of the
Sacramento Climate Coalition
and their public bank project.
I'm here to ask your support
for the public bank for
Sacramento. While you're
looking at budget cuts, I
recognize that you can save the
city a great deal of money
while addressing urgent needs
with establishing a public bank.
The public bank can offer small
business loans to those that
are unable to obtain them from
big banks. Funding to offer low
cost loans for affordable
housing, funds for other
improvements for our community,
like addressing homelessness.
Public bank can offer low cost
lines of credit. Keep public
interest dollars in the public
sector so you keep the money in
the community, rather than
going to Wall Street and to
reduce overall borrowing costs.
Currently, my understanding is
that 50% of the cost of a bond
measure goes to interest, and
that money goes to Wall Street
Public Bank and assist in
funding bonding measures, offer
underwriting issuance, bridge
loans for local projects, and
all this saves the city an
interest and underwriting fees.
Let's keep the interest money
in our community. I ask you to
please support the public bank
and the funding that we need to
do the viability and
feasibility study the business
plan as well. Thank you.
>> Thank you, chair.
>> I have no more speakers on
this agenda item.
>> Okay. Thank you to all the
speakers. Councilmember Maple,
did you want to make a comment.
>> If I MAY, chair, and I
recognize this is not on the
agenda. So obviously we won't
be able to make any decisions
related to public banking here
at this meeting. But I do want
to say, generally speaking,
that I've met with the
proponents of this measure, and
I personally think that this is
something that is worth
exploring. Absolutely. I do
recognize the history as well.
It was before my time on this
council, but I do know that
there was a history of of
allocating money, and it never
went that way. And there were a
lot of different reasons behind
that. So we don't have to get
into that here. But I also want
to say that there's there's big
questions to one question for
me is, you know, the $250,000
that was from 2023, knowing how
much costs have gone up, I
really wonder whether that's
the actual cost of doing the
feasibility study now in 2026
or 2027 versus in 2023. And,
you know, we're being in
government, we have seen the
cost skyrocket on almost
everything. So that's that's a
key question. And then two, on
some of the possible sources, I
really want to appreciate
everyone who showed up to speak
and the work that they put into
looking into the budget. It's
not easy to do, but really
finding ways that we could look
into, and I think those are
worth exploring, but we really
don't have a way of knowing
right now whether or not those
are actually grants that we
could pull from. We'd have to
do some research into that. And
so as much as that, you know,
it MAY be disappointing, my my
thought is, is that this is
worth exploring in the in the
next budget cycle, perhaps
through budget and audit, if
you want to do that. Chair. But
I just I think it would be
really challenging to try to
move this forward in the
current budget process. That's
just my personal opinion. Thank
you.
>> Thanks. Thanks for those
comments. I would largely agree
with with them. I appreciate
the the advocacy. And I think
there's some conversations that
that need to occur internally
to, to, to determine the
feasibility of. I appreciate
the fact that you've made
concrete suggestions rather
than just asked for something
you suggested where it could be
funded from. And that that's a
great, great degree of
responsibility that many of us
resist in similar circumstances.
So this is still a live
conversation. I think it's also
instructive to watch what's
going on in the in San
Francisco in particular, and
the Bay area as, as as well,
which I know has been something
of a of a limitation on the
feasibility from the Treasury's
point of view in pursuing this.
So it is it is not a dead
letter by any means. And I
think I think there. Is the
opportunity to to to talk talk
about this further, see if it
fits, see if it fits an agenda
in the future. And thank you
again for for being here and
for being consistent and steady.
This item requires no action.
It was a update for us. So
we'll move on to committee
comments, ideas, questions and
meeting reports if any. Seeing
none, do we have any members of
the public who wish to address
us on items not on the agenda?
>> Chair, I have one. Speaker
Lambert.
>> Okay.
>> Speaking on matters, not on
the agenda.
>> This one I had to keep notes.
I normally look up at you, but
I got to really stay on this to
get it right. First of all, I'd
like to send a shout out to
CHAIRMAN Dickerson for bringing
up Medi-Cal for people who get
picked up by fire or ambulance.
I never knew that. And the city
should know if they're being
reimbursed. If they don't,
people should be reprimanded
for that. That's a county. You
should know how much money you
receive from Medi-Cal when you
pick people up. Also. There was
a study done called the
leadership Group Race Equity,
and Laney Milstein was part of
that group, and we were trying
to figure out where the
$250,000 went. When I asked the
Race Alliance committee, they
said they didn't receive any
money. And one of the main
reasons why we're having
problems at City Hall is that
people are not paying attention
to people who, like me, who
come up here to talk. It's very
rude as you learn that as a
child, to not talk when other
people are talking, but it's
being recorded anyway. Last
time I was here, I mentioned
about the no written agreement
about wide open walls, and
people got emotional when I
started asking the question of
who wrote the seven checks,
everybody got quiet. Well, the
millennials have found out
where those checks came from,
and I don't have time to
announce it today. But it's
coming and it's going to shock
a lot of people where those
checks came from. We know where
they came from. Now also. This
race, this measure you
innovation and economics, they
should not get funded until
they go in front of the measure
you commission.
>> I thank you for your
comments. We have no one else
to address us on matters, not
on the agenda. So we're going
to adjourn into closed session.
If we get one more member of
the council to join us.
>> Yes. Thank you, chair. If we
can get one more council member
to join us, we will then
adjourn this meeting directly
into closed session rather than
having to call to order that
meeting.
>> And we're going to let the
auditor staff go have lunch.
Thank you.
>> Okay.
>> Can you guys.
>> Go to the. Session talking
about thank you, thank you. The
money was given to the wide
open wall. Yeah. And then I
guess seven. There could have
been my screen projector was.
>> So. Good afternoon. We are
calling a closed session
meeting to order. We're calling
the special meeting for the
purpose of a closed session. I
have a quorum of council
members and chambers. There are
two items on that agenda. We
have no speakers on any of the
agenda items on the closed
session agenda. The first item
is conference with labor
negotiators. Government code,
section five four, 957.6.
Designated representatives are
Lainie Milstein, Aaron Donato
and Tim Davis. Employee
organizations are Sacramento
Police Officers Association and
Sacramento area firefighters.
Local 522. The second item is
Public Employee performance
evaluation, government Code,
section 54957 b one title is
city Attorney and chair. You
MAY now adjourn to closed
session.
>> All right.
>> Adjourned in closed session.