Cities and Counties for Fine and Fee Justice
ABOUT THE FINE AND FEE JUSTICE INITIATIVE
The City of Sacramento and Sacramento County were selected jointly to participate in the inaugural Cities and Counties for Fine and Fee Justice initiative led by PolicyLink, the Fines and Fees Justice Center, and the San Francisco Financial Justice Project. This collaboration was one of ten from around the country selected for this opportunity in April 2020. This effort was initially spearheaded by the City Office of Innovation & Economic Development, Councilmember Jay Schenirer, and County Supervisors Don Nottoli and Phil Serna.
The Cities & Counties for Fine and Fee Justice effort is helping us reform fines and fees to make a difference in the lives of low-income residents and residents of color. This aligns with the focus of our inclusive economic development team, who work with local residents and partners to create more economic opportunity for all.
From PolicyLink, we received $50,000 in grant funding, individualized technical assistance, budgeting/revenue forecasting support, assistance with messaging and press outreach, and training on a range of tools, strategies, promising policies, and best practices to support these efforts.
HOW DO FINES AND FEES AFFECT YOU?
Take the City and County of Sacramento Fines and Fees Survey
WHAT WE'RE DOING
Our Sacramento cohort has led local teams to assess and reform fines and fees. To date, the Sacramento cohort has engaged City departments to catalogue and identify opportunities for fine and fee reduction and reform, including City Police, Community Development, Public Works, Finance, Utilities, Fire, Youth Parks & Community Enrichment, and Convention and Cultural Services Departments.
The way we determine what reforms we want to do is twofold.
- Our City and County have been undertaking an extensive data collection about our fines and fees so that we can analyze that data.
- Simultaneously, we are collecting feedback from local community members about which fines and fees are of most concern to them. The reform agenda will grow from a mix of the analysis and feedback from our City, County, and community stakeholders.
Our first reform, implemented in April 2022, is a two-year pilot to waive the Sacramento Police Department’s $180 towing administrative fee for income-eligible City residents. In the first year, 508 people were eligible for this waiver, saving a combined $91,440 in fees. This pilot was funded by City of Sacramento American Rescue Plan dollars.
We aim to add at least two additional reforms by July 2023.
If you have a personal story about negative impacts you have experienced due to fines and fees, please send this information to our Community Engagement Team at CE@cityofsacramento.org.
We will update this page with engagement opportunities and information on further reforms as they arise.
RESOURCES
Here are a few links about results from of the national activity around fines and fees:
ECONOMIC MOBILITY AMBASSADORS
Sacramento is part of a national cohort of eight cities through the Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative of the National League of Cities.
EEMI is designed to help cities prioritize the economic mobility of families while communities rebuild after the devastating, inequitable economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many health and economic indicators point to the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on people of color, worsening longstanding systemic racial inequities.
Through EEMI, the City has assembled a team of eight local leaders of color who are doing community outreach to promote access to economic opportunities, including workforce training, small business development, and financial coaching. These Economic Mobility Ambassadors are receiving stipends for their work
GUARANTEED INCOME PROGRAM PARTNERSHIP
The City of Sacramento has made a $750,000 contribution to the Guaranteed Income Program offered by United Way California Capital Region.
This contribution will fund a second phase of the program, through which 80 households will receive $500 of income monthly for one year. Payments will begin in July 2023.
CITYSTART
The City of Sacramento has been awarded a $75,000 grant to participate in the CityStart initiative with Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund) to focus on addressing wealth equity.
This grant will provide the City of Sacramento planning dollars and technical assistance to identify resident financial empowerment strategies, with a focus on the Black community. The City will engage the community in a series of careholder conversations to identify local financial empowerment challenges and opportunities.
Sacramento was one of eight partners chosen through a competitive process to participate. The eight new local government partners join 32 localities to date that have already completed the CityStart financial empowerment public blueprint process.
The City will work with CFE Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, whose mission is to accelerate the pace of Black wealth accumulation in the U.S., on the design of its financial empowerment blueprint identifying actionable implementation steps based on the financial needs of residents, especially Black residents.