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Committee backs ordinance to accept Arnold Foundation grant for Financial Justice Project
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Summary
The committee advanced an ordinance to accept roughly $415,597 from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to support a Financial Justice Project and create one grant-funded FTE; the Treasurer’s Office said the program helped eliminate certain local criminal justice administrative fees and cited court debt write-offs affecting about 21,000 people.
The Budget and Finance Committee forwarded to the full Board an ordinance to accept and expend $415,597 from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to support the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Financial Justice Project and to amend the annual salary ordinance to create one grant-funded position (1 FTE).
Amanda Fried of the Treasurer’s Office said the grant will support a replicable, local-government-driven model for fines-and-fees reform. Fried said San Francisco previously eliminated certain local criminal justice administrative fees — citing examples such as a $50 monthly probation fee and a $35 daily ankle-monitoring fee — and that courts agreed to write off about $32 million in debt for roughly 21,000 people. Fried told supervisors the grant includes support for one FTE and that the city has funding into the next fiscal year; she added that grant-funded positions are typically treated as exempt for three years and then end unless otherwise funded.
Supervisors asked about the duration of funding and what would happen to the position after the grant expires; Fried said the grant supports the program over several years and includes one FTE. The committee moved the ordinance to the full Board with a positive recommendation and no recorded objection in committee.
