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FY2021 Budget Demands

The Invest in San Diego Families (ISDF) Coalition is continuing its call for the County to invest in programs and services that support a healthy, sustainable, and thriving region for all families, but especially for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor families.

Join us to call on our Board of Supervisors to adopt our FY2021 Budget Demands!

Click here to send a letter to the Board of Supervisors NOW!

Transparency and Accountability

Provide the public with a detailed breakdown of the Countyā€™s COVID-19 spending.

Provide a detailed breakdown of the Sheriff’s Department budget.

  • Ensure that all County communications, County materials and County meetings are accessible in at least the following languages: Spanish, Vietnamese, Somali, Chinese, Tagalog and Arabic.

Invest in improvements to the Countyā€™s outreach process, through:

Creation of a targeted and robust outreach plan, modeled after the process used by the Count Me 2020 Census Outreach Coalition.

Hiring a team of Community Emergency Resource Ambassadors

Provide no-cost reliable broadband internet access to low-income communities, through:

Development of free public Wi-Fi hotspots at County facilities in low-income communities.

Developing partnerships with internet service providers and non-profit partners to provide free or low-cost internet access.

Creating an internal team with representatives from appropriate County departments to lead the internet access effort.

Targeted and language-accessible outreach to communities and families with high need, as well as the provision of customer services/technical assistance in multiple languages.

Establishment of strict anti-censorship rules, user privacy protections, and an oversight/review process to ensure compliance with user protections.

Collect and release detailed data that includes:

COVID-19 testing, positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths, disaggregated by: race, ethnicity, gender identity, whether a person is an essential worker, as well as specific information about the people who are without housing or who are incarcerated.

Smart Justice

Shift the Countyā€™s approach towards transitional-age youth (age 18 to 25) in the ā€œcriminal justiceā€ system through:

Creation of a Transitional Age Youth Specialized Unit: County staff and community-based organizations trained in youth adult development and trauma-informed approaches, work with youth on probation and in detention who are between 18 -25 yrs. ($350,000)

Investment in social worker position(s) to review cases for youth between 18 -25 yrs. to determine if alternatives to detention are appropriate for each case, and provide recommendations for each case that are intended to rehabilitate, not punish.

Development of culturally relevant practices, such as indigenous healing circles, for youth on probation who are between 18 -25 yrs. ($100,000)

Coordination between system-impacted youth and adult allies/partners, to design and conduct a trauma-informed youth-adult partnership training for youth probation officers. ($150,000)

Expand Restorative Community Conference (RCC) to make this program available for all youth, countywide. ($3 million)

Provide free telephone calls for all individuals currently incarcerated in County facilities.

Immigrant Communities

Create an Office of Immigrant Affairs.

Create a cash assistance fund for undocumented County residents who are excluded from state and federal relief programs

Good Jobs

Ensure completion of a comprehensive equity study by an independent auditor that includes the following components:

Examination of staffing levels, recruitment, retention and compensation for all County employees.

Comparison across fourteen comparable counties, using the same methodology as the study presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting on October 29, 2019.

Protect County workers who are providing residents with essential services during the COVID-19 crisis:

Full compliance with COVID-19 health and safety guidelines for County workers:

Provision of hand sanitizer, disposable gloves and other personal protective equipment (PPE).

Sanitize work spaces, and enforce social distancing guidelines in workspaces.

Provision of information, training and other support for County employees.

Provide equitable telecommunication practices for all County workers.

Enforce COVID-19 health and safety guidelines for County contractors (including Live Well partners):

Full compliance of COVID-19 health and safety guidelines for workers:

Provision of hand sanitizer, disposable gloves and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Sanitization of workspaces, and enforcement of social distancing guidelines in workspaces.

Provision of information, training and other support for County employees.

Expand paid COVID-19 leave without use of accrued time or being docked pay for County employees who are unable to work because of workplace closure, personal health needs, or to attend to the health and welfare of children and other family members.

  • Require County contractors to provide paid COVID-19 leave for employees who are unable to work due to the closure of their workplace, their personal health, and the health and welfare of children and other family members, without use of accrued time or being docked pay.

Ensure completion of a comprehensive evaluation of County contracts by an independent auditor that includes the following components:

Total number of contracts and related expenditures, and percentage of total County budget spent on contracts.

Creation of a list of categories that captures all types of County contracts, with a detailed explanation of each category:

    1. Number of contracts and related expenditures, for each category of County contracts.
    2. Percentage of total County budget spent on each category of County contracts.

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Creation of a list of all County contractors and subcontractors, that includes:

  1. Total value of all County contracts held by each contractor/subcontractor.
  2. Jobs analysis of each contractor and subcontractor, including total number of jobs, compensation and benefits for employees.
  3. Information on ownership for each contractor/subcontractor.
  4. A searchable list of all County contractors should be made publicly available.
  5. Comparison of public sector jobs versus contracted-out jobs.
  6. Number and percentage of job classifications that are conducted by public employees versus contracted out employees(for current fiscal year, as well as for each of the past 20 fiscal years).
  7. Assessment of all County contracts to determine whether a public sector employee could complete the work.
  8. Compilation of after action review of outsourcing county functions, to evaluate costs and quality of services.
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Comparison across fourteen comparable counties, using the same methodology as the study presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting on October 29, 2019, of at least the following:

  1. Standards, criteria and procurement policies (ex:prioritization of minority and locally-owned businesses, living wage standards, reporting requirements, etc.).
  2. Public access to contracts and reporting, including audits, contract monitoring reports, and other similar inquiries.

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Comparisons of all data points should include breakdown by department and job classification, and adjusted for population and revenue.

Recommendations for best practices for San Diego County (ex: job quality and living wage standards for contractors, enforcement mechanisms for contractors, jobs that should be returned to public sector, etc.).

Create an Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement (OLSE) to protect workers throughout the region:
  1. Direct partnerships with community organizations, to develop education and outreach plans for working people in the San Diego region.
  2. Dedicated County staff to provide centralized support and education to workers in the County.
  3. Dedicated County staff to ensure compliance with all health and safety guidelines, including COVID-19 standards, by all employers in the County.
  4. Dedicated County staff to manage and facilitate the County contract and evaluation process.
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True Social Safety Net

Allocate funding for organizations Countywide that provide tenant counseling, outreach and education, and legal services for tenants. ($5 million)

Create a rental assistance program that requires every landlord receiving rent relief provide healthy and safe housing. ($100 million)

Train all HHSA Eligibility Operations staff on how to use ā€œGood Cause Determinationā€ when processing recertification for CalFresh, CalWORKS and Medi-Cal, in order to prevent unnecessary lapses in benefits.

Create of an Office for Child and Youth Success.

Train all HHSA Eligibility Operations staff on how to use ā€œGood Cause Determinationā€ when processing recertification for CalFresh, CalWORKS and Medi-Cal, in order to prevent unnecessary lapses in benefits.

Provide free menstrual products at the following County facilities: food distribution centers, County libraries, County recreation centers, South Bay Community Services, San Diego Food Bank and Feeding San Diego.

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