Commissioners on Thursday agreed to push back their goal of presenting the first five-year spending plan for the Sacramento Children’s Fund to late August.
The commission planned to bring the proposal to the City Council in late July, but needs to work out details such grant tiers and additional opportunities for community engagement.
If the council adopts the plan on Aug. 27, Program Manager Rene Kausin said community-based organizations and other agencies could begin applying for grants in October. The city could execute contracts for youth services by January, she added.
City staff and the consulting firm Third Plateau firm estimate the fund can distribute $44.5 million through June 2029 after accounting for administrative costs. Measure L, passed by voters in November 2022, requires the city to set aside the equivalent to 40% of the estimated annual cannabis business operations tax revenue for the fund annually. The draft plan projects the amount at an average of $8.9 million a year.
Vice Chair Verbal Adam said the commission must balance ensuring vulnerable populations benefit from the fund without spreading the grants too thin.
“There’s no silver bullet in that for anybody,” Adam said. “No organization is gonna get money from Measure L and that thing alone is gonna make them turn the tide of homelessness in their district.”
Over the past couple months, the planning and oversight commission for the fund has given input on issues including how to identify priority neighborhoods and populations. The majority agreed on using the Sacramento Equity Explore Design (SEED) tool, which identifies underserved areas based on economic, education, social, health and sustainability issues. Areas with an index between 0 and 20, mostly concentrated in North and South Sacramento, will get priority.
Commissioners supported supplementing the SEED tool with the Child Opportunity Index, a national tool incorporating equity factors specific to youth, such as the percentage of those who qualify for free school lunches. Both overlap, but the index marks some areas of District 3 as a priority, unlike the SEED tool.
Whether the plan should also name certain identities as high-priority populations divided commissioners. City and Third Plateau staff asked if commissioners wanted to list groups such as low-income, Black, Indigenous, Latino, Southeast Asian, unhoused and LGBTQ youth.
Commissioner Khaalid Muttaqi was among those who expressed concerns over whether the draft language reflects Measure L. The measure proposed prioritizing Children’s Fund grants for programs benefiting youth most impacted by poverty, violence and trauma.
“I would like the data to come so that we can be confident as a body, as a commission, that we are doing justice to the intent of Measure L,” Muttaqi said. “Because I do not feel that we’re doing that.”
City staff plan to send commissioners more data and said they can revise the investment plan in future years based on evaluations. The commission is scheduled to meet again on Monday to continue giving feedback on the draft and officially extend the timeline for adopting the plan.
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