Chair Lee questions DOI on savings waiver denial and protecting staffing
Lee asks why DOI's savings target waiver was denied. Shahada confirms DOI applied but was not exempted, though the denial occurred before her tenure. Lee questions how to protect staffing given DOI's oversight role and revenue generation, and Shahada suggests charter reform for budget independence.
Thank you so much.
We've been also joined by Council Members Aviles, Carr, and Joang.
So just out of curiosity, and I know this is something that Council Member Brewer had worked on also, but why did you try applying for the waiver?
Why did you not?
Get the waiver if you applied for it.
The waiver from the savings target?
We did.
We did apply for it.
We did.
I mean, you did.
Yes.
Okay.
What was the reason that they said no?
I believe some of that happened before I joined DLI, so I'm not sure what reasoning was provided, but we were not exempted from it.
Interesting.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, just given the cuts that have happened to the department and looking into the future, I'm just wondering how we can prevent this from happening because it is a city agency that
does robust oversight and also provides revenue for the city as well.
So this is why I'm just wondering if there's any ways that you're looking at to protect staffing from sort of this budget cut in the future.
Not budget cut, but yeah.