Thread by @shayshinecastle

Moving right along. Second reading / public hearing of the 2021 budget. Presentation: www-static.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/Item_5A_-…

Some additional background: boulderbeat.news/2020/09/04/bou…

Council added back in $200K to HHS, $100K to library, $100K to arts, $160K to fire
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1313663…

What will dept use extra $$ for?
HHS: food, housing assistance, and acute physical, mental and behavioral health care.
Library: restoring services for family, children
Arts: General Operating Support grants (37 recipients, $8K to $50K)

Fire: Maintain service levels, build out light response vehicle service (have been “brownouts” in service due to minimal staffing)

As of now, budget stands at is $341.74 million, 7.6% smaller than 2020 ($27.97 million decrease)

General fund reserves will be 17% or $24,005,416

Boulder likes to keep those above 16% bc we're so prone to wildfire and flood which... I guess we're seeing right now

Gonna thread a little bit about the consulting budget, which raised concerns from Wallach.
Was $10.3M for 2021
$777,948 in cuts to consultant spending for: Finance, Housing and Human Services, Innovation & Technology, Planning & Development Services, and Transportation & Mobility

Finance: $58.5K in cuts for financial and other auditing consultants

HR: $85K in cuts for career coaching for employees, employee engagement survey, employee learning

HHS: $111.7K for legal consultants related to mobile home parks (service continuing) mental health for schools

City clerk: $1,700 for consultants for council, boards and commissions

Planning and development: $35,000 for subcommunity, long-range planning

Transportation: $486,048 for transit studies, engineering work, legal services

Wallach also wanted more detail on "miscellaneous" consultant spending, totaling $4,743,256
By dept:
City clerk’s office: $1,000 for elections database
City council: $9,500 for council retreat
City manager’s office: $115,322 for ballot measures analysis, lobbying, racial equity

Climate initiatives: $847,157 for Eco-Cycle, Eco Buffs, EnergySmart Advising, PACE

Community Vitality: $266,501 for construction development, small biz development center

Facilities and fleet: $3,010 for master plan studies

Finance: $140,823 for insurance brokers, investment service charges

Fire: $144,000 for medical director contract

General Gov’t: $774,643 for wetland ecological management, mosquito monitoring, library polling, recruiting service

HHS: $491,131 for mental health partners, strategy and evaluation for health equity fund

HR: $118,443 for class and compensation

OSMP: $390,366 for tribal consultations, performance management, architectural consulting

Parks and rec: $6,500 maintenance

Planning and development: $92,749 for code updates, inspection consulting services

Police: $81,288 for master plan, training

Transportation and mobility: $273,161 for web hosting, bike sharing, commuting solutions, Boulder Walks program, Vision Zero

Utilities: $987,072 for urban drainage flood control district, green infrastructure

Obviously there's not a lot of explanation here as to what exactly these things are; this is just a list from notes to council.

5 speakers for public hearing. Or maybe 4. I see one new name, so that's always exciting!

Helen Vernier, who nicely gives her pronouns, is concerned about the deep cuts to the Youth Opportunities Advisory Board budget.

I think a substantial portion of the YOAB budget was cut...

Former budget was $150,000, Vernier says. These cuts are 71%.

"I can ensure you that not investing in young ppl will only perpetuate the systems of inequity we see."

David Glover also speaking about YOAB. "Keep as much of the budget as possible. YOAB is a learning lab for young adults:" civic engagement, diversity training, etc.

Yay Youths!

During this crisis, Glover says, young ppl are impacted severely. Please keep some funding to help young people stay involved. "The program had a huge impact on all of us. Whatever we can do to maintain the budget of the program will have a major impact on future youth."

Brockett: I wholeheartedly agree with you all. My understanding is that YOAB is continuing as a program. The big impact is that they won't be able to give grants.

"I look forward to a budget sometime soon where we can restore some of YOAB's grant-giving budget," Brockett says.

Swetlik: I think it's interesting that we do the budget before the retreat. It doesn't necessarily lock us in, it just doesn't allow us to make big changes, even in a time of great change.

Asks to look at ways to "reverse that order" so that monetary decisions aren't made before legislative ones are.

Young is talking about additional HHS money. I don't quite understand the fund she is referencing, though.

But it was about addressing the disparate racial/ethnic impacts of COVID, which she wants to make sure is prioritized.

Glad I'm not the only one who is lost.
Joseph: I feel like what you're suggesting went right over my head.

Young: When we were faced with the outbreak at the community, all the Dif gov't entities (city, county, uni, school districts) and put forward efforts to bring down the case count.

What I'm saying is doing the same thing with these racially disparate impacts.

One of the way we can do that is with the mobile testing unit that launched this week, Young says. I'm proposing to take that a step further and do what Cali is doing: You can't move to the next "phase" of reopening until you address racial impacts.

Joseph wants to see $$ given back to YOAB.
I understand it's COVID and we're cutting everywhere. But is there opportunity to add $$ before next year?

Brautigam: We all love YOAB. While we can say that 70% of their programs are cut, really their programs haven't been cut except for one. The very expensive grant program.

Brautigam: My suggestion would be to wait until the beginning of the year, see how we're doing, and then find some extra money.

Brautigam: We were going to try and have the students who would have participated in YOAB grant-giving to participate in other grant award processes, like the health equity fund. "We're going to try to give that experience to the students."

Weaver echoes Swetlik's comments about funding the fire dept. "We don't provide the level of service that people think we do."

That's in reference to the fire dept. taking over more ambulance services.

Most of their calls are for emergency services anyway, not fire. Currently we contract out some EMS.

Weaver also on board with Young's COVID suggestions.

We can't replicate California's model on our own, he says, but we can work with the county and lobby our state legislators.

Brockett to Young: Do you feel good about the feedback to your suggestion? Do you think that's adequate direction?
Yes, she says. Let's put action to our words and our money where our mouth is.

Unanimous vote to approve the 2021 budget.

We did have a budget with reductions in it a few years ago, when sales tax slumped, but not like this. Deep cuts, due to COVID.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!