Community Enhancement session kept in budget hearings

San Diego County’s annual budget hearings in June have historically included a special session for organizations to request Community Enhancement funds from the county’s Transient Occupancy Tax revenue. Now organizations will be able to submit requests electronically, but the special session will remain.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the calendar for 2018 board of supervisors meetings, Dec. 5. The designated sessions for Community Enhancement requests remained after a 3-2 vote approved a modification to the draft calendar to restore the sessions. Supervisors Greg Cox, Ron Roberts and Bill Horn voted to maintain the Community Enhancement sessions and to approve the calendar with those sessions scheduled June 11 and June 12.

“I find that to be very informative,” Cox said.

Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Kristin Gaspar voted against the restoration of the focused sessions and subsequently voted against the full calendar.

“I like the fact that the public can come down here and make a request,” Horn said. “I do think we need to be available for them.”

The board voted 4-0, with Roberts at a family funeral, Nov. 14, to direct the county’s chief administrative officer to develop an online budget portal to enhance access, transparency and input. The portal will allow organizations to submit testimony on the proposed budget electronically as well as to view all budget-related documents and testimony. The chief administrative officer was also directed to update the Community Enhancement Program application process to allow organizations and stakeholders to provide presentations electronically including links to videos they host and other supporting documents.

“They can come down or do it online,” Jacob said. “It’s an increase in trying to get more people engaged.”

The concept was not meant to deny organizations an opportunity to request Community Enhancement funding at the board’s meetings but rather to allow organizations from the more remote areas of the county to avoid a round trip to downtown San Diego.

“I don’t want to cut off the fact that they can do it by email,” Horn said.

The original calendar called for budget hearings from June 12 to June 20, and excluding the June 16 and June 17 weekend days, with the idea that any Community Enhancement requests could be included as part of the regular public testimony.

“It’s their choice, so we’re adding, not subtracting, anything,” Jacob said.

“There are several days of budget hearings,” Gaspar said.

During the June 2017 public testimony general session, most of the speakers represented the Service Employees International Union.

“I think that there’s a way to accommodate all speakers,” Gaspar said.

Community Enhancement funds are intended to promote tourism including visitors from other parts of the county. Some of the organizations which request Community Enhancement funds are chambers of commerce, revitalization committees or other organizations which promote business and tourism on a community level. Museums and historical societies also request Transient Occupancy Tax revenue, and parade organizers also seek the funding. Performing arts groups which desire funding often use their allotted time at the hearing to provide a showcase of their activities.

“I think we’re going to find ourselves having a lot of these same people coming down,” Cox said.

The revenue available is only from Transient Occupancy Tax money collected from lodging facilities in the unincorporated portion of the county, although organizations in incorporated cities are also eligible for funding. For the 2017-2018 budget process each county supervisor had a Community Enhancement budget of $1,079,000, not including returned funds from 2016-2017 awards, which equates to a total budget of $5,395,000.

“These generate a disproportionate amount of our public input,” Cox said.

“It’s big money for them,” Horn said.

Friends of the Fallbrook Community Center was given $15,000 from Horn’s 2017-2018 budget for the annual tree lighting event, including shuttle service, which took place Dec. 1 at the community center.

“The turnout there was unbelievable,” Horn, who attended the event, said.

“I don’t want to close the door to the public,” Cox said.

The restoration of the Community Enhancement hearings to the budget calendar did not remove the option of online applications including video presentations.

“I remain very excited about our transition,” Gaspar said.