ARPA Comments

I'm a queer and non-binary resident of Dana Point. I've been a member of the community for over 29 years. I know how difficult it has been to maintain a standard of living here even before the pandemic. Especially for young and elderly people who grew up here and are now being forced away from their families due to a lack of living wages and affordable housing. Orange County is not a safe place to live. It may seem secure to some but if we want true safety we have to invest in our communities, especially the most vulnerable such as unhoused community members and people with marginalized identities. I do not support giving a single cent of ARPA funds to the OC Sheriff or any other law enforcement. Law enforcement exacerbates many of the issues that orange county communities face. The OC sheriff may provide security theatre for some but their very existence makes us all unsafe. A safe community is a community that invests in its most vulnerable and not its most powerful individuals. This funding needs to go directly to people facing housing insecurity, those affected by lack of living wages, undocumented farmers, nurses, unarmed emergency responders, teachers, and all frontline workers who kept essential services running during lockdowns.

I think the budget needs to be heavily invested in schools, esp Title 1 schools and the lunch program for kids. Too many schools are understaffed and the COVID rules are much too loose. Teachers are literally told to come back to work even if they test positive as long as they have no symptoms. I also can't believe the state government is getting rid of the INDOOR mask mandate. It's like, do you want cases to increase drastically AGAIN? Just keep the mandate and let the positivity rate fall at or below 5% it's not like we are asking people to stop their lives, we are just asking them to wear a mask. California could be setting a great example. Orange County could be setting a great example so that money from the American Rescue plan needs to be put into schools so that teachers and students are not forced to deal with the pandemic in unsafe ways which means that teachers and nobody for that matter should be entering the school with a positive test result. And the money should go towards enforcing the mask mandate until the positivity rate falls at or below 5%, which I believe is what scientists recommend.

It would be great if you could use those funds to clean up our homeless problem. Not go out to the homeless offering help, you have done that; it doesn’t help. I would like to see enforcing the law to move the massive homeless encampments. I would like to see you enforce the law in the County. Mail crimes, home and property robbery are ramped and nothing is being done about it. Please start going after these offenders and enforcing the law!

Another great idea would be to give homeowners a break on the ridiculous taxes we are paying. While seniors and their dependents are reaping the rewards of prop13 the rest of your younger home owners (the one’s also paying the most income tax) are having to pay huge property taxes.

This funding, which comes from taxpayers, needs to disproportionately be invested back into taxpayers by helping households and small businesses that were decimated by the mandates put on them by government agencies. None of the funding from this program should go toward infrastructure, as there is separate stimulus funding sources directed specifically for infrastructure, plus infrastructure wasn't impacted by the pandemic...people, small business and jobs were the impacted.

Use the funds to help with immigrants in our city/state, carrying the virus, and deport them out of our country!

The ARPA monies discussed here have been and are adequate enough to make a huge impact on improving the lives of the most vulnerable in our communities. More spending on Sheriff's and Public Protection will not improve our community or the health and safety needs of so many worsened during the time of COVID-19. Housing and food insecurity has finally made it into the public consciousness. How you have addressed those needs over the last many years has been most telling and disappointing. Actually your approach kills those on the street and in the "care" of Sheriff's. Basic needs, allowed under this and other funding sources in the county's control, include housing for our unhoused community, (not one more dollar for your excessive and ineffective shelter system), food and housing assistance for those facing insecurities, affordable housing builds to meet 6th cycle Housing Element needs, long term rental assistance for those who’ve lost jobs, victim support, workforce development, small business support, and significant investment into care-first initiatives for those with unmet health care, mental health and substance use disorder needs.

The idea that Sheriff deputies are often paid almost twice what Social Workers draw in median pay and benefits is sadly an indicator of this County's priorities. The future and very expensive Musick jail in Irvine as a mental health facility should be considered a criminal act on your part!

COVID related assistance, like this source and other revenues generated in this wealthy County, gives you the opportunity to make major investments in your constituents and save lives. Do what is right for your community and create an open, clear and transparent, participatory process throughout - not just when eyes are on you. Finally, if you can show need, ear mark the dollars needed to insure well publicized, virtual, real time participation in any and all county meetings NOW!

