HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/12/2021 Item 08, Martinez
From:Jordan Martinez <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Community Input SLO Budget 2021-23
Good morning,
Linked here is the google doc version and the text below is my letter to city council as community input for the planning
of the SLO city budget for 2021-23. Thank you for your time and have a great day.
Sincerely,
Jordan Martinez
she/her
(805)503-0227
Jordan Martinez
BLMCA/NAACP/DSA Member
December 7, 2020
Re: SLO City 2021-23 Financial Plan.
Dear City Council:
My name is Jordan Martinez and I am a local educator and activist. I grew up on the central coast and
have lived here with my family for over two decades. I care deeply about my community, and I am asking each
of you to do the same. I urge you to consider suggestions for the SLO City Budget for 2021-23 that would
affect my family and countless other BIPoC individuals in the city of SLO. In combating racism, we must look at
it from a public health perspective beginning with the following:
1. Identify responses to racism as a public health crisis in SLO
2. Reallocate funds to social services and similar resources
3. Create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to hold accountability for proactive
action in combating this public health crisis
1. SLO City Council declared racism a public health crisis in June of 2020, and while we have the
DEI Task Force as a resource to analyze and make recommendations, a task force is not enough
to combat racism as a public health crisis. The American Medical Association House of Delegates
adopted a new policy in 2020 to begin addressing the issue by “encourag\[ing\] governmental agencies
and nongovernmental organizations to increase funding for research into the epidemiology of risks and
damages related to racism and how to prevent or repair them.”
We must be proactive as individuals in SLO face an epidemic alongside homelessness, issues with
affordable housing, mental health and carceral systems which are systemically rooted with racism.
Reallocating funds to give social services and similar resources more funding is community care.
2. Suggestions for recommended adopted budget augmentations, new budget augmentations and
divestments to balance out added budget augmentations were suggested in a six page budget
recommendation document to the SLO Board of Supervisors from Black Lives Community Action
(BLMCA) in August 2020. I urge council members to revisit community members’ specific
recommendations in that document. Reallocating funds from the sheriff/coroner’s budget to the
social services and similar resources suggested is imperative to community members’ lives.
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3. I propose the creation of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee that will be transparent
with the community and make recommendations that put lives first. We must not let the DEI Task
Force be the end to combating racism and to do so would be irresponsible and seen as an empty
gesture. As seen in the draft of recommendations from the DEI Task Force Agenda Correspondence
(12/9/2020 Item 3, Magee), simply “requir\[ing\] cultural competency training for police,” is not
sufficient for making structural changes to oppose systemic racism.
A potential DEI Committee first-step would be working with the SLO County Public Health Department
and non-profits (e.g. TMHA, CAPSLO) to identify the effects of homelessness, poverty, mental health
and the carceral system for BIPoC individuals in SLO. Work for this proposed committee would involve
communication with Wellpath, a private medical and mental health services company for correctional
institutions. This contractor took over SLO County Jail in February of 2019. Communication with the jail
will be vital to gather data to make recommendations for identifying needs and deciding the logistics of
providing effective social service care for the community. It will aid in making concrete goals for the city.
Care for the community includes ensuring there is support for medical staff at the jail during a global
pandemic. We must continue working towards a rehabilitation and reentry to society route rather than
the systemically racist carceral cycle of the present, where corporations can choose profit over people.
This is a result of systemic racism and is affecting individuals of SLO. We must move to identify the root cause
of the issue of racism being a public health crisis and begin work now to improve the quality of life for current
and future generations in the city of SLO.
Sincerely,
Jordan Martinez
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