A Message from the Chief Administrative Officer Ebony N. Shelton
September 9, 2024
I am honored to present
this budget as the County’s new Chief Administrative Officer.
And as a native San Diegan, I am very proud to say this plan
reflects the communities we serve.
The $8.53 billion fiscal year 2024 – 25 budget is balanced, providing essential services in our community while addressing today’s challenges and preparing us for economic challenges ahead. Its priorities reflect the County’s core values—belonging, equity, access, sustainability, integrity and excellence. Maintaining continued funding for essential services such as health and social services, public safety, land use and county roads, this budget continues to invest in issues that have become increasingly important to all San Diegans. Those include behavioral health and substance use disorders, homelessness, housing, equity for all, justice reform and climate change.
This budget also builds in resiliency for fluctuations in the state budget and the overall economy and relies on innovative, inclusive and data-driven services to build stronger and healthier communities, all supported by the backbone of our organization – our dedicated County team – who will deliver these services with expertise and heart.
This budget includes key resources to help build housing, boost the creation of multi-family housing and streamline our building permit processes along with funding for innovative programs designed to keep people from falling into homelessness, including shallow rent subsidies for seniors.
It invests in programs that keep people from entering or reentering jail through programs focused on job training, mental health and substance use disorder treatment and permanent housing. And targeted investments will help to attract and keep more behavioral health workers while increasing funding to expand behavioral health services to help people who are experiencing homelessness as well as to support opioid treatment and substance use disorder treatment programs.
Beyond that, it includes continued funding to provide more than 1 million San Diegans with access to safety net programs including CalWORKs, Medi-Cal and CalFresh. Those programs ensure people and families have the food and support they need.
The County remains dedicated to confronting climate change and making our communities and environment more sustainable by protecting watersheds, preserving land, planting trees and boosting electric vehicles with charging stations. We are also investing in County parks, libraries and other infrastructure that improve our neighborhoods and lives such as deploying “Live Well on Wheels” mobile clinics to communities that need public health services and continuing work on our new, state-of-the-art public health lab we expect to open in 2025.
This is a budget that reflects a collective effort to balance the needs of the region and positions us for the future. It reflects community input to ensure a foundation of equity, providing greater opportunities for all residents and helping us build a region we are proud to call home.
Ebony N. Shelton
Chief Administrative Officer
CONTACT
County Administration Center
1600 Pacific Highway, San Diego, CA 92101