I am a senior citizen and a southern California native. Homelessness outside of the urban core was unheard of in my youth or even my children's youth. Now my grandchildren see it everywhere, even in our comfortable suburbs. The older ones are no longer allowed to go to the library on their own! The mental health of both the little ones and the teens is affected by seeing so many suffering people without solutions. This widespread misery negatively affects quality of life and public health (mental, physical, environmental and economic) for every Orange County resident! Do not try to move the problem out of sight, unless the move is into Housing First! We need to fund affordable housing for people without homes and those with extremely low and very low incomes. We also need permanent supportive housing for those who are unhoused and in need of mental and behavioral health services. This will actually make the jobs of social service providers and OCSD easier and more efficient. Now their jobs are frequently like spinning their wheels doing outreach and processing when only a tiny fraction of those in need can be housed. Adequate housing resources would revolutionize these jobs and revitalize our communities!

Do not use ARPA funds for more congregate shelters! Do figure out how to repurpose surplus government properties and underutilized commercial properties for housing and community healthcare. Do not use ARPA funds to enhance Sheriff's Department salaries and benefits or build more unneeded jail cells! Thank you for your consideration. Do the right thing! We are watching. We are advocates and public educators.

I don’t want to see any money going to the Musick Jail. That space could be used to provide affordable housing for 100 very low and the extremely low-income individuals and families. The money that would be spent on the jail could provide housing and support services for the homeless. I urge you to invest dollars in a real treatment center for mental health support. Cancel the expansion of the Musick Facility and take away the spending on social control into services your community really needs. Funds should also be used to divert people from going to jail! Funds should go for mental health care, drug programs and housing the homeless. This would decrease the number of people in jail and save our tax dollars on jails and the courts and PROVIDE REAL HELP!

There is absolutely no reason why the OC Sheriff’s Department should receive any additional funds, especially discretionary funds. Deputies now make almost twice as much as social workers. We need more social workers to handle situations that they are better trained in how to handle. We need these funds for healthcare (especially mental health care), affordable healthcare and housing the homeless. According to a UCI study with Orange County United Way and Jamboree Housing, it was demonstrated that the county could save $42 million per year by moving everyone off the streets, out of the shelters and into housing using the Housing First Model. I would like to see more public safety money go to working to the root causes!

Single most important item in the budget should be affordable housing and providing mental health services to the community. The solution to homelessness is not complicated – one need only supply sufficient places to live, subsidies to make them affordable, and the support services some people need to stay in their homes.

We just don't need so much money to go into Police and Sherif. Also, support the outdoor seating , infrastructure, and more money in school system.

A budget is a moral document—a statement of values and priorities. Mere compliance with the law is not the same as good governance.

Many of the proposed line items for Orange County’s use of federal ARPA money would not address the negative economic impacts of the pandemic as intended by Congress and the President. The County Board of Supervisors should adjust and reallocate the proposed ARPA spending in consultation with community-based organizations and local experts who have first-hand experience serving community members in need.

The rescue plan guidelines from the U.S. Treasury Department point out that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted some demographic groups and exacerbated health inequities along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. The federal guidelines also list many appropriate uses for these funds, including food assistance; rent, mortgage, or utility assistance; counseling; legal aid to prevent eviction or homelessness; cash assistance; and job training.

The priority should be to address the negative impacts of the pandemic that have disproportionately impacted vulnerable, underserved residents, students, and workers in Orange County, with the highest priority placed on addressing systemic racial and economic inequities and investments in community health for the long-term, and direct financial assistance where it is most needed, most impactful, and will be most effective.

I ask that the major part of the ARPA funding be spent on services that directly affect and improve the well-being of our community, such as affordable housing options, rental assistance, more access to comprehensive healthcare (including mental health care), free legal services, job training, college funds for marginalized populations, subsidized childcare and other priorities for county residents. IT SHOULD NOT BE SPENT ON LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE OCSD!

I have seen how the lack of community resources have resulted in a dearth of opportunities to thrive for families and their children in many parts of the county. There is a definite school to prison pipeline, which hobbles communities of color and deprives the county of those who have the potential to provide positive contributions to society. This is one more reason why we should end the practice of allowing police on our school grounds, as that presupposes a misguided belief that students will cause harm.

