SLO Council passes $202 million budget. Here’s how the city will spend the money
San Luis Obispo’s City Council unanimously passed a $202 million, two-year budget Tuesday night that emphasized infrastructure and targeted spending towards the city’s major goals.
Millions will be spent on four key focus areas: economic recovery, resiliency and financial sustainability; diversity equity and inclusion; housing and homelessness issues; and climate action, open space and sustainable transportation.
Several community members who spoke during the public comment section of Tuesday’s meeting called for divestment in police funding and reallocation to social service and housing needs.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department will receive $19.14 million in 2021-22 and $20.05 million in 2022-23, making up about 20% of the city’s total budget. That’s up from $17.63 million in 2019-20 and $17.8 million in 2020-21.
The Police Department’s budget is the highest of any city department.
“The current draft of the budget doesn’t reflect the needs of the most vulnerable constituents,” Raleigh Delk said during Tuesday’s meeting, reflecting the position of Abolitionist Action Central Coast SLO and other groups lobbying for social services. “There has to be room to shift at least $5 million away from the Police Department and other $5 million from other sources to provide for the bottom 10% of incomes. We need to address the mental health and homeless crises.”
Public commenter Deanna Savelson called for a council rejection of the staff’s proposed budget, also demanding a $5 million police cut.
“The police are the single biggest budget expense for the city, and there’s no excuse for this,” and Savelson, urging the city to consider rent relief and low-income housing. “The people of SLO deserve better, and so many people have spoken in this community about how the police don’t protect them.”
Speaker Elle Harlow said Eddie Giron, the 35-year-old San Luis Obispo man who was involved in a deadly shootout with police on May 10, could have been helped with more community resources.
San Luis Obispo police Det. Luca Benedetti was shot and killed by Giron as he and five other officers served a search warrant on Giron’s apartment related to what officials say were several commercial burglaries. San Luis Obispo police Det. Steve Orozco was injured in the shooting.
Giron, who officials say was also shot during an exchange of gunfire, died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Friends and family members say they repeatedly warned San Luis Obispo police about Giron’s mental illness and that he owned firearms.
“This loss was completely preventable,” Harlow said. “We know through Eddie’s mother that repeated efforts were made for Eddie and that as a community we failed him. The way this incident has been turned into a cry of Blue Lives Matter has been disheartening. Eddie was not an evil person, but just an overlooked person who needed help.”
Should SLO divest Police Department funding?
City Council members and officials said they believe the city’s budget reflects change amid ongoing examinations of policies and programs.
The budget targets new funds for diversity and inclusion, as well as social equity initiatives and continued discussions about how best to police the community, without reducing police funding, they said.
“As we talk about quantity of policing, let’s keep in mind quality of policing,” San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon said. “We want well-educated, qualified folks with experience who also share the values of this community.”
The city’s new spending includes the creation of mobile crisis unit staffed with a paramedic and social worker to respond to homeless needs, a 25% expansion of 40 Prado Homeless Services Center and the hiring of a second city social worker as part of the Community Action Team (CAT). That’s in addition to inclusionary housing program funding.
The city’s existing CAT officer, John Klevins, has a case load in the hundreds that he’s unable to fully tackle on his own, city manager Derek Johnson said, so he needs added support.
San Luis Obispo’s Police Department has 64 sworn officers, making up a staff of roughly 90 including civilians.
“Our department’s budget is 93% salaries and benefits for our personnel,” new San Luis Obispo Police Chief Rick Scott said. “We have very little operating cost, which is about 7%, and we’ve steadily tried to cut costs and save in areas where we could over the past few years.”
Scott said the San Luis Obispo Police Department’s call load has increased 15% over the past 10 years, and staffing hasn’t kept up with that demand. The department’s budget has gone up about 1.8% annually in recent years, which doesn’t keep up with inflation, Scott said.
“We’ve not asking for more police officers (in the new budget),” Scott said. “We’re asking for a social worker and a records technician to help us manage our records and provide accountability and transparency in our department.”
Councilmember Jan Marx said the city’s aging police headquarters on Walnut Street also needs to be replaced in the near term.
“(The building) is notorious in the city for being the crummiest building we own,” said Marx, calling for the construction of a new public safety center on Walnut Street. “It is really substandard, and it has been substandard for decades.”
Johnson said that the city will come back in the fall with a further review of project planning and timing.
He noted that the project has been delayed as the city deals with the Palm Street parking garage and Prado Road overpass construction projects, Johnson said.
Johnson said the city has deferred about $1 million in maintenance costs on the police department building in lieu of plans to replace the facility.
Councilmember Erica Stewart said she’s satisfied with the work the city is doing to support police while thinking about ways to best address diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I just want to make sure that we say it out loud that we are supportive of SLOPD and we are supportive of expanding and making change,” Stewart said. “I look at our mobile crisis unit and I know Chief Scott is looking at how do we make a (Police and Community Together group) 2.0.”
