Finance Committee moves to file resolution asking mayor to set aside 0.5% of budget as council strategic contingency ($9.42 million)

The Finance Committee on Jan. 7 instructed staff to file a draft resolution requesting the mayor place 0.5% of the fiscal‑year 2025–26 budget into a council strategic initiatives contingency account, an amount the administration calculated as $9,416,621.

Mary Stifopoulos (Office of General Counsel) reviewed a draft resolution and a handout prepared with Auditor Kim Taylor that framed possible guardrails for the contingency account: examples included setting minimum/maximum allocations, limiting projects to countywide benefit, reserving amounts specifically for priorities such as homelessness, and specifying timing thresholds for spending (for example, limiting how much may be used in the first six months of the fiscal year).

Committee members debated whether to add guardrails immediately or wait for the budget process. Council Member Raoul Arias moved to file Council Member Ron Salem’s proposed resolution and the committee agreed to file it as presented; staff said the filing deadline for the resolution to reach the administration was the following day.

Mary Stifopoulos and Kim Taylor told the committee the resolution itself would not appropriate funds; it would only request that the mayor place the 0.5% into a council contingency account during the mayor’s proposed budget. Appropriation and any direct contracts or grants from that contingency would be subject to later council action and to Chapter 118 rules governing city grants.

Several council members raised practical concerns about later appropriation—for example, nonprofit organizations that cannot front reimbursable grants—asking staff to consider grant‑administration guardrails when the council later appropriates funds. The committee agreed to file the resolution without guardrails and to address detailed guardrails later in the budget process.

The committee directed staff to file the draft resolution by the filing deadline and to return to the Finance Committee during the budget process for guardrail and appropriation discussions.