Sacramento City Council to debate ‘defunding’ millions from police, fire budgets
An active citizen committee is about to revive the “defund the police” debate at Sacramento City Hall.
The Sacramento City Council will Tuesday discuss whether to remove $15 million in funding budgeted for several uses, including the police and fire departments - a recommendation from the city’s Measure U Community Advisory Committee. That committee is tasked with helping the council decide how to spend sales tax revenue voters approved in 2018.
The discussion takes place at a time when the “defund movement” - sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis - is causing cities across the country to reduce police funding and reallocate it toward youth, mental health and other services to uplift under served communities. But the city is also struggling with reduced revenue, including Measure U revenue, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
That could make it a tough sell for a council that has not yet voted to reduce police funding, despite an outcry to do so from protesters and Black community leaders since late May.
The city’s police budget this year hit an all-time-high $157 million. That includes about $45.7 million in Measure U money, but it’s unclear how much is from the measure voters approved in 2018 and how much is from the one they approved in 2012.
The council has not voted to reduce police funding, although it did approve Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s proposal to redirect response for some 911 noncriminal calls away from police. Steinberg has said he does not support the “defund movement,” but that the 911 overhaul will reduce some police funding over the course of two years. The council also approved a measure to hire an inspector general for police oversight.
Flojaune Cofer, a Black community activist who chairs the Measure U committee, has said those reforms were not what the people asked for.
Throughout 2018, Steinberg told voters the revenue from the Measure U sales tax increase would largely go toward services and programs to uplift disadvantaged communities, but when the pandemic hit, the city allocated it toward core city services. To make up for that, Steinberg led the council to allocate most of its $89 million in federal coronavirus stimulus money toward helping those communities.
That left the members of the Measure U committee questioning what their role would be. The group is now asking the council to remove $15 million in funding currently set to go to the police department, fire department, capital improvement projects and for debt service, according to a city staff report. The committee says the council should put that money into a new fund called the Measure U budget to let the public help decide how to spend it - a process called “participatory budgeting” that’s been used in other cities.
The committee also wants the council to increase the amount for that budget by $5 million each year until the amount in the new fund is equal to at least half the revenue the city receives from the sales tax increase voters approved in 2018.
In addition, the committee wants “participatory budgeting” to become a permanent part of the city’s charter. If voters approve the “strong mayor” ballot measure proposal on Nov. 3, “participatory budgeting” will be added to the charter. The committee wants it added whether or not voters approve “strong mayor.”
“The time is now,” a July letter from the committee to the mayor and council reads. “Let residents determine how to spend this portion of Measure U tax revenue funds and model real community engagement.”
The “defund” idea will likely meet resistance on the council. Councilman Jeff Harris has said his constituents tell him they want more police presence, not less. According to a recent city survey about coronavirus stimulus often referenced by some council members, 83 percent of residents said uninterrupted police, fire and emergency medical services were extremely or very important.
Meanwhile, City Councilwoman-Elect Katie Valenzuela and other activists are leading a similar effort to propose rewritten county and city budgets with public input using the “People’s Budget” process.
The City Council meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday. It will be livestreamed on the city’s website.