Stewart said that she doesn’t believe San Luis Obispo gets as many reports of police misconduct as other communities nationwide do.
“I don’t get as many stories of people have things happen here in SLO and I think it’s really important for me to say because when we make policy decisions we base them on what’s happening here in SLO,” Stewart said. “The DEI Task Force (addressing diversity, equity and inclusion) was a short period of time, and there were a lot of wonderful recommendations that came from the DEI Task Force and that’s how this budget came to be.”
San Luis Obispo officials said complaints about any city police issue can be communicated to city administration, human resources, the city attorney’s office or the police department.
City looks to spend money on infrastructure
The city plans to spent $126 million on infrastructure over the next five years and $10 million of pre-payments to pension liabilities over the next two years.
In the calendar year 2021, the council allocated about $11.13 million of spending on capital projects, including $840,000 in Laguna Lake dredging, $250,000 in Meadow Park pathway maintenance, and $3.6 million in roundabout construction at Tank Farm and Orcutt roads, according to a 579-page financial plan report.
Other spending goals over a two-year period include more than $2 million related to DEI, including $220,039 to establish a DEI office in 2021, and $224,000 in new funding for access, inclusion and support for underrepresented communities this fiscal year.
The city plans to spend $40,000 on a Multi-Cultural Center feasibility study, a project recommended by the DEI Task Force.
The city is planning to spend $1.7 million in new spending on business support over the next two years, including holiday lighting and parade costs. San Luis Obispo will also continue to implement a program to fast track tenant improvement permits and support business recovery.
San Luis Obispo will also set aside about $5 million for downtown pavement improvement; about $1 million for Mission Plaza restroom replacement and a new cafe kiosk and $2.4 million for the Prado Road Interchange project.
The city also will spend $40,000 on identifying the scope of its historic resources inventory in 2022-23.
How is SLO dealing with homelessness?
On Tuesday, the city cited several ways it’s currently addressing the needs of unhoused residents.
Homeless response manager Kelsey Nocket, who started in April, will form strategic planning, data collection, and partnerships with San Luis Obispo County to help homeless people.
The city has established safe parking pilot program at Railroad Square for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, among other initiatives.
The city has placed about 299 people in housing — 46 of them children — in coordination with agencies such as Transitions-Mental Health Agency and county government agencies.
San Luis Obispo has allocated $157,000 annually in the current budget cycle for the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County, the nonprofit organization that oversees 40 Prado. And the city will contribute $63,826 toward the facility’s expansion in its new budget.
The city already has a $59,000 ambassador and cleanliness program that includes $20,000 toward a dedicated case worker and $29,000 in costs associated with outreach to the homeless community, with another $10,000 toward an employment resource program to help unhoused people find work.
“These are some of the areas where we’ll be tracking outcomes of ‘How are we diverting calls away from police?’ ‘What are we doing to help individuals find housing and shelter, and medical care and have the potential to lift people out of poverty and homelessness?’ ” Johnson said.
More affordable housing coming to town
San Luis Obispo estimates that about 100 affordable housing units will go in over the next two years, based on approved development.
Development projects in the building pipeline, including Avila Ranch and San Luis Ranch, will contribute an additional 152 affordable housing units.
Responding to criticism that the city’s housing policy caters to the affluent, Harmon said San Luis Obispo has more deed-restricted units that the rest of the county combined.
“We do have one of the best affordable housing programs, certainly, in the county,” Harmon said. “Is it solving the problem? No. That’s also true. We’re doing our best to help as many people as we can.”
Councilmember Carlyn Christianson said that the city has to set its affordable housing requirements at a level that encourages building and increasing housing stock. San Luis Obispo requires larger projects to have 15% of homes that are deed-restricted and affordable.
“We’d all love to have 70% affordable (housing), but developers won’t build here if that’s the case,” Christianson said. “They’ll go to Paso Robles.”
Parking and water fee increases
Water and sewer rates in San Luis Obispo will increase 7% total over the next two years (3.5% in each of next two years) to help keep up with infrastructure and other costs.
In addition, the city will see a host of parking rate increases to address financial shortfalls due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Starting in July, hourly parking structure rates in San Luis Obispo will rise to $1.50 an hour, including Sundays, with the first 60 minutes free.
In July 2022, people parking in city parking structures will lose that free hour. Instead, they’ll get a 15-minute grace period upon entry in the parking structure before the hourly rates apply.
Parking citation fees are going up as well, with increases related to safety issues such as parking in bus zones, blocking sidewalks and parking in an intersections.
A new fee schedule launches July 1. Fees for violations will increase by $7 to $37.
Most parking fees have not been updated in 10 years, according to the city.
Correction: The water and sewer rate increases were corrected to reflect accurate information.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
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