San Mateo County passes budget

“The money should be diverted into nonpolicing resources including housing, education, assistance programs and a safety net that will help us weather this great challenge and make our community safe,” said Deborah Garfinkle, a faculty member at the College of San Mateo who spoke during the remote meeting Tuesday. 

Garfinkle, along with dozens of other speakers, raised concerns for the board’s approval for the purchase of 310 new Tasers for the Sheriff’s Office, a nearly million-dollar item discussed during an early May meeting. Speakers said the funding move is in direct conflict with a resolution unanimously approved during the June 23 meeting stating support for the Black Lives Matter movement and reaffirming a county commitment to racial equity. 

Speakers noted three men within the county, Ramzi Saad, Chinedu Okobi and Warren Ragudo were all killed by law enforcement who deployed Tasers to subdue the men. All three men struggled with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and schizophrenia, issues speakers said would be better treated by trained mental health professionals than deputies. 

“If black and brown lives matter, if people of color matter ... I’m asking to have those monies directed towards programs that help people, especially in this particular time of crisis and that there be as much emphasis on training deputies and officers in implicit bias and de-escalation as there are into buying more shiny toys that torture people,” said the Rev. Dr. Lorrie Owens, president of the San Mateo chapter NAACP. 

Despite demands to “defund the police,” a policy initiative growing in popularity nationwide, the board unanimously approved the proposed budget without commenting on the purchase of Tasers. Supervisors quickly expressed support for an initiative proposed by Supervisor Don Horsley to establish study sessions on how funds can be diverted to create mental health centered programs staffed by unarmed professionals in the field. 

“What I would like to do is do some reimagining, reimagine that psychiatric emergency response team and civilianize it, and then shift some funding in it and make sure that that team is robust enough that they’re able to respond quickly ... countywide,” said Horsley, a former sheriff. “In fact, I would challenge the cities to participate as well. ... It’s not all on the sheriff’s department.” 

Supervisor Warren Slocum also suggested either a department be created to focus on justice and equity within the county or the Human Services department be renamed and staffed with an individual whose job is to ensure such measures are implemented in countywide policies. 

County Manager Mike Callagy said his team would work to engage the board on coming budget discussions including addressing racial disparities before presenting an updated budget late September. 

“We’ll be better placed to address racism and bias and inequality through dialogue that will follow, if it follows by action,” said Callagy. “We will have that opportunity to do that as a county. We’ll be better prepared to serve our community through our new innovations and because of all the collaborations we have.” 

Once budgets at the state level are solidified and a potential federal relief package is finalized, staff will provide the board with direction on the best option for addressing county budget deficits. 

“We’re very much impacted by the drop in sales tax and we hope that there’s some relief there with this new budget but we just don’t know yet and it’s really dependent on the federal government,” said Callagy. 

In other business, the board approved an extension of a temporary moratorium on evictions which prohibits evictions of individuals facing financial difficulty due to COVID-19. The extension is set to expire July 28 though many speakers requested the board extend the measure for six to 12 months. Supervisors promised to revisit the conversation after speaking with property owners associations at a later meeting. 

The board also appointed Supervisor Carole Groom and Horsley to an ad hoc committee focused on the development of a navigation center on Maple Street in Redwood City, an initiative both supervisors have been working on for nearly a decade, said Slocum.