Final Take: The 2021-2022 City Council Budget

So many hours of discussion on what was the final City Council budget decided on 6/15

While Ashby boasts about her desire to give Chief Hahn whatever he wants, and Steinberg still doesn’t understand the concept of shifting the finances that go along with shifting responsibility, Councilmembers Vang and Valenzuela are asking the community to picture what not needing to call 911 in the first place would look like.

At the end of the day, the proposed budget passed.

Sac PD got another $9.6 Million increase, and in spite of homelessness being on the rise, $2.2 million was taken from housing services and given to the fire department. That's $166 million for PD yall.

Here's a summary of comments from Councilmembers, the public, and an accompanying video:

Councilmembers-

“Are we moving money from the housing trust fund to pay for police?” -Schenirer

“We do things all the time and we don’t know where the money is going to come from” – Shenirer

“I don’t know what defunding means, I know I'm not for it because we need a strong police department that is reform minded. I know we need to shift calls from the police department…it’s going to take some time. I am for taking every new dollar we gain and to put most of that money into the community…Why can’t we do that and at the same time at 5 positions to the police department?”- Steinberg

“I think the managers police budget is a good one and I want to fund it as is without defunding…it would be unwise to take anything from the police” – Harris

“This last few months we have created this massive gap between the police department and the community. No city can operate without the police department. That’s the bottom line. Do they need reform? Yes. But I think we need to get off this high horse of saying let’s take money from the police…The data is not in [we beg to differ] that that’s going to improve our community”- Loloee

“I know it’s really hard to reimagine a world that we haven’t lived in—that is a word without police. We can reimagine based on FACTS and data that tells us that increasing police funding does not actually make our community safe [take that Loloee!] , we know through research that having more cops doesn’t mean less crime…even if you were to control for population there is still not significant correlation between funding the police and safety. This is based in facts and evidence… Let’s talk about investing in social safety nets. Let’s support communities that have had decades of disinvestment…it’s poverty that causes crime…We all need to acknowledge that law enforcement is based on a racist system” – Vang [Mic Drop]

The Public-

• Daughter of Donald Venerable called in. Her father was killed on 2/9/2001 he called for help and in return he was murdered for holding a cell phone that was mistaken for a gun. "20 years later we are still experiencing a lot of violence in the community especially Sacramento police department. It would be a shame if yall turned around and increased their budget after the harm they have done."

• Cut the budget to restore to it’s 2019/2020 levels which would be by $30 million

• “Adamantly oppose any defunding. we want a safe atmosphere to recreate.” - A Karen

• “Sac PD will never serve the true needs of our community. So why do we fund them like they do? ….sac PD will not and cannot take the place of fundamental community programs such as youth, mental health, unhoused, job creation and building infrastructure…[reads a list of crimes that took place] the police did not stop any of those crimes so why do we fund them like they do.?" - #KeepingIt100