Police should also not be sent out to incidents of mental health crises and domestic violence episodes, as they have been shown to be incapable of de-escalating situations and treating these situations with professional expertise, something they sorely lack. Instead, money should be spent on specialized response teams made up of mental health and DV clinicians who have the skills necessary to handle these situations in a positive and restorative fashion. This will also save the county money in the long run.

The input that I and many county residents are providing here is extremely important. I am concerned about many of the county's recent decisions, including their spending millions of dollars on the construction of a jail that is neither needed nor wanted (especially considering that the jails we already have are only at 60% capacity). That's why it is crucial that the county supervisors hear and incorporate community voices to see where the county's true needs and priorities lie. After all, it is OUR money.

I grew up in Orange County and continue to live here to this day. Living in Orange County has always been a struggle for many families including my own. Over the years we've seen all levels of government continue to prioritize law enforcement & profits over people. Good governance requires responding to the needs of the people and prioritizing their interests, especially in the wake of a global pandemic. There is absolutely no reason why the OC Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) should receive any additional ARPA funds at this point. We, the community, need that money to fund community-based healthcare for substance use, community-based mental healthcare, rental assistance, employment programs, after-school programs, childcare, and affordable housing with wrap-around services to make our communities whole. The need for genuine investment in community needs has never been more critical than now. We were in a dark place before the pandemic and the pandemic has only shown how we still need to take care of our community - especially our community members who were most impacted by the COVID pandemic, whom this money is for!

OCSD deputies did not lose their jobs, or struggle to pay rent or their bills – they got raises and excessive amounts of overtime pay. OC Sheriff’s deputies now make more than double what the county’s social workers do in median pay and benefits, according to payroll data, a gap that has widened further in recent years. The Sheriff increases in recent years weren’t driven by increased service levels, according to their own department, but rather were mainly due to large salary and benefit raises approved by county supervisors that coincided with elections in 2016 and 2020.

ARPA funding should NOT be going to OCSD which already gets a disproportionate amount of the county's discretionary funds and which will not contribute to rebuilding and healing our community. Along with that, OCSD has already received an unjustifiable share of CARES Act funding, yet over the past two years, they have failed to provide sufficient food to incarcerated people, failed to protect incarcerated people from the spread of COVID, and begun construction on a $300 million jail when our jail population is at a historic low.

We do not need to continue to target and criminalize people who are facing financial and housing instability, people who are marginalized and discriminated against, people with mental health needs, and people facing hunger; we need to support them with food, housing, and healthcare. Public safety and public health mean an infrastructure that provides basic necessities and support to every community member, not policies that cage, fine, and isolate community members in need.

ARPA funds were not meant to bloat the budget of sheriff departments; they were meant to help communities survive and heal from this pandemic. Give this funding to services that provide permanent housing solutions, mental healthcare, and other basic support to our community that has been most impacted by COVID.

The intent of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was to provide needed resources to address the ongoing Covid-19 c risis, and keep the economy strong. The intent of the ARPA was not to reward public employees and rescue mismanaged cities and counties.
Why is Orange County giving more priority to sheriff's salaries then to the Covid-19 pandemic?
What about requiring all employees of the sheriff's Dept. getting vaccinated? The county should be providing emergency assistance for testing and vaccinations to large cities like Santa Ana which has the largest number of unvaccinated residents.

Do not spend the money on the sheriff department for salary / compensation. An organization whose employees swear to "protect and serve" are not 100% vaccinated for completely selfish reasons. This money should be going to health care, rent relief for landlords and tenants, and small businesses who have struggled through the pandemic.

I asked a couple of questions on your County Budget Office Public Workshop regarding one-time versus recurring costs. If you have any further information on this, it would be great.  Big picture...I encourage the county to utilize one-time funding revenue for one-time purposes and not encumbering the budget with an on-going cost that there is not revenue to support the recurring costs in the future. I would ask that you present one-time versus recurring costs with regards to ARPA spending- increased transparency. We know that ARPA is one-time money coming in (over 2 tranches) but if we are using ARPA funding for on-going programs without the revenue to support it, that may create a fiscal issue in the future years. Thanks!!