EQUITY TO PLAY PART IN BUDGET PROCESS

S.D. adding coaches, software to assist in eliminating disparities

San Diego’s focus on boosting social equity and eliminating disparities between rich and poor neighborhoods will shift this spring to making fundamental changes in how officials create the city’s annual budget.

Nearly every funding decision in the city’s $2 billion budget will be subject to additional scrutiny, including whether it provides significantly more benefit to particular neighborhoods or demographic groups.

Each department head has been assigned an “equity-centered” coach, all employees have been given comprehensive equity training, and the city’s budgeting software has been upgraded to evaluate decisions based on equity.

The city’s Office of Race and Equity has also created a 40-page guide for city decision-makers that covers the difference between equality and equity, how to evaluate decisions through an equity lens and fighting implicit biases.

“This is a major change and shift in thinking,” said Matt Vespi, who leads the process of creating the city budget as chief financial officer. “It’s been a learning exercise for the entire organization.”

To help Mayor Todd Gloria’s staff put together a proposed budget for fiscal 2024, scheduled to be unveiled April 14, each city department has been required to create a tactical plan and an equity action plan.

The tactical plan, which city officials call a “near-term planning document,” outlines key strategic priorities over the next two to five years and creates measures of success for an individual department.

The equity action plan makes each department accountable for addressing disparities in its operations by identifying inequities and detailing specific actions it will take to reduce disparities and promote equity and inclusion.

“This is a mindset shift,” said Kim Desmond, who leads the Office of Race and Equity. “We’re dealing with a historic accumulation of disparities.”

Desmond is referring to decades of relative underfunding for communities south of Interstate 8 when compared with the city’s northern neighborhoods.

Audits and other analyses have shown that northern communities generally have larger libraries and more parks than southern communities, and that city facilities in northern communities typically offer more programs and resources.

More southern communities lack working streetlights, sidewalks and other key pieces of infrastructure than northern communities do, city officials say.

“While more affluent communities north of the 8 have regularly received investments through new capital projects, well-maintained facilities and robust services, neighborhoods south of the 8 have been ignored in the budget,” said Councilmember Vivian Moreno, who represents the city’s South Bay communities.

During the last two years, city officials have revamped how infrastructure and parks money gets spent in favor of those historically neglected neighborhoods.

Vespi and Desmond said the disparities in San Diego can’t be reversed overnight, but they called the new budgeting strategy a strong step that will help the city start making incremental improvements.

“We’re not going to be able to address everything in one year,” Vespi said. “This is a move in the right direction, and it’s a move that’s systematic and that will carry through the process going forward.”

Desmond said the new budgeting software is a key step because it allows city officials to see how and where disparities exist.

“That’s a huge accomplishment in itself,” she said. “You can’t change what you can’t see.”

Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, who represents neighborhoods in southeastern San Diego, said she is willing to be patient as long as city officials find a way to measure their success at eliminating disparities.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but we also need to see progress,” she said. “It sets the stage for us being a more fair city.”

The new equity focus in San Diego’s city budget is modeled after similar efforts in Denver, Seattle, San Antonio and Portland, Ore.

The city’s independent budget analyst, Charles Modica, said his team of analysts plans to focus on the city’s equity proposals when it evaluates the mayor’s proposed budget this spring.

The City Council is scheduled June 12 to finalize the budget for fiscal 2024, which begins July 1.