Adopted $7.23 Billion County Budget Supports Chair Nathan Fletcher's Framework for the Future

San Diego County’s unanimously adopted $7.23 billion Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Budget represents the new Board of Supervisors’ commitment to transform the County into a place that values fairness, equity and inclusion, and prioritizes community-centered policymaking.

Nathan Fletcher, Chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, facilitated this afternoon’s meeting where initiatives he rolled out in January as part of his Framework for the Future policy agenda, along with key initiatives of Vice Chair Nora Vargas and Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, were funded.

“Earlier this year, we introduced foundational policies crafted to change our county’s trajectory and build a framework for our future. This budget supports our vision of a more equitable and inclusive county focused on community-centered policy,” said Chair Fletcher. “It is a new day in San Diego County; the budget we adopted reflects the new direction we are taking in the county government.”

All three Supervisors, with their progressive agendas, secured key wins for working families and marginalized communities.

The adopted budget aligns with Chair Fletcher’s Framework for the Future of San Diego County <https://www.supervisornathanfletcher.com/content/d4/en/priorities-policy/priorities/framework.html>. The Framework prioritizes communities and populations in San Diego that have been historically left behind. Some of the biggest wins that support the Framework include:

• Increased medical and behavioral health services in County jails with 160 new employees and $24.865 million in funding. This was included in the Chief Administrative Officer’s change letter.
• Increased staffing and funding to convert three remote fire stations in San Diego County Fire   from 2 firefighters to 3 firefighters, ensuring all County of San Diego fire teams meet the staffing threshold.
• Establishment of an Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement with five full time employees and $1.1 million in funding.
• Establishment of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs with five full time employees and $2 million in funding.
• Construction for phase two and three of the County’s new Youth Transition Campus with $75 million in funding.  An initiative Chair Fletcher highlighted during the 2021 State of the County Address.
• Greater commitment to language accessibility with $2.5 million in funding.
• New behavioral health operations and data reporting program with 56 full time employees and $8.65 million in funding.
• Design planning and construction for Behavioral Health Crisis Hub in Hillcrest with $10 million in funding.
• Mobile Crisis Response Teams with $12.43 million in funding.
• Establish a new Department of Homeless Solutions and Equitable Communities with 207 dedicated full time employees (23 new and 184 reassigned) and $2.4 million in funding.
• Adding 20 new social workers to support development of all school-age foster children with $3.8 million in funding.
• Create a Doula pilot program to support Black Maternal and Infant Health with $400,000 in funding.
• New active recreational facilities (chess, basketball, t-ball field, pickleball, etc.) at Waterfront Park with $3 million in funding.
• Expansion and capital improvement to Heritage Park in Old Town with $13 million in funding.
• Creation of a new regional film office with $200,000 in funding. An initiative Chair Fletcher introduced during the 2021 State of the County.

Vice Chair Vargas and Supervisor Lawson-Remer each respectively left their marks on this budget too with funding secured for an office of environmental justice and program, an initiative to uplift boys and men of color; and the Office of Sustainability; the free phone calls for those incarcerated in county jails; and the legal defense fund for immigrants.

This is Chair Fletcher’s third budget cycle since joining the Board of Supervisors in 2019. In the first two years he had some tremendous wins, more progress than he ever expected, but nothing like what has been accomplished this year.

This budget, according to Dinora Reyna-Gutiérrez, executive director of San Diego Organizing Project, is “historic and a big step towards equity for the future of our region.” She and other members of the Invest in San Diego County Families coalition are supportive of the new direction this Board is taking the County.

View the adopted budget in detail at: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/budget.html.